A Labor Day of art

It has been awhile since I have added to my blog. I miss checking in and visiting other people I am following. But most important is that I have been doing some art and it is time to get back into the swing of things. I have been working on my art journal for my Tip-In project over at Paper Traders.

I was playing with some Alcohol Inks and gesso. The rings were made with gesso and a bottle top. The little circles were from a homemade stencil of punched out circles.

It needs some edging so still a work in progress.

 This is a page I made inside. I used crumpled paper bags for the pages. I liked the way the gesso and the paint made a textured look. The image on the left was some goodies given to me from one of my swap partners. They are a great group of people.

And then more circles and rings of gesso and white paint.

 Here is one of the pages I have received from my swap partners. This is Shelly. The pieces are sea glass from the Bahamas where she lives. TOO COOL! The edge is hard to see in the picture but is has some of the sea sponge from there too.

I love the colors and her beautiful coral art work. She added on the page a quote from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow... "My soul is full of longing for the secrets of the sea" So true!!!

This is another swap tip in from Pam C. The fish are so awesome. The are embossed and have great colors and dimension. She added the quote from J.F. K. "We are tied to the ocean... And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch. we are going back to whence we came. I could not agree more!

Here is one more swap tip in page and this one is from Heather. What a great collage. I love the colors and the fun fish! I feel very blessed to be with such a great group and love all the wonderful pages I am collecting for this journal.

I will have more to share as I fill up my journal and fill in more of my own pages.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great week.

Amanda

Blog Hop at PT

 

Welcome to my blog and hope you enjoy strolling through. My name is Amanda and since I was very little I have a great love of Pandas. This guy has been many places, even the children's hospital once. My other love is Paper, lots of scrap paper. The rest is blog history. But now as my two girls are grown up I am spending more time learning the wonderful world of mixed media. I have done paper art for many years and now branching into much more. I have learned a lot from a wonderful group Paper Traders. All weekend they are having a fun blog hop. Here are the details Blog Hop. Below is the details of my giveaway!

 

 

First is a handmade art journal. It is a variation of the one from Teesha Moore. It is 6 x 5.5 was hand bound like her video shows.

Some pages fold out on a side or other. It has a total of 8 pages. It just waiting for your creative art to make it complete. In other Teesha videos she has great ideas for how to paint and create art journal pages.

I will also include other fun items like ribbons, buttons and fun embellishment.

Of course there would have to be some scrap papers too.

 



And lastly a few fun postcards.

 

To be included in the random drawing on Monday for this prize, please leave a comment on this post or the original blog hop post here.

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon, Amanda

Pages for me

 

I received these awesome pages from Shelly at Paper Traders. Like the projects I have been working on others have been working on pages for me. My requirements are a theme of Ocean. This is the first one I have received. The pages are beautiful. The background is watercolor and blending. The corral is hand painted. And then the two pieces of glass pieces are from the ocean where she lives. She also included a Longfellow quote. This is so me, I just love it. I really love working with this group and the items we share with each other. I am blessed.

Have a wonderful week, Amanda

Moving Forward

 

This is my first page in my new Art Journal. It comes from the Word Prompt Challenge at Paper Traders for January; Live Simply. I see that I like strong distraction. There are several layers with this page. First the water colored background, then gesso bubble wrap, then scraps of paper, stamped boarder and bees. Added the stamped butterfly with the wire antenna. I cheated on my lettering as the LIVE is cutouts and Simply is stamped. I need to practice more so that I get comfortable with my own. Also need to keep it more simple, funny that is the concept of this page. Well moving forward, no mistakes just opportunities to grow. Have a great week!

Sunday Journal

 

Finally got this together. This is my new Art Journal for a challenge at Paper Traders, 2013 Word Prompt, Life Mantras. They have a great link for the making of this from Teesha Moore's website. This journal was created using one 140lb watercolor paper 30x24 sheet. She has great video instructions on her site. The final size of this journal is 8x10.

 

 

I remembered to take some pictures as I was painting it. Forgot to when I was making it but it is a start. I made some of the mistakes she talks about but it is my first one of many more. It is really easy to make and I love the way it comes out.  

Some pages are fold-ins. Love the size and creative options this makes. I do like adding the paint and with a wet brush spreading the color and then taking a paper towel and removing some and adding swirls of dimension. (Another video on Teesha's site)

 

I made my brush too wet and colors bled through to the other pages. (She warns in her video)  I will do better next time. The varying color shading is so fun. I do need to get back to the journal though. ,In this challenge, each month we are to follow a word prompt and January is Live Simple and must include stamping. As it is the 27th, I better get to getting.... 

I am very thankful for so much but my top 5 are:

1. Sunday morning of beautiful winter sun

2. Watercolors that are never the same twice

3. Catholic Schools Sunday and little ones in uniforms, first time in 20 years it is not my girls (A little feeling old... haha)

4. Remembering that no mistakes just options

5. Fresh pages for creating

Getting back into it

Everyday there are choices to make that have outcomes and effects. Lately, my choices have given me a lot to do and put me on a HUGE learning curve. However, when I get too far off, my soul brings me back to where I need to be. So here I am writing a new post after over a month away. I missed it dearly. Let's begin, last Wednesday was my wedding anniversary and we took a trip up the coast to Fort Bragg. I brought my journal and sketched the footbridge at Pudding Creek.  I learned some things on this trip. I like adding color and it is amazing how the wrong green or blue changes everything. And waves are a challenge for me.



The camera's eye from a different angle and so beautiful. Hubby and I daydreamed of how to retire here. It is our happy middle ground. He loves the redwoods and I love the ocean; this is the best of both worlds!!



And who would not want to live near a carved redwood PANDA statue!!!  I was so excited. I really wanted to take him home with us, but it would not fit in the car. This was a wonderful trip. Lots and lots of thankfulness and the top 5 are...

1. A Redwood Panda

2. Coming back to center, a spot I need to keep closer too

3. Trust

4. The belief that there are opportunities for me out there, I just need to be open

5. Paper, ink, watercolor pencils, and all kinds of fun toys to play with

Have a wonderful week!

Sunday Top Thoughts

FAIR WARNING... Emotions are top of the list today.. I feel so much support in blogland. I may not get to sit down with a great cup of coffee (or tea) and have a heartfelt conversation with my blog friends BUT I do get so much support, guidance, and friendship from so many I visit and that visit my blog. Every time I think that I am not a real artist or I doubt myself, I can log on and read some comments from wonderful people or visit some of the blogs I follow and I am restored! A perfect example is this journal. It worked into a challenge at Inspiration Avenue and I received so much support and positive comments that I love this journal even more. I added my first post and then added this little badge inside that is a stamped image of Hero Arts and then watercolored over it using my pencils and a wet brush (a technique learned in blogland!). I am growing artistically and so thankful, the Top 5 are:

1. Friends I have met in blogland
2. Patience is a virtue I really need to keep reminding myself of
3. Watercolor pencils
4. To remember to challenge myself and do what I fear
5. Prayers are my strength and roots

Journal with wings

I posted earlier this week the start of this journal. I had a lot of ideas I wanted to try with this project. Some are good and some not so good but learned from all of it. Wanted to have dimension and words to invoke creative and fun.  My favorite parts are the zig-zag ribbon edges, the dangling jewels, and the flower. This project works for my entry into Inspiration Avenue challenge theme of "Wings". I love the winged heart symbol. I feel that my heart is flying when I get to create art. It feels like I am being my true self.

A close up of the flower and ribbon.

The inside front page. I made some of the pages for journal writing and some blank to create art.

 For the back page, I added a smashed bottle cap and may want to collage more later.

Overload of thoughts

A few weekends ago we went up to Lake Tahoe, North Shore for a one night trip. It was a beautiful, simple trip and we did a little hiking too. The first night we were able to just get over to the lake before the sun set. I started to draw with my graphite pencils and then later added in the watercolor pencils. I am having fun drawing perspectives. The other thing is that I used my Maui journal. So I think I need to rename the journal as it is now has lots of areas. Oh well.. How do you keep your journals?? I think I would like to make more journals!

 

Now here is a camera view of the lake. Before we left, I took a picture at the same spot. The camera catches alot of shading. This is fun to see from the camera veiw compared to my drawing. So much to learn...

Inspiration_Avenue_Purple_and_Green

Worked on my journal today. Used the weekly theme from Inspiration Avenue of purple and green. Started the page with purple and green acrylic paint. This reminded me of the gardens on the Hana Hwy. We were coming back from a day spent in Hana and the mountains were full of purple and greens. One of my favorite memories of our trip was the colors. Maui seemed to blend all the colors everywhere. The purple plants and setting sun would play with the colors to add such beautiful blues and yellows and oranges in hills, so amazing. Then I loved this plant called the Lobster claw. So I tried to create some in the edge.

The opposite page I created the purple background and then used green ink and pens to create the large leave plants that were everywhere. With so much water and sunshine, all the plants grew so big and beautiful.

Learning curve

Do you ever feel awkward? I am trying to learn and in that process I tend to feel awkward when I create something that I thought was going to turn out one way and it kind of doesn't.. AGH.  Another thing I am trying to learn is that Art is an expression not math.  I will not be given a formula with an equation and one correct answer.  (Ha, I know my sister will smile when she reads this because she knows how I am) So I keep on expressing my art and I hope that the awkwardness gets less. Completed another page in my travel journal. I did not want white pages so I rubbed ink on. Then not sure I created some waves on the bottom. I added some pictures to the page. Wanted to add micro beads so tried to create a shell with them?? 

Then so to not add another photo, I drew a sea turtle. Then ended with my journal on the first page. As I look back, I am wondering how to plan a page and not just add things. Any suggestions?? Thank goodness I have more pages in the journal and I will keep going. 

More pages in the travel journal

On Saturday at my sister's house, we worked on art projects. She showed me how she had glued together some of her journal pages so that they would be thicker for her watercolors. I decided to do that to the travel journal that I had made in December. I like that it will have thicker pages to hold ink, paint, or even more pictures. I also feel better that there aren't so many pages to have to put together.  Here is how it is starting to come together too.

 In addition, I am learning to be more relaxed on how I add elements and how I journal in it. I am having fun.