What I've Been Up To

Goodness me! Where has the week gone? I've been very neglectful of my blog lately and I've been missing it. I simply haven't had the time these last few weeks. Between the hours of physical therapy each day and my basic schedule (which is pretty demanding) I only had an itty-bitty amount of time to dedicate to myself. I had to make the choice between creating something and blogging. (I chose to create.) Things seem to be settling down now though. Routines are being re-established and I should have more time next week to catch-up.

I think I finished this page for my art journaling class. I may go back to add more doodles, but I'm not sure.


Since I did this for the Amp Up Textures lecture, I used Golden Pumice Gel (not the kind for your feet, silly...although...in a pinch, it might work...giggle) and a stencil to do the big five by the heart. I tried to get a good picture to show the texture for you.


Once it dried, I painted it with gesso and inked the edges with my distress pad.

The following close-up is of my journaling and text circles. I used a random circular toy to make marks in my initial background gesso. (That's what happens when certain somebodies leave their toys out around here...I use them in my art projects.) I punched the circles out of an old dictionary page, inked them with two shades of brown distress ink and placed them inside the dry gesso. The punched circles were slightly smaller so you can still kind-of see the gesso texture. (If you look very closely, put on those bifocals.) Once they were down, I outlined them with a charcoal pencil and a black colored pencil. I really like the effect. (Note to self: do this again.)


I am particularly happy with the way my bird turned out. I used a Scenic Route Chipboard bird as a template. The paper is Luxe. I doodled and used my colored pencils. (In my opinion, colored pencils are a way-underutilized tool in scrapping and such.) Seriously fun. (I'm planning on doing this same technique in my next scrapbook page. Love it!)

That flower is made of Tinkering Ink's Rip Strips and a Karen Foster jewel brad. The edges of the rip strips are frayed to add texture.


This was a fun section to complete. It came together thanks to stuff from a humongo package from my sweet friend Heidi (who is now the DT coordinator for GCD Studios! Congrats!) I just used a bunch of stuff and smooshed it all together. There is some Tinkering Ink, K&Co, (unsure of what those cool word stickers are), and the Pinocchio is from The Paper Studio. I like how Pinocchio looks like he's dancing.


I'm also using this page as part of the latest Creative Therapy Challenge. It is on something that you've always wanted to learn. Ever since I saw my first art journal, I've wanted to do one myself, but I was pretty intimidated until I took Dina's class. Now, I'm feeling like I can conquor the world! One page at a time...

There are a lot of different techniques that I used on this page, if you have any questions, please leave me a comment and I will try to explain what I did for you. Don't be shy! I love comments!

Oh, and I'm working on a little tutorial on lettering for you. I've had a few people on Scrapmuse ask me how I did the lettering on this page, and I'm hoping to have something up for you next week.