Inspiration

 Happy new week all! We've definitely been having typical summer weather- heat, humidity, and some thunderstorms in between. Of course I love it! And finally I got a proper haircut this past Friday as salons opened for the first time since early March. So happy to have layers again:) And the salon I go to is vigilant about cleanliness, etc. so I was quite comfortable. How are things in your parts?

 Most breakfasts  I sit in our backyard and so I am sharing a typical summer season breakfast with everyone and joining T Stands For Tuesday:

 Finished my first cup of coffee then had my Kashi Go Lean cereal with mixed fruits and almond milk(which looks blue from the blueberries) before getting my second (and last) cup.

 I have one last journal page for the theme at Art Journal Journey for June (A Stitch in Time) with guest host Halle. Thanks for a great theme!

 In the Dina Wakley Blue Media Journal on the white cotton rag paper. Dina Wakley paints, stencil, gloss sprays, Collage Collective papers, you are clear stamp. Tim Holtz numbers stencil; Marabu Art Spray- black.

 There is a new theme over at Tag Tuesday "Put a Sentiment On It" hosted by Valerie. My tag:

 and I must thank Valerie for gifting me with the beautiful painted background /tag and the die cut tree! All I did was put it together with the typed words, washi tape, ribbon and charcoal edging.

Lastly here are my past week's ICADS (index card a day art):

                                                              #23

                                                                         #24

                                                                    #25

                                                                 #26

                                                              #27

                                                              #28

                                                              #29

 and that's it for me this week. Joining Paint Party Friday too!

Keep well and safe everyone.

" Be loyal to what you love, be true to the earth, fight your enemies with passion and laughter."                                               Edward Abbey

For The Love of Records...and Art

                                                                 

 Happy summer! And it has sure come in with a bang of heat and humidity here - not that I mind:)
Unfortunately the college graduation picnic we were supposed to go to on Sunday was cancelled for fear of possible thunderstorms. And guess what? It was a beautiful day without a drop of rain in sight. Oh well. But we did have our record/vinyl party Saturday evening where we had a champagne toast and gift for the graduate.

These are the albums hubby and I took to the party our son and future DIL were hosting. Before I go on to more pics- has anyone seen the new Netflix documentary with Adam Lambert and Queen 'The Show Must Go On'?  OMG it is amazing!!!!! I loved it so much I watched it, then watched it with hubby, and then we watched it again:):):) So of course I had to dig out one of my old Queen records to play. We all had a great time:

 Cheers and congratulations Paige! She's the one on the left and sister to Kyra (our future DIL on the right). She graduated from West Chester U. and will begin her first teaching job in August.

 We all contributed food/drink to the party although Kyra provided much of it and as you can see there was PLENTY  to go around-and then some;)

Hubby just chillin...and laughing at me and my girls...

although I didn't get a pic of our son or Lynn's (on the left) hubby , we did get some pics of their baby Warren who also had a blast:

Cheers to the T stands for Tuesday gang!
Also, I have had requests for the Berry Buttermilk Cake recipe after sharing a pic of the cake here so you will find the recipe for it at the bottom of this post, and also under the Recipes Tab under my blog header:)

And now on to more index card art :

                                                             16/61

                                                                   17/61

                                                                18/61

                                                                 19/61

                                                                 20, 21/61
                                   

                                                            22/61

All backgrounds were done using the gelli plate and techniques from Birgit Koopsen videos.

One more art project for today(detail photo at the top of my post):

 I made this tag with my new Dark Room Door stamps and a few other DD products for an Instagram Challenge. A random winner is chosen and gets to choose a stamp set and stencil of choice. I could win again, right?

Products I used:

and this was the mood board inspiration we were to use:

 That's all for me this week. Playing over at Paint Party Friday too.

Just didn't get to the blog challenges this time around...

Happy week everyone!

  " Summertime is always the best of what might be".   Charles Bowden

                                Berry Buttermilk Cake 

1/2 cup veg. oil                    2 lg. eggs            1 Tbsp. vanilla extract    

1/2 c. buttermilk or milk*

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar     1 1/4 cups plus 1 Tbsp. flour     

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder     1/2 tsp. baking soda      1/2 tsp. salt   

2 c. frozen berries (any kind, any combination -large berries or fruit quartered.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 inch baking dish or pan (round or square) then line with parchment paper. In a medium bowl  whisk together the oil, eggs, vanilla, buttermilk, and 1 c. sugar. In a separate bowl whisk 1 1/4 c. flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Whisk wet ingredients into the dry until just combined.(Some lumps are fine.) Toss berries on a plate with remaining 1 Tbsp. flour. Fold into batter and transfer to the baking dish. Sprinkle top with remaining 2 Tbsp. sugar. (I did not do this). Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean 53 - 58 min. 

* when I don't have buttermilk I add 1 Tbsp. white vinegar to 1 c. of milk and let sit about 5 min. before adding it to a recipe. It will look curdled but that's what you want. I have used this many times and never had a problem with it as a substitute for the buttermilk:)

Sweet Summertime

 Hi Peeps, I am so happy with the summer weather- and will definitely be celebrating the Summer Solstice  on Saturday! Things are finally beginning to open up around here though we're not all the way there yet. But we are going to our first gathering- a graduation picnic, and we are also having our first record/vinyl party since February! Still being safe but also more relaxed.

 The above junk journal page is meant for Art Journal Journey with the theme of " A Stitch in Time". Can you spot the stitching? Vintage image and label from my stash, washi tape, letter tiles are Tim Holtz, bees from a napkin.

 Spending lots of time outside throughout the day and evening. It's just the best to get up in the morning and have my breakfast outside while the morning sun warms me and the birds entertain me:) So this is my entry for T Stands For Tuesday:

 That is a new cake recipe I tried after seeing it in the newspaper and it is a keeper! Buttermilk cake with a medley of mixed berries-cherries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries. The best part is that it's made with frozen fruit and very convenient for me because where I mainly grocery shop they have small bags of these frozen mixed fruits. This cake is not real sweet so it would even be good as a dessert with some whipped cream or ice cream on the side:)

 Remember waaaaay back when I mentioned I won some art prizes? Well, after two months in transit (!!) my Darkroom Door Challenge prize finally arrived from Australia:

 I got to choose one stamp set and small stencil and these were my picks. Rachel, the owner also sent me those word chips. I can see using these stamps and stencil quite often;)

 And now I'll share pretty much the only art I got to this past week outside of painting a few background pages in my journals- my index card art for a 61 day  Instagram Challenge:

                                                                    #9

                                                               #10

                                                            #11

                                                                    #12

                                                                 #13

                                                               #14

                                                              #15

 I'm not going to give product lists and descriptions for each but if you have nay questions let me know in the comments or email me:) You don't have to be on Instagram to play in the challenge. Our Elizabeth of Altered Book Lover who hosts T Stands For Tuesday shares her index cards each Friday in a blog post;)

 Joining Paint Party Friday later this week. Happy week everyone!

     " The inspiration is already within you, be silent and listen."    Rumi

Small Art (Mostly)

 What have you all been up to lately?  Hubby and I should have been at the beach but as we had to cancel we have been enjoying our staycation. Good food, lots of outdoor time and gorgeous weather! That means not much got done art-wise and that's OK. I have been managing to keep up with the Index Card a Day Challenge and posting daily on Instagram. Here they are so far:

                                                                    #2                                                                       

                                                                        #3

                                                                     #4

                                                                   #5

                                                                      #6

                                                                 #7

 and this one is my ticket to T Stands For Tuesday:

                                                                   #8

 All backgrounds are gelli plate prints using a variety of stencils, products and techniques from videos by Birgit Koopsen. This is the link to see all her videos. The quotes, sentiments, affirmations are either stamps, stickers, or computer generated. If you have any questions about anything on any of the cards let me know.

 Another bit of small art:

A page in one of my junk journals. They don't look too happy about taking a road trip do they:):)

 And a journal page for Art Journal Journey (theme is A Stitch in Time):

 Lots of Dina Wakley again;) Dina Wakley: Media Journal, stencils, Collage Collective, Collage tissues, paints. Other: black gesso, white gesso, Posca pens, Tim Holtz mini stapler.

That's it from me. Joining Paint Party Friday later too:) Have a super week everyone!

" The road to happiness has never been a straight one, and yet, it's the only road worth traveling, no matter how curvy or rocky it is."   Mehmet Murat Ildan

A Colorful Post

 Welcome June! Here's to wishing everything and everyone affected because of the Covid -19 pandemic will continue to move forward and work its way back to business as usual. I am so bummed that hubby and I had to cancel yet another planned beach trip for next week but you can bet we're gonna make up for it eventually;)

 Above is just a detail of this journal page:

 This page was done on a canvas page in the Dina Wakley Media Journal. The card is a 3" x 5" index card I had made last year for the Daisy Yellow Index Card a Day Challenge. I am attempting to repurpose small art projects such as this and a circle art challenge I also did last year.  I just added the stitching to the completed card. Products: acrylic paints; Tim Holtz Stencils-Linen, Numbers; White, Genetian Marabu Artspray (used to make the drips and drops).
 Joining Art Journal Journey for the new theme this month "A Stitch in Time"; the Simon Says Monday Challenge "Make Your Own Background".

 Speaking of index card art, the ICAD Challenge has begun and the challenge is to make art on an index card each day June 1 thru the end of July- 61 days total. Tammy has been hosting it for 10 years now but this is only my second time. We'll see if I reach the end this year again:)
Here is my first card:

                                                               ICAD#1

 My plan is to use all the gelli plate techniques I have tried on the index cards and then keep it simple by using a short quote/affirmation along with washi tape. This quote is a fave of mine and is an old rubber stamp from PSX. I'll also link this to the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge (Anything Goes). I'll post my cards daily on Instagram but for my blog I'll post what I've done once a week.

 For my T Stands For Tuesday entry:

 Prep work (along with a glass of Pinot Noir) for a pasta dish I made with chopped roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, shrimp, olive oil, garlic, basil, parsley, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. This is a Spring/Summer go to meal for hubby and I. Cheers!

 Lastly, another journal page I recently shared on Instagram:

 

 Again, in a Dina Wakley Journal. This was part of her Daily Demo lesson on using black gesso. Dina's Daily Demo lessons are all on her blog and You Tube.  The black gesso was brushed over a watercolor journal page. The masks for the figures were cut from some figures I made and printed out from Dina's Figuratively Speaking online class. Dina Wakley paints and collage tissue words were used along with white gesso, a black Fude pen and orange Posca pen for the spatters.  This page definitely went through an ugly phase and I almost gave up- but I am so glad I didn't cuz I love the end result!

 Joining in at Paint Party Friday also. Wishing you sprinkles of happy colors throughout your week.

         " Color is a power which directly influences the soul."  

                                                                        Wassily Kandinsky