More calendar pages...

The first week was a busy one and does not include a Documented Life Project prompt, because somehow I did two on previous spread.

I had to have a go at drawing the great vintage sign at Merichka's in Joliet. We had a great dinner there, and I'll be drawing that sign again one day, I'm sure.

 This last week the Documented Life Project prompt was to use a quote you like. I chose one about mermaids, because if I were some kind of fantasy being, I'd be a mermaid, of course.  This was a busy week of traveling with my dad to deliver things to Jeff's new home. It was a whirlwind trip, but fun to see where he will be living and also to see parts of Arkansas I'd never seen before. We took the train home, which I rather liked!! I learned that I was not far from the boyhood home of Warren Ludwig and his wonderful mother Miz Dee. Someday maybe I will get to stop in and meet Miz Dee in person!

Dad and I stopped at the Pink Elephant Antique Mall on Route 66...what a great place. Visit there if you get the chance!

I almost feel like I cheated on this spread. Why? Because all that beautiful background and the cool stickers came from some "happy mail" I received from Lorraine Bell. The background was the envelope! Check out her website. She does such beautiful work. Thanks Lorraine, for the beautiful package!

Converse Chucks...Documented Life Challenge

The challenge last week was to incorporate your favorite shoes. I was thrilled with that challenge, because I'd just taken some pics of my feet up by a Smoky Mountain stream in my well loved Chucks (all my Chucks are well loved).

 Then I finished out the pages by adding maps from brochures, and pictures I took that week. The round stamps that look like postmarks are national park stamps. They have them at the information desks of all the national parks, and you can stamp your books or drawings for free. I also found that some of the bags they pack your souvenirs in are plain and some are printed with the map of the park, so I started asking for the ones that were printed. The drawing with the orange background is an old journal page featuring my converse sneakers, so I reduced it and taped it in.

The backs of the taped in pieces have other photos and parts of postcards glued to them so that they are interesting when flipped open. This is a small book, but I'm managing to squeeze a lot of memories in there.

My planner is starting to get pretty thick! I'm thinking before they year is over, I'll have to rebind it...that will be another new thing to learn!

Documented Life Project...

The challenge on that week was to incorporate packaging from a food box. I was on vacation, so I didn't have food boxes around, but I had a bag from a distillery we visited, and decided to use that. It made a nice frame for a picture I took of Cumberland Falls in Kentucky.

There are a couple of flaps made from pictures and part of a post card. When you flip them out, this is what you see. I used as many photos from the week as I could...it's a small planner, so I have to edit..that's hard!

The Harbin Girls

This week's prompt for The Documented Life Project was to make a monochromatic page. I happen to be at the office and had a package of happy mail and a magazine...all of which had quite a bit of green. The tip-in for that week was also a yellow-green....so green it is! When I saw the little girl, she reminded me of my sisters and me when we were little. There are three of us, born in a 3 year period. Everywhere we went we were referred to as a group: "The Harbin Girls." It's a happy memory, and I like being a Harbin girl!

Tangle Stack...

The Documented Life Project prompt this week was to write your name. I was inspired by another DLP member to try a Tangle Stack...doodling/zentangling. I am at work and have just a few supplies..old books, a black pen, and highlighters, so that's what I used. I also used Gesso to knock the pages back a bit...yes, I keep gesso at work..very important stuff!

Edited to add:
I've added some pics from the week. I am terrible about keeping scrapbooks, so I'm trying to add little photos to my planner.

Creating during Cleanup

Yesterday, I had to clean up the dining room table, since family is coming to visit, and we will need a place to eat! I've enjoyed having the art supplies out, and close to the running water. Before I put it all away, I figured I'd make one more background, so I'd have something to doodle on.

Hmmm. Wonder what this will be?

Do you suppose she's a wildflower?

I've been enjoying doing some backgrounds the way Rae Missigman shows on her blog...the 15 minute background. It's quick and fun...you can just let loose and work fast. It makes it easy to experiment with colors that you might not use much too. Here is the background I made tonight in less than 15 minutes. I started on a page that I'd taken notes on, so it already had a layer of interest. Then I layered on the paint.

Now, dolling it up, takes a bit longer. I took it to the couch and doodled on it some while I watched TV. Then I got some papers out. The girl on the bicycle is from a candle advertisement that my neighbor saved for me. I love that people are starting to save interesting papers for me! I had a dictionary with the word "foxglove" on it, so I drew a foxglove on the page and glued it in too. More doodling and a quote from Alice in Wonderland, and I had a page I really like. Sorry for the glare..I might take a new pic when I have daylight.

Hanging my own art!

I have mostly original art hanging in my home. I buy it when I travel, and from local artists. Once in a while if the price of an original is prohibitive, I will buy a print. My sister was over the other day and looked around and wondered why I don't have any of my own artwork hanging in my home. Maybe it's because so much of what I do is in sketchbooks.  I'm not sure why, but she is right, there was nothing I created hanging up. So, last night I hung the piece I created while my sister was here that day. Makes me happy when I pass by it.

Jet Pens White Pen Review...

I found this on Jet Pens site. Please visit this blog post to get the entire low down on white pens. They did a fantastic review with samples of all the pens on dark paper, and a chart including the dry times and ideal surfaces.

Jet Pens White Ink Review (click for the skinny on white pens!)

Invite someone else to draw in your planner...

 The prompt at The Documented Life project was to have someone else draw in your planner, and then add to it. This is my mom looking at my planner.

Mom might draw something once a year, and yesterday she picked up a pencil and drew this terrific chair in my planner. I'm tempted to just leave it as is, but the assignment was to add to it, so I guess I will.

      So I added a palm, and a rug, and colored it all in, and called it good! Mom's drawing was great, so I don't need to do much. This chair is in their living room. If you flip the chair tag out, the drawing of a praying mantis is underneath.

The planner page opposite has a background of happy mail paper, and also flowers clipped from happy mail, a bit of gelli printed paper, and a butterfly cut from a magazine page and colored in.

Art Party

Today, my sister and sister-in-law came over to make some art. My sis-in-law just retired. She enjoyed painting years ago, and would like to get started again. I thought an easy way to start would be to use the instructions for how we made the journal covers, but to do it on a canvas instead. That way it's fun with paints and no stressing over perspective or realism ....just getting our feet wet painting.

 We started with a layer of spray ink through stencils, then some interesting paper glued down, then some paint dabbed on, and then more stenciling like Jennifer is doing with a home-made stencil in this picture.

 Here Susette has decided she need some vertical element so she did some dots going down her canvas.

 This is Jennifer using some stamps.

 Collage! We had some dictionary and ledger pages that had been monoprinted.

 Much of the various layers gets covered by later layers, but I like how there is text and stenciling peeking though. It adds some nice depth, and interest when viewed at close range. The last step was adding some doodling in black and white.

 This is Jennifer's canvas. At one point she decided she didn't like the middle of her piece, so she dabbed in some more paint and stamps and fixed it up so she was happy with it! That's the nice thing about all these layers...you can always go back in and change things.

Here we all are, when we thought we were done...it was after this that Jennifer changed the middle of her piece. It was a fun day full of laughs and color!

Praying Mantis

I've been thinking about things I want to accomplish in my yard this year. I can't really call it a garden...the back yard doesn't have anything planted except one cherry tree I planted last year. I want to set my fire pit up, I want to plant to draw birds and butterflies, and I'd love to fence it so that I can just let Hawkeye out without having to watch him every second. Here is another critter I'm always happy to see in the garden.

This is drawing on one of the prints made on the gelli plate. The bug was lost in the background completely until I added the color and beefed up the main outlines a bit. I used Sharpie markers and a PITT pen. If I had it to do over, I'd have painted the leaf in with a lighter green so you could see his legs better, but I was at work and impatient, so I used the markers I had.

Monoprinting

 Making more monoprints. I love how you can layer these up. I am still keeping it pretty basic. I read of more complicated techniques you can do with it, but I've only printed a few times, so it's KISS for me. I printed on some dictionary pages this time too.

 It's messy and fun. I try to do quite a bit at a go, since it talks me a while to wash up afterwards.

Tags for a swap. 

Vintage Bicycle

 I love to bike, and lately I love to draw and photograph bicycles. This was from a photo of a great vintage bike. I got confused on the wheel and majorly messed it up, so I looked around for a way to salvage it. I found an envelope from some "Happy Mail" that had these great circles with flowers in them, and they just happened to be the right size. So, I cut one out and glued it on, and I like it.

Here is the page for the week. The other flower was from some other "happy mail." The rest are stickers from going to Chicago last weekend. When you fold out the bicycle page, you'd see the collage of spring in Chicago.

The wonder is......trees in my art journal.

Who doesn't love trees? Incredibly, I've actually known a few who don't, but to me trees are a wonder. I did another 15 minute background for this one, but using entirely different colors from the last one. It made me think of the woods. I seem to have a lot of quotes going in this journal, and I think I'll just keep adding more of my favorites.

15 Minute Journal Backgrounds

I've been watching Rae Missigman's video's about making backgrounds in 15 minutes. It's a great way to overcome that fear that sometimes hits when you are faced with a blank page or canvas.  Click on the link to watch her video. It is fun to do a background so fast! The picture above is the background before I started doodling over it. I started with a page that was written on when I was taking notes on a book I was studying. so that is the script you see behind the paint. There are also a couple of pieces of paper ripped from a gelli print.

After I turned him on to Sharpie water based pens, my friend, Warren Ludwig, sent me some fine tipped ones! So I've been doodling with white over everything! Warren has a great blog, and he reviews the pens in this post. I'm thinking spring again. It was sooo cold and windy here today, but eventually it has to warm up, right?!