Last Week in January

 

 This month has flown by hasn't it? And that makes me happy as we inch our way towards the sunlight lasting longer, and Spring approaching! We have been quite lucky here thus far weather-wise, but after all, it is winter and so we are bracing for snow and ice 😔. Fingers crossed it won't be too bad or dangerous with a prediction of 5 inches. I'll be inside all day making a nice pot of Italian Wedding soup and playing in my art room of course.

 The cold weather seems to have hubby even more hungry so I've been baking a lot too. Last week it was applesauce muffins. This past weekend I made dark cherry scones and pumpkin squares (some of the pumpkin squares went to our new next door neighbor, to our son and daughter in law, and a few went into the freezer) and today I just pulled a blueberry muffin cake from the oven. The only bit I enjoyed myself was the cherry scones-with a cup of coffee of course and this is my entry for T Stands For Tuesday:

                                                           Cheers!

 This is my last entry for the theme of "Favorite Things" at Art Journal Journey  hosted by Erika:

 It started as a mop up page on a watercolor page in the  Dina Wakley Blue Media Journal. I stamped and cut out the leaf from her Be willing set, and face from her Sketched faces set. Just a bit of stitching, Dina Wakley Collage Collective, washi tape and some of her Collage tissue words were added. These are a few of my favorite things 😁

 One more Dina Wakley journal page:

 Dina Wakley stamps, stencils, Gloss Sprays, Words collage tissue, Collage Collective.

 And now something different! I mentioned in other posts that Darkroom Door Stamps has a moodboard challenge each month on Instagram and anyone that enters has a chance to win a stamp set and stencil of choice from the company. For January the moodboard was not about a color palette but about using the Gelli Plate to make prints. So I got out my 5" x 7" plate and made a handful of postcard backgrounds. Here are the first two completed cards (I'll share more as I finish them). I'm keeping them flat so that I can send them out as happy mail:)

 Obviously I was in a snarky mood😆. Gotta love those Tim Holtz stickers!

 Happy to join in at Paint Party Friday as well again! Stay safe and well.

"Expressive art work is less about changing people than about designing environments that arouse the healing and creative impulses latent in each of us."     Alan Briskin

This And That

 

 Happy new week! Almost forgot to create this post cuz of hubby being off today (Monday eve as I'm typing) for our Martin Luther King Jr holiday 😜

 Yesterday was hubby's birthday so I made him this card (which I am sharing with the Simon Wednesday Challenge (Layer It Up):

 A CAS (clean and simple) masculine card. Products; black, silver cardstocks; patterned glitter cardstock (DCWV); birthday sentiment die (Our daily Bread Designs); glitter sequin dot (Recollections).

 It was a quiet occasion yet we still celebrated:

 And now we celebrate his age by saying "it's another year closer to retirement"! I made him his dinner choice of meatloaf, mashed potatoes and carrots and for dessert- no surprise-  a dark chocolate cake with chocolate icing😁 Later in the evening we watched a movie and with it we had champagne and some snacks:

 

                                  Cheers to the T Stands For Tuesday peeps!

 For the new Simon Monday Challenge (We're on a Roll) and the Tag Tuesday Challenge (Faery Garden) I made this tag:

 I began by using a damp sea sponge and Dina Wakley paints in Ocean and Lime for the background. It was then stamped with images from the Ellen Hutson set Bokeh Dots and Versafine Onyx Black ink. Then a strip of fabric tape (Recollections) was added before gluing down the fairy (Collage Stuff).I finished it with a butterfly sticker (Paper House), holograph stars stickers (Mrs. Grossmans), Tim Holtz Small Talk Occasions sticker, and black ribbon.

 This journal page along with the next one is meant for Art Journal Journey ( Favorite Things), and Paint Party Friday:

 Favorite things? Of course Dina Wakley supplies!! And lots of them on these two pages 😍

I'm not going to list everything but if you have a ? about anything just ask in a comment and I will respond there as well.

 Have a wonderful week everyone!

" Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness"     Martin Luther King Jr

This Week's Musings

 

  Well, we are into the second week in January, so, have you gotten all the holiday decor put away? Finally I got everything done and put away over the weekend! And not just that, but we also did some cleaning out and then some deep house cleaning such as shampooing all the carpeting.  By the evenings we were beat and just sat on the couch watching  movies. 

 Believe it or not we still have some Christmas cards trickling in and they had been postmarked with mid December dates! We were told that mail delivery (at least in parts of our city) hasn't been done on a daily basis and the mailing departments are overwhelmed and short of help. We've never experienced anything like this before. The main concern is bills coming in late:(. Oh well, not much we can do. 

My latest happy mail... I wish to thank Erika for this beautiful New Years Card!:

  I have this to share with the T Stands For Tuesday peeps:

 Our daughter in law gave hubby a special 6 pack of beer for Christmas, and here is a close up of what she did to the bottles:

ha ha- isn't this cute? Yuengling Black and Tan reindeer beers🤣 I'm not so much a beer drinker so we still have a few reindeer beers looking at us when we open the fridge! Cheers!

 I've been having so much fun playing with my favorite mediums and supplies (kind of an obsession lately especially)...

  Dina Wakley products! I created this page  in one of her journals, and I used her paints, stamps, stencils, gloss sprays, Collage Collective papers, tissue papers, washi tape. Of course I am joining Art Journal Journey with the theme of "Favorite Things".

 I could also add this page as well but I will link this  to Try It On Tuesday for the theme of "Use an uplifting quote" :

 All Dina Wakley supplies again😁 

 During the holidays I played with her stamps, stencils, scribble sticks, paints and gloss sprays to make a new stash of collage fodder:

I would spend some evenings fussy cutting it all. And then I decided to have a bit of play with the pile and did this:

  I created  temporary botanical mandalas using my cut outs! Fun!

  And that's all for now folks. Joining Paint Party Friday with this post as usual- such a fun way to see a nice variety of art each week!

 A bientôt (French for "see you soon")!

" Happiness is a perfume which you cannot pour on someone without getting some on yourself."    Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy New Year!

 

 Happy New Year everyone!! It's been awhile since my last post mid December. It was a nice break for me but I'm so ready to get back and catch up with all of you. I hope you enjoyed your holidays. And I imagine that just like me, you are all ready for a new year😜

 To begin, I'm sharing my word of the year for 2021 - awareness. You can see the full page as my new header along with - for the first time- I chose two supporting words alignment and connection.

 Last year my word was manifest. How these new words came to me: AWARENESS was the strongest word that just kept coming to me yet the other two were beckoning me also. When I pulled out one of my Law Of Attraction inspiration decks I got goosebumps when opening the box and the card on top was- yup- AWARENESS! I won't go into it here but if you want to read more about it it's on my Instagram feed.

 One more thing though. I wanted to know what spirit animal represents my word so I looked it up and it's the hawk. Only the day before the largest hawk I have ever seen in our yard was in our backyard tree on a branch and facing me as I looked out the window! 

 So tell me- do you choose a word for the year? What is it? Is there a story behind it?

 Here's my first journal page for the new year:

 And I am so happy to reconnect with Try It On Tuesday (use an uplifting quote) and the T gang over at T Stands For Tuesday!:

 I had done this journal page during my blogging break for a Darkroom Door Moodboard Challenge on Instagram using the colors of sand, a bright yellow and a deeper ochre yellow. I used Darkroom Door Coffee Time and Fine Flowers Vol1 stamp sets; Darkroom Door stencil-Circles(small). Done in my Dina Wakley Blue Edition Media Journal. Other- Dina Wakley Gloss Sprays; Peerless watercolors; Tim Holtz sticker; paper scrap; rust heart. Cheers!

 Speaking of T Day- I received this wonderful holiday mail from our lovely hosts at Altered Book Lover  Bleubeard, Elizabeth, and Squiggles:

 A lovely note along with a tip in page and beautiful handmade paper. Thank you so much for thinking of me! I love your tree print. I did send holiday mail out to some of the T gang but not everyone- only because I do not have everyone's snail mail addresses😞 If anyone is willing to share an address with me just email it to me- I'd love to send out more happy mail:)

 Next up another journal page meant for Tag Tuesday(numbers) and the Simon Says Monday Challenge (use a new/unused product):

 For the SSS Monday theme- I used some newly gifted to me handmade paper in the background, and some new (reordered) DW Gloss Sprays. My son and DIL gifted me with a generous Joggles GC for Christmas so I got a nice lot of mostly Dina products😉

 Again, a page in the Dina Wakley Blue Media Journal. Other: manila tag(Ranger); Dina Wakley Gloss sprays- Gilt, Sand, Collage Collective scraps, Be Willing stamp set; Tim Holtz Quote Chip; Darkroom Door stamp set- Numbers Medley set; Archival Jet Black ink.

 I am also going to reconnect with Paint Party Friday and  Art Journal Journey (theme this month at AJJ is "Favorite Things" and if you don't know by now and I must tell you- Dina Wakley supplies are my favorite things along with art journaling! And all four of my art projects - including the header journal page - have Dina Wakley supplies all over them)

 Can't wait to reconnect with everyone and see what you all have been up to!

" I hope you realize that every day is a fresh start for you. That every sunrise is a new chapter in your life waiting to be written."      Juansen Dizon