{Free} Journal Page

Hello lovely people :)
I just discovered this blog called A Year in the Life of an Art Journal and felt inspired to give it a try.  I'm hoping that this will help me stay motivated to art journal more regularly and love that they include prompts to get you started. The prompts are posted on the 15th and 30th of every month. 
Go check them out, I would love to see what you create :)

The prompts for Jan. 15 on their site are:

THE PROMPT: Word
ie: along the lines of One Little Word, choose one word that embodies the way you want your year to be LIVED.
THE STUFF: Imagery
ie: Use images, clippings... all to create the FEELING of the word you choose.
THE TECHNIQUE: PAINT/DOODLE
ie: paint and doodle on your images to further create the emotion of your word.

Here's what I created:

I also created a video of my page in progress :)  My camera was dead, and to be honest I was too lazy to set up the camera, tripod and etc anyways. So, I thought I'd give my webcam a try.  The quality is still not great and I definately need to play around with the camera angles, settings and lighting in my room. But hey, that's what practice is for right, trial and error until you find something that works!

I hope you enjoy the process regardless and like what I created :)

Supplies used:

-Liquitex Soft Body Acrylic: Magenta, Vivid Lime Green, Raw Sienna

and Yellow Orange Azo

-Golden acrylic glazing liquid

-Golden Gesso

-Liquitex Clear Gesso

-Heidi Swapp Bird Sticker

-Sharpie Pen

-White Out pen

-Washi Tape

-Homemade Colorwash Sprays (Wild Plum, Lettuce, Terra Cotta, Caramel)

-Stencil Waste

Thanks so much for taking the time to visit my blog. I always appreciate it :)  Take Care!!

Art Journaling {My Favorite Things} and a video!

Hi there!  Wow, can you believe the first month of the new year is almost over! Where oh where does the time go!?!

The other day I was watching The Sound Of Music and one of my favorite parts in the movie inspired me to create a journal page :)
I love moments of inspiration such as that.  It just goes to show how inspiration is everywhere!
Anyways, I decided I'd video the journaling process as well :)  I love watching artists in the process of art journaling and have always wanted to give it a try.

I have NO editing skills at all, and I don't have a real video camera either but I figured, why not?!
So, I used the video setting on my digital camera, stuck it on a tripod and started taping.  It's funny how you can be nervous on camera (and it was only my hands on film) even when there is nobody else in the room :p

Well, after taping and after a bit of frustration with Windows Movie Maker (for some reason the captions were always off timing and the program kept freezing) I finally finished it!  After all is said and done I have to admit I did have fun with the whole process and definately hope to make more videos in the future ;)

Here are some pics of the (almost) finished pages.  In my haste to finish the video I haven't added my journaling yet :p

Here's the video :)

Thanks once again for taking the time to stop by :) Take care!!

{Altered Photo Box and Mini Album}

Hiya!! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
This is gonna be a short post with lots of pictures :p
I kept forgetting to share photos of the altered box and mini album I created for my super cute goddaughter, so I thought I'd share it with you now :)  Hope you like it!

I updated this older post of a mini album I made for a friend. I got her permission to show her photos on my blog so I added them to the original post if you'd like to have a look :)

Thanks for stopping by, Take Care!



Organization Week {Storage Containers}

Hey there again!

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer is currently hosting Organization Week on her blog which I've been following and really enjoying.  There's nothing like getting organizing ideas from others who have the same interests and same supplies as you, and seeing how they make their space work to accommodate said supplies :p

Today she and her guests are talking about the many and various containers you can use to store your goodies. Anyways, I wanted to share a few of the containers and such that I've found useful in holding my supplies. 

I absolutely love the tiered baskets you find in the kitchen organizing section of most stores! I really like being able to utilize the empty space above tables, counters and workareas without having to nail any shelves onto the wall.  Here are some of the tiered containers that I use:

This one is my favorite, and it also holds my favorite paints :)  It sits on my dresser

next to the Ikea shelf that holds all my art supplies. 

This bright one holds my glimmery sprays

The one on the right are stacking shelves,

also found in the kitchen supplies section of stores.

I scrapbook in my closet so all the shelving are your usual wired kind. Because of that it's easy to hang these types of baskets from the shelf underneath.  I think I found this on clearance at Tuesday Morning for $2! I use this to hold my stamp blocks and some of the mini ink pads. 

This wire stand is found in the closet organizing section of most stores. I think I got this at Target. You can stand it on a table or hang it from underneath a shelf.  I love these and have a few hanging in other parts of my closet.  On the top left is an old make-up organizer, works perfect for organizing small tools. The basket on the right I think is from the dollar store, it holds liquid glues and stamp cleaners.

Here are some "found" containers:

These are lids from cd/dvd spools.  The large ones make perfect desktop trash containers!

The tall beer mug was my fave mug that my brother accidentally hit and now has a small chip and crack. It holds my new inktense pencils that I got for Christmas :) Can't wait to experiment with them.

The rectangle box is from some Ferrero Rocher chocolates, my fave! I store alcohol and watercolor inks in them.

The glass jars holding my watercolor crayons and chubby pencils are from candles that have since served its purpose and have been cleaned out.

The other glass jar holding my homemade sprays is from an old juicer :p

These boxes hold my jewelry making supplies. The one on the left is a fishing tackle box that I took from the garage because no one was using it :p The one on the right I got at Joanns, funny enough theyre made by the same company :p  Although I haven't beaded in forever, I thought I'd share this anyway.

 I like to use small zip baggies to store my beads, and I arrange them in the container by color. The ones I have yet to use are still on the string they came on and are in a different container. Larger beads are stored in the top portion of the tackle box. Before using these boxes I had my beads stored in floss threader organizers but have dropped them too many times in the past making a huge mess.  

I hope you find some of these storage solutions handy.  I would love to do a tour one day of where I create, maybe when it's less of a wreck than it is now :-D 

Take Care!!

WOYWW and {Homemade Colorwash Sprays}

Hi there! Hope your week is going by smoothly so far :) I was doing some bloghopping and happened upon Julia's blog and her WOYWW (What's on your workdesk Wednesday) weekly posts that she hosts. So I thought to myself, hmmmm this sounds fun, maybe I'll give it a try :p

Since I will be showing you my workdesk, I guess I will now have to admit that since my last post I haven't been all that great with cleaning up after working on my projects. 
LOL, so much for that New Year's resolution!

Here is a photo of what I was working on Monday.  My desk pretty much looks about the same, but I have every intention of clearing it off today :p

Money for me at the moment is very limited and I'm on an extremely tight budget so I've had to be a bit more resourceful as far as art supplies.  But that's the wonderful thing about art journaling and mixed media, pretty much anything goes and you're only limited by your imagination.  Luckily too, I bought lots of supplies and hoarded them when I was able to afford it :p

I've been wanting some Ranger colorwash sprays for the longest but at about $4 a bottle and up, that was a bit beyond my budget.  Luckily, awhile back I was able to purchase some Adirondack ink refills for $1.50 a bottle and decided now was the time to make use of it.

Now my next dilemma was spray bottles. I really didn't want to have to buy any so I decided to tranfer the contents of my smooch spritz bottles into another container (paint containers from the dollar store) and use the misters for my colorwashes.  I really liked the mist of these sprayers but they were constantly clogging on me because of the mica in them, so making the decision to switch out the contents was an easy one.

After playing around a bit I ended up with a "recipe" I was happy with. Now I have a bunch of colorwash sprays and LOTS of ink still leftover to make more :) 

Here's my "recipe" and how I made them:

1. Empty and clean out bottles

2. Fill halfway with water

3. Add 20 drops of ink (I really wanted vibrant color, add less if you prefer it lighter)

4. Add 1/8 tsp. of acrylic glazing liquid  (You don't have to do this, but I wanted to make the spray more permanent)

5. Shake, Shake, Shake

6. Fill the rest of the bottle with more water

7. Cap and Label

8. Your done!!

I sprayed them onto white cardstock and punched that out with a tag punch. Then added that to a binder ring. This is how I like to catalog my sprays :) 

Thanks for stopping by! Hope the rest of your week is wonderful!

New Year's {cleaning} Resolution

Hey, it's me again :) Two posts in one day, woohoo!  This is gonna be a short and sort of silly post though :p 

I have as usual set myself a set of New Year's resolutions that I hope I will be able to commit to.  One of those is getting organized and staying organized.  After Christmas, I decided that I would start this resolution early (and just try to maintain it) by cleaning and organizing my art journaling area.  I still need to organize all my misc. paper, tissues and ephemera but I've made room for it and at least everything now has a space in which it belongs to.  I can't believe how much stuff I've accumulated and will definately need to purge some of my stash as the storage boxes under my bed are overflowing :p

Anyways, I should probably get to the point :p  I just wanted to share a photo of what my desk looked like earlier today as I was working on my calendar.
 

And this is what it looks like now :)  I actually cleaned up after I was done! It usually takes me a good couple of days till I clean off my table and I can't believe I actually cleared it off on the same day.

Yay me! I'm just hoping I can maintain it :p

My next organizing project is my closet, where I scrapbook.  My supplies have taken over 2/3 rd's of the room, and I haven't seen the floor in quite awhile :p 

Thanks for letting me share my silly moment with you, take care!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! and {2012 Calendar Challenge}

Hi there! Wow, I can't believe it's been so long (once again) since I've blogged. The last months of 2011 sure was hectic, that being said and before I forget to say it, HAPPY {belated} NEW YEAR!!! 
I have to admit that 2011 was a blah year for me, full of ups, downs, good times and bad times and I'm certainly glad that year is over.  I'm hoping that 2012 will be an awesome year for me as well as for all of you!

There are so many ideas, plans and projects already running through my mind that I'd like to begin and accomplish for 2012.  One of those is the calendar challenge that Kate Crane hosts on her blog at TheKathrynWheel. If you're not familiar with her work you definately need to check out her blog, her work is awesome and super inspiring.  I've been following her for awhile and have always wanted to participate in her calendar challenge.  However things somehow always came up and I felt it was always too late to begin. But not this year, I definately made it a point to give it a try and I'm hoping I'll be able to complete my calendar :)  Here's the link to Kate Crane's post regarding the challenge.

Here is my page for January:

I initially wanted to use the journal that I received for Christmas from my brother and future SIL but unfortunately the size didn't work out for this partipicular project.  Instead I opted to make a new journal just for the challenge, which I did out of manila file folders that I cut down to size 8x11. I also wanted to create a more subdued page but somehow ended up using my favorite colors of turquoise and green :p  I did incoporate alot of circles on my page though because I was taught that if you wore polka dots on New Years that your year will be filled with fortune. So maybe filling up my page with circles will provide me with alot of creative opportunities :)  I can't wait to start filling in all the little squares!

Thanks so much for having a look!  I hope your year will also be filled with wonderful creative opportunities!  Take Care :)