Another Journal Page...

Sort of from the Journal Fodder 365 prompt but turned more into an introspection of my art...

Journal Fodder 365

I joined a group on Ning called Art Journaling and one of the groups I am in is Journal Fodder 365, based on the book by Eric Scott and David Modler. It is a year long look into Art Journaling and the Ning group will go month by month with posted pages from the prompts.

The first month is a lot of introspection about who we are and how we got to where we are now in our lives. Topics like who are the pivotal people in our lives, what roads did we take and not take, what are our personal mythologies...along with the first week prompt of "I am", being the roles we play and so on.

I suspect the prompts will generate a lot of pages. Here is the first one I did...

Design Seeds...

I love the site Design Seeds. It is a great way to look at color combinations and use them to spark creativity. A few of the combos I have enjoyed lately are below.

But do go to the site and explore... very cool!

Coffee Garden and Gelli idea...

Today we had MLK Jr. day off from school so I went out to coffee with my friend Marilyne at Coffee Garden near my house.

She regaled me with the delights of being retired and then I caught her up with all the happenings around school that she has missed this year so far. I think she has the better deal!

Down the street from the cafe is an old wall sign from days gone by:

Then I went to Beer's Books to grab some of their sale hardcover volumes to tear up and use for art journals. Some I will gut the pages and others I may use as altered books, but either way on Monday's the outside cheap table ($ per hardcover) is half off so I walked away with 9 books for less than $5. Works for me!

Also today I played with an idea I had in the shower (why do all good ideas happen there when I can't write them down?)... make strips of plastic and weave them together to make a stencil for the Gelli plate.

So I made a prototype out of paper and tried it out...

liking the results. Now to cut up some old transparencies I no longer need for school!

And finally a second pull with another color... love it!

3 Days to Play...

I love 3 day weekends!

So first of all my general ideas about why I blog come down to it being a creative outlet for me. And maybe somewhere along the journey I will connect with other creative sorts and share ideas and art fun.

I found out about a growing your blog event through my art friend Leslie and found that I got there too late, registration had closed. It turns out to be ok though because I think I want mine to grow slowly for now since I am sort of limited in time... if I find too many creative things to do I end up not doing anything at all. That's just how I am!

And finding out about the Grow your blog event sent me clicking through all sorts of blogs and it is now almost noon and I just managed to get ready for my day! Glad I have an extra day to play!

We have to take the dog to the doggie wash now (a major event considering how dirty she manages to get herself in a short month or so since last bath)... more later.

Later...

Andy helping Maggie with her bath...

Finally she doesn't stink! How she manages to get so stinky in such a short time amazes me!

Things to figure out...

I realized a week had gone by and I had not written a single post, although I was doing some art every evening after work. Mostly I was too tired (after teaching Middle School all day) to stay up and extend it to the blog.

In light of that I want to figure out how to get photos onto the blog more quickly. I may try via my phone although then I don't have a chance to crop or adjust brightness or anything, which makes me wonder if I need to do that anyway?

I need to ask around and see what other art-posting bloggers do. I already know that a couple of people who do cooking (Paleo) blogs spend a couple of hours a night on their blogs... I am not willing to do that. Teaching during the day only leaves me with a certain amount of time and energy in the evenings and I don't want to spend it all putting things on a blog.

So that brings me to the other thing I realized I needed to figure out: why am I doing the blog?

For me it is more a record keeping way for me to see what I have been doing artwise. So I ask myself, "Self, why can't you just post to Flickr and not worry about the blog?" I do like the times when people respond to things I have posted but then I could see that in Flickr too.

I spent some time yesterday looking at the art blogs I enjoy and realized most of them (95% maybe) also have the blog because they do other things online: online classes, sell in Etsy, etc. They use the blog both to show people what they are doing but also as a constant reminder of their classes, shop, etc. I have neither, so again, is a blog necessary or just a place to put photos?

I need to think about this...
But today I am going to go play with the gelli printing plate and do other art with a new art friend in Tracy. I always get so inspired when I can art play with friends.

More gel plate prints and week one of art journal calendar...

Sunday is a great day to play with the gel printing plate. Of course now I have a gazillion backgrounds -- need to work with them!

I am getting better at making several passes over each page to get depth of colors and interest... Now I wish I had another week of vacation to play more!

And Week 1 of the January Art Calendar is done...

Word for the Year...

I saw a lot of websites with this idea over New Year's so I thought I would give it a try. Instead of making resolutions (that never get kept), pick a word, one word, that you can focus things you do over the year from. Here are a few other blogs that explain it much better than I could:
Gretchen Rubin
One Word 365
My One Word
Christine Kane

So, after toying with words like Creative or Gratitude or Patience I finally honed in on the word release.
R E L E A S E
Release seems to fit a lot of my needs for the year:
Release of creative energy (in letting myself do more art)...
Release of anger...
Release of bad health or bad eating habits...
Release of worry...
Release of fears...
etc.

What to do with all those Christmas tree lights...

This evening I walked into the living room and found this... Andy said he missed the lights and since I wasn't riding my bike lately...

Background Pages...

I did some playing with the Gelli Arts gel printing block yesterday and today. Plus today did a little stenciling for backgrounds.

It is not the greatest photo -- that should also be one of my goals this year: to learn how to set up the camera to take better photos of my journal and other art work. I also want to learn how to do a video for a journal flip.I need a tripod to start with...

Another page and background.

I wonder if there is a You Tube video on how to set up for an Art Journal Flip video?

Art Journal Calendar Project

One of my art goals this year is to do a monthly Art Journal Calendar to highlight what I do for daily art during the year. I found an old art journal that I had taken pages out of and had exactly enough pages left for 2 years of calendars! Serendipity!
Here is my January start:

And my entry for the first day of a New Year! Great beginnings!

Art Intentions for 2013...

It feels like a year of new beginnings and a lot of finishing...

Some of my art goals intentions for the New Year are:
1. Do art daily! Even if it is 10 minutes of making a background in my journal. Just do it!
2. Do a monthly art journal calendar to keep track of what I do for my daily art time.
3. Work on my  Ticket to Venice journal.
4. Finish my ROD (Remains of the Day) Journal.
4. Paint on a canvas (board) .
5. Make more books!
6. Work on the Craftsy classes I signed up for.
7. Find my art style... an ongoing search.
8. Go to Art Unraveled in Phoenix in July.
9. Do more art quilting.
10. Make my taupe quilt.
11. Do more embroidery.
12. Finish the scarf I am knitting!
13. Redesign my blog title with photos behind the title so it always looks the same on all browsers.

I also wanted to mention that the other day a few of us who are local but taking Mary Ann Moss' Ticket to Venice online class met up in Fremont at the studio of one of the participants. We spent the day gabbing, playing, looking at each other's art, and getting motivated to work on our journals for the class. I had SO MUCH FUN!! It really rejuvenated my spirit for doing ART and making it a priority in my life. I was so busy looking at stuff that I actually forgot to take pictures of the day but I am sure it won't be the last time we all meet and play!

Journal spread December 2012

More journal pages I have been working on.

New washi storage...

new washi storage, a photo by Cali-rhoz on Flickr.

Works better than the other free-for-all container although... it's already full! And I still have 4 more rolls... and no doubt more in the next year coming, so I will need to start a second container too!

Making a Whole 30 Commitment...

After dabbling around in the Paleo/Primal eating world for the last year and some months, and after a few months of eating things again that are NOT helping my body at all (breads and pastries), I have decided to do the Whole 30 in January to get me back on track. Seems like a good time to start off right again, changing my eating habits back to those that made me feel better in the first place.

Another Rainy Day...

Another rainy day in Sacramento... a good day to work on (again) the reorganization of my art room. After I put all my art stuff into the closet thinking it would be easy to get to there Pandora (the black cat) had to be isolated from the other cats who were beating her up so my art room became her room and then it was mpossible to get into the closet. So yesterday I brought everything out and traded the art cabinets with some of the fabric bins I do not use on a daily basis. Today I will finish rearranging so that I actually have space to work again.
The problem is that I do 2 activities that both have a lot of stuff associated with them and I want to be able to access it all in this tiny space. NOT going to happen, so I had to re-evaluate and make it work better for me (again).
Today outside the front door:

The oranges this year are so tiny. I hope they are still sweet and not bitter like we have had in past years when they were small. I guess we didn't give them enough water at the crucial time. In the years we water them right they are large and delicious. I may pick a few today and check them out.

Resurrecting my Art Journal...

First off had to add 2013 to the title page since I had hardly done anything in it all 2012.

I started it off with a bang (see these pages in my Flickr account) but then managed to lose the journal in a box of stuff I packed up and put aside and just found it again earlier this month. So, since I only had a few pages done and why waste a perfectly good journal, I just added another year and am keeping on in the same journal.
So I did a couple of pages last week...

Then last night started playing around with more backgrounds. Tonight I worked on one page so here is the background...

And the page...

Taking a bit of time to get back into the groove of things. I have to relocate my supplies which got moved when I cleaned out my closet and moved them in there. Now that I share my art room with one of our cats who needs to be isolated so the others don't beat up on her, I have to move her stuff when I want to get into the closet to take out any supplies. Not the easiest way to do art...
I think one of my projects over this coming 2 week break is to rearrange things a little so my art stuff is in easier reach. I need a bigger room!!

I may need another washi tape container...

Not that I ordered a few more tapes from Amazon this morning... Just sayin' .. storage is getting tight -- time to use them more!

It needed some Day of the Dead ornaments...

So I started with this...

and made a couple of prototype ornaments...

Basic idea ok, sewn and stuffed with batting. Now for some tweaking...

Nightmare Before Christmas Tree 2012

We haven't done our usual tree (or any tree) for a few years so this year we decided to dust off the old Nightmare Before Christmas and Halloween ornaments and do a tree... Halloween might be Oct. 31 for some folks but it lasts all winter for us!)

It still needs a bit more -- maybe I will add some sari ribbons this year! Stay tuned!

Sari Ribbon...

First I saw some on someone else's craft blog... Then I found some on Etsy... next thing I know I am the proud owner of a bunch of gorgeous sari ribbons...

Dreaming of ways to use it in my fabric art...

Apparently I am a year behind the curve. Already found a Sari Ribbon Blog Hop online from last year and a whole lot of Pinterest links and even You Tube videos and online shops with projects and so much more! I had never even heard of sari ribbon until a couple of weeks ago when I saw a small package of it in a rubber stamp store of all places! When I got home I Googled it and found some on Etsy and here we are, me and my sari ribbon!

Out of the Box Circles...

On Thursday I went to the Country Sewing Center for the "Out of the Box" art quilting/sewing class. This time we made cut up circles:

Here is a close-up of the green background one:

I really enjoyed making these and got a lot of ideas for what to do with them... mostly thinking of a fabric bookcover. I will be playing with these ideas and will post what happens!
UPDATE: Found out where these come from! Check out Sandi Cummings and her Thinking Outside the Blocks book!

Finished the tote bag for Kit...

Finally! I started it in a class a few months ago then didn't get it finished until this weekend.

I am happy to finally have finished it -- not just because I showed it to her in the process a couple of months ago and she probably thinks it fell off a cliff or something! But also it taught me a few things about tote bag making... and... now I can start on other projects that have been waiting in the wings!

Quilt Guild and relearning how to knit...

Last weekend was the River City Quilter's Guild Quilt Show and this year I remembered in time to actually go to it! It got me inspired to do some thing on my taupe quilt (like start it).
While I was there I met one of the women from the Art Quilt group who invited me to their meetings which was nice since that is really the kind of work I am more interested in doing.
Then on Tuesday I went to the Guild meeting. I was impressed by how welcoming and friendly they all were so I joined the guild. I figured if I go to meetings and am around these creative people some of that will rub off and motivate me more -- since hanging out by myself these last few months and not doing anything crafty was definitely not the way to go!
Also that Tuesday I had a knitting lesson from Anna of Anna's Yarn Shop in Elk Grove. When I went to the shop a few days ago she was very nice to me, a very beginning relearner, and when I expressed disappointment there wasn't a beginning class I could join until next year she suggested an hour's lesson. It turned out to be better actually because I like one-to-one lessons where I can get all the attention. She has me making a cute scarf that is easy but looks complicated.
Here it is at the beginning:

I will post pix as it comes along!
THIS is what it will look like.

Thanksgiving Break and the return of my muse...

She's back!
Well, slowly no doubt, but I realized the other day a lot of the stress I was having had to do with not using my creative outlet to let any of it go. I was really missing artwork and sewing so...

It has been nice to have a week off for Thanksgiving Break to have time for all this.

I am taking a few baby steps back into it all and we will see where it takes me!