30-Day Art Marks Challenge - I'm Finished!

I finished the third 30-day Art Marks Challenge! It feels so good to have a tiny little journal filled with colorful pages! Due to all our traveling this month, I didn't actually do a page a day, but I did catch up on the pages whenever I returned home. So, it's not technically 30 daily art pages, but rather 30 days of art pages!

Day 19 - Scattered

Days 20 and 21 - Scratched and Collaged

Day 20 is one of my least favorites. I used texture paste, drawing into it with a skewer white wet. Once it was dry I painted with fluid acrylics so the paint would settle into the designs. I also scratched the surface, but the paste, though dry, was very soft. Oh well...

The collaged page all black and white papers - mostly the inside patterns of security envelopes.

Days 22 and 23 - Torn and Lettered

The base of the lettered page was a patterned paper with letters all over. Then I stenciled and stamped various alphabets and scripts in different colors.

Day 24 and 25 -Remnants and Found

These two pages were fun to do and could have even been reversed.  The remnants were pieces of a birthday card envelope along with a piece ofg-printed deli paper. The bird is salvaged from a notecard.

The found page is the remains of a very old package of white rub ons I found while rummaging through my stash. I wanted to use them up so I added them here to a gel-printed background.

Day 26 - Tattered

I'm not delighted with this page either, but I soldiered through it. I tore pieces of magazine pages and distressed the edges and faces. Done.

Day 27 - Collected

I had used a stenciled paper for this page when I bound the booklet and it had these three "tulips." I decided to "collect" them into a bouquet, then made marks over the entire background to make these pop.

Day 28 - Metallic

Again, the background was already done on this page. I encircled the purple dots with gold pen, added gold paint dots with the end of a paintbrush, doodled hearts with a silver pen and then used gold and silver foils over a "vintage" (maybe 15 years old?) adhesive shape.

Day 29 - Stitched

This page has some of my altered address labels for the background, along with a strip and circles of painted paper. I drew running stitches for the border and cross stitches where the papers met. I also did random messy machine stitching over the circles.

Day 30 - Closed

The background for this last page is a scrap of deli paper I had used as a palette for paints. I drew a "closed" flower and added white and black marks in the background.

And this is my finished journal! It's so cute and colorful and chunky!

Drew goes to kindergarten!

This isn't art-related, but it's a big moment for our family! We now have a grand in kindergarten! Even though Drew is three months younger than Carl, his school started earlier. I went to Albuquerque Tuesday night and returned Wed. night so I could be there for the big day.

He was so excited, and a bit nervous too, but had a fun time. Said he couldn't remember much about the day, but then, bits and pieces came out... He was the "lunch counter," counting how many brought their lunches and how many bought from the cafeteria. He is a very conscientious little guy so I'm sure he took the job very seriously and was accurate!

Carl's first day is August 28th so I will also be visiting Austin for that special day. How in the world did they grow up so fast??

Life Documented 2017 - First two weeks of August

A quick blog post before I leave this afternoon for Albuquerque. Tomorrow is the first day of kindergarten for Drew - how can that be? I will be there tonight and tomorrow to document this special moment!

Here are the planner spreads for the first two weeks of August.

Watercolor background, stamps, stickers and washi tape. On right page layered scrapbook papers
 and sentiments cut from papers. I also was able to use a wire word I've been hoarding
forever, along with two photos from our babysitting weekend.

Scraped acrylic paint background, stickers and photos and boarding stubs as tip-ins. 

Tip-ins "opened"

Note that the large flower on the bottom of the right page is actually a design from a paint ad (Sherwin Williams maybe?) made entirely from paint samples. Watch for these ads in magazines - they have some gorgeous artwork made with paint chips!

I'm Back ... And More Art Marks Summer Challenge

We returned late Thursday night from our Albuquerque 3-day babysitting adventure followed by 4 days in Los Algodones, Mexico, for my continuing dental work. Now I have lots to catch up on!

For starters, I've finished six more pages of the daily Art Marks Challenge.

Day 13 - Stippled

Days 14 and 15 - Fluid and Varied

Days 16 and 17 - Mirrored and Dripped

Day 18 - Many

I'm more than halfway through this 30-day challenge and enjoying working in my tiny little journal.

Art Marks Summer Challenge

More mini pages for the Art Marks Summer Challenge, days 7-12.

Day 7 - Interrupted

Days 8 and 9 - Blurred and Freeform

Days 10 and 11 - Open and Blended

Day 12 - Blotted

We are leaving today for Albuquerque (babysitting the little ones for the weekend while parents run a race in Taos) and then on to Mexico the next week.  I'll be back later next week so will catch up on posts then.

Life Documented 2017 - Last week of July

This is my spread for the last week and a half of July. Since July ended this Monday, I added Sunday and Monday to this spread rather than doing an entire page for the two days.

The background is watercolored with green and yellow. For some of the days I added small journal spots and doodled frames for the spaces between.  I added a few tip-ins for Stitch Fix box that I received this week. They are attached with washi tape.

I'm looking forward to a new month's pages! August will be busy so I will have lots of memories to include.