Saturday, June 29, 2013

Outfits for All Occasions
Inspiration Avenue Weekly Challenge

This week at IA, we have a guest host, Jez, a wonderful follower of
the Inspiration Avenue blog. Jez came up with the interesting topic,
Outfits for all Occasions
At first I thought this would be very easy, since most of my art is of figures, 
and they pretty much are always wearing an outfit of some sort.
So, piece of cake, right?

Not so fast. I must have been trying too hard to create the perfect outfit,
because I just couldn't come up with any good ideas.
So I ended up with two best friends, 
and best friends (of a certain age) must dress alike, no matter what the occasion.
All Mr. Kitty would agree to was a dapper bow tie in the same
ribbon as his friend, but I think they look ready for a special occasion.

Thank you, Jez, for coming up with this great theme,
and for sharing it with everyone at Inspiration Avenue!

Head over to Inspiration Avenue to see all the various interpretations.
Visit Jez and all of the other entries...
If you didn't enter this time, we hope you will soon!
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Friday, June 21, 2013

Magical Journal Journeys

Tammy's Art Journal

Happy Summer Solstice!

If you are in the southern hemisphere, by contrast, this will be your darkest day of the year
so I hope you will be able to soak up some much needed sunshine by visiting
the blogs of we northerners who are honoring the summer solstice!


June is my favorite month, so I love that I can post my pages in Tammy's journal today.
My pages are all about the seasons of Spring and Summer.
Tammy's colors are Black, White, and Tan
and I admit that although I tried to stick to that completely, 
some color did sneak in here and there!


I love this tiny gardener and have been saving her for something special.
She is from IrelandRoseNostalgia on Etsy.

Below is a short page I added to separate the Spring and Summer pages.
I had fun finding photos that could be viewed through the "window".


The spiral binding in Tammy's book made it easy to stitch in the extra page.


I love all things Edwardian, so I was happy to find the photo of 
this old fashioned picnic. No sunscreen available in those days. 
Not much chance of a sunburn though...the ladies are all bundled up and wearing big hats!
I'm wondering about the huge veils on their hats. Was this for when it gets "buggy"?


I hope Tammy enjoys these pages...I know she loves gardens, and Summer, too.
I thought I would feel restricted using not much color (I am a color maniac!)
but I really enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone.
That's been one of the fun things about the journal swap we are doing.
The owner of each journal has chosen the colors we must work in,
so needless to say, most of us have stepped a bit away from 
our favorite colors from time to time.

I headed over to Paint Party Friday this morning, and was amazed to see
that my entry for last week's PPF was chosen by random generator
to be featured this week! Thank you Eva and Kristin!!

I will be linking this to PPF this week.
A lot of collage, but I hope there is enough painting to qualify for PPF.
Happy PPF!


Enjoy the Summer Solstice!
What will you do on this longest day of the year?

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Friday, June 14, 2013

IA and PPF

Birds
This is from a Life Book lesson from a few weeks back . . .
I'm way behind in the lessons, and truthfully I'm not doing them in order anyway.
The Quirky Birds lesson is from Tam and it was so much fun to
create these crazy creatures. I was trying not to make them too much like Tam's,
but. I don't know. I would rather they were a bit more uniquely mine.
I think I'll try the technique with some other creatures. Or people. Something.


I'd like to fill an art journal, or create a book, with quirky creatures.
We'll see.


This is for Inspiration Avenue's weekly challenge which is
Birds

This little guy feels not quite done to me. I may give him a little more . . . something.



This is also for Paint Party Friday.
Thank goodness it IS still Friday.
I am late, but not completely out of time.

Visit both IA and PPF to see the wonderful creativity in both spots!

Enjoy the upcoming weekend!

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Saturday, June 8, 2013

IA Weekly Challenge

Ahoy, Me Hearties!

Yo Ho Ho, and a bottle of, um, lemonade?

The theme at Inspiration Avenue this week:
~ Nautical ~
the inspiration of Shelly


Pirates fall under Nautical, don't they?
Well, the First Mate is an actual sailor, despite the fact 
that he was ordered to hoist the Skull and Crossbones.

Thought for the day:
Always be yourself.
Unless you can be a pirate.
Then always be a pirate.


I haven't been able to join in the IA challenges for a while
(a looong while). . . I'm so glad I was able to 
get something together for this fun theme.


Visit Inspiration Avenue and there find all of the other Nautical entries!


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Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Magical Journals

Kim’s Book . . .
. . . it’s  RED. . . and  PINK . . . and  ORANGE!

These colors were right in my repertoire. It was easy and fun to stick to the palette.
So why am I so late in finishing? I don't know. But I wish I had been able to 
get this in the mail to Priti Lisa before June began. I'm so sorry, Lisa.
It's in the mail now (really!) and should be at your door today (Wednesday).

I think of Kim as the Queen of Pink, 
although I know she likes all colors as I do (especially red).

 One of my favorite quotes is about creativity:
“You can't use up creativity. The more you use the more you have.”
~ Maya Angelou

I was inspired by one of those cello windows in a business envelope
to create a doorway for the little girl.
I used one of my Gelli plate prints for the frame and scrapbook paper on the other side.
Her page is a bit busy, I guess she had lots to say :)

 
Almost forgot to post the tag!
 
 
On the back, a poem by Robert Graves.
Too long to fit on the tag, so I chose the second half..l

Here is the entire poem ~


I'd Love to Be a Fairy's Child

Children born of fairy stock
Never need for shirt or frock,
Never want for food or fire,
Always get their heart’s desire:
Jingle pockets full of gold,
Marry when they’re seven years old.
Every fairy child may keep
Two strong ponies and ten sheep;
All have houses, each his own,
Built of brick or granite stone;
They live on cherries, they run wild—
I’d love to be a Fairy’s child.

~ Robert Graves

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°



Off to work in Tammy's Black, White, and Tan journal.

Before I received the book in the mail I was thinking it might
feel a bit limiting to work basically without color.
But now I see just the opposite is true ~ I'm finding SO many
wonderful elements to use in that color scheme,
it's exciting to concentrate on the composition and textures
on the pages, and it's perfect for vintage photos and ephemera!

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