Rainy Day with my Girls!!

We had over 3 inches of rain on Saturday!! Seriously, the rainiest (if that is a word) day we have had here in a LONG time!!  It was also National Scrapbook Day so after going to the best LSS (Altered Angel) and hanging out for a few minutes I headed home to some really bored kids. 

But you should have see the looks on their faces when I said they could use my paint and supplies.  So I gave them each a canvas, paints, glue and markers.  And I must say, they did a great job!! I just wanted to share them with you all because I was really surprised at their final products and what they did!!

I made this pic using an old scrap of wood as the canvas!! I really liked the size and shape of the board. 

And here is the last journal page I did! Still loving modeling paste!! 

 This is Grace's Project!  The girls just got a very large container of scissors with different edges and she really likes them!!  She also used some cute words:  enjoy, laugh, never give up and everything happens for a reason.  

This is Julia's project! She loves my Greeting Farm Stamps and has been BEGGING to use them! So, why not! I stamped it (because she was frustrated when she couldn't get it dark enough!) and she colored it in!!  And she was sitting beside Grace, so I am pretty sure that is where the house came into her head!! But she did write her own words: sweet, love, try and help!  She also wrote something else, but she can't remember what it was and we can't read it! lol! 

This is Faith's Project!  I loved her saying, she said it was on a poster in her classroom!!  And she knew exactly what she was doing from the start.  I wan't sure she had a plan, but when she cut out the words, it all made sense! Love.

Projects and Spring . . . finding balance!!

Spring is a crazy season around here!!  I LOVE being outside so when the weather gets just right, I just can't stay behind the indoor desk!!  I have been planting, painting and playing tennis!!  The time I have spent behind my desk is making a couple new canvases for an upcoming project!! They have turned out really well!!

 My favorite deck flowers are marigolds.  They just perk up the deck planter boxes and they bloom all summer out there!  Love. 

 This fall, Jeremy and the girls planted a bag of tulips for me!  They came up beautifully!! I love them and I want to plant more next fall!

And here is the project that has taken up any free time that I have had lately!!  I found this old 60's table at a local thrift store and I fell in love!! It has a magazine rack in the front and then surprise, the top lifts up for storage!! It is perfect for my art area!!  So I sprayed on the Citristrip went to work!! Sanding, staining the top and painting the bottom!! I LOVE the way it turned out!!

I am here!!

Finally, I have a post!! Between spring tennis matches and spring break, I haven't had as much time to work as much as I would like in my art journal. (I did manage to squeeze in Juenelle Jacobson's Art of Spring Class, which I LOVED by the way!!) Things are clearing up and I have SO much more time to devote to my real passion!! Here are a couple of the pages and a project that I have done! I also used a scrap of wood my mom gave me from the farm. 

 This is the scrap of wood!  I covered it in paper and paint.  Then I took it with me to Thursday Fun Day at Altered Angel.   There I stamped it and paper pieced a bunch of little birdhouses.   When I came home I added little embellishments to make it less one dimensional.  I don't know if I am totally done.  I feel like it needs something more between the birdhouses? And ideas?  I am planning on giving it to my mom for mother's day!

This is just a fairy door.  Since I moved my desk to the window to the backyard, I find myself staring at the trees and the fairy door the girls have on the tree out there.  So here is just a quick page.

This is a little piggy I did for the Art of Spring Class.  I adore the watercoloring that Juenelle Jacobson does.  She seriously makes it look so effortless and whimsical.  I just love her teaching and humor!! So much fun!

This is a random page.  I love the idea of a direction sign . . . it just needs something else . . . so really a work in progress!

 

I saw a picture of bridge like this on pintrest.  Since I was watercoloring for the Spring class I thought I would try to watercolor myself.   I have a LONG way to go!!

Canvas Redo!

A couple of weeks ago, I made an Easter egg tree canvas that was horrible and I covered it with gesso. So here is the redo, some spring flowers and a cute Greeting Farm stamp called Gracie! It was just fun to make something for spring!!

Been feeling the mojo . . .

So, I gave up on the little spiral bound journal. I just didn't like it. I found a new book and LOVE the size, the shape and the paper, it makes such a difference to find the right feeling journal!! 

I have been playing with gesso, clear gesso and tinting gesso.  I forgot how much fun simple gesso can be.  I have also been using my Art Anthology Sorbets, they give a little bit of texture and shine!  Love!

 

And here is one that went off the rails, but in the end, I am satisfied. I really do watch the robins every morning. And I really wanted to capture the spring sunrise that I watch with them, but that DID NOT work out!! Luckily, I am using a lot of gesso this week, so I covered up the offending issues (and there were a lot of them!)

 

And I love treehouses.  LOVE them.  I could live in a treehouse.  I always wanted to build the girls a treehouse, but even with all the trees outside, there just wasn't a place for one to go.  But I can build them in my journal . . .

Playday!!

Yesterday, I was so lucky to get to take a class at Altered Angel with the fabulous Jenn Starr!! I loved it! She has so many amazing mixed media ideas and techniques.  If you get a chance, take a class with her!! I can't wait for her to get back to Georgia!

 We were building a mixed media memory journal and using ALL the new Art Anthology paints and sprays.  I was like a kid in a candy shop!!  Seriously the colors of the new paints are fabulous and the sprays . . . yummy!!  

I have some new supplies and my new Art Anthology Sorbet paints . . . so much fun!!  I colored gesso, glued and stenciled . . . I will be smiling all day!

When it doesn't work . . . just keep swimming!

Have you ever made a picture and loved the idea but not so sure about how it turned out? I wanted to create a totem pole of some kind so I doodled this picture of a stacked heart, owl, butterfly and bird. I loved the idea but I am no so in love with the colors. So here is the first attempt, but I really want to do it over with different colors. I am just not feeling the love! What do you do when you love the idea but just not the final project?? 

So I going to remake my totem pole next week with less/more color? Who knows but I am not ready to give up on this pic!!

Well, the second project that I was working on met the gesso. After 'trying' to make an Easter egg tree I just couldn't stand the way it looked. SO instead I covered the whole canvas with gesso. However, the pieces of paper that I couldn't pick off were sticking through the gesso and I was making a bigger mess than I started with. So I added a stencil. Yesterday, I bought one of Donna Downey's new stencils at Altered Angel and today I threw it into the paint. Now . . . I will let it dry and then play!! 

And now onto a family weekend in Atlanta . . .