Waiting for the rain to pass...

The house painting is happening slowly, broken up by weekends and a rainy day here and there. But it is coming along nicely... blue with white trim.  In progress...

I haven't been doing much artsy stuff this week aside from watching a lot of art videos and reading blogs. Lots to catch up on and I have pretty much let myself have the week to just veg on other people's creativity.  I did sign up for Tracy Verdugo's Paint Mojo ecourse and have slowly been working on that. I love her intuitive style and thought I would splurge on the class. I am also thinking of taking Flora Bowley's online course as well to get a different look at intuitive painting. Both of them sort of early Christmas presents to myself.

And I signed up for the NaNoWriMo again this year to write 50,000 words in one month. A novel, or as they call it more likely a really awful first draft. But for me it is a month long writing project that sets me down to put words to paper on a daily basis. I did it in 2010 as well and it was pure drivel but it did get me thinking and writing which is what I wanted to do.

Many projects... open ended time... not in a hurry...

It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.

--Ursula K. LeGuin

The magic is starting to happen...

After getting the back siding redone and the south side of the house patched and ready to go, the house is now being painted! Blue with white trim. Right now it is just the back and south sides. Then the north side and the front will get done in between is rain, jury duty call-in, and painter availability. Hopefully the whole house will be done before the end of the year. I am looking forward to it! It has been a little shabby around here (and not shabby chic!) and it is time for all that to change!

and here it is all blue, still waiting for the white trim...

Loving this color!

Making my own dried cranberries...

Still drying the next day...

Things I have learned:
1. Let them spend more time in the blanching water to fully pop open.
2. Dry them at a higher temp, maybe 145 degrees. I will try again in a few days and see what happens when I make the above changes.
3. They stick like crazy to the drier mesh. Maybe try spraying it first with coconut oil to see if that helps them not to stick so much.

An evening of coffee fun...

Last Thursday Rosaura of Pigment and Parchment had a fun evening workshop involving watercolor and hand lettering. It was to honor Coffee Week here in Sacramento, so she held it at Vic's Cafe (next to Vic's Ice Cream). 

We dabbled in some watercolor techniques, then played with hand lettering and made a coffee themed page. There was lots of laughter and fun (and coffee) as we enjoyed the 2 hour class.

It reminded me how much fun watercolors and hand lettering (not always together) can be. I need to get back to both of them and play here at home more!

Soar...

This weekend I have been tackling my house mess and didn't get any art done. However I did finish one of my art journal pages the other day and then forgot to post it.

Linking to:
Mandarin Orange Monday
Creative Every Day
Art Journal Everyday
Sunday Sentiments

ATC for a swap...

ATC (Artist Trading Cards) are one of my favorite things to make. Little pieces of creative bursts to make and trade. The only "rules" are they have to be 2.5" x 3.5" and never sold. The ones people make to sell are called something else (I forgot). More info from the source we love to hate, Wikipedia HERE.

So Karen at MMSA decided to have another ATC swap and I made 4 to trade off. Actually the two yellowish ones with stamps and the green/orange one I had already made (and were just sitting around) and I made the abundance one when I was a Leslie's house a couple of weekends ago for an art play day.

My favorites of these 4 are the top two, the bird stamp and abundance. They are all mixed media in that they are painted (gelli print except for the abundance one), collaged, have pen/pencil doodling, and washi tape (except for the green/orange one).

Nature inspires me...

Finished up a page I started the other day, still in a bright and neons colors mood. Gelli printed background and added papers, stencils, design rollers, paint pens make up this page. And I am learning how to get the colors closer to the real page in Photoshop Elements. It just took a little more patience than I usually give a photo but I think it is worth it to show the actual colors. What a bright switch for this usually earth-toned girl!

It seems odd to use such neon colors and odd shapes for the idea of nature inspiring me but it makes sense to me. There are some really awesome colors out in nature and when you look closer up at something like a flower there are all sorts of interesting shapes. 

Linked to:

Sunday Sentiments

New art journal pages...

The new pages I have been playing with lately have a lot of bright paint and do not scan well I am finding out. So these are all from my phone's camera. Scanners and cameras don't like neon colors! But lately I do!! So I am using them a lot!

This one I just could not get the color right -- in real life it is brighter.

Linked to:
Paint Party Friday
Art Journal Every Day

New art journal...

I cannot find my current art journal (which I had only started at the end of last year I think and had not really done much in). I happened to have another Canson Journal with that lovely thicker cream colored paper so I just decided to start over. I was in the mood to work in an art journal and I wasn't going to let the fact that I couldn't find mine stop me!

THIS is the journal I usually use -- it has always been my favorite.  You can find them at most art stores or online, this is just where I got mine last. They used to be called Field Drawing Book now they are called Art Book. Either way, I have been using the 7"x10" for my art journals since I started art journaling in 2004. Wow, 10 years ago! But I only have 4 or 5 journals as I am not a real frequent journaler and sometimes I use other books. Well I do a lot for a while then stop and start up again months later -- at least that has been my past experience. It is one of my intentions now to be more regular with journaling.

Paper works for painting as well as drawing/sketching. Mine says it is 90# paper even though the Dick Block info says 80#. Maybe I had an older one with thicker paper, who knows? 

Paint Chip Postcards...

Last Sunday I went down to Leslie's house for an art play day and we made paint chip postcards for the current MMSA swap. You can see hers HERE.

At first I tried to make a scene with the paint chips and it came out ok but I am not usually so patient and this one took a bit longer than I thought it would.

So for the next 2 I used one of my garish orange and purple background post cards and did some geometric pattern stuff on them.

I really like how these came out actually.

One of these days I will scan or photograph some of the Mail Art I have been getting from these swaps and other mail art trades.


Linked to:
Creative Every Day