Going Into June

 June is upon us so I have my calendar pages ready to go:

 The first page is a deli paper gelli print background on which I glued images from a magazine and outlined them with charcoal. The numbered page on the left of it looks like the one in the second photo. For those pages each month I use Peerless watercolors. The second page is an acrylic painting. I'll share a bigger photo below.

 Breaking news from the nest!!!

In this photo there are 3 babies- and only hours old. I now know that the 4th egg has hatched but I held off disturbing the basket with my camera. I'll share a new pic next post. So exciting to see!

It was a quiet holiday weekend for us and the weather was very mixed so I got to play in my journal, make cards, and postcards. This time I worked on a desk in a bedroom:

 This is one of the completed postcards:

 Darkroom Door Coffee Time stamp set-coffee mug, beans, coffee stain;  sentiment was a freebie download which sadly I forget from where:(  Joining Elizabeth and friends for T Stands For Tuesday!

 I was also playing with my poppy stamp and made two cards:

 The first one is for the Simon Monday Challenge with the theme this week of "We're going around in circles". These were quick and easy to put together. The poppies were colored with alcohol markers and highlighted with a white gel pen. The top one was done on Neenah Classic Crest 110lb. paper, the second with 140 lb. watercolor paper. I much prefer the Neenah paper when using the alcohol markers!

Products: patterned note cards- DCWV La Creme; poppy stamp - Magenta; sentiment - Papertrey Ink; Spectrum Noir alcohol markers; white gel pen; black card stock; Neenah Classic Crest 110lb. paper; Archival Jet Black ink; stitched circles dies - Our Daily Bread Designs. 

 And here is the impressionist page I painted in my calendar journal for the second half of June:

 Todd saw it and said- "of course you had to have the ocean in it" ;). This is the first time I used a base coat of acrylic in a soft cream and yellow ochre before painting the scene and I like the subtle effect under the layers of added paint. It's also the first time I did something like this with only a few colors and lots of layering and mixing and was very pleased with the results so I'm aiming to do more! Great tips and inspiration from the book Bold Expressive Painting by Annie O'Brien Gonzales!

 Also joining in with Paint Party Friday this week. A bientôt!

          " Find a way to express what moves you."    Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Take Time

 Another week has flown by and look what happened since last week:

 To my delight and surprise the sparrow that made her nest in my flower basket produced two more eggs! I do hope I'll get to see them grow. We also have a catbird nest in our forsythia but unfortunately it is so tucked in and high that I'm not able to get close enough for a pic.

 Got a surprise packet in the mail last week too:)

 I won some "blog candy" from the Simon Says Stamp blog- a stamp, some white stickers, a pkg of 10 pretty shimmering note cards, and a hand made card which is delightful!

 Managed to get two journal pages completed too and this is how I managed to work now that my art room is a temporary office:

Back to the kitchen table! Let's say that I am getting lots of extra steps in by having to go up and down the stairs with everything. Of course I go to the room quietly for something only to come back downstairs without something else I needed- lol! The 9" x 12" page I was working on at the table became this:

 Too many supplies were used to list however I did use Dylusions stamps, Dina Wakley model stamp, Ellen Hutson stamps, stencils and a bunch of colors. If you have any ? about a specific stamp or color I'll try to answer. Joining in with Art Journal Journey (elegance and grunge); Paint Party Friday; and Tag Tuesday(anything goes).

 My next page:

 I finally got to use those awesome Darkroom Door stamps I won not too long ago! I'm currently working on some coffee themed postcards too:)

 Products: Darkroom Door Coffee Time stamp set; Neenah Classic Crest 110lb smooth Solar White card stock-LOVE this card stock!!; patterned card stock; corrugated cardboard scrap; crocheted lace; die cut flowers and leaves with sparkle ( I think these came from one of the TSFT gals but I can't remember); Stickles Diamond Glitter glue (on the lace); foam adhesive; Distress inks- Tea Dye, Vintage Photo; Versafine ink-Vintage Sepia; Spellbinders Wonky Rectangles dies; Sizzix Tim Holtz Thinlits 660220 (used on the patterned paper).

 This is also for Art Journal Journey and Paint Party Friday, along with the Simon Wednesday Challenge (A Bit of Sparkle), and T Stands for Tuesday.

 For the new theme of "Little Critters" at the Simon Monday Challenge Blog and for Try It On Tuesday "Feathered Friends" I made this postcard:

 Products: 140 lb. watercolor paper; white card stock; Scribbly bird and sentiment stamps-Dina Wakley; Inks: Jet Black, Pink Peony, Turquoise, Buttercup, Magenta-Archival; Distress Vintage Photo ink; washi tape; Tim Holtz stencil. The background is hand made tissue tape and in case you missed it you can find my tutorial in this post.

 See you during the week ahead. Hope you all get to enjoy some creative time!


" Enlightenment is not a mountaintop you claw your way to. It is a reality you recognize."
                                                                         Alan Cohen

Blooming Flowers

  It's been good catching up this last week. Thank you for all your comments and well wishes for Todd. One other thing I was reminded of- besides losing my art desk temporarily-is that my internet time will be very limited too! Todd needs to be on all day for work, and as we have crappy internet service and refuse to pay for extra high speed we must keep things to one device at a time. That has me taking advantage of my vow to cleanse/clean out. Already the car is full of bags I'm taking today to donate. And I'll be working at it more during the week.

 On to the flowers! Finally got flowers and have them in the planters, and bought four of these hanging baskets-two for front porch and two for the back:

Aren't they gorgeous?? And I only paid $12.99 for each which around here is an amazing bargain! Y'all know how I love me some red:) Looks like someone else liked them too:

 They weren't hanging a week and a house sparrow chose to make a nest in one on the front porch. Must be extra careful watering now.

 For the Simon Wednesday Challenge theme of "going dotty" I made this card:

Products: Altenew Layering Cupcake Stamps and Dies; white card stock; Inks- Archival Pink Peony, Buttercup; Marvy Uchida Ochre; Staz-On Spiced Chai; Versafine Onyx Black; Stickles Glitter glue in Diamond.

 For T Stands For Tuesday:

 LuAnn recently treated me for lunch-where else? Our fave Irish place McCarthy's Red Stag Pub! Our tea this time was a decafe pot of creme au caramel-a sweet toffee flavor with a caramel finish. It was divine in taste and smell! We decided to split our sandwiches to have half of each since both are both our favorites and neither of us could choose. On the left is the turkey melt and on the right, the roasted pepper, caramelized onion jam and melted brie.

 I've been dying to paint these flowers again so during some quiet time on Mother's Day I did this journal page:

 The background is tissue paper onto which I stamped a French script. The poppies are painted in acrylics. Here's a close up of one:

  Linking this to Art Journal Journey hosted by Gill this month with the theme of "Elegance and Grunge" and also Paint Party Friday.

 Wishing you all a super week!

" Our creativity is directly connected to our internal energy source and our willingness to face the unknown. Being in the space of silence, where everything and nothing exists, we cultivate the garden out of which creativity blooms."     Natalie Rogers

Catching Up

Well hello lovelies! I feel like it's been so long-and actually it has as my last post was on April 17th!

I spent two beach vacays practically back to back.

 The first was to Fenwick Island, DE specifically to help friends do a thorough Spring cleaning of their home. The least I can do for all the times we stay there. It worked out quite well. We were clean machines, but also enjoyed a nice dinner out and meals that we shared cooking. The weather was mostly cold, windy and raining which was good because then we weren't looking out and lamenting being inside:) I was only home a few days and then geared up for 4 days in Cape May, NJ with hubby. I'll share pics of that in my next few posts.

 OK, don't hate me because I'm beautiful , er, because I won yet another giveaway...Edit- just realized-the "beautiful" sentence is from what was a VERY popular American commercial for -well, makeup or hair product and it just popped into my head when typing this.

 This awesome stamp set along with an extra gift of photo cards from Darkroom Door owner Rachel (how DID she know this would be the perfect photochip set for me??)! I won it thru this blog that I had only recently started following because I love Autumn's style of card making. I am dying to create with these but just haven't had the time yet. 

 Did get my Mother's Day card done for this coming Sunday:

 Products: large white notecard; Peony Bouquet stamp set (Altenew); sentiment (Papertrey Ink Think Big Favorites #2); inks for the large flowers- Distress Worn Lipstick and Archival Pink Peony; for the smaller flowers- Distress Salty Ocean and Archival Turquoise, for the leaves- Distress Mowed Lawn and Archival Leaf green; Versafine Onyx Black ink; pearls (Queen and Co.).
Linking to the Simon Wednesday Challenge (Hint of Pink).

Another reason I have not gotten much art done since coming home is because-our son got a new job!!! It is definitely a step up career wise, position wise and income wise. And because he will be working from home which is our home until his new apartment is ready (this has been dragging on since March!) I have had to clear off my art desk/table so he can set up the top of the line computer equipment they sent him. Talk about scrambling to put things in other places! Most all my paints, etc. etc. are in the drawers below this desk and as this will be his temporary office I'm not sure how I'll be able to manage. We celebrated over the weekend with dinner, cake and yes, champagne!

  hubby, me in top photo and my mom in bottom one, Todd and gf Kyra.
Joining my friends over at Elizabeth's T Stands For Tuesday. So looking forward to catching up with you all.

 One final bit of art. Another journal page from the online Quirky Birds class I've taken by Tamara LaPorte. It began like this:

 I did the art on 140lb. watercolor paper then glued it into the journal.

                                                            Amen!

 Linking to Art Journal Journey for the theme of elegance and grunge hosted by Gill, and to Paint Party Friday. Also linking to Moo Mania with the theme of "head gears". Thank you dear Susi! Excited to be catching up with everyone again!

" Celebrate your life. You are not progressing when you keep looking into the past. Let everything go...drop the baggage. Enjoy the weekend and celebrate your future."  Unknown