Sochi Olympics...art journal page

This page sits opposite my week and you flip it open to see the pages in the previous post. I wanted to do a page in my planner for the Olympics, and when Nicole Maki sent me the hand printed paper with the rings on it, I knew it would be part of the page! It was printed on tissue paper and so beautiful. The page I started with was already watercolored blue, so I just went from there.

Here it is as you open the planner to the week. I always enjoy seeing other's planners as they would look if you were holding them, so you get to see mine that way too.

Glamour shot. Look how thick...remember this is just a little 3.5x5.5 calendar book.

The Beatles...50 year anniversary of appearing on Ed Sullivan Show

 You know that great mail I showed you in this post? I made a journal page from some of it. I figured this week we have the Olympics, Valentine's Day, and the anniversary of the Beatles appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, so I think I 'll make a page about each. Since this is my planner I still had to have my "to do" list and it's on the top tag.

 When you flip it up, you have "love is all you need." Classic.

If you flip up that tag (ready made by "Reflections"), and you find part of the envelope from my happy mail...with 3 of the Beatles on it. I also used some of the gelli printed paper she sent me to collage over my address and put the band's name, and the 50th anniversary info.

I have one page left for this week and I think I'll draw something that has to do with the Olympics.

Happy Mail

Another mixed media artist was so sweet to send me some clip art from the 1950s, so I'm sending her some treats in the mail. I hope she likes them. This is the back of the envelope. What I send is mostly vintage papers like pages from old ledgers, old game pieces, and such.

If anyone wonders what is in "happy mail," here is one I received from Nicole Maki (click on her name to visit her blog). There are many hand printed papers in this collection...yea! I am happy about that. I've been admiring papers people print themselves using a gelli plate, but I haven't tried it, so I'm very glad to have some to use. She also made her own envelope from a Beatles poster. I'll be using parts of that in a page this week. She has an altered playing card in there, and some paper printed in another language. Good stuff I can work into collages!

Documented Life...Challenge 7..Bicycles and Hearts (smile)

This week's challenge in the Documented Life Project was to take a shape and repeat it, then add color. Of course with Valentine's Day creeping up on us, I thought I'd make Valentine's themed pages this week. I used a heart made of bike chain links that I drew in the past. I just printed it out smaller and cut it out. Then I got to work drawing a sweet little red bicycle. Then I added a few more hearts for a border and as balloons. 

Here is how I made the wheels. I overlapped some washi tape on a nonstick paper until I had a wide enough piece for a wheel (bottle cap). Then I traced and cut them out, peeled them off and put them on the page. I drew my bike from the wheels up.

It's Friday. Time for Happy Mail

It's Friday and that means it's time to mail out some "happy mail." I'm in a  swap with some other mixed media artists/journalers. Every Friday we mail out some collage/art supplies to another swap member. Mine are usually vintage things like sheet music, book pages, maps,  and old postcards and photos. That's because as an antiques dealer I have lots of those! I'm also mailing out a tiny charm that looks like a journal in each one. I sell them at the shop along with several other transportation themed charms.

Inspired by Jennifer Judd McGee...Documented Life Challenge

This week's challenge was to pick an artist who inspires you and make a page with that in mind. I picked Jennifer Judd McGee. She is Swallowfield on flickr, and has an Etsy shop as well. Jennifer does amazing things with cut paper and doodling. Click on her flickr photostream for treat for your eyes! The piece I was inspired by was this one:

As you can see by my page below, I found that cutting those little shapes was a trick...I ended up with some jagged edges and even a couple of torn spots. Ick...the perfectionist in me wanted to do it all over, but the other me (the one who knows I don't have time to do that!) said, "No, it's just a planner page, post it as is." So here it is:

Then I worked on the other pages, and they got a little bit of that paper cutting too:

This one is an old photo of me when I went hang gliding, way back when I was 18 years old.  It's a reminder that I'm still that brave girl....and to grab the opportunities for adventure and fun and learning. I'm afraid of heights, but I like to challenge that once in a while!

"Happy Mail"

I've not done "happy mail" or art swaps before, but I thought I'd give it a try. I doodled on the envelope, front and back.

 This swap is with mixed media artists, so I included lots of things that could be used for collage and art journaling. I hope she likes it. I have lots of vintage paper items, since I have access to lots of those as an antique dealer.

Warhol, Price, and Gregory...all in one little post.

This is a little drawing I made on a note ordering Moonlight Chronicles from Dan Price. I just blurred out my address and such. Dan Price and Danny Gregory are two artists whose writing encouraged me to start drawing again. 

And here is a cool quote that I want to be able to find again, so I'm posting it here:

"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art."  ~Andy Warhol

Documented Life Art Journal/Planner

This weeks prompt for Documented Life was to doodle a border, so I learned a new border and put it around the tag.. I colored the background of it black, which I like very much. I also sketched my "go to" lunch when I'm at the office. The cracker is cut off the Ritz box and glued on. I've been trying to take some pics through the week of what I'm up to....this week it was cozying up to the fire and exercising.

 This calendar is all about my everyday life, so there will be sketches of what seem to be mundane things. Those ordinary things are what make up our lives, and also the things that might be unusual many years later! Think if you had a calendar or diary of your great-grandparents...their "ordinary" things might be very different from ours today! I know if I draw my laundry equipment, it's going to look very different from what my grandmother used when she did laundry outside with a hired lady who came to help her.

Lately I'm not drawing from photos much, but drawing what is in front of me. On this night it was a large toy that Jeff bought for his granddaughter. It was a fairly complicated subject!

Planner Pages..

 Here is how the planner is working out: I love it! I actually use it (usually a fail for me with calendars). I like having the planner and sketchbook all rolled into one. I'm also printing out little pictures of things I like though the week, and gluing them in. Other little things like stickers from mail I got or the logo from places I went are also being glued in.

The best part is the extra paper that's taped into the journal...lots of space to make lists, or collages, or sketches. Because I have these papers taped in, I leave my regular sketchbook in the car on my ordinary errands. If I'm stuck in a waiting room at the doctor's office or pharmacy, I've always got paper handy for a little sketch.

Documented Life...Prompt 4

The prompt this week was to write a secret message, then paint over it leaving a single word. There is a LOT of writing under all that paint! The word I left is the word CARE, but I put the letter stickers over it to make it pop. The other phrases are also left uncovered for a reason. Like many moms/wives/caregivers/you name the hat you wear, I have tended to run around caring for others and forget myself...so this is to remind me care for me too. Granted it's easier now that the kids are grown and I'm no longer parenting all the time, so I'm learning!

Again the size of this is 5.5 inches by 3.5 inches. The paints are just craft paints...except those strips of paper with lots of colors. Those are papers that were in back of a painting I did a while ago...they caught the paint that went over the edge of the canvas. They were pretty though, so I saved them.

Move...fitness...

I picked a word to motivate me, or rather the word picked me while I was out walking one night. That word is MOVE. This little page is in my planner next to the weekly calendar this week. MOVE means several things to me, and among them is my desire to be healthy and fit. The little pic with the word "run" is my feet at our local indoor track.

Several people have asked how big the planner is. It's the pocket size Moleskine weekly planner. It measures 3.5 by 5.5 inches when closed. It's tiny, but I'm having fun in this little book!

Week 3 Prompt...Documented LIfe

 The prompt for week three of the Documented Life Project was to use an envelope from your mail, but I haven't been getting much  mail this week. I did use a postcard I received, and some vintage mail I picked up last week at an antique mall. This little pouch containing a shipping tag was made from one of those vintage envelopes.

 When you pull the shipping tag out, it has a drawing that I did a couple of years ago...it's actually from a bigger journal, and I just copied it and printed it out and attached it to the tag.

 Here it is all stretched out. The tag and pouch, the back of a post card from when I ordered Andrea Joseph's book, and some cool stamps and images from a letter posted from Hong Kong in the 1950s.

And this is the other side. My "to do" list ready to be filled, a page about Hawaii with another of my old drawings (Rainbow Falls), the front of Andrea Joseph's postcard, and the back of the shipping tag pouch.

This was fun to play around with! I was able to use my drawings again, which I don't do much, and I played with collage a bit more than I usually do. Mostly I wanted to take the mail theme and connect it to travel.

Moleskine Planner...art journal

 You've seen this page before...when you flip out the pic right page, you see the one below:

The things glued in are a pic of a bottle tree we saw on the way home, a movie receipt, an old Lexington, Kentucky postmark I found while antiquing, and one of our dogs curled up together.

Self Portrait...Week 2 Documented Life Prompt

The week 2 prompt for The Documented Life Project was to create a self portrait. I'd snapped this one a few days before so I used it. This is my mom, me, and my daughter. We are good girls, but also kind of feisty, especially when the chips are down.

Week 1, Documented Life Planner

When you fold out the drawing of my front door you see week one. My son-in-law drove us though horse country here in Kentucky and I drew the little scene from what stuck out in my mind after the drive.