Category Archives: My Art Journal
Final Journal Pages
This is an entirely experimental Blog post as it is the first time I am posting since getting my i Mac!! But my son is patiently trying to make me understand how to access my photos once I get them into my computer!!(thank you,
Ryan) I did figure out how to download and edit them on my own but I am used to the PC way of saving them, etc. and I HATE CHANGE!!!! But I sure am enjoying the speed with which the i Mac “delivers!” sigh…I have to keep reminding myself that I didn’t learn to navigate the PC overnight either. (but I was younger then…ha!) So anyway, this is one of the last pages in the Art Journal that I have been working on for a few years now. It depicts some of the special times and people in my life journey and I thoroughly enjoyed and savored creating these last few pages!!
And these are the very final pages of this journal…photos of me through the years doing various activities and “poses” as a child on the left and the “me of today” on the right. This Art Journal has been so much fun for me to create and some of the entries depict the wonderful journey that is my life. So with my i Mac education now in it’s infancy, the journey of life and creativity continues (I hope) for a long time to come. Hopefully my posts will become more faithful again now that I have jumped this hurdle with the help of my son, my daughter and daughter-in-law and even my 9 and 10 and a half year old grandchildren as well as a few patient friends!! Life is a continuous education and I pray I never stop learning…..
Think Spring journal page
I am thinking “mixed media” thanks to Leah of CED so I did this page in my art journal. Gave the page on the right a rough swish of pink acrylic paint but not enough density to cover all the calendar entries on the page (remember, my art journal started life as a beautiful Monet’s Garden daily planner.) So if you look closely, you can see the entries on certain days under the wash of pink. I can never resist stick on alphabet letters at the craft store so I looked through my stash and made a selection for the “think spring” page header and the rest of the page just sort of fell into place. I was thinking Paris in the springtime (humming it too) as I choose a Paris postmark, a French stamp, a flower, an old fashioned calling card, a black & white photo of a bashful looking young lady and a Victorian looking picture of two turtle doves and bouquet of roses. Look at the picture of the entrance to the house on the left page. Can’t you see that dreamy eyed girl floating through the front door? I actually laid the ground work for the next page in the journal as I glued in some scrap-booking papers, a wallpaper sample and some pretty ribbon trim. Just waiting for an inspiration to fill it in…
Art Journal
If you need to jump start your “muse”, it helps if you can do a page or two in your art journal. I was inspired to do a “purple” page and an “orange” page recently….
They are such happy colors and I had fun searching through my stash of collage materials for items to go with each color….
Art Journal
Green
I haven’t done anything in my Art Journal for a while now but last night I felt like doing something creative though I didn’t have time to get into a painting or collage so I grabbed a bunch of paint swatches I had collected here & there and did a few color themed pages. Green was my favorite since it is my favorite color but the others are nice too though they didn’t photograph well. I only have 5 more pages left to do in this journal so I am “savoring” each one….=)
Yellow
Blue
When I started this Journal, I choose to use a beautiful calendar that I had saved. Because of the heavy cardboard pages and beautiful gardens depicted on every other page, it made the perfect “canvas” for an Art Journal. I sometimes use the pictures as part of the “theme” for a page I am doing. But no matter what the page is about, it is always complemented by the garden picture next to it!! It might even be fun to do a complete Art Journal with one theme only….hmmmnnn… have to give that some thought! Any suggestions/ideas? If you haven’t tried art journaling, you might want to give it a try. It’s a great way to “hatch” a quick idea or document a subject while exercising your creativity!
Art Journal pages
Art Journal pages
I haven’t done anything new in my Art Journal for quite a while so I thought for my creative project yesterday that I would get the journal out and see what I could come up with. Looking through my collage “stash” I noticed that I had a lot of ticket stubs in various sizes and colors for many different events including a golf tournament, a quilt raffle, many basket raffles, a ballet performance, a theater performance, etc. I thought they would make a great picture story and so these pages were born. “Sometimes you need a ticket to ride or to win the prize!!”
An Art Picnic
portable "Studio"
I’ve been having a hard time getting any amount of quality time in my Studio since the new pup joined our family and even when I am in there, I am wondering if Pop is watching that he doesn’t tear the place up or tinkle on the rugs, etc. So I got to thinking about Leah’s (Creative Every Day) Art Picnics where she spreads some supplies out on any surface and begins to create. That prompted me to fill a wicker basket with some things I might use along with my badly neglected art journal and after spreading it all out on a card table, I was able to work for a few hours right in the heart of the household with all the activity going on around me! I admit to being somewhat of a solitary person when it comes to creating art but last night it worked for me to be surrounded by activity while I worked. Just proves that it pays to try something different when you are desperate for time to create!! I was able to finish two pages in my Journal and work on a few ideas for some new projects in the near future.
Labels
Like most creative people, I save some pretty wierd objects and had a bunch of labels hanging on a cork board in my studio. I got to thinking how some people define themselves by the “things” they own…the labels they choose and that is the story behind this journal page.
First Show...
These pages speak for themselves, documenting an exciting event in my life last year…
She could light up a room
She could light up a room
I was looking through some ephemera and spied these ad cards for Hood’s Sasperilla. The young lady pictured is so fresh and fun looking. You just know that she would be the belle of the ball, a social butterfly much sought after. So I paired her images with an actual ladies calling card, some flowers and a vintage romantic poem for a wonderful new page in my art journal. I arranged it all on a striped tissue paper background. This is the poem:
You Are All The World To Me
Without thy smile the monarch’s lot,
To me were dark and lone,
While with it, e’en the humblest cot
Were brighter than his throne,
Fame, Fortune, Joy or Liberty
Were worthless if not blest with thee
I haven’t located the writer of that poem yet and I suspect there was much more of it but that’s all that was printed on the little gold embossed card. Can you imagine the flutter of her heart when the gentleman suitor slipped the little card to her as they left the dance floor……..sigh….
It's okay to mourn
It's okay to mourn
It’s okay to mourn, to remember, to heal… A thought provoking journal page. The picture of the soldier and a vintage ad for burial insurance form the basis for the story here.
Strong Woman
Strong Women
Here is a sweet page from my art journal. I put together a grouping of sepia toned pictures. One is a picture of my Mom as a little girl…I love that photo! Another is a picture of an old woman that came in a frame I purchased one time and I just loved that picture so I kept it. The third photo is what appears to be a class picture from the 1920′s. I’ve mentioned before that I have a stash of old photos that someone gave me to burn when they were cleaning out their home to sell. I couldn’t bear to part with the pictures…some of which were relatives so I asked if I could keep them for my own use and I have really been enjoying being able to use them in my art and my journal to tell a “story”. The caption here is…Be in the Company of Strong Women… And I try to do that as often as possible!
Aboard the Mary Patten
Aboard the Mary Patten
I found these black and white photos in with a bunch of old photos from an elderly relative who was throwing them away. I have no idea who the folks pictured are except that they may be distant relatives. What I found interesting was that they were obviously on a ship and upon closer examination, I read an inscription someone had added which said “Aboard the Mary Patten”. The date was Sept. 9, 1925. I was curious so I went on line and found that Mary Patten was a famous ship Captain’s wife back in the 1800′s so the ship these folks were sailing on must have been named after her. I believe they were sailing to Scotland. I copied a map of North and South America in black and white for the background and clipped a few articles about Captain Patten & his wife Mary and inserted snippets of those on the pages. Fun to sit and dream of who these folks were and how long they would be sailing for!!
