The End Of The Journey

This has been a most amazing journey.  I am proud to have come through this experience with a new understanding of myself and a some wonderful techniques.  I have also met a few new friends.  Thank you to all who have visited and left comments.

Zeal

Zeal

I am a little sad that this journey is finished.  I have so enjoyed it.

I wanted to change it up a little with a dark background and white drips but my dripage was less than satisfactory.  So I decided to splatter.  I like the finished page.

Yes

Yes

It worked.  I printed this image on a paper towel.  I made it with my iPad using a digital painting app.  The amusing thing is when it came out of the printer the first thing I said was.....YES!!!

X Marks the Spot

X Marks the Spot

When I first read the word for today I thought of how as children, my brother and sister and I  would bury things in my mother's flower bed and make a treasure map.  And of course X always marked the spot.

I tried the Distress Ink technique with the dish washing liquid.  I used a tag but I really don't like how it turned out.  Then I starting writing the wrong thing so I tried fixing it and made it worse so I believe I'll just go to bed.  Tomorrow will be better.

Words

Words

The inspirational video today was so powerful.  Words can make a good day better and a bad day worse or vice versa.  I'm not always careful about my words.  I don't always think before I speak and there is no taking it back once they are out of your mouth.

Vision

Vision

I love the white areas left by the tape.  After removing the tape I had a central area that looked like it was framed.  I am very happy with the way my eye turned out.  I can't believe we have already reached the letter V.  I have enjoyed this so much.  It has not only made me stretch my creativity but it has also made me do some internal searching.

Unique

Unique

I decided to use the watercolor and cling wrap technique for this page.  I used darker colors and made the page quite wet when I put the cling wrap on it.  I love the unique way it turned out.

Try

Try

I guess I was in a buggy mood tonight. I used two new stamps I bought to go around the border and then used two more from the same collection to stamp the dragonflies.  I like the shimmer from on the page.  You don't really see it when you are just looking at it but the flash from the camera made it stand out.

Self image

Self Image

I shamelessly copied Bernice's idea of journaling inside the image. They say imitation is the highest form of flattery so I hope she is flattered and not upset. 

Responsibilities

Responsibilities

I really loved doing this page.  However, I really need to work on placement.  I used fine wire and a couple of beads to add to the tag that I put the verse onto.

The journaling prompt really hit home for me.
Yes, I take myself way to seriously.  And YES, I take on things that are not my responsibility.  In fact I was told today at work to stop cleaning up other people's messes.  That they need to be responsible for their own mess.  While I do know this intellectually, I don't like to leave things undone that I know need to be done.  This is something that I have always done.  That is the way I was raised.  Be responsible.  So it is very hard for me to walk away.  I guess I need to remember that others need to be responsible too.

Qualities

Q is for Qualities
I used a white oil pastel crayon as my resist and then sprayed the page with Dylusion inks.  I love the verse for today's journal page.

Possibilities

Possibilities

I'm going to confess that all my photos are in a large plastic tub.  I know, I know I'm a horrible person.  I want to put them all in albums but I never seem to get  to it.  Now I take pictures with my iPhone and they don't get lost or messed up.

I went through the tub looking for just the right photo that I could alter.  It was a lot of fun because I relived a lot of good memories especially of some loved ones who are no longer with us.  I ultimately chose a photo of the ruins we visited in Mexico.

Openness

Openness

I am not as open with others as I should be.  I'm always worried that others won't understand me.  So for the most part I am fairly shy and introverted.  The only person whom I feel totally comfortable with, warts and all, is my husband of 38 years.  He has seen both the best and worst of me and still loves me....all of me.  I am constantly amazed at his love.  I thank God everyday for allowing me to have him in my life.

As for the shaving cream technique.....not quite sure it worked out right.  I don't have any re-inkers so I used my alcohol inks.  It did come out with a pretty swirly (is that even a word) pattern with a very subtle color.

Liebster Award

I am humbled by B J at Ccraftcorner who nominated me for the Liebster Award.  Thank you so much.

About this award:

This award was designed to be a blog award in the "pay it forward" fashion. Once you've been nominated, you award it to 5 blogs that you like that have fewer tham 200 followers to encourage new visitors to visit these blogs.

Rules for award:

Thanks the person who gave you the award and link back to their blog.

Post the award on your blog.

Give the award to 5 bloggers who you appreciate that have fewer than 200 followers.

Leave a comment on their blog letting them know you have given them this awesome award.

I will be posting my nominations in the next few days.  Please check back for my nominations and visit them.

UPDATE. 2.21.2012

My first nomination goes to.....Drum Roll Please

Patricia at Creating with Creativity

Nature

Nature

Caught up again.  I hate being behind on anything.  A little OCD coming thru...lol.  Same technique as yesterday and I love the results.

Mindfulness

Day 13
Mindfulness
This is so much fun.  I did not realize that you could wipe out paint with a baby wipe and a stencil.  I love this technique.

Laughter

Laughter

I got my new inks today so I really wanted to play with them.  I used them to color the background.  Love them.

Kindness



As you can see I'm falling behind.  And I can tell from the colors that I was having a ho-hum kind of day.  I usually use much brighter colors.  And it looks like I just stuck some things to the page.....which is pretty much all I did.  So I decided to complete this page and go to bed.  Hopefully the next one will be much better, both the day and the journal page.

This is one of my most favorite quotations.  I have used it several times before in other journals.  I think kindness is what drives me.  I try to be kind to everyone, no matter what.  Some days I don't feel like an especially kind person but if I remember this quote, I usually can find it deep within me and then my day always seems to be better for it.

Journey

J is for Journey

Life is a journey and we all must choose which direction we will travel.  I choose to follow the road that God mapped out and to follow His Son.  Some choose other roads.  Their journey maybe full of fun and their road paved with silver and gold but the destination is quite different than mine.  Sometimes my road is bumpy and sometimes I get lost but I always know where to go to find the directions to get back on course ....the Bible.

Interests

I really enjoyed this technique.  Although it was really difficult to find an actual can of soda these days.  Seems the stores in my neck of the woods only carry soda in plastic bottles.  But I managed to find a can of tea.  I only have three colors of alcohol ink but they worked beautifully.

My first thought when thinking about interests is flower gardening.  This is the time of year when I start planning what to do to my flower beds.  I can hardly wait for the weather to warm up so I can get my hands in the dirt.  I spend the whole spring with dirt under my fingernails.  So I just had to make a flower.

Humour

Humour

I have to admit the whole stamping with veggies thing just didn't work for me.  I don't keep potatoes in the house because my husband and I don't really eat them enough to buy them.  I don't like celery ... Unless it is slathered in enough peanut butter so as to actually disappear from sight.  So I just went with the theme.

I love to laugh.  If I didn't have humour in my life I don't think I could make it thru a day.  The first thing I thought of was a clown.  My father was a clown for the Shriners in his younger days .  He collects clown figurines.  I used to love watching him dress up and put on his clown "face".

Goals

Goals

I hadn't really thought about goals for this year other than trying to do art every day.  Last year my main goal was to graduate with my graduate degree in Adult Education.  I graduated in May of 2013. It seems like I've been going to school my whole life.  But now I'm finally done. ....at 58 years old!

So setting goals wasn't a thing I thought much about.  Except that I finally had the time to actually create.

Fitness

Fitness
I actually did this page digitally using ArtRage on my iPad.  My husband and I have a "no art" agreement on Wednesdays but this week it is on Thursday.  I know, technically this is art but....

Fitness.....I'm not really very good at that.  Just about every other week I start an exercise program that lasts about 1 day.  Intellectually I know that I need to exercise but I am lazy.  There I said it.  After working 10 hours I just don't feel like exercising.  And besides, I wouldn't have time for art and this blog.  Ok I could come up with a whole lot of excuses.  I've had years of practice.

Emotion

Emotion

I decided to add an image of a little girl because it reminds me of how innocent and real children are about their emotions.  They cry when they are sad, laugh when they are happy.  They share their emotions freely.

This was a difficult one.  I have had clinical depression for most of my life but have been taking medication for about 20 years.  So emotions used to rule.  With the medication and age I have learned to use emotions in a positive way.  I have also learned to give everything up to God.  Some days I am more successful at this than others.

Decision

Decision

First I painted my background with two colors of acrylic paint blending them where they met on the page.  While the paint was still wet I pressed a homemade stamp onto the page.  I didn't have any bubble wrap so I had to make a decision on how to achieve the look.  I found just the thing, a rubbery placemat that I cut up.  It looks woven and had holes in it.  I like the effect and it was similar to the bubble wrap look.

Creativity

Creativity
I used water colors to do my page background.  Then on a separate sheet of watercolor paper I added some very wet watercolor and while it was still wet I sprinkled salt over it.  After this dried I sketched some sweet little birds and then added them to my page.  Creative right?

Believe

B is for Believe
I loved the cut-away edge of the example and wanted to incorporate it into my page.  I enjoyed the doodling but I don't feel especially comfortable with it. I used my Inktense pencils to color in my doodles and then used a water brush to soften the color.

Adventure

A is for Adventure

After inking my page I used a home made stamp which I spritzed with water to "bleach" out the design and then journaled