Hello August!

 

  Wow- where is my summer going? August began with rain from morning til evening on Sunday and it was actually damp and a bit chilly- just like the last few mornings. I'm not ready for this😕 It IS nice to to have such humidity and heavy air though. It's been a delight sitting out as much as we can and enjoying the show our hummingbirds have been giving us. They are very curious and come quite close as well as chase each other around right under our noses. If only I could capture it for you to see...

 I'll start with my ticket for T Stands For Tuesday where we share a beverage/drink related something- whether it be an actual drink, or art, or movie clip, or drink recipe...you get it- lots of fun!! Would love to see you there!

 Because we knew it would rain all day Sunday hubby spent Saturday from morning til evening doing yard work- trimming trees, hedges, forsythia bushes, etc. then bagging it all to go to recycling. He also layed down a new outdoor carpet for the area of our back patio that's covered under a roof. So besides making a nice dinner, on Sunday morning I made him this 3 egg ham and cheese omelette with toast and coffee. And then he ate a nice piece of zucchini bread too😋. That's his newly purchased mug- he LOVES Mustangs and has owned several cars- his latest is a 2017 French Blue with black stripes down the middle. It's nice but I'm quite happy with my dependable Ford Focus😉

 And now for the last of my index cards for the ICAD Challenge. A card a day for 61 days and I completed it for the 3rd year in a row!

ICAD 58/61

I had 4 more cards to do so I went back to the series I did earlier this month creating a collage and watercolor background (here using Daniel Smith Yellow Green and Ultramarine Turquoise) a word chosen from a collage sheet, and a coordinating tile letter (Tim Holtz) which I built up with bits from my stash.

ICAD 59/61

ICAD 60/61

ICAD 61/61

 And July's cards all together:

 I went off prompt. For the whole month of June I used index cards with backgrounds using a variety of techniques on the Gelli Plate. You can see them all together in this post. For July I did 3 different series of cards:

 

For these I created lots of layers of paint, stenciling, some stamping, and mark making before adding a Tim Holtz Paper Doll and Snarky Small Talk quote. You can see the materials used here.

In this series I started by covering the cards with printed tissue paper that came as the wrapping for supplies I would order from Joggles online. I then added lots of mark making and some stenciling. I finished them with either a stamped focal image or a hand drawn one and then a sentiment from a digi sheet from Paper Whimsy. You can see how they began in this post.

 

 And in this series I began with bits of papers collaged onto the cards, then chose two Daniel Smith  watercolors, then some spattering with black and white. A word was chosen and then a coordinating tile letter built up with paper and/or fabric bits and threads. 

 My favorite of all were these watercolor cards. There was just something about creating them that felt loose, raw, and organic. And I actually loved playing with my watercolors again! I'll definitely be trying this in some of my journals.

There is a new guest host and theme over at Art Journal Journey this month! Neet is hosting, and her theme is "Type". There are so many ways to interpret her wonderful theme, so go see and read about it, and then play along, won't you?

Here is my journal spread:

 

 I have always loved this quote. For the word hope I used Dina Wakley's newest alphabet stamp set. The rest of the quote was computer generated. The faces are Dina Wakley Collage papers. I also used one of her stencils, washi tapes, and paints in her kraft journal.

 Also happily joining in at Paint Party Friday. Happy new week to you!

     " Breathe the sweetness that hovers in August."     Denise  Levertov