This Week's Musings

 

  Happy new week everyone! This week I have a mix of things to share, but then, don't I usually😉?

 First, I want to address some questions and comments in my last post about the Van Gogh watercolors. Though I have loved Daniel Smith watercolors the best for the quality and heavy pigment, since trying the Van Goghs I have found them to be just as lush and pigmented. You couldn't go wrong with either brand!

 Today I'll begin with the last two art projects I did for the October 6 Day Creative Challenge on Instagram. You can see the first of them in my last post. I did  get behind but really wanted to complete them after seeing the inspiration videos by guest artists.

 Day 3's prompt was "silhouette" with guest artist Denis Lush. She did a wonderful tag project but I went my own way on a kraft journal page using Dina Wakley and Tim Holtz stencils. The words just popped in my head as I was finishing the page.

 On day 6 the prompt was "jack o lantern" with a video by Sonya Bitz. I loved how she loosely painted so I did the same. I began my background in my own way by giving it a wood like look:

 I simply added a dollop of brown, blue/gray, and a bit of white acrylic paint across the top of this wide brush then went down the page from left to right adding more paint to the brush as needed.

 Only two brushes were used to loosely paint the pumpkin and leaves- a Bright brush, and a small round brush. I do love how this turned out!

 On to Tag Tuesday. The theme is "Windows, Doors, and Arches":

 The cottage door image is from a digital collage sheet by Paper Whimsy. It was glued to the tag then I sponged the edges with Distress Mowed Lawn ink and some Onyx Black Versafine ink.  Tim Holtz Paper Doll and Clippings Sticker. Ribbon and brass bit from my stash.

 For T Stands For Tuesday I'm going back to Cape May to share our anniversary dinner at  the Merion Inn:

 

 Hubby had the stuffed flounder and I chose the crab cakes which came with a wonderful sauce! We both chose a vegetable medley and the potato cup topped with some cheddar cheese which is special to the Merion Inn. They gave us assorted breads/ mini muffins with olive oil, butter and apple butter as well. The food has always been top notch here! Cheers to the T gang 🥂!

 And lastly, for Art Journal Journey (theme is "all kinds of weather" and hosted by Chris this month) and Paint Party Friday:

 I had some messy fun with this one:) The kraft page was sprayed with Night Gloss Spray. I then stenciled with white paint. the vintage image is from ARTchix Studio. On two of the corners I added a scrap of recycled dryer sheet. the sentiment is Tim Holtz. I sure hope not to see any real snow for a long time!

 Looking forward to your creative adventures as I visit this week. Stay well everyone.

"You have to find what sparks a light in you so that you in your own way can illuminate the world."      Oprah Winfrey

Happy November!

 

 Halloween is over and now it's on to thoughts about Thanksgiving and yes, Christmas too. I'm just pondering holiday card ideas right now, what about you? 

 Our son Todd and his wife Kyra just celebrated their 1st anniversary on Oct. 30th. Hard to believe it's already been a year since the wedding! Here's a selfie they took on their way to a nice dinner to celebrate:

 Kyra wanted me to see that she chose to wear the earrings I bought her for her wedding day💓

In honor of their anniversary I made this card which I will link to the Wednesday Simon Says Challenge (anything goes): 

 I chose their wedding colors for this card- cream for her dress, navy stamped sentiment (the groomsmen color), burgundy (the bridesmaid dresses) and orange autumn colored leaves (the colors in the flowers and table decor). The sentiment is a Hero Arts rubber stamp. I used Midnight Blue Memories die ink to stamp the image. Silk leaves, ribbon, flower, and cream notecard and envie set -all from Michael's.

 For T Stands For Tuesday it's a ticket to Paris!:

 The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles was recommended by fellow T party goer Lisca. I rarely read fiction but of course both the Paris and library theme really peeked my interest. Also it does blend in some history. It took me a few months to get this book as it was quite popular at our local library- and even with 6 of them in the library, there were holds put on each of them for many weeks! I guess that tells you something 😉. I am more than halfway and enjoying every bit of it so thank you Lisca for your description and recommendation! On this day I was reading with my cup of lemon ginger tea in my Paris mug of course. Cheers!

 There was a 6 Day Creative Challenge on Instagram recently so I decided to join in. I have done these each time the host had them and found them quite fun to use the prompts and follow- or not follow the guest artists video inspirations

 For my first project I combined day 1 and day 4 and made a journal page. A close up of the background:

Tim Holtz Collage paper was glued to areas of a watercolor paper before swirling a mix of Paynes Grey acrylic paint, Dina Wakley Night paint and white acrylic paint. Black and white paint spatters were added as well.

 I used collage papers and hand dyed fabric from my stash as well as another dimensional glitter sticker cat. After the stitching I glued it to my kraft journal. 

 

 For the owl prompt on day 5 I made a coordinating page:

Here I used torn tape to mask the outer edges of the kraft page and painted using the same colors as above. Vintage images are from ARTchix Studio.

 And here is my painting for  Day 2 with the prompt of gourd:

 I loved the inspiration video by Kristin Peterson for her quirky, loose gourd so I pretty much followed her guidance. I painted it on Dina Wakley watercolor paper using acrylic paints. The spatters and light wash around the gourd are Dina Wakley Gloss Sprays. I also used watercolor crayons and a graphite pencil.

 Just finishing up my page for the silhouette prompt so I'll share that next week. Not sure if I'll do the jack o lantern prompt or not...

 and to end this post I have another project from the free Lifebook 2022 Taster Session lessons from some weeks ago (sorry, the lessons are no longer available):

 For this lesson (sorry, I can't remember who to give credit for this lesson) the entire page was covered with scraps of papers, colored tissues etc. Bright colored paints were applied. Then after the heart outline and corner outlines were drawn, black gesso was painted around the shapes. It was all finished by creating lots of doodles with Posca pens.

 Joining in at Paint Party Friday with this post. 

There are some new themes up and coming on the blogs I like to participate with so I hope to get to them next week😄 Until then...

“Fear not November’s challenge bold—

We’ve books and friends, 

and hearths that never can grow cold:

                                       These make amends!”         Alexander Louis Fraser

More Art Lessons

 

 Hi all! For those of us in the Northern hemisphere it is autumn and we are being delighted with the gorgeous rich colors of the season- along with some very fluctuating temps from high to low and now today - to high again. I find myself changing clothes at least twice a day lately. How about you?

 During a few of the cold days I tried out some new art lessons. Above is a card using just the 6 Van Gogh watercolor pans I won in a giveaway from Soma:

 

I watched a You Tube Tutorial by Ellen Crimi-Trent on painting autumn trees then went up to my desk to play! It was so much fun just playing and mixing up these colors to get the colors I wanted for the trees, grass, and trunks! I may end up using this for some Thanksgiving cards. And I enjoyed this so much I then grabbed my Dina Wakley Blue Media Journal, turned to a watercolor page and recreated a similar scene using the same watercolors:

 It inspired me to write a haiku which was added to the page in Photoshop😉. These were two completely different watercolor papers so you can see how different the colors took to them. Joining in at Art Journal Journey (theme is "My Favourite Colour Is October"). 

 For T Stands For Tuesday I have two photos I took during a visit to Tea By The Sea in West Cape May, NJ:

 I love this store and visit every time we get to Cape May! There is so much to admire but the walking areas are narrow and as there were others in the shop I just captured these two photos- especially for the T gang. I know some of you will especially appreciate the cat items😸. I almost wanted to get a nice sized tea pot just to have reason to buy one of these delightful cozies- but then - which one??? Cheers!

 Another art class I took was a free online class - Abstract Color Challenge. Laly Mille offered it for a week and I'm so glad I took the time to follow along and play!

 We began by choosing a color we really like but maybe have some trouble using it in our art. I chose  green/blue teal -like paint color by Amsterdam. We also gathered papers, crayons, inks, etc. in that chosen color along with gathering some items in a complimentary color, and some neutral papers as well:

 

 Above is the first steps. It was suggested we work on 4 or more substrates at one time. Mine are 5" x 5" 140# watercolor papers. I can't tell you how difficult it has been to try and capture the true color of this deep teal- it has always come out looking more blue than it is...

 I ended up not using any of the complimentary orange color. After layers and layers and moving around the orientation of each one as I worked I ended up with these:

 

 Do you see what I ended up with? I call this series "Mystic Lighthouses". I had NO intentions of anything in particular, NO theme in mind at all- yet in the end I still created something around my love of the ocean 😂

 A few detail shots:

And a pic of each one individually:

  And that's a wrap for this post! Thanks for popping by. Happy Halloween to those who celebrate👻

 Happy to be joining in at Paint Party Friday this week.

"Autumn leaves shower like gold, like rainbows, as the winds of change begin to blow, signaling the later days of autumn."     Dan Millman

October Musings

  All I can say is brrrrr!!! We went from a week of summer and then as of Sunday the temps plunged into the 50's by day and 40's at night. Finally put the heat on for the first time this season and put away the flip flops, trading them in for warm socks and shoes. How are things in your neck of the woods?

 Just finished a Halloween tag to join the Simon Says Monday Stamp Challenge (Spooky/Halloween); Try It On Tuesday (Halloween); the Simon Says Wednesday Stamp Challenge (Not A Card); and Tag Tuesday (All Hallow's Eve):

 Manila tag, Tim Holtz paper Doll, Tim Holtz Small Talk Occasions stickers- Ranger Ink. The  ribbons and pumpkin, spider, and cat stickers are from Michael's. I edged the tag with Staz On Stone Gray ink.

I was able to do a few more of the free Lifebook Taster Sessions 2022 lessons offered by Tamara LaPorte before they were taken away and here is one:

 This one was called Pan Tuition and the tutorial was from Jenny Manno. I LOVED this one!! Lots of layers and mediums- gesso, watercolors, watercolor crayons, gesso, Stabilo All pencil, charcoal pencil, and a fine black Pitt pen. When finished this just reminded me so much of the beautiful Tuscan countryside in autumn. It's been many years since I was there but the scenery is still fresh in my mind.

This was added to a page in the Canson XL Mixed Media journal. Joining in at  Art Journal Journey for the theme of "My Favourite Colour is October".

 For T Stands For Tuesday (where anyone can join anytime so long as you link something drink related- a piece of art, a beverage, a photo, etc. anything so long as it relates somehow to a drink):

 Back in Cape May where hubby and I were treated by friends to dinner in honor of our anniversary. We went back to Viggiano's in West Cape May after enjoying it so much back in May: 

 We all shared an Appetizer sampler to start. This was my meal choice- a pasta with blush sauce, scallops and shrimp- absolutely delicious! Pasta was perfectly al dente, the sauce light, and the seafood tender. We enjoyed a nice full bodied wine with our dinner along with glasses of water. And then came that dessert....

well, what's left on the plate anyway😂. Bill had to have the Tuscan Zucchetto cake he had in May. We did all get a bite before he finished it up, and the restaurant owner kindly treated us all to a glass of homemade Limoncello to end our grand meal. Cheers!

 I  went back again to my square kraft journal to create this page:

There had recently been a lot of rainbow inspired art on Instagram and so I was compelled to make one too. Paints are Dina Wakley as is the journal and chipboard bird. The quote is by Maya Angelou.

 Joining in at Paint Party Friday🎨! Have a wonderful week ahead, and stay warm and safe.

" Don't die with your music still inside you. Listen to your intuitive inner voice and find what passion stirs your soul."   Wayne Dyer

Autumn Is In The Air

 

 Hi peeps! Much of last week still was quite warm (up to 80 F on Friday!), so much time was spent outside cleaning up the yard, cleaning out some of the flower pots, and washing and putting away our hummingbird feeders. I am already missing those sweet tiny birds😔. The leaves are fast falling now and colors are changing. I've finally started changing curtains and adding some fall decorations. I don't do Halloween since there are no kiddos around anymore. It's gotten a bit cooler today so I guess it's time to change around my clothing too. 

However I have a few more pictures from Cape May to remind me of summer:

 One of the marinas. Photos courtesy of my hubby. How I love seeing the boats...

For T Stands For Tuesday:

I could live on Caesar salad and they make the best at Hemingway's! I had it several times the week we were in CM and each time it was my complete meal. This eve. it was with warm fresh bread and  olive oil along with J Lohr Cabernet Sauvignon -  just perfect. Cheers! 

A few sunset pics (also courtesy of hubby) before I move on to the art:)

 

The colors are especially stunning in September!! (No filters)

 For Art Journal Journey (theme is My Favourite Colour Is October) I made this page in the Dina Wakley Square Kraft Journal:

The leaves focal point are from Dina's latest release on tissue paper called "Things That Grow". I glued them to card stock to make them sturdy and painted them with watercolors. I also used Dina's newer Gloss Sprays. Washi tape and sentiment are Tim Holtz.

 

 I had done the background awhile ago on a dark denim page in Dina's Blue Edition Media Journal and wanted to finish it so I just added a collage tissue figure glued on card stock then used Posca pens to outline and add the words in the circles.

 Also I've been trying to squeeze in some of the Lifebook 2022 Taster Lessons. Tamara LaPorte has kindly left the free lessons up for another week so I hope to get a few more in😉

 This was a super lesson by Toni Burt. I hadn't tried sketching or painting any kind of face in so long, yet this totally drew me out of my comfort zone and I LOVED doing this!! I kept to the color palette she used and pretty much followed the steps along with her. Now I want to do another similar one but with other colors- a really fun way to loosely sketch and paint!  I was thinking the flowers and colors looked like autumn leaves and was going to link to Art Journal Journey but though I might be pushing it a bit😏.So here's to Paint Party Friday!

 That's it for this week. Looking forward to seeing what you all have been doing. Thanks for stopping by!

 "Those who find beauty in all of nature will find themselves at one with the secrets of life itself."    L. Wolf Gilbert