miles beyond the moon

Craft Attitude Open Studio

I am participating in the Craft Attitude Open Studio this month.  I decided to create an art journal/planner to keep track of ongoing projects in a more organized fashion than little slips of paper scattered all over my studio :-)  I wanted to try incorporating some of my digital artwork in a Smash Book to create this journal, but I hated the thought of covering up all the pretty vintage paper pages.  Craft Attitude to the rescue!  

Since Craft Attitude it transparent it allows the pretty papers to show through and enhance my images.  And with the small in-between spaces on the Craft Attitude sheet I could even make my own washi tape.

I am loving this new art journal/planner and best of all I am actually USING it.  I like seeing my images as I turn through pages.  Craft Attitude film is so easy to use it was hard to know when to stop playing with pictures and save some empty space for writing too.

 

 

 

 

I Wish I Had a River I Could Skate Away On

Where I live in Seattle we don't get much real winter weather.  But I have been watching the snow and blustery weather going on in the rest of the country and remembering the winters I used to know growing up in northern Minnesota.  And even though it was frequently cold and snowy, we practically lived outside in the winter.  There was just so much to do and see. 

I have been remembering days spent skating on the rink the firemen created every winter by flooding the parking lot by the town hall.  This was where the boys learned to play hockey and the girls practiced their fancy spins and twirls.  My favorite thing was to just skate round and round and enjoy the feeling of flying over the ice.  Purely magic.

 

Happy 2014!

I love this time of the year.  A whole new year stretches out before us with all kinds of possibilities. 

Today I've been doing some digital art journaling.  The Art Journal Caravan is getting ready to embark on it's final journey - kind of bittersweet.  I know Tangie will have all kinds of creative ideas for our journals in the weeks to come.  First up is picking a word that I want to focus on for the coming year.  It is amazing how a single word can be a catalyst for motivating you toward the direction you want your life to take.  The word I have chosen this year is bloom.  To bloom ... to grow and flourish ... to thrive. 

 

 

Amelia :: A FREE Friday Download

It has been wayyyyy too long since we have had a FREE Friday Download to play with.  So today meet Amelia.  She is another vintage girl from my collection of old photos.  Don't you just love her crushed velvet dress, and what a hat!  Click here to download Amelia.

Today is Art Friday, and I can't wait to get back to The Mermaid Circus.  I really wanted to take this class since it is Teesha Moore's first ever online class.  To be able to sit with Teesha and watch while she creates one of her journal pages is a rare treat.  And I am loving Jane Davenport's illustration and painting lessons too.  She had me enjoying drawing again.  Take a look at these cuties :-)

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and have some time for art play!

Published!

 

I am thrilled to be featured in the current edition of Art Journaling magazine.  You could say I am over the moon :-) 

 

 

Four digital journal pages that I created for the Art Journal Caravan are featured.  I also wrote an article about how I create my journal pages - everything from that first spark of inspiration, to process of gathering images and finally arranging them on the page and adding my journaling.

 

 

I never know exactly where I am going when I sit down to create a new journal page.  It is that creative journey that is the most important part of art journaling for me.  I am convinced that our art journals are more than just pretty pages.  I believe we can use our art journals to move our lives in the direction we want to go.

 

AND I feel so fortunate to be featured in an issue that also includes Teesha Moore.  Teesha is the person that really got me excited about art journaling in the first place.  I feel as if I've come full circle.

 

 

Off on Another Adventure

I'm off on another adventure this weekend.  This time I'm heading to Mesa, Arizona to attend Tangie Baxter's Art Journaling Workshop.  I met Tangie (and her mom Rebecca and her sister Molly) at Journalfest last year.  Three talented women!  We had a great time working in our journals together - I felt as if I had known the three of them forever.

It will be great to take some time away from my digital art to create some paper pages. I think working in both digital and paper keeps me from getting stale in either of my two favorite art mediums - there is always something new to learn.

We'll have a late night journaling party tonight and spend all day Saturday creating in our journals too.  The temperatures in Mesa will be in the 80's - so this will be a nice break from our cool fall days here in Seattle.  It will be back to normal life again on Monday, but what a nice interlude this will be.

Art Journaling Again

I don't know if it is because I have such a nice new space to play in, or if I have just been away from my paper journal too long, but right now I have been spending most of my art time playing in my journal.

 

 

I've been working in two journals.  I made both of them according to the recipe for Teesha Moore's Amazing 16 Page Journal.  I have been collaging bits of this and that on the pages, trying not to be too picky about what goes where.  I am just working with a basket of paper scraps and using whatever catches my eye.

 

 

This is my favorite way to work in my journals - to turn off the left side of my brain and just see where my creative mind will lead me. 

 

 

Lots more pen work and journaling to do, but I wanted to let you have a peek at what I've been working on.

December Daily/ Reverb11 Journal

I am following along with Hope Karney's daily Reverb11 journaling prompts on her blog.  Each day during the month of December she will post a topic to write about that will help us reflect back on 2011 or to look forward to what we hope will 2012 bring. 

I spent some time over the last two days putting together the journal and preparing the pages that will  be page dividers for each day.  My journal will be a combination of digital and paper since I enjoy both.  Here's a look at what I've done so far.

Not much yet to see on the cover.  But I have some ideas in mind ... that comes later.

 

Cover pages for December 1 - December 12.  I have only decorated the fronts of the pages so far.  I will decorate the backs of the pages too.  I want to include some hidden compartments and fold-out pages - I love interactive books.

A closer look at some of the pages...

Two sweet faces for December 2.

 

Four elegant ladies strolling through the falling snow on December 4.

 

December 8 - don't you just want to pinch those cute little cheeks?

We've had some great journaling prompts so far.  They have really got me thinking - and writing.  On December 1 Hope asked us to write about something new that we tried in 2011.  I decided to write about the the art workshops and retreats I attended in 2011 - something I had not done before.  It was great to take classes with so many kindred spirits - and so much fun to immerse myself in art and mixed media with such talented teachers.

Just posting all these photos makes me want to get back to journaling.  I want to make a calendar page for December to schedule all the events of this busy season.  I think it will help keep me sane! 

 

Journalfest Saturday

Saturday morning was still and quiet.  It was so still you could hear the call of the gulls.  So still you could hear the sound of the bell buoy as the waves gently rocked it on the water.

 

Last day of Journalfest.  Today's class was called Pencil Dreams and was taught by Karen O'Brien.  I became an instant fan of Karen's exquisite drawings.  These are photos from her journals.  Look at those eyes...

She also combines collage and drawing to create journal pages that just awesome.

Karen showed us how to use clear gesso or absorbent ground medium painted over magazine images and then how add layers of color with several kinds of pencils to create unique faces.  So great for the beginning drawer like me!  After lunch we drew some fantasy faces.  Karen explained these faces which don't quite follow traditional rules are easy to draw and sometimes become the most expressive faces you can imagine.  Here are several faces that I've drawn and collaged.  I love the way they turned out!

 I had such a great time in Karen's class and learned techniques I know I will use in the future.  I think that was one of the things I appreciated most about Journalfest.  All the instructors were so completely open about sharing and teaching their techniques.  I came home with a head overflowing with inspiration and ideas.  Time well spent indeed.

Journalfest Friday

Friday morning brought a stormy sky.  The wind was blowing.   I could hear the waves crashing on the beach.

 

The golden and russet leaves of the maples seem to glow against the grey sky.

 Today’s class with Fran Meneley was called Finding Your Voice.  Fran brought all kinds of art materials and encouraged us to explore and try many as we could so we could find out which methods suited our style.  She demonstrated techniques and offered us ideas about things we could do when we got stuck.

 Here’s what I discovered today about my art journaling style:

•  I am a sort of fussy journaler – I don’t like pages that buckle and ooze paint over on to other pages.  I love seeing this in other people’s journals, just not in my own.
• I really like working flat rather than in a bound journal.  I’ve started a new journal which has metal rings that open and close.  I can take a page out to work on it, and re-arrange pages to my heart’s content.
• I really like collage.  It is my favorite part of journaling.  When I get into the zone and begin playing with color, pattern and paper I tune can tune out the world.  It rained today.  Really hard.  I was totally in the zone while I was collaging and never even noticed.
• I almost always create a page with a character for a focal point.  I love crafting these characters from all sorts of bits and pieces.  I used to love making paper dolls when I was a girl.  I don’t think I ever completely got over that.
• I love to fuss over a page and add lots of tiny details – sort of like embroidering with ink.

Here’s a look at a couple of the pages I made today.

 Journalfest wraps up tomorrow.  I am loving my classes, but I am ready to head home, back to a comfy bed and a warm fire.