2020...the begining Wanderlust week 1

So many things are going on with my life right now at a nice little clip,  and I am beginning to realize the power of manifesting and intention setting, which isn't witchy at all...in case you think it does.

 Manifesting = Goals.

 Intention setting = planning steps to achieve said goal.

And I am dedicating this journal to actually "journaling" as much as "arting" and committing myself to recording a years worth of moon manifestations along with the Wanderlust program and in a years time, I'll have solid proof for myself to continue researching and learning more about this. (I love researching stuff, lol)

The front page of my journals are what I use to set my theme or intention for my journal and this year I am dedicating 2020 to "self-discovery" which also would have made for a great Word Of The Year, but I chose "RECOVERY" because I am trying to recover the person whom I thought I would have become when I was "old"...(lol, yes I am turning 61 this year and when I was 10, this was definitely OLD.) I figured that my inner me needs a re-boot of sorts and I am on a year long conquest to do just that...I've lost her but she is still there I just need to intentionally go about finding her again. I put a lot of thought into this so I wanted to use the all seeing eye from my Artistic Muse Card #2 stencil to show:
a symbol of divine providence, powerfully representing spiritual truth and awakening.

So that explains the first page 😊

supplies:

acrylic paints by DecoArt

watercolor paints by LuminArte ascending  

hand stencil by StencilGirl®

My book will be called the Artfull Moon but I won't make the cover until the end (because yes, I am very messy) and you are welcome to ask me any questions if you want, create something similar of your own, or just come back here and check on my progress.

The Week 1 journal prompt:

Because I am working in my Moon journal I am tweaking the journal prompt to fit my needs:

Which of my three signs to I relate to the most?

I chose a planetoid shape along with their astrological symbols to represent the 3 astrological relationships. 

supplies:

acrylic paints by DecoArt

watercolor paints by LuminArte

stamp by Rubbermoon
stencil by StencilGirl®

Did you know?

Are you aware of a specific number that just seems to keep popping up,
sometimes for no understandable reason? ...

Power number 3 — A person with the power number 3 tends to attract a rich and full life from midlife on, permeated with creative self-expression and social activities. The person is likely to be tolerant, optimistic, and inspiring.

Personally, I'm all about the number 2 and 2020 is going to be my century! Especially on my birthday in 2022 being that I was born on 2-22 and born at 2am under a full moon. I've been looking forward to this time of my life since I was about 10 and I am sure to be journaling about that too! ❤

What's your favorite number?

New life

Didn't you love it as a kid? A bonifide "do over"?

Well, in art, we can also re-think our art, and breathe in some new life to it!

Sometimes, it happens while working on a piece, maybe you sleep on it over night and wake up with a different plan. Sometimes you create something and just know it wasn't your best effort, and it sits there like a big white elephant in the room, staring at you every day, thinking, 

why did she abandon me? Doesn't she love me?

Sighs the artist, yes I love you but I didn't have the time...the direction...I was lost.
until now...

I totally love the redesign, just some simple touches with paper, paint and embossing powder and it has a new life breathed into it. I love the Art Deco Alphabet stencil, very cool lettering. I felt I need to jazz up the word "ART" a little so it could hold it's own next to the sophisticated "MATTERS".

I know you can easily see that I collaged the background with text paper, but did you notice that I also added assorted papers  to the paintbrushes and a few inspiring stamped words too!

The base was really easy to create with some Van Gogh Painting washi tape which I sealed with some Deco-page paste, added some Exotic Orient washi tape to the brush, a little bit of Dresden trim and some Mirror Gold embossing powder and I love it!

And speaking of embossing powder I covered the mug completely with all sorts of different Baked Textured powders designed by Seth Apter of The Altered Page and wow, it has a lot of dimension and depth now.

And some awesome products from DecoArt which helped me to pull it all together.

Now, guess who is also feeling a bit neglected now?

Linking up to Paint Party Friday where no one feels neglected!

Mistakes Happen

I learned something new, well, new to me anyway, 😜

I have to admit that I have never used embossing powder with paint before, only with ink and then only with stamps but now I learned that it works great with paint and that has opened up a whole new area with mixed media!  

I'm like a kid with my first box of crayons, sheer giddy with excitement! 

Still crushing on the Dresden trim, this time I used some Antiquing creams to knock some of the shine off the angel wing because the background is an explosion of glittery goodness between the gold embossing powder and metallic paints that I used.

I typed out word strips and glued them to the back of the wing for some hidden journaling. You can bend the Dresden trim but I don't think it would stand up to repeated opening and closing but then I'm pretty much the only person who looks at my journals anyway so I'm thinking it will be fine.

I'm trying hard to use up old supplies so I used some old vinyl letters, I had to use a gel medium to make them stick and then painted them black since they had polka dots on them. Somehow polka dots did not seem to work on this page, lol And yeah, added a sprinkling of embossing powder over them!

In hindsight, I'm not sure why I titled this page "mistakes happen" because I was really intending this to be another page to go along with my WOTY hope which is used in the writing on the back of the wing. 

A mistake?...maybe...but they do happen!

 Gwen's Supplies:
Khadi Papers Sketchbook
German Dresden Trim - Extra Large Wings

MT Washi Tape - Crystals 
Exotic Oriental Traditional Chinese Metal Wafer Dies - Round Chinese Screen 

Emerald Creek Embossing Powder - Mirror Gold

Art Deco Collection  - Alphabet stencil

DecoArt

Americana Lamp (Ebony Black)
Dazzling Metallics in Royal Ruby, Splendid Gold
Glamour Dust in Limelight, Copper
Media Antiquing Cream in Carbon Black,Patina Green

Linking up to Paint Party Friday

Be Merry holiday card

Welcome to the "Are you ready for the holidays?" blog hop...OK OK, it's not really called that, but seriously...

are you ready?

Well, have no fear, we have loads of inspiration waiting for you!

I love to send out personalized Christmas cards. 

I use to try and make everyone a one of a kind card but man, that's a lot of work! I've learned that I can make a unique card and then have it printed, this way they are still getting a custom card from me but with way less pressure...I mean I still have to decorate the tree, wrap presents and bake all those cookies...it's exhausting just thinking about it! So I hope this gives you the inspiration to make your cards but take some of the pressure off you!

Techniques that I used to make my card:

masking

layering different stencils

outlining

shading

accenting

reverse stenciling to get mirrored images

Check out my video so you can see how I incorporated them all!

We have a more than a dozen projects our Creative Team members made just to whet your appetite for the merriest season!

While you are busy oohing and aahing, take a moment to leave a comment on each blog and you'll be entered to win a $25 StencilGirl Gift Certificate!

Here are links to all the fantastic, magic, merry, holiday projects:

Karen Gaunt

Tina Walker

Torrie Gass

Cindy Gilstrap

Sherry Canino

🎄 Sandee Setliff 🎄

Kiala Givehand

Janet Joehlin

Belen Sotelo

Louise Nelson

Debi Adams

Carol Baxter

Comment by midnight CST in the USA on November 8^th and we’ll randomly choose a $25 StencilGirl Gift Certificate winner. The more blogs you comment on, the more chances you have to win. 
We’ll announce the winner on our Facebook Page on November 9^th.

Please feel free to share the hop with your friends!

Three Trees Stencil by Jessica Sporn

Holiday Sayings 6 stencil by Mary Beth Shaw

Holly Mistletoe Repeating Stencil by Jennifer Evans

Linking up to Paint Party Friday
Ho, ho, ho!

Challenge 3 - Oceania!

Oceanic art or Oceanian art comprises the creative works made by the native peoples of the Pacific Islands and Australia, including areas as far apart as Hawaii and Easter Island. ... In more recent times, the people of Oceania have found a greater appreciation of their region's artistic heritage

Khadi journal

I used The Decorative Medallion Repeating Corner Stencil, designed by Gwen Lafleur to create a medallion in the middle of my page using dots like the Aboriginal art. Then used the Angel Circle stencil designed by Kate Thompson to create an Aboriginal person in the left corner.

I tried to find The Aboriginal written language and discovered this dictionary where I found the phrase written in the top of the circle which is the story that the Aborigine is telling. 

Wangga-gu, balarrin, ge-na nganung, burrhburr-ma nga-ya-nggi, wangga.
translated into
They painted me with white ochre for a corroboree, and I danced.

(corroboree is an Australian Aboriginal dance ceremony that may take the form of a sacred 
ritual or an informal gathering.)

After a lot of research, I used the symbol for meeting place in the center of my journal 

to signify a place to meet and dance.

Entering my "Meeting Place" art journal page in:

• Patterns inspired by traditional symbols (Maori tattoos, Dots/dashes of Aboriginal Arts…)👍
• Think Monochromatic black and white or think colors of the Earth.👍
• Some sort of organic or natural material(s) (earth, stone, bone, bark, wood, fibres…)
• Shapes inspired by traditional or indigenous art👍

I really enjoyed all the research into making this, hope you did too.

Artist insomnia

So...the story goes like this...one day ( a couple of years ago ) I was trying to make a canvas based on Typography, and it was a big heaping pile of... failure. So there...that's out in the open!
 I don't even remember what the bottom letters spelled out, but it was some kind of message about love...blah,blah...

I hauled it out a couple of weeks and did an acrylic pour over it hoping to cover everything up and well,

 that turned out so bad I didn't even take a photograph of it, lol 

Yeah...there's that out in the open too.

7pm

Then last Saturday night I decided to just add paint... and basically anything else I could get my hands on. I even used a die cut flower that was on the floor under my desk...yep, slapped that puppy on and added more paint, more stenciling, and more mark marking. ( I was trying to channel Mary Beth Shaw )...

Now if you are looking at the face...well...truth be told I actually used the actual stencil itself. Yep, it was that kind of day, I glued that sucker right on the canvas.

Woman of Mystery stencil by Pam Carriker

8-ish pm
Now I've decided to start work on bringing the woman out a little, decided she can't be shy hiding in all those layers of paint! I'm thinking I need one large scribbly word next to her...must sleep on that one and see what tomorrow brings.

2am-ish
Now, I always have best intentions to wait...to sit on a piece and really think about it but sometimes I can't even sleep overnight on it and I find myself crawling out of bed to go work on it. That's what happened last night!

The next morning I always worry about seeing what I did when I "sleep paint"...that's what I call it when I get out of bed, groggy but determined to put an idea to use. After looking at the above picture I knew I had to knock back to white lines around her face, but otherwise I was very happy with how it turned out. Now to see if she sells....lol
In the meantime, I am entering this in
Paint Party Friday

"Divine Messenger" 

And some close of shots of the texture 💕my favs!

CHALLENGE 1 – EUROPE

• A face 👍
• Papers (newspaper, printed paper, rice paper…etc.) 👍
• Letters, numbers 👍
• Blue for the colour of the European Union, Union Jack... 👍
• Ribbon, twine, string or lace…
• Textures – take inspiration from history from ancient civilizations to the fall of the Berlin Wall 👍
• Something both vintage and modern

WOTY - adversity

Word Origin and History for adversity

n.

c.1200, aduersite "misfortune, hardship, difficulty," from Old Frenchaversité "adversity, calamity, misfortune; hostility, wickedness, malice"(Modern French adversité), from Latin adversitatem (nominativeadversitas) "opposition," from adversus (see adverse ).

Ok, so I will be the first one to admit that "adversity" is a strange word to pick, not the normal uplifting vibe that most want for their word, but for me it fits. I'm a kind of a glass half full kinda gal who doesn't try to let myself get down in the dumps when faced with a challenge or a "bump in the road"...sure, adversity, it happens to all of us but it's how we react to those circumstances that controls who we are.

Now if I could just overcome writing in a straight line, sheesh, I'm even using a straight edge and I manage to still be crooked. lol 

Letter to myself...

Ever think what you would say to yourself if you could send yourself a letter? 

I do.

I created the background by using my Gel Press® plate and a stencil from Joggles called Woodcuts. I like to pick the plate up and use it like a stamp directly into my art journal, you can see me doing that here in a video called The Haunting of the Aqueduct.

Day 4 of Drawing and Painting Beautiful Faces by Jane Davenport.

Just be silly...

Sometimes, it's just fun to let loose and just do something for fun :)

 A good old fashioned distraction from things like...oh...let's say politics! I am so over the anger, the bashing and name calling...and no that's not the politicians I am talking about, that's my "Facebook friends" I am referring to. I have unfollowed so many of them lately because of their political bullying. 

I needed to do something light hearted and silly and with Halloween around the corner I decided to play with my Beatrice Coron - Danse Macabre stencil from Artistcellar. I wish I could tell you I layered everything in the correct order, but nooooo, you know me...let's do everything backwards! lol I did have a paint brayered background to begin with and then I used the stencil, which I used 2 different ways. I outlined it for the "man" and painted the back of the stencil in black paint and pressed it down for the the 2 dancing "goblins". 

Next I tore apart bits of a Gel Press print to create the floor...and yes, I had to cover up parts of what I had done previously because ...well, because I seem to just do things in that kind of order, so after I glued down the "floor" I had to back over with the stencil and redo the bottom part of the legs.

Then, I stenciled the brick background...not so easy stenciling around the skeletons so at least give me points for perseverance! At least I waited and added the Netflix head from their mailing envelope after the background was made...whew, right?

Netflix artist: Jim Seaver

And the last things I did was to stamp and write the journaling along with stenciling some magical bubbles...and doodling a little bit with my white Signo pen...still by far, my favorite white pen!

I am entering my art journal page of pure silliness in

Simon Says: Anything Goes

Wowzers!

Ok, so maybe "wowzers" isn't the best title for a blog post..but my other choice was "OMGOMGOMG!!"...lol

Everyone that knows me knows that I just love the technique by Mary Beth Shaw of Stencil Girl of dropping Tim Holtz® Alcohol Inks  through a Seth Apter stencil. Well, I just discovered last night, thanks to Sally Lynn McDonald that I can do this same technique on my Gel Press® plate by just using a little hand sanitizer! whoa!! Needless to say, I ran to the store to get some as fast as my little Jeep would legally allow me to do so!

I made a video to show you how I did it and how I made this ghost print too!

And did you know that we just added a new plate size? The 12x12" plate is perfect for scrapbooking!!

Addicted...again....and again...

I admit, I do! I am so addicted to using my smaller Gel Press® plates as stamps when I am working in my art journal. It just makes it so easy...and I am all about easy! My post is up over on the Gel Press® blog today and I would be honored if you stopped by and left me some love over there.

Your words matter.

Here's a little sneak peek :)

Do you find yourself as an artist going through different phases?

This is my art journal page that I made after watching Faber Castell's live streaming show featuring Tiare Smith Woods. I might have added a few things of my own ( like I have to add details for a face, lol ) I enjoy creating in someone else's style occasionally. It's fun to do things that you might not ordinarily do, keeps you fresh that way. You can find the recording of Tiare's show HERE. (Margarita Mix and an Angel)

I added my whimsical angel on this background that I already had created which is a combination of left over acrylic paint brayered onto the paper and then an alcohol ghost print on top of that.

Phases

Do you find yourself as an artist going through different phases? Sometimes it's techniques like typography, gel printing, or maybe alcohol ghost printing? I know personally I have been rolling through several of these techniques lately. Or sometimes it's playing with all those techniques but doing it in an art journal.

I must be going through an art journaling phase right now, I can't seem to get enough of it. You can find the techniques to the bee page on the left HERE.

What phase are you going through?