Destination Unknown

 

         I finally got all the Halloween cards finished and mailed! Before I put everything away, I just had to make a mixed media art journal page. I haven’t been doing any art journalling for a long time. I’ve been watching Vicki Papaioannou YouTube videos and just had to get back to it. So, here’s my creation. It is on an 8.5 x 11 canvas.

 

         The first thing I did was die cut a moon mask; used the negative first to ink the moon; used the positive to cover it up while spraying the background.

The background was sprayed with a variety of ink sprays that I have had for years as well as a couple Tim Holtz Oxide Sprays. Then water was misted on, and I pounced a paper towel up and down. I did this a couple of times until I liked it. It was then that I realized I should have put a coat of Gesso on it first to seal the canvas….oh well, too late for that this time! It doesn’t show well in the photo, but I also flicked some diluted white paint on the background for stars. I used a fan brush so the specks are small. A little larger would have been better but I was scared to flick more on in case they were too big. Sometimes you just must live with what you got!

The skeleton people are what inspired this layout. They came in the 12” paper pack that I picked up at Michaels. I hand cut them and inked the edges with Distress Black Soot ink.

The suitcases were free clip art that I printed on white cardstock and then hand cut them. I had at first printed them on photo paper, but they were too shiny and didn’t seem to match the layout. These were hand cut and the edges inked again with Black Soot.

The ‘undying love’ were in the paper pack and the ‘Destination Unknown’ was computer generated.

Everything was glued down and then tiny flowers that were also from the same Halloween paper pack were hand cut and popped in with the luggage. This is another Vicki P. tip.

I still have to seal it but I don’t have any spray sealant right now, so I’ll just have to be careful with it. I cannot use liquid sealant like Mod Podge because the background ink will react to anything liquid.

Okay, Halloween crafting is over now. On to Christmas cards.

Have a wonderful, safe and creative weekend everyone. Sprinkle kindness everywhere!

  Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes takes a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

 

Coping with the Pandemic Art Page

        We had yet another rainy weekend and today was very windy….like gale force winds. Our walk was cut a bit short as I could hardly move forward by the end of it.

        I’ve been very busy making dozens of masks and scrub hats for the hospital and for friends but today, thanks to the weather, my brain disorders were too bad for me to sew. So, it was down to the lower studio (aka the basement) where I made an art journal page to reflect staying home during the pandemic. Our provincial government just extended the self-isolation until May 21….if only more people would just stay home this could end sooner!

        So here’s the art journal page.

        I work on a piece of mixed media paper that was removed from the pad. It’s the best for this kind of art because it takes lots of layers of spray and water. The background was several different sprays of ink; then several different Distress Inks sponged on; then some stamping…a little bit of everything. The photo is our house. Joe was laughing at me when I told him I was going outside in the wind to take a photo of our house to put on an art journal page – laughing and shaking his head, so the usual thing he does when I tell him my plans. To create the viruses, ugly grey cardstock was sprayed with pink and then purple spray and one of them had some clear glitter in it….I mix up a lot on my own and I’m not very good at labeling them. Then I drew the viruses and cut them out. White paint was added to the tops of the viruses and they were then outlined with a black sharpie. This will be my reminder of coping with this pandemic.

        That’s all for a very windy April 13, 2020.

Cheers

Violet

PS: To save a card to your Pinterest account, simply hover over the image until the ‘Pin It” symbol appears and then click…it sometimes take a few seconds. This will take you to your own Pinterest account to save the card.

I'm not smiling until spring.....

We had the first bad snow storm which was mixed with freezing rain and then more snow and then high cold winds! I hate winter! 

I made this art journal page a few years ago but I'm reposting it because that's how I feel today!

Well I’m sure glad that last weekend is behind us…..sunnier days ahead….ooops, wrong, more rain tomorrow….so healthier days ahead will have to do. The above average temperatures decided to drop to below normal on Saturday and brought lots of rain with it. If you are a regular reader of my blog you will know that I have two rare brain disorders and they do not like abrupt temperature or atmospheric pressure change. Saturday was just an okay day but Sunday morning I woke up with a full blown attack of trigeminal neuralgia. Groan. Because of the pending bad weather we had no plans except to go to church and out for lunch afterwards but that sure didn’t happen! I was talking like someone who was recovering from a stroke – hard to get words from the brain to leave the mouth…and understandable. Needless to say it was a quiet day around here Sunday. Joe of course just gave me a hug Sunday morning and said, “Don’t worry about dear. Your speech will come back later today”. Well, it did improve some during the day, but not much. He is my rock that’s for sure. However, I never worry about bad days because bad days are temporary and good days are so much better than bad days I prefer to think about them instead of wallowing in self pity.

 Sure enough, today started out with much less pain and I could speak again and there was no rain this morning so we went for an hour and half walk. It sure felt good to get out of the house! It was pouring rain again just after supper and more coming tomorrow so I won’t be going far tomorrow either. But that’s okay, I have many, many quilts on the go that need to get finished.

Last year when I was having a bad day I created an art journal page. I did post it but I'm posting it again as a reminder. This was such a fun page to make.

 

Today’s card is one that I would like to receive if someone was sending me a card. Yeah, I like it that much.

I took some scraps of paper that went together and cut banners in various sizes and inked the edges. Then a large piece of pink paper was glued to the blue paper and the banners were glued to the crease. Then the brown and pink (I love brown and pink together) was placed over the ends of the banner. The sentiment is a sticker. This is why I don’t throw out small bits of paper! I love using them up in various ways.

That’s all for a Monday, October-06-14.

Cheers

Violet

Home Sweet Home

I haven’t done too much in the way of Mixed Media or Art Journal pages lately but here is one that I did get made. I like my pages to tell a story or give someone food for thought.

This one is the usual art journal page technique. Lots of spray paint and stencils for the background. Some funky trees and house from paper. I love hearts so I had to have them and besides it was a Home Sweet Home page. The sentiment was printed off and layered a couple times on paper and then glued on. Just a fun page with a reminder that there is no place better than a loving home.

Cheers

Violet

 

Home Sweet Home

Now today is the perfect summer day! 75°F with a light breeze! We got the grass cut, the weeds out and everything watered and the last application of MiracleGro applied. If only it would stay like this instead of the wild fluctuation of temperature and humidity that we have had so far. This has not been a typical Ontario summer, at least not weather wise.

By the way, please don’t feel sorry for me just because I happen to have a couple of rare brain disorders. There are lots of people who have a heavier cross to bear than I do. Once in awhile I like to mention it only so you will not be confused at the various cards I make…some are very elaborate, some not. Some days I just can’t concentrate enough to do anything complicated, and some days I just can’t find my muse! Today I’m have a good day, health-wise, as the brain disorders have settled down. I’ve lived with this since Nov 1999, and brain surgery in Oct 2,000, so we’re pretty used to the ups and downs.

Today I decided to post an art journal page I just made. I don’t do too many of these but every once in awhile I get the urge to make something different. Stamping Bella has an art journal challenge on Tuesday’s but I don’t think I used her suggestion this week but she doesn’t care if we do or not, she just wants to encourage us to express ourselves. Most people do an art journal page to express their current feelings. Well, my overall feelings don’t change that much. I’m not a worrier, moody or depressed person. I’m pretty much the same every day from the time my feet touch the floor in the morning until I crawl into bed at night. “Every day this side of the dirt is a good one” is my motto. Yes, I thank God even for the bad days because I’m still here and it makes the good days even better. So, instead of expressing feelings, I like to take a saying and make a page for it.

 

The background is the usual spray ink and stencils and paint. The house and trees were cut from some paper that I painted and sprayed and stenciled as are the strips behind the sayings and the strip by the front door. The saying was computer generated and then cut apart and glued onto some cardstock and then the hand-painted paper. Nothing special but its okay. I like hearts - can you tell?

Cheers

Violet

 

 

 

Dreams have no Expiry Date

This weather is ridiculous! We had yet another thunderstorm and more torrential rain last night at 2:00 and it didn't end until 3:30. And we are having another one right now. However, I have relatives that live further north and they are in desperate need of rain. My cousin said he was hoeing the garden behind the house and looked up to see it raining in the front of the house, but it never rained on the garden. So odd.

I haven't done any mixed media or art journal pages in a long time but Stamping Bella decided to start posting them on Tuesdays (or Wednesdays) again so I thought I make a page. I was reading something on the Internet and it said something about giving up on a dream and I thought to myself "Dreams shouldn't have expiry dates" and I decided right then to make a page. Here it is.

The background is the usual mixture of paint and several kinds of ink and stencils and drops of inks and rub-ons. The large flower is a foam stamp that came with some stuff from the thrift store so I had to use it but I added some acrylic paint to darken it. The clocks are Tim Holtz stamps and the numbers are a Crafter's Workshop stencil that I won. The word "Dreams" are stickers but I have no idea where they came from. I cut open the stickers and throw the top out so who knows who made them....although I think they came from the dollar store. The little butterfly sitting on the "M" is a rub-on.

So, what ever your dream is, don't give it an expiry date! Dreams are free!

Cheers
Violet

Dream - Believe - Imagine

Sunday was not a good day for me and I had no idea what I felt like doing....but I knew quilting was out because I don't like "noise" when I'm having a bad day...and the sewing machine counts as noise.  So, I wandered down to the lower studio but I didn't feel like making cards and unfortunately I did not clear up my card making mess on the table so scrapbooking was out - cleaning up was not happening either! So, I went over to the old office desk where I paint and picked up a blank page from my mixed media stack and decided to do a page for the Stamping Bella challenge. No idea in my head at all. Just wanted to play. Here's my page.

I just started by spraying on some ink, and then stenciling with acrylic paint, more spray, more paint, on and on until I liked it. Okay, background done but what to put on it. I was flipping thru my stencils - most are 6" Crafter's Choice, but I have several larger ones that I bought at the thrift store - one of those mystery bags where you know its a bag of stencils but not sure how many you will like - I took a chance on it and some I will likely not use but some I quite like - including the one with the words on it. So I pulled it out and stenciled in the first three words - Dream - Believe - Imagine with black paint and then I touch them up with a black marker. The only suggestion that Emily at Stamping Bella made was to use the negative part of a punch. Okay, I can do that. I found this scrap of olive green paper that I had already sun thru the Spellbinder Edgeabilities die and didn't use for some reason and punched out some flowers. When I placed it down it was rather blah so I took another small strip of wine paper and cut squares to go behind the punched flowers. Much nicer. Okay, the middle was sort of bare. What shall I put there. I looked around and saw a package of napkins I had bought at the dollar store with large flowers on them. I cut one out and laid it down - nah, didn't like it at all. But, then I thought these flowers would make great butterflies. Mmmmhh I wonder if they would go thru the Cuttlebug. Yup, I used a Cuttlebug die and the Stampin' Up die and die cut the butterflies, removed the white backing paper behind them and Modge Podged them down. I had to use up the flowers I had punched out so I added them near the top and put a dot of red paint in the centre and outlined them. After some more outlining and shading here and there (and more fiddling) I called it done.

Never a Waste of Time

We are bracing ourselves for yet another winter storm. This one may be a doozy too. This afternoon I decided I should make sure all the bird feeders were full before the storm it. So, out I went with my bucket of bird feed. Just as I started up the back steps I felt ice pellets hitting me and bouncing all over the steps. I waited just a little too long! According the weather report it will change from snow, to ice pellets, rain and freezing rain depending upon the temperature at the time. Ugly storm!

I made it to Aqua Fit again this morning! Feels so good to be getting exercise again.
I made a quick stop to check out the thrift store - picked up two complete, still in the wrapper, Making Memories for babies paper. I know I have a ton of paper, but very little for babies so I was happy to get them.. 15 double sided heavy duty sheets in each package - $2.99 less 20% for being a senior. Can't pass that up. As I came in the front door, hubby was standing there with his coat on and shoes in hand. He was going for a walk and waited for me! Excuse me? I just did an Aqua Fit class and you want me to go for an hour-and-half walk?  I've told him before that I will walk in the afternoon after an Aqua Fit class, but not right after, but because he knew the storm was coming he thought I might want to get the walk in now. No Thanks. Enjoy your walk, see you when you get back!

This week's art journal challenge at Stamping Bella was to use a new box of Crayola products. She posted a picture of the box that she bought but I had no intention of buying anything new but I happened to have a brand new box of regular Crayola crayons I had bought to put in with the shoe box for third world countries for Christmas but when I opened them when I got home, some of the tips were broken. I didn't want to send broken ones so I bought a new box and kept this one for the grand kids but forgot to dump them in their container. So, here's my page.

I had no idea what to do with this challenge. So I just wrote out this phrase that popped into my head, making sure all the letters were different. I just made up the lettering as I went along. I took a very small stamp and stamped some of the open letters with red Stazon ink and then coloured each letter with the crayons. Some of the stamped images got covered up. Oh well.  In the blank spaces I stenciled in some flowers and hearts. Then I decided to get out my seldom-used water colour paints - cheap set from Winners but they work - and I coloured in the background with them. Pretyy but looked blah! So, I got out my stencils and some Distress Inks and stenciled in bits and pieces of various stencils here and there. Much better. It was kind of fun to do actually. Very relaxing. No matter how busy you are, take time for yourself. Grab a box of crayons and a kid's colouring book even and sit and colour. You will be surprised how relaxed you become.

A Very Purple Page

Over the weekend I decided to play a bit with the Art Journal page challenge over at Stamping Bella's blog. This page did not turn out like I expected it to and will never be one of my favorites but it likely won't end up in the garbage or cut up for other pages either. It's just OK.

It is very purple! I started out gluing on some torn paper from a phone book - barely visible on the left side and then stenciling in the flower and the dragonfly with dimensional paste. Once it was dry I sprayed on some various colours of ink for the background - you can see blue, turquoise, pink, and yellow peeking through. I painted the flower red and first and hated it so I went over it with some purple acrylic paint. Still didn't like it so I went over it with purple ink. I lightly sprayed the page with the same purple ink (Rangers Color Wash, Wild Plum) and then spread it around it bit with a wet brush - didn't spray quite as lightly as I thought so it came out very purple. I quickly dabbed it with a cloth so it wasn't completely purple. I rubbed some green paint over the dragonfly to just pick up the raised areas. The tag was cut out from a left over piece of purple and I added the velum saying after I mounted it on white paper so it would be readable. The purple butterfly border was from another left over piece of cardstock and the flower on the tag was die cut with a ProvoCraft die - part of one of the alphabet sets. The flower still looked dull so I used a white Souffle pen to make little dots around each petal and some just flying out and added some to the end of the dragonfly and along the top of the tag inside some black scallops I drew in - which you can hardly see in the photo. Like I said, it's OK, but just OK.

Don't forget if you ever want to see something up close on any blog, just double click on it.

Ride it Out

This winter has not been kind to me so far! I still have laryngitis and a bit of a cold and yesterday I did a really stupid thing - I put the sewing machine needle thru my finger! For the first time in two weeks I felt well enough to sew and I really have no idea how my finger got so close to the needle but it did. It just caught the edge of my left index finger and sort of ripped the skin. I know, OUCH! (Good news - I didn't bleed on my project) I thought at first I may have to have a stitch in it but I finally got it to stop bleeding and bundled it up. It was throbbing last night and I didn't dare type. This morning I found my plastic finger guard (it pays to be a pack rat sometimes) so it is well protected now. I'm typing with right hand on the keyboard and the left first finger. Weird, but it works.

 Joe and I went to get groceries in the afternoon and then we went to Future Shop and we bought a new laptop and Ipad. I told Joe to keep an eye on me and warn me if I was walking around the stores holding my left index up in the air because it throbbed if I held it down. I would look like I was giving everyone "the finger". He didn't think this was as funny as I did!

So, this week's art journal challenge at Stamping Bella was to use tape of any kind on the piece. I was flipping thru an old issue of Our Canada magazine and saw a picture of someone on a camel. Ride it out jumped into my mind and my page idea was born.

Well, my life has definitely been a bit astray this winter and all I can do is ride it out. The background is again a mixture of ink, sprays and paint and stencils. I had to portray life astray so first I cut off the picture of the little girl on the camel - too ordinary - and replaced her with a photo of a boy likely downloaded from the graphics fairy blog.  Hmm what else could I add weird - birds wearing hats (free download from www.zoranland.blogspot.com), fish floating by (from www.paperwhimsey.com) and a cat wearing a top hat and tails riding backward on an old fashioned bicycle and then a dunce hat on the camel. Then I added butterfly wings behind the boy on the camel. I printed out the sentiment with my Brother label maker and added the tape.

Well, I got this posted but I think my typing will be at a minimum for a few days. Thank goodness for spell check!

Find Your Own Joy

Still sick. Joe just mentioned this morning that he can't believe how this cold I have is hanging on. He knows when he gets a cold it lasts for the normal 7 - 10 days or more but the rare time I've had one, it comes and goes in 3 days. Not this time. Our only theory is that my body was tired from fighting the long and drawn out attacks from the brain disorders and my immune system must be down. Who knows. Hard to be creative when you feel crummy though so I haven't got much done.

I did manage to do an art journal page this week though. The challenge over at Stamping Bella was to make an art journal page using only vintage photos. I have a lot of them that I've downloaded from the Internet, mostly from the Graphics Fairy, and I think this where I got this one from.

I watch a lot of mixed media and art journal videos on YouTube and they are an interesting and varied lot. I prefer the ones that tell a story instead of the ones that are just various paint and paper glued on collage style. Those are interesting to look at but just not my style. Here's my page.

I was looking at my collection of old photos and I came across this one of four beautiful ladies looking bored. I thought to myself, they look like they are waiting for something to happen to cheer them up. Bingo! The page idea was born. 

The background is my usual mixture of various sprays, ink and paint. Once the ladies were glued down I outlined them with a brown pen and added some tissue tape along the bottom edge, just for a little extra dimension. Besides, I bought this tissue tape on sale (of course) at Michael's in December and hadn't used it yet. I also stamped the border under the tape with Stazon ink. The sentiments were printed out on my Brother tape maker that I usually forget to use! Once they were on, I stamped the little butterflies with black Stazon. There you are, four ladies ignoring the beautiful butterflies all around them while they wait for something else to enjoy. I hope you find your own joy today, as small as it may be, enjoy it!

I'm NOT smiling until spring

This morning we decided we absolutely had to get some groceries. The fridge was getting just a little bit bare looking. But, as usual, nothing is as simple as just getting groceries. First I mentioned that I had to go to the library, then Joe said he should go to the bank, and then I said "me too", and then he said the car needed washing because it had a lot of salt on it (yes, salt. In Canada they spread salt and sand on the roads to melt the snow and or ice and it gets sprayed up against the car which causes it to rust if you leave it on), and then we thought we may as well drop some things at the local food bank while we were down by there, and then we got groceries, and then he stopped to put gas in the car and then we had to go to the other end of town to another grocery store to get the things we couldn't get at the first one. Needless to say it was a very long morning and we ended up not eating lunch until after 1:00. Right after lunch we headed out for a 50 minute walk - some of it was a bit colder then other parts, depending on the wind. It's right at about 32F but the wind makes it feel colder.

Speaking of cold! I'm not fond of cold weather or winter so today I'm posting an art journal page to reflect my feelings.

This would be a self portrait if I was an owl! Love owls by the way. The background is the usual mixture of inks and paints ans stencils and stamps. The owl itself I cut out of an old Birds and Bloom magazine. The lettering started out as rub-ons but they were not very well adhered so I went over them with a black pen. Fun page to do for sure.

"I Miss My Summer Garden"

Looks like it's going to be a nice sunny day today. We had a frost last night though so it did get cold. The tops of all the cars are white which is a sure sign of a heavy frost. I'm taking my sister-in-law Christmas shopping today. I don't usually take her and the wheelchair on my own but we can manage for once...unless Joe decides to come and disappear while we shop! That could happen.

This week's art journal page challenge over at Stamping Bella was to do a collage. I haven't done much of that but there is no time like now to learn new things so I went for it. This is not my favorite piece but we all have to start somewhere so why not share the failures along with the ones we like. Well, this is not totally a failure, just not my favorite.

The background is once again stenciled, patterned wall paper that was painted over in spots, ink and paint. The pictures all came from old Birds and Blooms magazines. The sentiment was printed out on my computer and then coloured in. And I do miss my summer garden. So blah out there right now.

Love is just a word until.......

Yesterday was a balmy 5C here in Southern Ontario and hubby decided he just had to get out and do some yard work. He hasn't been out of the house for 10 or 11 days because of his coughing. His intention was to "mulch the leaves on the side of the house and cut the back grass and then have lunch and a hot shower and rest. I know him better then that! Yup, came in for lunch and went right back out and didn't come in until almost 4:00. Men! He says he feels "fine" today (would he admit to anything else?) but is a man of inaction once again! I asked him he wanted to go get groceries this afternoon and he said "Tomorrow". Yup, he's fine, sure he is.

This week's art journal challenge at Stamping Bella was to make a page using stickers.

I had made this house out of left over cardstock but never used it on a project so I decided this is the week it gets used. The background is once again a mixture of paint, ink, rub-ons and stencils. I punched out the little hearts to have them coming out of the chimney and liked the negative piece so much I couldn't bear to throw it away so I stuck it on too. I wasn't sure what verse I was going to use but then I came across this one on the Internet and loved it. Not sure you can read it from the picture but it says "Love is just a word until someone comes along and gives it meaning!" Love it!

Sunflowers brighten up the day

Hurricane Sandy has lived up to it's reputation and has caused a lot of damage and taken a few lives. My thoughts and prayers go out to the families suffering.

The wind here is so strong, trees and limbs are littering the yards, power is out in some places and lots of flooding. It's been raining steadily here for about 3 or 4 days. Sometimes nature is just plain cruel.

On a brighter note, I did get an art journal page done for this week's challenge over at Stampin' Bella.

The challenge was to use a typewriter type font on the page. Well, I don't have a typewriter and I didn't have any stamps that look like typewriter fonts so I searched thru the fonts I have on Word and found this one that was actually typewriter keys. Worked for me!

I had no idea what to do when I started out. I had made this background page and it was dark. Must have made it on one of my bad days and I should know better. This page has so many layers and no mater what I did, it was dark. I threw it to one side and gave up...temporarily. While I was flipping thru an old copy of a Birds and Bloom magazine I came across this full page picture of an American Goldfinch on the sunflowers and I thought to myself "Sunflowers really brighten up the day"...eureka! that's what I'll do! I tore out the page and then spent a long, long time fussy cutting around each piece, including between the leaves, etc. so the dark background would show thru and once cut out, I used Modge Podge to glue it down. I had already printed out the message on white paper but when I looked at it, it was boring. I should have printed it out on yellow paper, which I didn't have, so I just took out some yellow acrylic paint and painted around them before I cut them out.  Then I just used a black pen to outline some of the elements and the words.

Next week's challenge is to use stickers! I do have a few of those!

Cool Fall Weather - an Art Journal Page

Busy day today. I actually made it to Aqua Fit and then friend Jane and I went to the Pampered Stamper's for coffee and a card. Jackie really does pamper her guests. She is a Stampin' Up representative and her classes are fun. (https://www.facebook.com/ThePamperedStamper)

After the class was over and I got home Joe decided we should run some errands, have lunch at the mall (Chinese) and then get groceries. Some days we win when we shop, other days we lose. Today was a losing day. The grocery store we normally shop at did not have any vegetarian meatballs again, and it doesn't look like they are going to carry them any more. We bought our usual selection of fruit and paid $2.99 for 1/2 pint of raspberries. On the way home he decided we should stop at the garden centre on the way past to get the dirt we need to cover the roses. The dirt was on sale for $2.50 a bag but it was just top soil, not black earth but he talked me into getting it anyway - so we got 8 bags. Then he decided we should drive up to Sobeys to see if they had vegetarian meatballs - they didn't, but they had raspberries for $1.50 1/2 pint and black earth for $2.00 a bag! Yup, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose!

This week's challenge at Stamping Bella was a "do what ever you want" page. Well, it's fall in Ontario so lots of fall colours, falling leaves and cool wind blowing. So, that's my page's inspiration.

Lots of fall colours sprayed on, rubbed on, stenciled and splattered on. I hand cut the leaves and coloured them and ran some of the corners around a chop stick to curl them. Now the funny thing is the card we made today at Jackie's (to be posted tomorrow if I remember) also had leaves on it but she had the die to die cut them and a totally different way to make them. I liked her way much better then mine so that's the way I'll make them from now on. I cut more then I needed for this page so I can experiment....which is the most fun of all!

Fall Harvest - an Art Journal Page

Wow, we heard the biggest thunder clap ever heard last night. It shook the house. We live about two blocks from a railway line and I was afraid two trains hit each other head on it was that loud. So, for the rest of the night and still today I'm under attack from the brain disorders that do not like thunder storms. For all you medical people out there who are dying to know what I have but are too polite to ask, here's the lowdown. I have both Trigeminal Neuralgia and Hemifacial Paralysis. In 2000 I underwent exploratory brain surgery because they couldn't find the cause of my pain. The doctor was reluctant to do the surgery because it was so risky but I was tired of the constant pain and told him to book it and I'd take my chances. It turned out they had to do a double micro-vascular decompression of the 5th and 7th cranial nerves, and the 6th nerve was slightly damage during surgery.  The neurosurgeon had never had to perform this surgery in over 35 years of his career. I thank God for guiding his hands. It was not a cure as the nerves were permanently damaged but the pain is much less and less frequent so to me, it was well worth it.

So, now that that's out of the way, on to the post. This week's challenge at Stamping Bella was to draw a picture using only a pencil, black pencil, no colouring at all. OK, I am NOT an artist. I've never taken a drawing lesson except the so-called art class in high school over 50 years ago which were pretty lame back then. Doodling is more my style! I wasn't even going to bother but then I decided to go for it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Here it is.

You can just barely see the outline of the page from the book. I figured how hard would it be to draw something simple like a leaf, grapes and a pear. Turned out it was not that hard at all. Again, I'm NO artist and never will be and I'm happy just puddling along with what I do but at least this was one good enough to post without embarrassing myself too much. I do enough of that without even trying!!!!

Flying Home

Was reminded today that bike riding and walking uses different muscles then Aqua Fit! Today was my first day back to Aqua Fit since April and although I took it somewhat easy, I'm feeling it! Legs are a wee bit tired! But it sure felt good to be back in the water. Hubby hates swimming so we never go to the lake to swim unless we have some grandchildren with us - then he sits on the beach and watches us swim and have fun. Gotta work on the guy and get him into the game!

Today I'm posting another Art Journal Page for the challenge over at Stamping Bella. The challenge was to use a product or technique you have never used before. Well I'm so new at the art journal bit it was a bit of no brainer for me to find something to use. Last year I won a package of Sticky Back Canvas (SBC from now on) and had not even opened it. So, I went over to YouTube and watched a few videos on how to use it and set to work. The first idea I had did not work and it went into the garbage but I gave it another shot. Here's the page I settled on.

I actually gave myself two challenges. I decided to find a full page from a magazine and use that as the background instead of my usual sprays and stamps. This page, and the geese, came from different Birds and Bloom magazines. However, the geese were transferred onto SBC by using the "stick them on, wet them and rub off the paper" technique. Then they were dried with the hair dryer and cut out and the backing removed to reveal the sticky part (not easy to do) and then glued down but then I went over them with Modge Podge to make sure they were stuck for good. The sentiment also came from the same magazine but on different pages but it seemed to fit the scene when cut separately. The bottom left corner just needed something there so I die cut some SBC using a Sizzix die and then coloured them with a variety of Distress Inks. Not my favorite page but overall I give it a C-.

Something to Crow About - an Art Journal Page

Yesterday was an odd day. Joe and I were both tired and "out of sorts" so to speak. I've been fighting a weird intestinal bug for the last few days and of course the rain brings on attacks from the brain disorders. He sat and read I don't know what on the computer all day - sports and newspapers from all over North America I suspect. I didn't get too much accomplished except I finally got the scrapbook layout that I've been struggling with about 90% done and I finished the art journal page I was working on. Today Joe said he was having the same symptoms that I mentioned - looks like I shared my bug with him. Talked to my sister-in-law yesterday and she had the same thing so must be something going around.

On to the Art Journal page - do you know people that are always "blowing their own horn" as my mother used to say? Braggarts...always talking about what they accomplished, or how important they are, and how great they are? Once in awhile it's OK to share good news about an award or accomplishment you have received but I'm talking about the person who is always bragging. Well, I think we all know people like that. Stamping Bella's challenge was to make a page with birds on it. My page just has one bird on it but that's all it needed to make my point.

The background, which is the most fun to do, is the usual collection of inks and paint, sprayed, sponged, dripped, splattered and stenciled. The crow is from Sizzix, one of the new dies I just got. The branch is just free hand cut from brown cardstock, rumpled and sponged with walnut Distress Ink. The message was computer printed and cut apart. I searched the Internet for crow and raven sayings but none were appropriate so I just made up my own.