Playtime!

   First I hope everyone has fared well through the massive rain/ thunderstorms, damaging winds and even tornadoes (yikes!) in so many places in the US this past week, including the East coast on Wed. evening. I prepared for a power outage by having candles places about , along with a few flashlights-including one in my pocket. It was a crazy storm but luckily we kept our power and in our area had a few fallen trees and some minor flooding. Glad that's over!

 Recently I started a new art journal and although there are a few pages complete i decided i wanted to play and experiment a bit with backgrounds. Some have been successful and some not . But hey, they can be covered over right?

  Here's a page that began like this:

  Looks like something a preschooler would do right?  What happened was that the circles and doodles were made on the page using reinkers. According to the technique in one of Dina Wakley's books the inks should have spread about. OK, that didn't happen. All the inks did were soak into the page. I wish I would have known that first- watercolor paper is best, and second the paper should be spritzed with water first-neither of which was mentioned for the technique.

 Now I know. I was ready to paint over this "ugly" page when I suddenly saw opportunity! I saw three smiling faces and the word "love" scribbled in purple. So, my inner child came out and I finished the page very simply:

 I scribbled in some facial features with a pen, scribbled in the words and then stamped some musical notes about.  And ya know what? It makes me smile so I'm keeping it! I bet most of you have experienced something similar to this, haven't you? Tell me about it!

 And this is a more serious face I drew using oil pastels in my tiny book I  am using just for face practice:

         One more bit:

 This card is for Moo Mania and More's challenge "my favorite pet" along with the Simon Wednesday challenge of "anything goes".  Now, I have never had a cat -  only dogs, but I do love all animals so you may even see some exotic ones crop up for the Moo challenge :)
Kitty rubber stamp (Camp Stamp), sentiment (Paper candy).

PS-what do you think of the new header? Really got tired of seeing a wintry scene:):)

 Also linking this post to Art Journal Journey (if music be the food of love); Art It Friday- Show Your Face; and Paint Party Friday. See you there!

          " Play is my brain's favorite way of learning."    Diane Ackerman