Monday, January 6, 2020

Welcome a New Year, A New Decade!


 Happy New Year everyone!! Hope you're still with me after my holiday blogging break;) It's taken me a bit of time to get back into the creative flow after hardly doing any art. Spending time enjoying the holidays with friends and family was my priority. I hope you all enjoyed as well, and speaking of, I will begin by sharing the wonderful handmade cards I received from (mostly) blogging friends (my challenge art projects will follow in this long post):

 My first Christmas art came from none other than  Bleubeard, Elizabeth, and Squiggles of Altered Book Lover.  A lovely tip in page with an equally sweet note on the back as well as a typed message. Thank you, thank you dear Elizabeth!! Sorry my photo doesn't do this the justice it deserves.

 From Eileen at The Artful Crafter who is a regular at T Stands For Tuesday. Don't you just love this tree? Thank you Eileen!!

 So many fun stamps on the envelope, and the art print is by Lenna's great uncle who was a prominent artist. Lenna certainly got his genes:) You can find her here at creativelenna. Thank you Lenna!!

and how amazing is this mail? My dear friend patty knows me so well. Oh, those beautiful napkins! And her card at the top just glistens with sweet touches of gold. Although Patty has not been blogging she and her beautiful art can be found on both Instagram and Facebook. Thank you Patty!!

     and these are handmade cards from various other friends near and far.Thank you!! And thanks for the snail mail cards and ecards too.You all are the best-mwah!

Now, on to some art challenges:)

 Do any of you choose a word of the year to focus on? I've been doing it for 5 years now. This word chose ME after I had been asking for guidance to show me my word, and when I was still a bit hesitant it appeared in a big way!


 A fairly simple page in my mixed media journal. The mandala - like stencil has flecks of sparkle in the paint as I added embossing powder to the mix but it doesn't show here.

 I also made a vision/dream board page which faces the above one:


 Just cut and paste from magazine clippings that spoke to me.

 And to seal the deal on my word, as I was going through a pile of books I had read some time ago, this one appeared in the mix:


                  Of course I am now rereading it!:)

 I will join in at Art Journal Journey for the new theme this month of "Something New" chosen by Jo. New art, new word for 2020.

 This next project is meant for the Simon Monday Challenge (something new) and Tag Tuesday (celebrations), and this will also be my ticket for T Stands for Tuesday:)...





 New to me is the Distress Resist Spray I used on the white media tag (Ranger) before blending Festive Berries, Worn Lipstick, and Tea Dye inks over it. Other products: Distress Vintage Photo, Black Soot inks; coffee cups and sentiment from the Coffee Time stamp set by darkroom door; clip art images, buttons, ribbon from my stash; washi tape (Recollections). Also sharing this tag with the Darkroom Door January IG Challenge.

 One more journal page:


 Also new here is the Dina Wakley Collage Papers-love these!! This was a warm up page -one I needed to do fairly quickly to help me get started back into art journaling. Fluid acrylic paints were used for the background, watercolor was used to tint the lips and eye, and Marabu black acrylic ink was used to spatter.

 I will also join in again at Paint Party Friday!

 Let's all please keep in our hearts and prayers the people and animals who are suffering terrible losses in the devastating fires in Australia.

     "Another Sunrise, Another New Beginning."     Jonathan Lockwood Huie

35 comments:

  1. Wow! So good to see you back with so much creative artwork ~ love all the cards you received! Happy New Year to You!

    Happy Moments to You,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  2. Happy T day Linda. And Happy 2020 also. Sounds like you had a wonderful holiday and aren't holiday meant to be fun with friends and family too. Loving all the latest art too. Glad you see you are back into it. Hugs-Erika

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  3. Happy New Year!!! Looking forward to seeing what you create!!!

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  4. Hi, beautiful cards, I love how you found your word for the year-pretty tag and I always enjoy seeing your art Happy T wishes Kathy

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  5. OMGosh, you also got a TON of great cards, too. It's too bad that Patty is no longer blogging, because I miss her SO much. I'm so impressed by all your friends who made such lovely cards, too. I really like Eileen's tree. I may have to borrow that one, too.

    Your word of the year is wonderful. I've shown mine already, and so has Halle. I've also done it, but this is the 6th year a word has chosen me. I'm so glad you shared this with us, and it's great that you also shared it with us at Art Journal Journey using Jo's theme.

    That tag is perfect for several challenges and a great way to join the T party, too. Thanks for sharing your incredible art, all the gifts you received, and your tag that was perfect for T this almost Tuesday, dear Linda. And thanks again for the incredible card.

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  6. Glad you enjoyed your holidays with family and friends. Lots of wonderful art, thanks so much for joining us at TT with that wonderful tag. Happy T day, hugs, Valerie

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  7. Beautiful cards indeed!
    For the first time I have words, too, from CJ & Ink, have you seen the fun "game"?
    Endless summer, that would be so wonderful... and beach, I´d be in!
    A cute tag and I just love the woman and her motto.
    A happy T-day to you!

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  8. Happy T day Linda, it sounds like you had a good break. The cards all looked lovely and so does your new art projects. Thank you for linking one with Jo's theme at Art Journal Journey.
    Happy New Year to you and your family.
    Yvonne xx

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  9. I hope that you had a lovely Christmas break and wishing you a very Happy New Year, may 2020 be filled with peace, love and happiness! I so enjoyed seeing all those beautiful cards that you received and your pages and tag look amazing 😁. That's a fabulous word for the year and I'm loving your journal age, the gold starburst in the background with the tiny heart in the middle looks stunning! Thanks so much for joining us at Art Journal Journey and sending you Happy T Day wishes! Hugs, Jo x

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  10. Lovely New Year card ~ wonderfully creative ^_^

    Happy Moments to You,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  11. Happy New Year! What wonderful Christmas mailings you received.
    Your "warm-up" page is awesome, I do like her stuff, but own very little :O
    The book looks very interesting, and I LOVE your tag!
    Happy T-day and thanks for visiting my blog this week.

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  12. What wonderful mail you've received! I'm impressed that your word chose you. This coming year will reveal a lot :) Happy T Tuesday!

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  13. Such beautiful cards and gifts. Enjoy and use them in good health this year. A very cool word that chose you. Happy T Day

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  14. Great word for 2020, Linda. It's interesting that you already had the "how-to" book. Definitely worth re-reading. I love the "perk me up" tag and the Dina Wakley sstamped page is beautiful.

    Happy T-day! Eileen xx

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  15. You certainly received a lot of beautiful cards from friends.

    Those coffee cups are adorable on your tag and I love the saying.

    Happy Tea Day,
    Kate

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  16. Your assortment of artwork is beautiful. Happy T-Day!

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  17. I so enjoyed reading this post! You certainly received some great mail! I love how that book turned up too! Your art work is fabulous - love the tag! Belated Happy T Day, Chrisx

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  18. Here you show beautiful art from pictures. Wonderful your posting!
    I wish you a good time,
    Elke

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  19. Love your word a year idea!! Your post is just bursting at the seams with wonderful art work, really showing off your talents Linda!! A pleasure to visit you. Thanks for joining us at Tag Tuesday for my Celebrations challenge.
    Hugs pinky

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  20. Love your word for the year ! ^_^

    Happy Moments to You ,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  21. Wow, love your journal pages. Great tag as well.

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  22. Happy PPF and have a wonderful weekend, hugs, Valerie

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  23. Wonderful art of different style.
    Wishing you happy and healthy year 2020 💗

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  24. Beautiful art this week Linda, and thanks for sharing the lovely cards you received. Welcome back!

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  25. Super selection of projects. I have chosen a word for the year in the past two years...but decided to not have one this year and go with the flow...so I suppose flow is my word...lol!

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  26. Love vision/dream board and all your wonderful creative artworks ~ ^_^

    Happy Moments to You,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  27. Journal page is so creative ~ great artwork ^_^

    Happy Moments to You,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  28. This is so amazing
    , you also have a nice blog. I started to follow you. I want to invite you to come and take a look at my blog and maybe you would like to follow me too
    My blog is corryscardandcreations
    Hugs corry

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  29. Lovely artwork - and the last is my favorite!! Happy New Year!!

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  30. Glad to see you back. Hope your cyber break was a good time for you. Love your art.

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  31. Hi Linda! :) Your journal page is brilliant. And such lovely cards you received! Isn't it nice to receive homemade cards? You just know that so much thought was put into it, makes a gal feel special! :) Here we go again, you and I were separated at birth I believe. My intention for 2020 is manifesting as well. I'm reading a lot about it, I have some big plans for 2020 and I'm asking the Universe to help me out! Great post and welcome back!! Happy 2020!!!

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  32. Not a coffee drinker but your tag is awesome! Lovely creation!

    Happy Moments to You,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  33. Beautiful art. My favourite, the tags. Happy New Year

    Thanks for dropping by my blog, Linda

    Much🎨❤🎨love

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  34. Happy this year! You've been very productive.
    Isn't it the BEST to be offline in a normal world with real people :)

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  35. Everything here is so interesting, Linda, you've certainly got right back in to your art-making. It's good to have a break to allow more time for Real Life too.
    I love your "Manifest" piece, so quiet and full of goodness. I am amused that you think it is a fairly simple piece! - it looks quite complicated to me. And the Dina W. piece with the lovely blues appealed so much to me too.
    Thanks for your recent visit on my own return to blogging, I really appreciate it.
    Happy New Year!

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Thank you so much for your comments; it's a pleasure to connect with you!