Happy New Year 2014...

So far, January has been cold and snowy enough to keep us in most of the time. I have been stuck in the house and forced to do some creating. Yeah, I know that was what I have been looking forward to, and it is what it is all cracked up to be.

I am taking a wonderful class with Joanne Sharpe this month about art journaling my year. Fascinating. Drawing, inking, water coloring, very purist. Tons of work. I can't keep up with it, however, she reminds us that we have all year to work on it.

I am taking two other journaling classes, Journal 52 and The Documented Journal. Both require a layout a week this year using a suggested prompt. These are fun. Like impromptu scraping. Use stamping, mixed media, embellishments, etc..

Then there are the two organizational idea classes I am taking online. Help to organize my craft room which my daughter says is already over the top orderly. I mostly just need to relabel the drawers and cubbies but I thought a whole tour of the room with new ideas from the experts might be worthwhile.

Coming up:
I hope to enter the A-Z challenge this year again. Got to think of a theme. Have till April 1st.
I may be going to Alison's house in February for a week.
I'll be starting another Twinkling H2O class with Dion Dior Feb. 21.

Guess I have to get my pen and paintbrush in gear. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for stopping by.

The latest with Twinkling H2O classes....

Still working on several on-line classes I took early this summer.

I highly recommend classes with Dion Dior. Here is just the beginning sample of what we are doing with the Twinkling H2Os. This group of classes has us making charts of the "Twinks", learning which are reflective, refractive, have more than one color of mica in the mix, how they blend together.

At the end of each lesson there are projects or homework. This was my first Mandela. Lop-sided, definitely not my best work. However, the Twinks were all shiny and twinkling.

 I didn't give up. Now this is more like it. I still have a ways to go with getting the patterns lined up correctly, but, at least I can see an improvement.

 We have moved on to a Still-Life. First we drew the fruit with water-colored pencils, then we wet those pieces and then filled in with Twinks. Then we re-outlined with the pencils.

 That's one of our homegrown peaches in front of the drawing. Couldn't resist getting it in on the photo.

 Jumping back to the doodle class I am taking with Joanne Sharpe, this is Lesson 11, Whimsical Doodle. Background is acrylic paint and then flowers, etc., are added with paint markers. This seems to be my least favorite medium. Don't like the acrylics. Prefer watercolor in all its forms.

 Working on this page. Haven't made a decision on how to color it. Maybe Twinks.

I'll be back with more soon. Thanks for stopping by.

A few cards...

 Thought I'd display a few cards I've made this summer. This first one was for my brother-in-law, Tony, Easy to make with a tree die cut, some bird ribbon and a piece of corrugated cardboard I grabbed from a box a while back and just knew it would be just right for some crafting project.

 This monotone card came together so easily.The butterflies have some glitter on them.

This last one is one of 21. On the front, I used swipes of Distress Stain for the background, and then used different stamps, some bling and "thank you" to make each card unique. Inside, I stamped two inspirational sayings about how nice the person was and about memories and a personal note written by me.
These were the thank you notes to the staff at the library for the nice gifts they gave me when I retired.

I'll be posting some other cards I made when I was taking the Summer Card Classes '13 soon.

Thanks for visiting.

More doodles...

Hi, Everyone,

I am back with more doodles. This 2 page spread goes with our little girl dresses. The first page says "I know she's in there somewhere... She's the most free spirited I ever was in my whole life. She has skills, she is playful, fearless, curious, excited and free... I am her."

This one is Garden Doodles done with Tombow markers.

In this lesson, we painted with watercolors. I had bought a small travel set of Koi watercolors and got to try it out on these shapes. Lots of fun. Of course, for me I feel like it was a waste of paper because I didn't make anything out of it. And that was the point, we were just feeling our way through the paints and shapes. Wait til u see this tomorrow, big difference.

This spread is the start of something. 3 big blooms that we will add to in the next lesson using a white gel pen to outline and write. I would also like a black pen and maybe some shading but that is not in this lesson. Be patient my dear.



Glad you stopped by, hope to see you again.

My Lost and Found Weekend...

As some of you who followed my blog during my retirement phase know, this past week was supposed to be the beginning of a wonderful vacation for Gary, my husband, and I. We were travelling to North Carolina to visit my niece,  Bridget, tour some of South Carolina's hot spots and I was taking classes with "Joanne Sharpe at Donna Downey's studio. Be still my heart.

Months long and best laid plans often go awry.

Beginning of June, after a long day of yard work, I had only a little more mowing to do. I was hot, tired and the dumb lawn mower wasn't cooperating. We have a bumpy yard and the very heavy
self propelled mower often has plans of its own. I wrestled it over a hump, lifting up the back end while standing on uneven ground. I felt something pop in my right foot and something felt like it tore around the arthritis in my left foot. So, for the next 2 weeks I hobbled around in pain. These weeks included my nephew's wedding where I tried to wear high heels and managed to dance a few numbers with my husband and my son, Chris.

Fast forward to two weeks ago, in fact 5 days before we are leaving on our wonderful trip. Gary has been going to the foot doctor for years because of  his diabetic problems-I ask the doctor about my feet because I am still in a great deal of discomfort. Dr. Atlas x-rays and finds that I have an old break in my index toe, a bone chip and I have now torn tissue around this. He tapes it up and I have to wear a cam boot on it until I see him next. That's the right foot.

I have injured all around the arthritis in my left foot which he swaddles up in foam padding, gauze and elastic wrapping so I can't put any shoe on it. Had to get a post op boot for that foot.
So I have been clumping around for two weeks with these uneven, black (stylish) boots.

Since Gary and I were going to share the driving, we can't go on the trip. I can't go to the much anticipated classes. I am heartbroken for awhile but truth be told, I was feeling so miserable that it was just as well. When your feet hurt, everything hurts. And wearing those boots is tiring.

You may ask what all of this has to do with the photos that are on this page. DJ stayed over the Friday night that I should have been taking my first class. I made it into a class for the two of us. We painted bird houses. Now,  DJ is a very busy person, sometimes hard to settle on one thing for very long, but, we painted for about 2 hours straight without him fidgeting. I am so glad I didn't miss that.

He painted 3 houses, 2 Friday night and one Saturday am. Gave the purple one to his Mom, she loves the color purple. The one with the red roof, that's for himself. The one with the aqua front is for his dad.

The houses in the front are the ones I painted. I will always treasure these houses because of the night we had together.

And, as it turns out, Joanne Sharpe was stuck in the Detroit airport and never did teach the Friday night class down in Donna's studio. Sometimes things work out in the strangest ways.

So, one of these days, I will get to Donna's studio and I will take classes from Joanne, but, DJ is only 71/2 once and I am so glad I am here to see it.

I'll let you know how my feet are after Friday's appointment.

Thanks for stopping by.

DJ and the Outside Puddy...

 

The other night DJ stayed over. He and one of this year's outdoor kitties bonded.

The puddy even came in for awhile to chat with some of the stuffed wildlife.


Thanks for stopping by.

Doodler Gone Mad....

I sure skip around on this blog, one day it's writing, another drawing.

Today I am posting the first of many photos from the Doodle Art and Letters class I am taking with Joanne Sharpe. I have tons more work to do for this class and I have learned so much already.
Joanne feels we have to unlock that 2nd grade art girl from inside and draw and color with abandon. Right off the bat, she had us draw a little dress that we might have worn back then to get us in the mood. Can't draw a dress??? She showed us a very simple pattern that worked for all of us.

Mine turned out to be something Cinderella might have worn for the ball, but it was"on sale."

This was entitled "Roots and Landscape." I am lucky, my sketch book is an 5 x 8". I can't imagine the time it takes on the larger books. This took hours, intense but so much fun.

"Sparkle Doodle" was done with new pens for me- Sakura Gel Pens. Flow very smoothly.

We are creating 100 tags on a jump ring. 100 samples of doodling as a Ready Reference tool.
These are leaves and lines.

These are hearts and stars. The star shape was hard for me.

Well, enough for today. I'll post another batch tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by.