Celebrating the first half of 2012……

 

Here it is the first of July, already six months into 2012…..where does the time go?  So, here I am sharing my calendar pages on Kathryn Wheel’s Calendar Challenge.

June is all filled in and looks like this……

I’ve had a pretty good six months…..lots of positive things have happened with my art and my family, I’ve taken some really cool on-line and in the classroom classes and I wanted to celebrate all of that.  So, I put together this special layout……”Celebrating the first 6 months of 2012”.

I listed the classes I’ve taken under the flap and made note of some of “my favorite days” over the past six months, on the right.

With the flap back you can see I took a class, almost, every month and it was great!

So, now I’m off to journal July….

This is my daily journal and garden journal…..so notice, I’ve already put a reminder in place to fertilize the roses on July 10.  I suppose I could have used a phone or my iPad to remind me, but what fun would that be!  The “Daisy” word is a practice piece for the lettering class I took from Joanne Sharp.

This layout is for the last half of July!  Once again, my pages are not side by side and I don’t use the box format but I cram a lot of memories into this little journal.

Here’s wishing you, in the U.S., a Happy 4th and everyone a Happy July!

Hot Wax and Tissue Paper……

 

I took a few encaustic classes earlier this year and fell in love with the medium.  Unfortunately, it does require a little more time, and set up, than some mediums so I haven’t played with wax as much as I would like.

But the other day, I created this is 8” by 10” piece based on Jane Davies class Sketchbook Scribbles,  I collaged newspaper to a wood board for the base then I covered the background with acrylic paint, oil pastels and encaustic wax medium….resulting in this!

For the next piece, I have a tissue paper background and acrylic paint and ink for the design…..no encaustic wax involved….yet!

I’m trying to put together a few pieces for a show in August…..this is a start but I’m still shooting for a more, especially, more encaustics.

Art Journal Everyday…..

 

My daughter-in-law peaked my interest in searching for heart shaped rocks with this beauty, the big one!  I found the almost looks like a heart small one….well, if you look at it from the right direction and use your imagination…..you can see it!

So, I decided to do a journal page using this photo as the inspiration.

I’ve taken a lettering class from Joanne Sharpe and a doodling class from Alisa Burke so I decided this was a good opportunity to combine what I’ve learned.

My heart rock whenever you are near, love!

Thanks for stopping by…..please feel free to leave a comment and follow me over to Julie Balzer’s Journal Every Day!

I’ve been busy playing in my journal…..

 

I made this page using the radish stamp I carved/printed and one of the original photos of radishes that I took for inspiration…..”Grow your own art and stamp it!”.

A fun thing happened yesterday, I received an e-mail from a chef who is opening a new catering business and he asked to use the radish stamp image, above, as his logo.  Can’t wait to see his business cards!

This is a work in progress….the  birds were inspired by an ad in a magazine and the shoes, pens and apples (on the right) are a part of a Target ad.  Magazines are great source of ideas and collage material.  This, likely, will become a daily journal page. 

I’ve been busy……this is another project completed this week.

I will be sharing this blog with Julie Balzer’s Art Journal Everyday blog party.  Follow me and we will learn and be inspired.

Same backyard….different week!

 

Last week, I took photos of our backyard and wrote a blog about it!  Interesting, how much changes in nature in a week.  There is always something new in bloom and something old that is fading.  Like life, the garden is always changing and evolving.

More roses in bloom and the lavender is about to “pop”!

 

 

 

Our backyard is twice as wide as it is deep…so this is a view of almost the entire width….garden shed and all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the other side of the backyard where the white Sally Holmes rose is in it’s full blooming glory.

 

 

 

 

Looking the opposite direction….this is a small yard with a ton of plants!  What can I say, I like plants and, apparently, I’m on a mission to own them all!  (LOL) So, I’ll leave you with collage and a wish for your days to be full of the flowers you love.

This week, I am once again joining Outdoor Wednesday.

Of marigolds and other stories…….

 

We had a very enjoyable Father’s Day weekend, I hope yours was too.

Saturday, after a morning spent doing yard work, we decided to go to a matinee movie……

I’m not often this inspired by a movie but we, both, really enjoyed “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”.   Full of great stars such as Dame Judi Dench, Bill Nighy and Maggie Smith it was funny, poignant, sad, colorful, scenic, wonderfully well acted by an amazing cast of professionals and had several story lines going at once.  I’m guessing, you might enjoy this movie more if you were…..say over 50, but there is enough story going that you don’t need to be a “geezer”, to appreciate it.

P.S. I, also, loved the wardrobe they dresses Dame Judi in, now, I need a scarf and a tunic top!

Both, pages finished!  This is the first movie I’ve seen that has inspired a journal page but, as soon as, we got home I was in sketching this page in my journal.  The color and photography in the movie is awesome…..all about India and the lifestyle.

Today, Mom, Dad and………

Jack…. lookin’ all snazzy in sepia  with a fancy museum frame…. courtesy PicMonkey (a free on-line photo program), went on a hike in Molalla River State Park.

This is a beautiful state park located about 15 miles south of Portland.  The park marks the confluence of the Molalla River and Pudding River with the Willamette River.  It is beautiful park with a walking path along the river, a boat ramp and a nice play area for dogs.  So, we packed a lunch and off we went.

Plus, the wildlife and wildflowers are abundant this time of year! 

Now, it’s crab cakes and salad for dinner topped off with strawberry shortcake….woohoo!

It has been a great weekend.  

Do, do….doodling!

 

I write in my journal everyday and I try to do a little art everyday, so……today I am combining those two thoughts and joining Julie Balzer’s Journaling Everyday blog party.  Come visit, if you are into journaling….you will be inspired.

I am trying to wrap my mind around “doodles”……sounds easy, right?  Not for me, my mind really doesn’t get it….I think it has something to do with repetition, I’m not very good at doing anything more than once.  But, I am determined to just get a basic grasp of doodling and adding it to my art.

This is the page I finished last night……..

My doodle inspirations came from many places, not the least of which is Alisa Burke’s class "Doodle Delight", click here to learn more.

Sunshine, finally……

 

After a couple weeks of rain, sunshine looks pretty good!   So, I thought I would take advantage of the moment and take a few photos of our backyard flower beds.  Our backyard isn’t very large, it is about 40 feet deep and 90 feet wide and borders a city park.

This space is between our house and the neighbors.  The dark burgundy shrub/tree is an Elderberry, the bright green plant is oregano and the tall pink flowers are foxglove.  The tall grass on the left is a grass called Karl Forrester.

This large, heritage rose is called Sally Holmes and is covered with huge clusters of single white blooms.

 

 

My funky gate has been painted many time and many colors.  Now, it sits in a flower bed surrounded by Hostas, hardy geraniums, foxglove and ferns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This beautiful rose is called “Westerland”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rose arbor is coved by the yellow Abraham Darby rose and the pink is Compassion….in the background is the orange rose, Westerland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a peony aptly named “Bowl of Beauty”!

 

 

 

 

 

 

More happiness…….the birdbath sits in the middle of blue Campanula, a mini-rose and dianthus, some more foxglove, ferns and geranium.  Yes, there is even room for a little patch of lawn, too!!!

I’m linking to A Southern Daydreamer's Outdoor Wednesday #179.

Visiting Artist……

 

Yesterday, we had a visiting artist……….

She is five and her name is Emma…….

 

 

Emma does lovely work on her own but, she felt the need to bring her assistant……..

 

 

……Lucy!  She has a special painting technique that she does with her eyes closed and her nose wrinkled up!!!!  Lucy is two!

These are our great-granddaughters with whom we had a great visit and they taught us many things about art and figs.  Yes, figs!

Journaling with hand carved stamps………

 

There is the carving of a stamp, there is the printing with the stamp…….

Then, there is embellishing the page with more stamps and a little lettering……

Priceless!

(Sorry, for the crummy pink glow to the photo….pretty sure it is photographer error, not, camera’s fault!)

Graduation time!

 

Congratulations, Nicole!  Another grandchild graduates high school!  Where does the time go?

When she started pre-school, her grandpa use to drive her to school everyday….she wasn’t much older that her cousin, Lucy, in the polka dot coat behind her!  Really, where does the time go?

Being, we live in Oregon and you may have heard it rains in Oregon….not always, but it does sometimes!  Well, yesterday was one of those times and last night in particular…it rained hard and the ceremony was outside, of course!

  This is my standing in the rain hairdo with our graduate and her Dad, my second oldest son, Jeff.

Nicole and her Mom, Darlene.

 

Nicole and her sister, Angela who will be a sophomore next year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicole and boyfriend, Justin!

 

 

 

 

 

Nicole and cousin Vincent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vincent’s mother,  Nicole’s Aunt Jan!

 

 

 

 

Nicole and one of her oldest cousin’s, Staci!

 

 

 

 

There were a few more family members at the ceremony….but those are the pictures I have on my camera.  Our girl is, now, off into the world.  She has a two year scholarship to Chemeketa Community College that will give her some time to figure out what she wants to do.  Whatever she does, we wish her well!  Her parents are to be congratulated, also, they’ve done their job well!

Carving and stamping……

 

I’m going to start this blog with more radishes…..it’s true.  Just to demonstrate some of the things you can do with the stamps you carve……..

I stamped one of the pages in my journal with the radish stamp and then added watercolors and some lettering.  I even drew  lines are for future journaling.  I don’t love the facing page, the big red circles are overwhelming, but I hope the addition of hand written words will tie everything together.

 

I’ve added a note on the facing journal page that says, come fall, the radish stamp could pass for the more seasonally appropriate beet!!!  Versatile, right?

Tried a little “birdie love” stamp carving…..

Then, I must confess, I was influence by Pam Carriker’s article in the Somerset Studio magazine and had to try carving my own portrait stamp.  On the left is a test of the stamp I carved, now, I’m going to add doodles and letters to finish off this journal page. 

 

With every stamp I carve, I learn something…..!  This, first attempt at carving a face is alright but it is going to take some more practice to get the look I’m striving for…I’m carving on!

Enough with the radishes, already!

 

As you know, I’ve been having fun carving rubber stamps lately.  This is similar to carving linoleum blocks only much, much easier because the material I am cutting is soft rubber and cuts like butter.

The softness has some draw back too, but the ease of carving makes up for it all.  I’ve shown several of my stamps on my blog, these are the fish I carved last December HERE!

For now, I’m into radishes……carved a single radish and after many experiments with stamping inks and printing inks, I have this.  The black is printing ink and the red is StazOn stamping ink.

Then, I carved the my largest stamp…to date, it is 4x6 inches……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and printed this with printer’s ink!

  The image above is printed on white watercolor paper and gives a cleaner print but, this one, printed on my friend Thea’s handmade paper looks “arty”.

Soon, I will need a sponsor and be enrolled in a 12-step program!  In the meantime, it is carve and print, carve and print!