12 x 12 Wood Mixed Media

Taking Flight has been a great book for me. I've loved the challenges in it so far, and I've completed chapter 2. The challenge was a mixed media on wood. I choose a 12x12 piece. Ok, that's sort of a lie, I found some pieces of left over wood my hubby had thrown in the garage from a previous project he had worked on, and had my Dad cut it into 12x12 squares for me. Now I have a few more left to play with, too!

First I worked on the background. A little Canary Yellow... a little raw sienna... some burnt umber, and stamped some words on the background as well. I was actually really pleased with it. It's been a long time since I could say that~!





Then I used some bubble wrap, painted with Leaf green and "stamped" circles. I also used a cap from some 35mm film, dipped in white and stamped some more circles, highlighted with a charcoal pencil.

Now it was time to play with clay! I've never used polymer clay before, and it was a lot of fun! I had no idea what i was going to use, since I didn't have any of the character constructions Kelly Rae suggests in the book, so i pulled out my stamps and just started checking them all out....thinking.... I wanted to start with a small one, being the first time using the clay, so sort of warm myself up, I guess.

I love this philosophy.... "It is not the destination....it's the journey" and I added the "Go For It!" embellishment.

The idea behind the challenge in this chapter is about Letting go of our fears. This was a part of my reasoning for the Go For It embellishment, then I decided to use a tree for the main portion of the collage. I am firmly rooted where I am today, and have an abundance of love and blessings surrounding me. There is no reason I should have any fears in trying to accomplish anything at all!

Learn to Soar - Taking Flight

So, I started to work out of Kellie Rae Roberts book, Taking Flight with the ning group. Actually, I started a couple of weeks ago, with Chapter One, learning to Soar. What a great chapter! It really got me thinking, asking all the questions about buried dreams and unearthing them. Dreams we used to have, dream we gave up on, or maybe forgot about.



I started by taking one of my son's old hard-covered school books, front and back cover, and cutting them in 1/2, leaving me with four "boards". My problems....wait....my own insecurities...lol.... started in when I begin painting faces. I had a really hard time with the face on this one. I painted her eyes twice, then decided the whole face needed redone, started over again and this is where I stopped torturing myself.



We were given suggestions for the biding to use words like ART - WHISPERS - etc...

I decided to stick with the chapter theme, SOAR... since I have no idea where this is taking me and I will just sort of SOAR through the process.











Ok, so the eyes gave me a really hard time, that just means I will be better this time, right?

WRONG~!

The next girl I started on was waaayy off!!! The idea I had in my head was a wide open mouth. I wasn't sure why I was inclined this way, but the thought process evolved into her singing and maybe some sort of bird embellishments.
Oh my word.... the mouth was AWFUL! It was more like a big 'ole gaping hole! The "inside" of the mouth was painted black, and these tiny little lips surrounding this hole.. a bright red. She looked like she was screaming at the top of her lungs and yet had no tongue or teeth or uvula.

Ok, so I try to make the lips a little larger and the hole a little smaller. WRONG AGAIN~! This whole mouth was just not conducive of the entire face and her lips now looked like some sort of cartoon character with a bad saline injection. I think she was re-painted about six times. The constant rubbing and repainting and changing also took its toll on the background paper.
Anyway, she ended up like this. I decided to put an AC/DC T-shirt on her and make her a "rebel". I guess the journaling came from the original "screaming" girl, and my frustration. lol






My third girl.... just a sweet girl holding a flower. A little better, but boy do I have still have some practice to do. I hope my hips don't look like hers any time soon. I WILL be 40 this year. :(





And finally..... this girl. I think she's my favorite, but still not what I envision myself drawing.

I still have the back cover to finish and the journaling left, but overall, I actually enjoyed it. It's funny....thinking of all the tries, re-tries and frustration... how each girl evolved. I'll never be a prized artist, but I'm sure having a lot of fun~!

Paul Colman - I love this song~!

I've been working away on my Taking Flight projects and will post some pics soon. In the meantime: Ok, don't forget to go down to my music and his pause so you can listen to this.....

I absolutely love this song! I heard it once on the Smile FM, and haven't heard it since. I have to admit, I saw the video on Paulette Insall's blog, but when I heard him make the "police reference"(as most of you know.... my hubby is a an officer.......), I loved it even more!

I hope you like it, too!

I'm on a roll~!

In the past week/10 days I've got quite a few scrap-book pages done! Woo~Hoo~

As you can see by the journaling, I'm a tad bit behind. Yes, not only am I working on last year's pages, but I'm working on 2007~!

Some beautiful, lackadaisical, Summer Days...




A graduation party of a close friend's son......




Diggin' Dirt.....

and of course, bicycle's are an intricate part of summer!




A not so good day at the hospital, getting tubes in the ears.....





A big brother's love and some home~work.....





Big brother again, working hard to make good memories...
This one is still missing a picture of the "finished project", which will be added soon.






and what better way to finish off a summer than with the Renaissance Festival?









I've mentioned before, I'm working through Kellie Rae Roberts' book, Taking Flight, with a yahoo group, and tonight, I started working on painting a wood block. My first time painting on wood. So far, I totally love it! I went a little big, the book gave a suggestion size of and 8x8 block, and my hubby had some spare wood laying around the house and some were already cut into squares, so the size I'm working on is actually a 12x12 block.

Blank space!! Oh no! What will I do with it? I'm haven't bought the polymer clay yet. That will be a first for me, too, so I'm excited about this project. I'll post pictures next time.

Mail Day~!

What a great mail day! I participated in a couple of swaps on "swap-bot" for some handmade cards and what great cards I received! I got another two envelopes of a TON of stamped images. (all of which I'm sure I will use!)





I don't know about you guys, but I have yawned and yawned all day today. I think I need a day of recuperation from all that Easter ham!

He is Risen!

Happy Easter everyone!

I look forward to the day He comes again~!

and the most beautiufl one in the "peach" is my grand-daughter, Taryn~!

Altered Clipboard

So I had told you about an altered clipboard I had made during my blogging absence, for a friend. It's the first one I attempted and I really like. I don't feel like the pictures do it justice, but I thought I would share them.





I think my favorite part was her reaction. Tammy is what I guess you would call a "new" friend and she does so much for other people. She runs a home day care, and has three children of her own. She is also the catalyst in beginning an "In-Betweeners" group at church that some of you have heard me talk about before. She really thinks of others first, and tries to help anyone who may be in need. Tammy always seems to have a composition notebook, and a spiral notebook and all those bits of paper and post-it notes that all of seem to acquire with a busy life-style, so I thought I would surprise her and do something for her A: for no reason at all and B: to maybe help with all those tasks she so lovingly takes on!

Hello

Wow, it's been since February since I've posted!? What in the world have I been doing with myself!? I haven't even worked on my soul journal, nor have I kept my daily journal current. I have, however kept my Sunday sermon journal and my Wednesday Women's Bible study journals current. Guess if I'm going to keep any of them current, those are "the ones" to keep up on, huh?



I've caught up on quite a few scrap book pages for my son.



I've done my first altered clipboard.



I've participated in a couple of swaps on swap-bot.com. If you don't know about this site, check it out. It's a lot of fun! It's free, and you choose what swaps you want to sign up for with choices from swapping spare supplies, ATC's, matchboxes, hand-made cards, journals....all sorts of things. And who doesn't like good old fashioned mail in their mail box?



I finished a book. Emma & Me. This was given to me in a swap (^^^). What a great surprise. The book was about two sisters, aged 6 and 8. The youngest, at age 3, had seen her father murdered by a "robber". Mom remarries and abusive alcoholic and it's the story line of their lives. The last two chapters of the book, has a twist that you NEVER expect is coming! I love those kinds of books. You know, when you so wrapped up in it, you believe every moment of it, and when that twist happens, you think, NO WAY, because you knew the characters, "SO WELL!".



Oh~! and I'm the biggest Loser at work! Woo~Hoo~! A seventeen pound loss so far, baby!

I love Kim's rocks! I keep telling myself I'm going to paint/decorate all those rocks I have in the basement that my son gave to me in his toddler years when he "collected rocks" and gave all the "pretty ones" to Mom. I've just never had the heart to get rid of them and now I can transform them into rock art! I've bought some acrylic spray sealer for once they have been painted, so that is one of my "to do" projects.

I also need to get moving on My Taking Flight book with Kellie Rae Roberts, and of course, my soul journal.

I don't' know about you, but sometimes there is no real "problem" I'm battling. No "down mood" or "depression", and no real "I'm so busy" excuse, but that life just sort of carries us away. When this happens to me, eventually when I start to drag, become sluggish, or feel sort of hum-drum, it hits me! I haven't been creative! I haven't connected with all of my lovely artful blog friends!

The altered clip-board.... I admit.... I love! It turned out really well and will post pictures soon.

Taking Flight Project and OWOH gift

Last night I began working on the project from Chapter One of Kelly Rae Roberts book, Taking Flight. I am going through the book with a group a girls in the ning group.

The project required cutting the covers off of two hard cover books. Well... when my son was in.... oh..... 4th-ish grade, the school was getting new history books and when school out for summer break, they let the parents take the old books. I wish I would have know then the great uses and fun I could have with them and I would have taken more than one!

Anyway! I didn't have TWO books, but this Michigan book was large enough, that I could cut the covers in half, still giving me 4 "pages" to work with. So that's what I did.

Then I got busy with the gesso and then collage some papers all over it. Next is the scary part....drawing my girl face! OOO ....such challenges I'm in for. I'm pretty excited about it.

Work was awful today. I have to make up a couple hours due to a long Dr. appt. the other day, so I was in at 7AM...and the day just dragged! I think I yawned about a million times! I was so pleased when I came home though!

(back up a little.... Last weekend I found some really cool flowering teas...of all places...at Office Depot!) So I came home. I made myself a "cuppa" .......and..... AND!!!

The friendship book from Mary at Green Paper came in the mail today, that she so generously gave in the OWOH project! It's so beautiful! It was exactly what I needed today. I really enjoyed sitting for that moment, relaxing, and checking out all the cool vintage papers Mary put in the book. She even included a pocket, made out of an old map, filled with lots of other loose vintage goodies.

I'm off now ladies.... of to watch American Idol! I'm not much of a reality show fan....but Idol... my whole family loves.

Playing Catch up

Hospital Doodles: Ok, so somewhere in between hubby's in surgery and kids having grand babies, I did two little doodles in my journal. They are pretty plain and boring. I'm still not quite sure what I will do with them, if anything. Maybe they will just end up covered up with layer upon layer of goodies. Who knows...

Painted Papers: Next, is a page from my soul journal. It's one of the painted paper prompts Kathryn gave us and it's probably the least of my favorites. First I thought it was the colors I picked. I'm not a big fan of yellow. But there are other yellow projects I've worked on that turned out ok, so maybe it's the boldness of the black ink. Or maybe the actual stamps I picked? Just an over-all combination of them, it just doesn't work for me.

Weave our Dreams: This one I enjoyed doing, but honestly, I didn't totally follow the instructions. The chosen words were supposed to be about our dreams. Again, on a quick stop at the house, before running out the door to the hospital, I grabbed a bunch of scrap paper, my small letter stamps, and a black archival ink, and just started stamping words.

Just words.

Words that just meant something at that moment, or words I thought of a lot, and here is the finished product. Again, I really liked working on this page. It was a good one to work on in the hospital, too, as I could sit there and take my time at weaving the paper and getting them lay in the right order, that I wanted.

And Lastly, a little tiny shot of what I'm working on today.........

Have a great day ladies~!

I'm a OWOH Winner~!

I was lucky enough to win not one, but two OWOH gifts!

Thank you Lori at Artivity for a beautiful collage sheet that I already have 1000 uses for in my head!

Also, Thank you so much Mary, at Green Paper. I was the winner of one of her books! And if you've read any of my previous posts, you know I love journaling, art journaling, Bible journaling, daily journaling.... lol What a beautiful book, too that I know I will put to great use!

Thank you to ALL of you who participated in OWOH! I've never seen such a large giveaway project before! Now that I understand it all, I can't wait till the next one, so I can participate in the giving process, too! It's a wonderful way to get to know each other and share our work. I think that's the true hearts desire for an artist, to share their work with others, bring some level of joy to them, as it brought to ourselves in creating it!

Baby Ryleigh