Up Till Now.

This wonderful background started out as a plain white piece of cardstock.

(I am biased, and not a lick modest about this piece.)

It is one of the first backgrounds I have made. And I LOVE it.

Feel free to use it. If you do, let me know. I would love to see what you do with it.

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And on to the latest journal entry for HEART THE ART.
As you know, I have been using an odd shaped book for this challenge.

But with the topic this week, and this creation of mine, I have strayed.

Heart the ART # 21 - UP TILL NOW.

(digi journal page: background scanned art by Jana D (that's me), fonts are Bleeding Cowboys (dafont) and Another Hand Font (source unknown, but probably dafont)

Opus Gluei # 49 and my first hand-carved stamp

This week Opus Gluei is challenging us to SPARKLE.

I made a journal page with MY version of:

There is nothing to fear but fear itself.

My simpler version is shorter.

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No special reason, I just like it shorter.

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Any way, I used this striped patterned paper:

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I traced the page template from my HEART the ART journal and stamped my own peacock feather stamp, with Staz On brown, in an arc. I was hoping to mimic a peacock's plummage. Then I had to stamp a white edge along the scalloped border because the word FEARLESS wasn't visible. Stamped FEARLESS. I stamped a grid onto a complimentary paper. Then the quote. All in black. I stamped an old Stampin Up background stamp of little dots on the wispy part of the feathers. Then I wrote the whimpy journalling. It looked pretty plain. SO I started to glitter. At first it was just the inside of the bigger part of the feathers. Then I decided to outline in green. Then it needed more, so I glittered more of the feather lines. Now you would think that was enough. NOPE. I colored in some of the dots with metallic Gelly Roll pens.

I am biased, but I think it's wonderful.

AND it SPARKLES. A LOT.

Now, on to the peacock feather stamp. It's all Gina's fault. If it weren't for her tutorial, I would never have tried to carve my own stamp. I am NOT a talented drawer, (nor did I do well in English) but I decided to try anyway. I'll post more Tuesday about my very own stamp and how I got to it. And the others that I now have.

Have a wonderful Sunday and

HAPPY EASTER

Heart the ART, Something from Nothing and Opus Gluei

I made this this morning. It satisfies me, but it also satisfies the requirements for a few other things.

1. I am really enjoying the Heart the ART prompts at Gina's Tyggereye Arts blog. Although I am not current with the weeks, and have now gone out of order, I am enjoying them tremendously. She is really talented and is making me stop and think. I decided to make a page for this year long adventure. I didn't know the prompt I would use. I thought I would make the page and it would come to me...

2. I needed a project for Opus Gluei. This week's challenge is to use a picture provided by them, for inspitation. I thought I would use the flowers, colors and the grey background as a starting point.

3. I am using my stash as directed in Shimelle's Something from Nothing class. I pulled out several patterned papers (flowers) from my scraps drawer.

How it came about: I traced the page onto grey cardstock and cut it out. Then I punched out flowers from the scraps of papers. I used the negative as a stencil and used white ink to print flowers onto the grey paper. Then I stamped an alphabet stamp allover the background. It's very faint, but it's there. Then I distressed and added the word paper, the flowers and the journaling and title blocks. I added the bling and the owl and then wrote.



Like most of the images I post, you can click on it for a better view.

Heart the ART... playing catch-up.

I am a bit behind with my Heart the ART journal. I just got caught up doing other things (kid things) and the mojo was a bit elusive too.

Week 4 was "Under Control" - I have NEVER had a sweet tooth. I was the weird kid who traded her cupcake for a baked potato. I could easily pass on sweets for chips. Salty was my choice. Now, however, I want both. Chocolate covered pretzels will require a cigarette break afterwards. Okay, maybe it isn't that bad. But not far from it.

I totally lifted the journalling on the flamingo's from Gina. I figure it is one of her stamps, so it's okay. Right?

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The journaling reads: How did this happen to me? I never had one before. Now it is out of control. I need to stop eating sweets & get back to my old healthy way of life. Less sweets and more produce. (you can click on it to see the details better.) I used Gina's fabulous Flamingo stamp for journaling blocks. Love this bird.

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The prompt for week 5 was Thrive. It wasn't hard to come up with this one. I know what I need. I need creativity everyday. It doesn't always have to include paint, glue or paper, but it needs to be in there somewhere everyday.

I actually had this done at the end of January. I just haven't posted it. I wanted to do a page without pictures and competely digital. I almost succeded. I have since printed it out and added a "I (heart) ME" button and a little sparrow stamp, along with some white underlining on the "THRIVE" around the edges. I can't get a good picture of the printed out version, so here is the digi copy. I scanned one of the blank sheets from this book and made a template in PSE7 for me to use. I didn't think to cut out the holes. I wish I had because as you can see, some of the words are cut out. Oopsie.

It seems a bit wild to read, but it really isn't bad. Just read each color/style of words at a time. Again, if you click on it, you can see it better.





Now off to the last half of the prompts...

Heart the Art - Prompt #3 - Clearly

Clearly I am getting a bit more timely.

Clearly I still need to work on it.

Clearly this page is about my dear hubby.

Last weeks prompt for HEART THE ART was CLEARLY. I almost got it done in time. But CLEARLY I didn't. It's okay. I did it. And that is what matters.

It's the most CLEAR thing in my life. His love has changed my life. I wouldn't be living on the East Coast. I wouldn't have the 3 adorable daughters that I have. I wouldn't be as grounded. And lots of other things too. He took a stormy life and now it's raining love. Mostly. LOL

I cut an acetate sheet into the shape of my album. Finger painted the clouds, stamped the green hearts and used a piece of heart shaped mesh to paint the heart - all on the back of the page. Waited for it to dry. And waited. And waited. Then I mixed a sky blue paint color (cuz I didn't have this color) and painted over the clouds and hearts. I left the edges. Clearly. Waited for the blue to dry. Flipped the page over and added the Dymo tape and chipboard cherries. Top two are me and hubby. Bottom 3 are our daughters.

I took the wire binding off the binder for now and am using rings. It's much easier this way. I'll replace the wire when this project is full. (end of the year)


This weeks prompt is UNDER CONTROL. Good gracious. That's a wide open one, isn't it?????

Heart the Art - Someday

Last week's prompt on Heart the Art was Someday.

Kind of ironic that my theme doesn't support procrastination.

But, that's how I roll....

I got it done.

I know it is plain and simple.

But it really says a lot.

I think.

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This weeks prompt is CLEARLY.

I have a page in the works.

But I am still working on it, so you will have to wait.

Wild Wednesday - Blurf Fav's

A few places I LOVE to spend time I don't have.

Here are a few of the places I am looking forward to visiting regularly...

1. Follow Thomas everyday this year. See where he goes and what the little guy gets into.

2. Gina at

Tyggereye Arts - Wonderful handcarved stamps and loads of other wonderful treats. She is hosting Heart the Art this year. A weekly Art Journal Prompt challenge. I am joining her in this venture and so should you. Go check it out. Go on. I'll be here when you get back...

3. Food Porn Daily - no explanation required. (get a napkin before you go over) Make sure you visit the gallery and sign up for the daily email. Yumm.

4. A Collection A Day - beautiful pictures of different collections the artist has in her home. Both real and drawn collections. She is posting a gorgeous picture of a different collection everyday this year.

Show and Tell

I was a busy gal this past weekend. I managed to finish one project (part of my 2010 Vision - I suppose I will have to suck it up and post a list of all the unfinished projects so you can keep tabs on me. Anyway, back to our currently posted subject...) and get started on another one that I signed up to do. (Finished project is at the bottom of this post.)

I am following Gina's Heart the Art challenge for 2010. I sort of did Emily Falconbridge's 52 Questions last year. I wrote down the questions in my art journal and answered them, but I didn't get artsy. This year I am going to get artsy. Gina has started, and will continue, to offer weekly prompts. Since December/January are REALLY busy for me, I only got to start today.

First off was deciding on a home for my works of art. At first I thought I would use an existing composition book that I have a few gluebook pages in. But when I went to look for it in my crap-room, I saw these Melissa Frances chipboard albums that I got at a scrapbook convention a few years ago and thought it was time I used one. So that was settled.

I made the first page while the paint on the cover was in process of drying/being applied. The first prompt is:

^^^^^^^^

AIM TO: what do you aim to do in 2010?

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And here is the cover. I will add pages to the book through the year, so I haven't added the required ribbon to the spine. I am viewing it as the icing on the cake when the book/year is finished.

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And here's a little detail of the cover. I used the negative of a Heidi Swapp chipboard letter and filled it with clear seed beads. You can't really tell, but I used a raw Scenic Route chipboard crown that I sprayed with a sort of glimmer misty thingy that I made with SU paint and alcohol.

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Remember these little books. I finally got the pictures ordered, cut them (I used 12 pictures in each album. I ordered them as 4x6's, so I had to cut them into squares.) and adhered the pictures in each one. Most of the albums have already made it to their new homes. One UFP (un-finished project) down, a gazillion to go...

Finishing the little Halloween album has me really motivated.

Look for more finished projects: COMING SOON!!!!