January Journal day 16 - Butterfly Kisses

Howdy Friends,

Above is a two page layout in my January Journal. I'm still playing along with Misty Mawn's January Journal prompts. Last week was become your favorite artist. When I went searching the web for inspiration and ideas I went to Picasso first and some how ended up with Andy Warhol. I love the artwork by both of these artists. I wanted to do a page emulating Misty as I love her style but I'm just so intimidated by faces. When I think of Misty I see beautiful and sometime solemn faces in my minds eye. I went searching for inspiration again and found two paintings by Warhol that came together for me; Butterflies and Lips. These two paintings together spoke to me of "butterfly kisses". Soooo, I created the layout above. Wanting to make it my own I used collaged and stamped butterflies and I had so much fun looking through an InStyle magazine to cut out lips. Look closely and you will see there are both male and female lips shown.

Closeup of butterflies page:

Closeup of lips page:

I then journaled around the pages about my idea of "butterfly kisses".

kitty whiskers brushing my cheeks

babies

eyelashes

a puppies wet nose

an early morning snuggle

a glance across a room

hugs

a whisper

a forehead kiss

a wink

chocolate

Next weeks theme is mixed media. Looking back at my previous pages it seems most of them already are mixed media so I will have to think on this one. I think her challenge is to stay with one medium each day. Will I stay with one medium for one page and another for the next? Will I be able to do this? We'll see...

Who inspired you to create something and make it your own today?

Be Happy, Be Healthy, Be Yourself,

Tess

The First Day of 2010

Happy 2010 Everyone,

Here it is the end of the First Day of 2010. I trust you all had a safe and happy New Years Eve. I spent mine at home with my Mr. and my online friends. We had Pizza and Chicken Wings and a few glasses of Strawberry White Zinfandel. I even managed a game of Scrabble online with one of my brothers. It was quiet around here and just what I needed. We almost forgot to watch the ball drop. A relaxed and calm late night after a day of stressed work was just what I needed to end a long year that had many happenings. I was given more gray hairs with the thought of losing my oldest daughter to a brain tumor and have a wonderful blessing of the tumor being removed and non cancerous. She is doing well. I gained a step father this year too. Henry is a sweet, sweet man and makes my mom so happy. Many things I worried about and many things made me happy and joyful. I woke this morning feeling great. No headache, no achy back or knees. It was a good day, a good start to a new year. I even ran into mom and Henry at the grocery store and had a call from the youngest daughter today.

I read on Misty Mawn's blog that she is going to do another January Journaling event. For the first week of January she has suggested altering a photo we took in our journal. I have decided to play along. I even got out a sheet of heavy watercolor paper and used Teesha Moore's 16 page Journal instructions to create a new journal. I did it from memory of the first one I made and I used the heavier weight Fabriano paper and my new Reeves water color set to paint the cover background. Tomorrow I will add a photo and some lettering to create my 2010 New Year journal. It is just a bit smaller than Teesha's and only 12 pages but I think I will be able to make a wonderful January 2010 Journal with it by working in it a bit everyday or every other day. And with 12 pages I will be able to use each prompt on a few pages every week.

How was your first day of the New Year?

May you find many blessings this new year. Continue to follow your dreams, create your bliss and list them with your favorite pen during 2010. (Hey that rhymed, I love it!!)

Be Happy, Be Healthy, and most of all ~ Be Yourself,

Tess

January's Journal Challenge - Days 30 & 31

This has been a wonderful, exciting and creative month that has ended with a not wonderful whirlwind of a week. My thoughts now are where did January go? I miss the calm and the fun of having time and energy and focused thoughts to work on Misty's Challenge, on her prompts, and on browsing and viewing others wonderful creations. I've so enjoyed her enthusiasm for art and creating. She's hoping we will all continue and have a show and tell about it once a week on Wednesdays. Read her thoughts on this here.

The washer drain leak might be fixed except now it seems to back up through the hose drain sooooo we think it's clogged under the house. But, no matter because now the washer makes a weird noise and won't agitate. Funny thing is, I really don't care. Didn't get upset or nothing. Just loaded up the van and off I went after picking up Bobbie's laundry also to the the nice, clean, laundromat I found. The cost was $22.75 to wash 7 loads of laundry. I used 5 double loaders, a triple loader and a mega loader. This time I got smart and brought all those wet clothes home and am drying them here. That will save on cash out of pocket. I wish I had a clothes line as the temps in the 60's here and windy. A great day for drying on the line as my momma says. An usual great day. tomorrow and Monday/Tuesday the weatherman is saying clear and in the 40's. I hope the forecast is right so we'll have good travel weather.

Bobbie is at home surrounded by friends while Robert is working. Raven is in heaven with "cousins" to play with and "Aunts and Uncles" to give her attention. She's received calls and cards from some relatives and is often in awe as to why people are calling her and sending her cards. Then she remembers. She is tired today so I told them to let her nap.

There is a short update on my AC site here with a couple altered pictures of Bobbie about another MRI series she is to have.

And this is the most recent journal page. I did this in the middle of the night last night. I couldn't sleep.

I think I like this drawing so much it will soon become a painting. I'll probably do one in watercolor and then one in mixed media acrylic, maybe collage a bit on it too. It's similar to something I seen in a magazine and then I had the idea of adding the words of healing. They may change. And I may not find the time to paint it but I intend too and I want to.

I must be off, gotta check that dryer, duty calls. What is it John Lennon said,

"Life is what happens when you're making other plans". Isn't that the truth......

Continue praying for Bobbie and thank you,

I believe she is in HIS hands,

Tess

January's Journal Challenge Days 23 and 24

Greetings all, We woke to a light dusting of snow and colder temperatures this morning. I was so glad to be home when I got off work yesterday and to know that we could actually have a decent meal for supper. Chuck grilled steaks even though it was cold outside and I baked us a potato. We usually have a salad or vegetable too but decided not this time. Then after supper we played dominoes until bedtime. No crafting or journaling or painting happened yesterday I sadly admit. But, sometimes our spouses need our attention and our creativity needs a break. I woke feeling refreshed today and even though I have a mound or two or three of laundry to do as I am doing my daughter and her families laundry also this weekend I felt great and like it would be a nice slow day. So far I've started a pot of soup, washed and dried several loads of the laundry and I made this:

I revisited the earlier watercolor drawing I had done on regular paper and decided to try it on watercolor paper and to change it up a bit. In honor of Valentines Day I decided to paint blossoms of "Hearts and Soul". I used watercolor pencils and drew on watercolor paper this time. I found a small brush works good for me to wet the colors with. The butterflies are stamps painted with water and then rubbed with the watercolor pencils. The stamp design is from a set of stamps I bought from the Unity Stamp Co. 's August Kit of the Month called "remember happiness". All of the designs from this set were created by JessiLynn of Vol.25. She is a wonderful artist and designer and has a great blog and etsy shop. Check her out.

Yesterdays challenge from Misty was to create something inspired by your favorite artists. I kept this in mind when creating the painting above. Two artists came to mind, Jodi Ohl of sweet repeats and Jessi Lynn of vol25. Jodi loves hearts as does Jessi. I wanted to use one of the stamps I had bought that Jessi created . I chose the title "Hearts and Soul" because I truly believe that both Jodi and Jessi pour their hearts and souls into everything they create. OMG, I could say this about every one of the wonderful artists I have found here in blog land. Here are some links to some of my other favorite artists that seem to inspire me everyday:

Misty Mawn

Nina Bagley at Ornamental

Jude at Spirit Cloth

Red Velvet Art (Four of the loveliest and most talented young ladies I've ever come across.)

Sweet Repeats

Art du Jour

elvie studio

and so, so, so many more.

Of course there are those other artists, the ones long gone that inspire us all. Such as da Vinci , Picasso, Renoir and Monet. And I can't leave out Andy Warhol.

Today's challenge from Mist is to create a piece of art and give it away. I'm not sure how to do this but I do know what I want to do. I would like to give this watercolor painting away to someone here that continually comments and encourages me. I will gather some surprises; papers, artist trading card, cloth and maybe even some upholstery fabric swatches to send with this little painting to this person. The painting is rather smallish. It measures approx. 5 1/2" X 9" and is Staedtler Karat Aquarell Watercolor Pencils on Canso 90 lb. watercolor paper. I used Sobo Premium Craft & Fabric Glue to attach the dictionary word. I will put all commenters (to this post) names in a bowl and have my husband pick a winner on this coming Monday evening, 6PM CST. The winner will then just need to send me an address and wait for their surprise to arrive. Good Luck!

(I must admit I feel foolish as I am thinking right now, "Who will want this?" But I worked hard on it and giving of oneself is a good and postive thing so here goes....)

Tess

January's Journal Day 22

Note: I tried to publish this yesterday and I couldn't. Computer, fingers, mind working better this morning.

Hi All, I am tired this week. It's suppose to be a shorter work week when you have Monday off. I am feeling like this week will never end. BooHoo, poor me! Get over it, right. LOL :-)

I did something for myself and my loved ones today. I went in for an early AM appointment and had my yearly mammogram. If your the age to have a yearly exam and can't remember the last one you had promise you'll call and find out. Make that appointment. It's important for early detection. I had a lump removed several years ago. It was ok, I was ok. I promised myself and family then that I would have this exam yearly so if something develops we'll hopefully catch it early. Lay this promise upon your heart and follow through...you are worth it.

Misty's challenge today was to create with crayons only. As I whined about earlier I'm tired so I decided I felt like scribbling. This is on the back of my tic tac toe page thus the thread lines. It was fun scribbling and doodling and then I decided to add some words here and that, then to add this and that. It's not really a picture of anything. It's just color and it was fun and playful and quick. I may do that again whenever I am needing to be creative but just too tired.

Tomorrows theme: create a work of art inspired by your favorite artist.

This will be a hard one for me!

Tess

JAnuary's Journal Day 21

This sweet little Angel Princess just had a birthday. In this she is about 6 but now she is 9. Today's journal challenge from Misty is to alter any photo. I chose to play with my Photo Shop Elements and alter a digital photo. Since my little angel niece has been on my mind I decided to alter this photo in celebration of her recent birthday. I found applying filters easy and quick. Playing with all of the add-on things was a lot of fun and to be honest I'm not even sure how I found them. I am tired as the past two days have been very busy. I'm pleased to announce the online recharter process for both the pack and the troop is validated, submitted and printed. Tomorrow I will deliver the papers to be signed and hopefully we will be able to meet our deadline of the 31st. Phew!
I plan to play with this Photo Shop stuff more and I am so pleased with the altered photo I am going to print it and paste it into my journal to remember this years birthday and my fun journals with Misty.
Tomorrows challenge is with crayons only Yippee! I love crayons, I keep them around for my little angel and her sibling and cousins. Nah, not really, they are for me, me, me. LOL
Good Night All,
Tess

January's Journal Day 17 - Yellow

I've been having so much fun with today's color for the January Journal Challenge. I live in Kansas so I wanted to do something with a sunflower. Of course, sunshine came to mind too. A first has happened for me today. I actually painted on a canvas. I purchased a pack of canvas boards several months ago and even got some for Christmas from my dear hubby. (Isn't it nice when our other halves encourage our creativity?) I once helped my granddaughter paint a birthday picture for my daughter. She did most of the painting and applying stickers, it had to be from her I encouraged. I did help with a flower I think. It was so easy to encourage her to mess up that white pristine canvas and yet I had not been able to do it myself, until now. I wanted my painting to have texture like Misty's and to have some words like Jodi Ohl's and I wanted to include paint and stamps. I even tried stamping in gesso, I have never done that before. I was too afraid of ruining what few stamps I have. I guess I wanted it to look like someone else's..........

But you know what? It didn't turn out like Misty's or anyone else's, because it is mine. I am not completely finished with it as I need to add a sealer to it. I do have some on hand but wanted to give the paint and gel medium time to dry.

I think it is pretty good for a first attempt, and again Misty's challenge has helped me to grow and learn. For me that is what this month is all about......

Tomorrow's color is Pink and my niece is crazy about pink and I have no idea what to do yet. How about you?

Have a wonderful Sunday and if you are still in Brrrrr temps (Ours have gone up to the 40's, much better.) feel free to soak up some of my sunny picture. :-)

Tess

January's Journal day 16 - Red

Greetings, Today's color is red. I love red, red is romantic, red is Mars, red is the color of the blood moon. Red is fiery and vibrant and sensual. I had no idea what to do with this color. So I thought and I thought and I thought and of course hearts came to mind. I thought many would be using hearts. Red hearts on Valentines, red hearts with inspirational words, red poppy's, red roses. And then this came to me. "Red Hot Momma" OMG, this phrase is such a joke between me and my daughter. This journal page will help remind me of that joke. So I went looking for red items from magazines and found a red and white pot and a red apron and then this voluptuous red hot momma with her "nerd" looking over at her, and he's not in the mood for dancing. He wants what is not in the pot yet.

"Hey Red Hot Momma, put your apron on".

He's even trying to seduce her to cook with a pretty bracelet of hearts but no dice, she just wants to dance. Hee Hee I have two colors of red paint and didn't use either one. I had too much fun with the mod podge and red papers and pens and magazine finds.

In a comment someone asked who Misty Mawn is. How do I answer that? I have never met Misty but would love too. I found her through another blog I think. I don't even remember now. I loved her paintings, her photographs and her honesty in her blog entries. Then I started reading about how she teaches Art several times a year. Reading about her travels is so much fun. She takes me places I doubt I will ever go. Maybe someday, maybe, I will get to take a class with her. An artists retreat would be so much fun. She's been published too in Somerset Studios magazine. Read about Misty in her own words. She makes books, wonderful journals, and she makes wonderful mixed media paintings. She dreams big and she accomplishes inspiring others. I like to think of her as my friend and my personal teacher. And for now she is just that as this January Journal Challenge is keeping me busy thinking, creating and finding my abilities that I didn't even know or remember that I had. I'm also being connected to many other artists in this great big world. Other people like me that have always felt the need to doodle or write or draw or paint or cut favorite things from magazines and paste them into other magazines. I did a lot of that as a teenager and am doing it again. Sometimes when I write poetry or cut and paste I am working out a personal problem or dilemma and Misty, well She helps me with these things and she doesn't even know it. I'm glad you all are reading and following along with Misty and me this month. I hope you liked my red page and for tomorrow, we shall see lots of yellows.

Good Night,

Tess

January's Journal - Day 14 - Green

I'm still working on Misty Mawn's Journaling Challenge. I've visited so many wonderful artists blogs and seen such wonderful stuff. There are a lot of people participating in Misty's Challenge. So much inspiration out there. I hope to make many new online artists friends with this challenge also.
When I seen the color for today was green I knew I had to use some of the many green tea bag wrappers I have been saving. I think this is a great start, a background of sorts:I didn't know what to do with it so I sat it aside and started a collage. I was thinking of green tea 4 two in a big green field sitting on a blanket. I am not completely happy with the outcome but it is what I had planned. Clouds are harder than I thought, at least for me anyway. I wanted to use some of the tea bag wrappers to make more clouds and I used some of the green fiber paper. I covered some of it over with tissue paper as it was awful. Lessons learned, I have Misty to thank for that. Her challenge and me attempting that challenge. I wanted to make a few ATC's also and came up with these:

I hope you've enjoyed my bit of green. Tomorrow's color for the challenge is white. Today I've been thinking white on white, snow white. Hmm! I really have no idea how I'm going to attempt this one. It will be interesting to see what others come up with. It's very cold here in the land of Oz. We have a cold front coming in. I am grateful though as it isn't nearly as cold as it is in Minnesota. Brrrrr!

You all have a good evening and please try to stay warm.

Tess

January's Journal Day 12 -Blue

Misty Mawn's January Challenge is still going on. This weeks theme is color. Monday is blue ~~~

My idea of a blue day, flying kit's near a lake.....

I just had to make this ATC.......isn't this blue shoe divine? I didn't like that it's a bit crooked and then realized that is perfect. The shoe is dancing......

See Misty's blue page and the color choices she'll be working with each day. She is also doing a contest. 3 lucky winners will win an original piece of art by Misty all they need to do to enter is complete a journal page and post each day for 7 days. Some may think, "easy", but for others it's not so. I hope to accomplish this. Oh how I'd love an original painting by Misty. But even if I don't win, she's inspiring me to create and that makes it all worth the try. Tomorrow's color is orange. Hmmmm, orange, I can't wait to see what she does with orange.

What will I do?

Have a great evening and dance a bit, blue shoes or not.

Tess

Shine Quote

Greetings to all,

I found a new site today that I may check back on frequently. Self portrait challenges are something I feel I would have trouble with and yet I think a self portrait challenge could be interesting and help one learn about oneself. The August challenge is get your shine on or shine. Visit http://www.selfportaitchallenge.net/ to find out more.



I found this site through Misty Mawn's website. Misty is a wonderful mixed media collage artist and she is featured in the September/October issue of Somerset Studio. I love the faces in her art work. They are so expressive and evoke such emotion within the viewer. Her blog is at http://mistymawn.typepad.com/my_weblog/ I loved the post she made to articulate the challenge.



I leave you with a wonderful quote found posted on spc. I love this quote and am very pleased to have found it:



“I know nothing in the world that has as much power as a word. Sometimes I write one, and I look at it, until it begins to shine.” ~ Emily Dickinson