Lazy Saturday

I've been lounging around in my PJs this morning, working in my art journal while watching The Pioneer Woman's cooking show on The Food Network. I've got to get dressed now though - going out to lunch with family today.

Journal Pages

I've been working in my art journal and thought I'd share a couple of my favorite recently completed pages.

On the pages above I was channeling Donna Downey and her infamous poppies. You can see how to make a page like this by clicking here. The quote by Mary Lou Cook says, "Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun."

And here is my first She-Art girl I made after taking Christy Tomlinson's fabulous She-Art class. This quote says, "She knew the answers would come with time."

Well, I'm heading over to my daughter's house today. She recently broke her foot and has a big old cast on her right leg - poor girl!

A Little Journaling

Some people may faint to know I am working on this . . .

. . . you know who you are.

Zentangles

I started a Zentangle journal a while ago. I find it to be relaxing to work in and it's a natural thing for me to do, as I have always doodled when I talk on the phone and at other times when my hands are idle. I've already completed 30 pages in the journal, so I thought I would share a few of them with you.
It is really a mindless style of art because you really are just serendipitously letting your pen go with the flow. I am working in a Moleskine journal because I like the smoothness of the pages and using a Sharpie Retractable Pen (not the marker) to create the designs because it glides effortlessly over the page. You can see more of my Zentangle Journal pages here.

In other news, my friend Brandy Faulkner is one of the guest artists on the Crescendoh website this week. And she was nice enough to feature my little backyard retreat as a part of her featured article. You can read Brandy's touching Art Saves story (as well as Tracy, Rachel and Teresa's stories) by clicking here.

Journal Update

Not too long ago, I signed up to take a wonderful journaling e-course from Hope Wallace Karney called Nostalgic Musings. Since the class, I've been adding to my journal bit by bit and thought I would share a few pages with you that I recently completed.

The page above features a favorite quotation and a paper lace doily I tinted pink with Glimmer Mist. Then I added a pleated candy paper from one of my favorite chocolates - Frango Mints. The long tag on the right side of the page is a clothing tag from a Merona t-shirt I purchased from Target that I covered with pretty paper.
I found a rubber stamp with another favorite quote which I just stumbled upon, I think at Hobby Lobby - but I'm not 100% sure about that. The chipboard scalloped oval I cut from a cereal box using my Sizzix machine. It's that original red machine they made which I dug out to sell at a garage sale. I was playing around with it in between sales and I had so much fun I decided not to sell it afterall.
This page I just finished this morning. Hope likes to use a lot of cupcake liners in her journals and I like that look also. There are so many fun designs out there now. These two I picked up from Michael's, thanks to my sweet friend Elyse who told me about them.
I drew this little birdie free hand. He reminds me of the little wren that I told you about in this post. The "souvenir" card is from Olga's Designs, who sells the most beautiful digital art on Etsy. I attached a fabric tab to the bottom and hinged it with washi tape on the top so I can add "secret" journaling underneath.

Another cereal box scalloped oval with a graceful swan inside. The template for the swan came from the tag on a pair of Gloria Vanderbilt jeans - the swan is the company logo.

{Did you know that Anderson Cooper is her son?}

Hope you're having a lovely day!

ROD Journal Swap

I told you that I have been making a new journal as a part of Mary Ann Moss' Remains of the Day class. These are some pages I made for a class swap. Everyone seems to have a different style, so it's fun to stir the pot and mix it up a little to add some variety to our journals.

I hope Janet likes these pages I made for her.

A Very Special Box

I finally finished the box to go with my Beautiful Life journal that I told you about here. At first I couldn't find a box that was the right size for the journal. Then I discovered that those photo inexpensive boxes that they sell practically everywhere fit it perfectly. I bought a plain white one at Hobby Lobby and then painted the outside a creamy color.
I embellished the lid with a copy of ephemera Heather provided in her class. The ink in my printer was running low and so it printed out with a pale pink tone - perfect! After that I added some beaded bridal trim to the side of the lid.

Vintage wallpaper, a page from a French novel, raffle ticket, vintage photo, satin ribbon, tulle, a coffee filter rosette and rhinestone earring finish off the lid.

The inside of the lid was collaged with vintage papers coated with glaze. The French flashcard says, "la belle vie" - (the beautiful life).
The bottom of the box was collaged just like the inside of the lid and then a wide piece of beautiful lace was attached to the sides of the box and then left to drape down to the bottom, forming the a billowy "nest" for the journal.

It's so nice to have such a lovely place to keep my Beautiful Life journal.

It's All ABout Me!

Today I am participating in Natasha Burns, It's All About Me Swap & Party.

Sweet Natasha came up with this wonderful twist on all the swaps out there in blogland. She described it like this:

"The idea of this is that you create for fun's sake. You will make something for yourself to keep and enjoy. You will do the project that you've been saying that you will do. You'll try out that new thing that you've been wanting to try out. It will be all about you."

I don't know about you, but I am always so busy making things for swaps or friends or to sell in my Etsy Shop that I very rarely have time to make something special for myself. So I thought this would be a great way to make that happen. I'd be able to use some of that vintage lace, pretty millinery flowers, lovely ribbons and dreamy wallpapers that I've been saving for projects that I send out to other's and use them to make a treasure for myself.

Several weeks ago I signed up for Heather's online class called, A Beautiful Life. (I believe she is keeping this class going thru November, so you still have plenty of time to sign up and make one for yourself!) Heather is so very talented, so of course each lesson was more glorious than the next. I know a lot of you out there took the same class and created the most beautiful journals. Well, as usual I had a ton of things on my to-do list and put the project on the back burner. . . until Natasha came up with her It's All About Me idea and I decided to set aside a day to finish my Beautiful Life Journal just for ME!

So here it is. . . .

Now that you've seen my It's All about Me project, you can check out all the

others right here.