Don't you just love warm spring mornings on weekends. The kind that makes you jump out of bed and go straight to the craft room? Oh, come on now, I'm sure that's not just me. Okay, well it's true that most of us will put on the coffee, and then have a cup of that dark liquid gold and suddenly mojo flows through the veins. It was that kind of weekend. I was on top of the world this weekend. For good reason. I had a long weekend to enjoy with my husband, sunshine, for the first time in many days, and warm sunshine. Not to mention happy emails and messages. Life was good. And it still is.

Prove to yourself that you can accomplish anything

Details of the layers

You can't tell very well from the picture above but the blue is metallic, which I painted some time ago and left undone. I have several pages like that in this journal, which makes it so much easier to get started with a quick page. This page took about half an hour. Art journaling need not be a long endeavour. Putting paint to paper is a great way to begin. You never know how things will end when you come back to the page later.

Enjoy your week everyone, and see what you can accomplish with small steps this week.

National Scrapbooking Day Art Journal

Hi everyone! I had so much fun on Cynthia Gagen's Creative Edventures Live broadcast today. What fun! I had technical difficulties which took quite a few minutes to be sorted through, but I managed to get online, with a camera and got it working. I did my usual style of art journal page, incorporating scrapbook elements, textures using texture paste, cardboard, canvas, lace, etc. Take a look below:

This is the full-sized page, in my 9X12 mixed media journal. I like the quote with the butterfly because it implies that if we learn from today's life lessons, we can transform ourselves. Here are some close ups of the textures:

Texture paste covers the strings from the canvas for added movement

Additional cardboard texture and lace tuck out from under the cluster

I really enjoyed the show. I hope you all did too. Congrats to Carol who won a hand-made mixed media journal from me. Stay tuned for more projects to come later this week!

Have a great weekend, and a great remainder of National Scrapbook Day!

Tomorrow's main event

Tomorrow's main event for me is celebrating National Scrapbook Day as, of all things...a scrapbooker! Well sort of. Join me at 5:15 p.m. EST as I demonstrate how to do art journaling with a scrapbook twist, using things like texture paste, watercolour crayons, inked up fabric and more.

Just log into this link to join all the fun!

Hope to see you there tomorrow!

Drum roll please...

Hi everyone. I promised that I would be back with my latest news, about one door that is closing and another that is opening. I'm so excited about this news, and you'll soon see why.

As you know, I've recently been playing with paint and paper, and scrapbook elements, and glitter, and the list goes on. It's been an amazing learning experience, and one that's brought me a lot of enjoyment, self examination and clarity about where I want to be creative in my life. I've been taking online classes, experimenting with different products and media, and loving every minute of it. But no matter what, I always seem to drift back to the scrapbooking aisle of the craft store, or the art store. Which brings me to my announcement...

I'm one of the newest members of the Scrap'n with Flair Design Team! I'll be designing for the Canadian-based store, and creating new projects and sharing tutorials and ideas on my blog here, and on their blog as well. I'll also be uploading some video projects that you can watch and art journal or scrap along with. They carry a great variety of products for the scrapbooker and art journalis alike, so you definitely have to check them out. I just received my first products, and I'm chompin' at the bit to get working with it and show it all to you!

I'm really excited about this new direction, and I hope that you'll continue to enjoy my blog posts, ideas, projects and tutorials in the future. So now that I've revealed the opportunity that opened to me, I hope you'll join me in trying out various projects, and linking me up to your online gallery so that I can admire your work!

You never know where your dreams will take you

I had an amazing weekend, even if it was a busy one. I spent Saturday with my mother looking for the perfect throw cushions for her couch, and found some amazing deals on supplies I can use for my art work. Then Sunday, relaxed with hubby and went for a nice evening walk with him and the dog. And today. Well, today was just something.

Today we woke up late, went to Ikea and had a late lunch, then spent over 2 hours looking through the largest Ikea in Canada. And we got my craft room furniture. Or at least, most of it. I'll post pictures of it this week, once I've finished assembling it.

And I managed to get an art journal page done on Saturday night. I cleared my desk and just got to work. It's been so hard lately to be creative when you only have a teensy tiny space to work in. So now that I have my craft room furniture, I have no excuses. All the same, I managed one page, and it pretty much sums up my weekend.

I hope you like it.

Cherish your visions, and your dreams, as they are the children of your soul. Goethe

Stay tuned tomorrow, because I have a big announcement to make about that new door that has swung wide open. Have a great week!

Exciting news! Yes indeed!

But I can't tell you just yet. It's a secret you see... but all will be revealed after Sunday. I have made one very hard decision recently about one aspect of my life. It leaves me a little sad, but relieved. And it's not a decision that can never be reversed, so that leaves a door open for a future time. In the meantime, another door has opened.

All I can say is that it's a new chapter in my life, and one I am very excited about! I hope that you'll drop by for all the news later this week! Have an amazing creative weekend!

Lazy Saturdays are wonderful

I adore lazy Saturdays where I can sleep in, or go back to bed, then get up, have some coffee and go to the art room to work in my altered book. It's so relaxing and that's totally what I need right now. A friend asked what the purpose of an art journal is. For me, it's a way for me to work with my hands creatively, try new techniques and put things together, and rid myself of stresses, focusing on positive ideas and mantras.

Here's my latest spread that I did today. I used several layers of gesso, spray inks through stencils, texture paste, scrapbooking papers, found papers, lace, washi tape, inked up canvas bits, stamps, metal embellishments, flowers, and the list could go on. I think you are getting the idea. I like my layers.

The full spread, using inks, stencils, texture paste, found papers and much more.

The left side of the spread

The right side of the spread

You can see them closer up by clicking them and going to Flickr. I would love your feedback, so please leave me comments here or at Flickr. Have an amazing weekend!

Challenging my boundaries

I've been taking online courses for the past few months, to expand my limited knowledge of all things paint and art. It's been quite fun. Sitting at the computer, watching videos of artists, reading information. What's that? No painting? Oh you noticed that ,did you? No, no painting. I have paint, really I do. I bought some last summer when I started to buy the courses, and check into the supplies lists, and then they just sat there. I was afraid to work with acrylics. Primarily because I haven't ever painted before, and you know what they say about being afraid of the unknown.

What if I ruined a canvas? What if I used up a lot of paint and hated it? I can't draw; what makes me think I can paint? And then Julie Prichard's course Act Natural was released and I found a course where I felt safe enough to try. The techniques are not meant to build on one another, but to be used with other techniques or on their own. So I didn't have to worry about getting started on Lesson 1 and not being able to complete my project by Lesson 9. I could just use one lesson on a project, and see how it went and move on. I liked that. So I did my first lesson, my collage canvas. And this weekend I tried out actually painting layers and glazes and seeing how it went.

And I loved it. I could try a few things and set it aside to dry without thinking about needing to do the next step. Heck I didn't even know what the next step was. That was the beauty of it. Sit in front of the painting after it dried and just feel it out, try something else, let it see where it takes me. 

And after a couple of days of painting, doing my first image transfer, some glazes, mixing colours for the first time, I can honestly say I'm pretty happy with the results.

So today I went to the art store and picked up some different paints to make the most arduous part of the project, the mixing, a little easier. I can't wait to try this out on larger canvases. This is a 12 inch by 12 inch canvas, but I'm ready to move onto something bigger. I think.

Fresh Eyes

Spring is finally around the corner (again) and I have felt the need to move to a fresh springlike palette of colours lately. Along with with bring fresh colours, I'm hoping comes a matching attitude. Hence the journaling on the page.

This spread is in my altered book, which I haven't used in a while. I started with collaging vintage and worn papers onto the pages. Next I put gesso on the page, followed by some paint that was spread with a brayer. I dropped some watercolour down on the pages and let them drip. After that I put down some modelling paste in area and glued down some tissue paper. Next came lace, papers, flowers, inky canvas and ribbon.

I really enjoyed the process, although I had no idea where the spread was going to go... I just followed the muse, and this is what she had to say.

Enjoy your holiday weekend!

More than one way to look at life

I had so much fun this weekend checking out the art that was mad during the Art by Candlelight event. Several people did journal pages, or canvases, and my friend Samara did a bunch of tag art. I adored her outcome from the event and it inspired me to get to doing what I said I would do so long ago... try my hand at art tags. So I set myself to doing at least a few, in my artroom upstairs. I had already started to do backgrounds on some of them; a little something I started doing after watching Dina Wakley's Creative Jumpstart video. So here are the results of pulling out these 'started' art tags, and finishing them up. I found that once I got started, I didn't want to stop!

Afterwards, I was sitting at the computer, really wanting to do more art work. I wanted to do a canvas, or an art journal page, but didn't have materials close by. That is until I realized that I had my art journal travel kit in my work bag next to me. I don't carry a lot in my pencil case...some watercolour pencils, a water brush, a couple of ballpoint pens, some tags, and some inky paper from my art room. I had so much fun with my first collage, that I decided to do a collage page in my art journal. Specifically about how I wasn't about to let my physical condition get the best of me. And I entitled the piece Perspective. I'm trying to love my handwriting, because it's me, really, on paper. But I think it could be improved. At least my lettering seems to be getting better.

And this whole project got me to thinking...maybe I need to put a little more into my travel kit, but not too much. I have some neocolor II watercolour crayons that I can add. What do you all have in your travel kits, if you have one? Let me know it the comments please so that I can add to my kit.

Thanks and have a great week.

Art by Candlelight Encaustic Collage

If you've checked out my blog in the last week, you'll know that I started a new tradition - Art by Candlelight. The premise was to celebrate Earth Hour at 8:30 p.m. local time, by creating art by candlelight. My husband is a great supporter of my art hobby, and went to find tapers for me so that I had enough light to work with. 

I set up an event in Facebook and had other arting friends going along. Some may even being finishing up their art as I type this. It was fun to see people getting excited about this, because there wasn't a lot of publicity this year locally about Earth Hour. So I set up my dining room table, and started to work on my collage.

I've been taking the Act Natural course by Julie Prichard, and it's been wonderful. I love the grungy (yes Liz, I said grungy again) style of the pieces she created designing the course. I couldn't wait to dive in. So I watched Lesson 1 again, and then started to gather my media. I had printed several vintage papers found on Graphics Fairy's website for free download. And I got out my acrylic glazing liquid and titan buff heavy body Golden paints, along with my soft gel matte medium. And I pulled out a 12X12 wrapped canvas and got to work. 

Once I had completed the collage, I realized that I wanted to seal it somehow, and well, here I had all this hot wax around me from the candles. So I sealed it up in a sort of encaustic style.

How did you celebrate Earth Hour? Did you celebrate Art by Candlelight too? Link me up to your artwork. I'd love to see what we all created during our 'dark' hour.

Celebrate Earth Hour with me - Art by Candlelight

Hi everyone. As you may know, Saturday is a day to celebrate our connection to the earth and a time to show our support for conservation of energy. Earth Hour is the largest environmental event in history. Be a part of it and show your support.

Celebrate Earth Hour with me, this Saturday, March 31st at 8:30 p.m. local time for you, and art by candlelight. Many of us would agree that 2012 has been an unprecedented year for global warming, and we are definitely feeling its affects. Send your message to local governments to push for change when it comes to climate control. How?

Art by Candlelight is my first annual art event to encourage you to celebrate Earth Hour doing something you love, in a completely different way. Turn off your lights at 8:30 p.m. and pick up your brushes, your papers, your media and paints and Art by Candlelight.

Spend the hour creating something meaningful to you about Earth Hour, whether it is what you see in the dark, what you love about nature, how you make efforts to conserve the earth, or your feelings on climate change. Art about whatever you like. Just come back to share your work at this Flickr group.

To find out more about Earth Hour, check out their website. Sign up to show your support, or donate to help make a positive change when it comes to climate change and our world. I hope you will join me. If you plan to, please comment here and be sure to post your art work so that we can all enjoy it!

Hope to see your art work there next week!

A little romance

Sometimes you just need to sit down and create. Go with the muse. Despite what you thought you were sitting down for. And then a little romance might show up unexpectedly.

"Romance is the glamour which turns the dust of everyday life into a golden haze." - Amanda Cross

Have a great Saturday!

There's always room for improvement

Do you ever have those days where you were arting and just getting rid of some excess energy, good or bad, and just so into it, you forget an important detail?

Like getting the quote straight on the canvas? ;)

Texture paste hit with distress inks

 Texture close up

Many layers of paint with texture paste on paper

I'll be doing another canvas tomorrow...this time I'll write straight!

Get it in writing...

Don't think about whether or not you should document that great moment just now. Just do it.

Sometimes you just have to keep hoping

After a very weird winter, we think that maybe, just maybe spring has arrived. But then, we thought that happened a couple weeks ago. So here's my art journal entry from Sunday. It kind of reflects how I have felt about the last few weeks - very messy and a whole lot of everything thrown into the same arena.

 I just love playing with textures.

Closeup of some textures and details.

Have a wonderful week!

Sketchbook Peek

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.  ~Robert Louis Stevenson

Sunny Sundays make me happy!

There's nothing better than sleeping in on a lazy Sunday, waking to a glorious day, bright sunshine with no clouds in sight, the smell of coffee wafting up from the kitchen, and your art journal waiting for you to bring your feelings to life on a clean page.

 Close up of the textures.

It's the first time that I've used my India ink on finished page, and the first time I've randomly stamped over collaged, gessoed and pasted elements. Love the effect!

Enjoy your weekend!

Let love rule the day

Yesterday wasn't your typical Friday. You know, the kind where you just can't wait to get out and head home. You wish you could just get up and leave and head home for the weekend. Get it started early. Only yesterday, we didn't want to leave early. In fact, it was probably safer to stay in the building. We had a false alarm at work, a suspicious package. And while some were disappointed that they didn't get sent home early, I thought the contrary. Staying at work meant that no one got hurt, and no one was in danger.

So all afternoon I thought about what I would have done if I had been. Had I told my husband that I love him when I left that morning? Could I call him at work in case of an emergency? Did I even have his work's number programmed in my phone? When was the last time that I spoke to my mom, my brother, my niece and nephews? It all comes to the front of your mind when you are thrown into a situation like Friday's. So this weekend's art is dedicated to letting love rule the day instead of fear.

I might make this a digital card for prints.

A closeup of the inked fabric rosette I made.

Enjoy your weekend!