Christmas Cards!

I just realized that I forgot to post a picture of my finished Christmas card. I showed an in-progress shot  here, But now they are all done and sent out. I didn't make as many as I normally would have because I've been sick and I just didn't feel up to it.

Each card was slightly different - I used different washi tapes (and other decorative tapes) in different configurations and there were different ribbons used. And after I ran out of ribbon, the last few used washi tape instead. But they're all the same basic idea.

I like how they turned out and I'm really pleased that I made them all with supplies I had on hand. Not that I'm against buying more supplies (just ask my husband!) but I do have a ton of art and craft supplies and very little storage space. For several years, I've been using as much of my stash as I can and I still have so much more to use! Which, when you think about it, is a good problem to have, especially since I don't always have a lot of money to spend.

AEDM #30

While I've enjoyed Art Every Day Month, I'm so glad that today is the last day. I've got a horrible cold and just really haven't felt well this past week.

Today, I finished the bulletin board that I was working on earlier in the week. The tree is made up of hands which each has a name of someone who attended Sunday School. There's also red and silver glitter where the fingernails would be, The ornaments around the tree are from a website called Bible Story Printables  -click here to go there. They have the names of Jesus on them. I printed them at half size. They were originally going on the tree, but that would have left big open spaces to either side of the tree, so I went with this. I may end up doing one more row of hands for the bottom row for anyone who didn't attend this week (and because I don't like the blank space at the bottom). Or I may just put a brown trunk at the bottom if there's no new names that need to go on there.

AEDM #29

It may not look like much at the moment, but I've been working on my Christmas cards. I'll post a picture when they're finished.

AEDM #28

Here is something I've been working on for a bulletin board at my church. Every one that attends Sunday School will put their name on a hand and they will go on the bulletin board in a Christmas tree shape (with fingers pointing down). I'll probably post a picture of the completed board on Sunday.

AEDM # 27

Happy Thanksgiving! Today for Art Every Day Month, my nephew and I made this Christmas ornament together. We also made a couple for him to take home.

AEDM #26

Today I put together some kits I got at the Dollar Tree. I'm still not feeling well so this is the most creative I can be today. The tree and gingerbread man are felt and the penguin is foam.

AEDM # 25

I'm a bit under the weather, so I'm cheating a bit for today's Art Every Day Month post. I did this art journal background a while back.

AEDM #24

I had a rather busy day today, so today's art is a quick doodle of a rose.

AEDM #23

For today's Art Every Day Month, here is an art journal page I worked on. I started this on Day 9. I'm not sure if it's finished yet. The right page is a bit bare, but I kind of like it as it is. The words on the right page say "Feel Extraordinary".

AEDM #22

Today's art is a wreath. It's from a kit I bought. I can't seem to pass up craft kits that are on clearance.

AEDM #21

Day 21 of Art Every Day Month! Here is today's art: it's this week's Documented Life Project. The prompt was to add a map. The background is a layer of torn up map pages, covered with gesso, and sprinkled with spray ink. The card on the right is from ICAD (Index Card a Day) a few years ago. It's a map with marks in all the cities I've lived in over the years. I thought it fit well with the prompt.

AEDM #20

I had a crazy busy day today. The only art I managed was a doodle on a styrofoam cup at my church's Thanksgiving dinner tonight. Unfortunately, I turned around and someone had thrown it away. So instead, here is a picture of a paper wreath I started last week. It's made on a cardboard wreath shape, covered in green paper, and it has 60 or 70 circles that are folded (in a way that's hard to describe), to make it fluffy looking. It's not quite done. I intend to add a red paper bow when I get around to it. Who knows when that will be!

AEDM #19

For day 19 of Art Every Day Month, I've made a Rudolph head. It's a flat Christmas decoration to hang on the wall. To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it, but I think it's cute. It's not a great picture, but the head is gold and the nose is very sparkly.

AEDM #18

For today, I have a variety of Rainbow Loom charms that I've made.They weren't all made today, but I haven't posted any of them before.

Clockwise from top left: treble clef, cherries, butterfly, Mickey Mouse, wreath, candy cane, and a turtle in the middle.

AEDM #17

I guess you could consider this a Christmas card, or at least a card front. That's not exactly why I made it - I do some "behind the scenes" volunteer work at Christmas in a room with plain boring walls. Several years ago I started making little Christmas art to hang up. Some of them (like this one) are just free printables that are printed at 1/4 size. I glued this one to a red background and went crazy with the metallic gel pens. The printable I used can be found here.

AEDM #16

Day 16 of Art Every Day Month! Today I've made an Artist Trading Card. It's not my favorite thing I've every made, but oh well!

AEDM #15

Today for Art Every Day Month, I made a Thanksgiving card. I really need to get working on my Christmas cards, but I just haven't felt motivated.

AEDM # 14

Art Every Day Month day 14! Today, I worked in my Documented Life Project journal. It's a sort of combination art journal and planner with weekly prompts. I'm not using mine as a planner, but I am following the prompts. The prompt for this week was to use fabric. The pants were cut from an old pair of flannel pajama pants.

AEDM #13

Today for Art Every Day Month, I have a Fall wreath made of clothespins. I came up with this for the Women's Ministry group I belong to, and we made them today. I know I saw something similar on Pinterest, but I don't know who or where the idea came from.

I don't know if I like the raffia bow, but I didn't like any of the ribbon I tried, and it looked very bare without it. I think a burlap ribbon would look good, but I didn't have any on hand.

AEDM #12

Another busy day! Today's art is another doodle that I did rather quickly.

AEDM #11

Day 11 of Art Every Day Month! For today, I've made a greeting card. The flower is a rubber stamp image I was sent in a swap a while back. I colored it with watercolors. You can't tell in the picture but I used a clear star gelly roll glitter pen to accent certain places. I really like how it turned out.

AEDM # 10

Art Every Day Month day 10! Today, I made an artist trading card. The black is Glaze pen and the rest is watercolor. I kind of wish that I had gone with my first instinct and painted the background blue instead of the purple-ish color I used. But oh well. I like how the butterfly turned out for the most part.

AEDM #9

Today, for Art Every Day Month, I worked in one of my art journals. It's not a complete page, just a background. I started with a layer of security envelope pieces. That was sprayed with various colors of spray ink with a thin coat of gesso over top. I'll eventually finish the page, but I'm not sure what I'll do to it next.

AEDM #8

Day 8, is another Rainbow Loom creation - a candy cane. The face is a little wonky but it's still cute. From a tutorial by feelinspiffy.

AEDM #7

This is an altered rolodex card. I'm not thrilled with how this one came out but I don't feel like doing anything else. It was better before I pulled out the paint but oh well! They can't all be winners.

AEDM #6

Thursdays are busy days for me, so my art for today is a doodle I did during a meeting.

AEDM #5

Day five of Art Every Day Month- a pair of Fall artist trading cards. I don't really make ATCs very often.

AEDM #4

Here's what I've done today for Art Every Day Month day 4. It's another Rainbow Loom creation, from a tutorial by feelingspiffy. It's a 3-D Happy Cupcake. The bottom came out a little wonky, but it's cute! It's about 1 1/2 inches tall.

AEDM #3

Day 3 of Art Every Day Month.

Art Every Day Month day 2

Here is day two of Art Every Day Month. I'll eventually add more to this page, but this is what I did today.

I drew her on a scrap of a book page and colored her with colored pencils. I have a hard time with faces. I really should practice more often. She is glued into an art journal that I made quite a while ago but always forget to use. The pages are all animal prints in wild colors. The flowers at the bottom are washi tape.

Still Alive!

I've barely posted anything all year, but here I am! I'm going to be participating in Art Every Day Month so I thought I should dust off my blog and get posting.

I'm a little late, but here is what I made yesterday (November 1st). It's a Rainbow Loom Granny Square key chain. I don't really think it qualifies as art but it works for me. I made it using this tutorial by feelingspiffy on youtube. She has a lot of awesome Rainbow Loom tutorials so check her out if you're interested. If you aren't familiar with the Rainbow Loom, it's a loom that is used to weave together small colored rubber bands (about the size of a dime) into bracelets and other items. 

The granny square is made without the loom- you only use the hook, which is basically a crochet hook. It might look big in the picture, but it's only about 2 1/4 inches square. The tutorial makes a bigger granny square, but since this was going to be a key chain, I stopped here.

Projects for 2014

I've been trying to write a blog post for a month about the different projects I plan to do this year and I just keep putting it off again and again. But hey- it's February already. It's time for me to buckle down and get this post written!

One of the things I'm doing this year is a year-long altered book class taught by Lisa Vollrath of Ten Two Studios. I've been interested in altered books for years, but never really did anything about it. One of the books I'm using I've had for three or four years from when I first became interested in altered books. Looking online, I was overwhelmed with information and spent about a year mostly just watching YouTube videos and reading blog posts because I was scared of paint, since I had never really painted before. Some how I got focused on art journaling instead of altering books. So I'm taking the class for motivation more than anything.
So far, it's been very informative. A lot of the info is stuff I'd heard of already or figured out for myself while art journaling, but some of it has been new to me. There's a lot of feedback and discussion, which is great. I don't usually like to participate in that sort of thing (I belong to several art focused Facebook groups and rarely, if ever post or comment) but I'm trying and I do read everyone else's comments.
Here is my first completed page:

Another project I'm doing is the Documented Life Project. It sort of a combination art journal and planner with weekly challenges. I'm not using it as a planner- I had the idea before I found the Project and made my own book and there's isn't really room to use it as a planner. I'm using it as a combination written journal and art journal/ sketch book. I know some people do personal journaling on art journal pages, but I never have. I've always kept in separate, mostly so I could show the art to people and not worry about them reading it.
Here is the cover of my journal. The background is security envelope pieces (glued to a piece of cardboard) painted with twinkling H2Os and the picture came from a travel magazine I picked up the last time I was in Louisiana. This photo was taken before I finished putting all the monthly tabs in.

I'll probably do another post later on to show some of the inside pages. I'll want to blur some of the more personal journaling before I post pictures.

I'm not doing Project Life this year. I did finish last year and I still like the idea of it, but it just doesn't work for me. I think this year, I'll do a sort of smash book/ scrapbook kind of thing where I don't have to fill up a whole page every week. I can just use as many pages as I need to for the month, however many that is. I haven't actually started this yet, but I do have plans.

There are other projects I want to do this year and several that I want to finish, but I hope to blog those as I do them.

Last Art Journal Page of 2013

Happy New Year! I'm a little late posting this as it's a couple hours past midnight, but here is my last art journal page of 2013:

It might not look like much, but what's not visible is the first layer, which is a hand-written list of the 109 books I read this year. I originally wanted it to be visible in the background, but it didn't look quite right. So I added some spray ink, which looked a bit odd. I sort of gave up on being able to see the list of books and added gesso and let it blend with the spray ink. I added the quote and outlined with black gelato. It looked really bare, so I added the washi tape. It still looks maybe not quite done to me, but I'm calling it finished.

Now that the year is done, I'm going to be binding all these loose pages into one journal. For Christmas, I bought myself a Cinch Binding System. I was a bit hesitant to buy it, but it is so easy to use and I love it! I'm just hoping it won't have any trouble with the painted and collaged journal pages. But hey- the holes it punches will make for some colorful confetti!