Life Documented 2017 - last week of November

We returned from Austin last night from a fun weekend. On Saturday I helped the boys make gingerbread houses (I had forgotten how frustrating those can be!) and then yesterday we rode the North Pole Flyer from Cedar Park to Bertram and back to Cedar Park. This is a 2-hr. steam engine special event excursion similar to the Polar Express and features a visit with Santa, hot cocoa, cookies with Mrs. Claus, a coloring page activity, elves reading the exclusive North Pole Flyer book, a Christmas carol sing-along and an elf making custom balloon creations. The kids had a blast!

Today I finished the last week of November in my Life Documented 2017 planner.
This will be my last entry as I will move into my December Daily for the month of December. 

The background was done with a watercolor "smooshing" technique where you add any water-soluble medium on a piece of acetate, spritz with water and smoosh onto your substrate. It's an easy way to get a unique background. 

The right page is another quirky collage using some digital collage sheets I mentioned in previous posts. I am having lots of fun with these!

Life Documented 2017 - November Week 2

One more week in my planner. It was a fairly uneventful week for a change! The background of both pages is watercolor. On the right page I smooshed a few more colors with the yellow, added a doodled border and a tag that I received in a swap years ago! The quote is a stamp.

We are getting ready to leave for Mexico today. We were supposed to go tomorrow, but the flights are all filling so we are going to go to Albuquerque tonight through Houston, and then on to Phoenix, Yuma and Mexico tomorrow. And, no, I won't be lounging on a beautiful beach for Thanksgiving - I will be completing my dental implants! Hopefully this will be the last dental work for awhile.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Catching up on planner pages - Oct. Week 4 and beginning of Nov.

I've done so much traveling/babysitting this year that it seems all I do is play catch-up!

October - Week 4/5

This was a long "week" so I used both pages to include the last days of Oct. I used acrylic paint on the background and then used many washi tapes, stickers and photo flips to document all that happened during this busy time.

November Monthly Spread

The background for this spread is also acrylic paints. I used a very old sticker border on the right edge. The decorative border on the bottom is from a mail advertisement.  I used a small leaf punch to punch out the dates from an old calendar.

November - Week 1

I used a roller stamp with acrylic paint for this background. I used the Art-to-the-5th date stamp on orange card stock and punched with a one-inch circle punch. The quote on the right page is a freebie from a You-Tuber Patreon account and the pumpkins are a stamped image I colored with colored pencils. I also added a photo of Mitchell since this was the week he stayed at our house.

Life Documented 2017 - Oct. Week 3

October - Week 3

This week was a busy week with friends. Tuesday two friends and I celebrated our birthdays jointly. Mine is in August, one is in Oct., and the other is in Nov., so we try to set one date to celebrate them all.  We went to lunch and shopped at a few antique "malls."  Then on Friday a friend who moved away about 2 years ago was coming into town so we met for a long brunch.

The background of this spread is acrylic paints scraped over the pages. I used thin strips of patterned paper for the dividers, stamped the dates and cut out the days of the week from an old calendar.  On the right page I added photos of our birthday celebration with some stickers and three flowers I had saved from the birthday card my Mom had sent me. (Hate throwing things away!)  I've saved the tiny strip of lace for forever so was happy to use it!

I'm Back - and Catching Up, Again

It's been another busy few weeks. On Wed. the 4th, I went to Albuquerque to babysit Drew and Grant while their parents went to Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon to run two races. Then I left there on Saturday and went directly to a week-long retreat in Taylor, Texas, with six other artist friends. I just returned this past weekend and we celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary on Saturday.

I've caught up on my documented life planner and am working on putting finishing touches on my retreat projects, which I will share later.

October Monthly Spread

I used watercolors on background and washi tapes for the top and bottom borders. The dates are punched pumpkins with numbers written in white pen.

October - Week 1

Background is acrylic paint. Dates are stamped and dividers are washi tape. On the right spread I added an ATC I received in a technique swap. The technique was "cracked glass."  The photo is a collage of the boys and I since I was in Abq. that week.

October - Week 2

This was retreat week. We each take a fully-kitted project to "teach" and we do one or two per day, depending on the type of project.  For the right page,  I created a collage of the finished projects and printed a 4x6 photo to use as a tip-in. I also made a tip-in of the business card of the restaurant where we celebrated our anniversary.

The left side of the above photo shows the other side of the "tip-ins."  The right page has more photos from the week.

Life Documented 2017 - Sept. Weeks 4 and 5

This is my spread for the week of Sept. 17-23. It was mostly a catch-up week except that my husband had a heart ablation (his fourth) on Thursday and my oldest daughter from Austin flew back into Dallas from Spain, stayed overnight and then drove home the next day. It was fun seeing her and hearing about her awesome trip.

For this background I started with Distress Stains. Since this is just regular paper, they didn't blend very well so I added gesso lightly over the pages. I used doodled blocks for the days of the week and added various stickers and doodles in the blank areas.

And this is this past week ending today. I dry-brushed and finger-painted bright Scribble Sticks (Dina Wakely) on the background and made marks on the dark blue areas with a white pen.  I love these watercolor crayon sticks, but it is hard to get anything to write over them as they are a bit waxy. I went to the annual Pinners' Conference yesterday with a friend and the red and white polka dot strip I used is part of the wristband from the show.

For the right page, I found a great quote from the words I cut and save from magazines and also a cute photo from an old Somerset Studio magazine. I layered the image with two different colors of tissue paper.

Life Documented 2017 - September

I'm late in posting the first few weeks of September's planner spreads, but here they are!

September Monthly View

Watercolor background, washi tape, hexagonal stickers for dates

Week 1 (only two days so I decorated the left page for fall)

Scraped paint background, paper and magazine scraps,
planner stickers and die cut leaves

Week 2

Left page - watercolored background, lots of Freckled Fawn planner stickers, tip-in with photo

Right page - multi-layered colorful background, then applied bird mask and painted
with dark navy on entire page, doodled and journaled with white pen

Entire spread

Week 3

 

Painted background, washi tape, quote journal card, flower from magazine

I took photos of my process while doing the week 2 spread. If you are interested, keep reading and scrolling. Or, you can just finish the post now!

THE MAKING OF A PLANNER SPREAD

Step 1

After adding washi tape to the edges, I watercolored both pages with purple and green.  I handmade this Traveler's Notebook insert with just regular copy paper which is not the best for watercolor, but most will be eventually covered up anyway.

I was sent this sticker set along with a TN planner cover from Freckled Fawn so decided to use it on this spread. They have super cute products and a monthly planner kit.

Step 2

Since the days of the week were already printed on the insert, I just highlighted them with a black pen. I stamped the numbers with one of my favorite stamp sets from Rae Missigman and permanent black ink, then filled in the scallops with my favorite white pen - Signo Uni-ball.

Step 3

Added narrow washi tape dividers.

Step 4

Then I went to town on the left page detailing events of the days and adding many of the cute Freckled Fawn stickers. I also made a tip-in with two photos from our weekend with our grandsons. The photo below shows the other side of the tip-in. I used one of the circle stickers from the set, folded in half, as a tab at the top of the tip-in.

Step 5

On the right page I added many layers of color, forgetting to take photos of each step. First I added red ink with a chevron roller stamp, then orange paint with a foam circle stamp. Then I stamped yellow paint with a bottle lid and stenciled it through punchinella. Next came green and pink paint smudged on with my finger, then white paint with a circle stamp and black ink with a splatter stamp (these last two can be seen in the bird below).

Step 6

I placed a bird mask (a very old Heidi Swapp product) on the page and then painted all around it with  Dina Wakley's "Night" paint - a beautiful opaque indigo. I love this technique! I outlined the bird with white pen to highlight it and doodled scallops for added interest. Finally, I journaled with the white pen.

And here again is the final spread:

I hope you enjoyed following along with the process!

It's been a busy few weeks!

I'm back and have no idea where to start! My last post was on Aug. 21 and we left early Aug. 23 (my husband's birthday) for Chicago. We visited our youngest, Sara, there for a day and a half. On Thursday night we flew to Albuquerque to babysit our two grand boys, Drew and Grant, while their parents went to Durango for a race (they are runners).

We were supposed to fly from there on Sunday to Austin for our other grandson's first day of kindergarten on the 28th. Hurricane Harvey rolled into Houston on Friday and changed our plans! No flights were open into Austin on Sunday from Albuquerque, so I flew home late Saturday night (my husband stayed to cover the babysitting) and then flew into one of the only flights into Austin on Sunday (at 7 am!).  I was determined to be there for Carl's first day.  Wouldn't you know it, school was canceled! But at least I was there for Tuesday. 

So, the last week has been for resting, getting back into a "normal" schedule at home, and catching up on everything.

I have three weeks' of my Life Documented planner to share.

August - Week 3

This was the week of Drew's first day of kindergarten so I used the right page of the spread to document that special moment.

August - Week 4

This was birthday week for my, my son-in-law, and my husband; travel and Hurricane Harvey.

I used the CTA card (Chicago transit) as a tip-in and added a photo of us with our daughter at Lincoln Park Zoo. (Photo below shows the tip-in opened.)

August - Week 5

This week Carl finally got to start kindergarten too. Again, I used the right page to document his first day.

I'm hoping to get back on schedule with more frequent posts...

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!

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.

Life Documented 2017 - Third Week of July

I finished this week's spread a few days ago. For the right page, I used many of my left over pieces from the retreat rather than throw them away.

I love Frida Kahlo and had this one image left, as well as the little papel picado banner. The green rick rack was the final piece of a spool and I thought it worked perfectly on the edge.

I kept track of the steps I used in making the background.

1. Yellow and pink acrylic paints spread with gift card (like left page)

2. Loose, scribbly writing in pencil (almost totally obscured by end)

3. White paint applied with finger

4. Stamped circles and flowers with red Archival ink

5. Numbers stamped with black Archival ink

6. Texture paste through punchinella

7. Watercolor crayons (red and orange) scribbled here and there

8. Yellow and black paint splatters

9. Black paint marks with paintbrush

10. Collaged paper pieces

11. Adhered rick rack, banner and letter stickers

I really enjoyed doing this page. I love that I was able to use up some scraps.

Catch Up

Can you believe it's been over two weeks since I've posted here? It's amazing how time flies when you're having fun!

So what have I been doing? Yearly doctor appointments, mammogram, bone density test and a pre-cancerous spot on my nose removed. We also made a last-minute trip to Austin for the 4th of July, brought 5-year-old Carl home with us for a few days before heading to Albuquerque for the 5th birthday weekend extravaganza for Drew.  

Neighborhood July 4th Parade

Carl is excited to be going to Dallas with us

My four boys enjoying donuts for birthday breakfast

Drew's volcano cake for his Moana-themed party

A tired 5-year-old after his party

Two days after returning, I went on my online group's annual 5-day retreat. Luckily this is held every year practically in my backyard in Grapevine, but many gals travel from all over the country to attend. We had a blast (more on this later).

Here's a "catch-up" of the past three weeks' planner spreads.

Watercolor background, metallic sticker borders, collage sheet half-circles for dates.

Various star stamps on white background; washi tape dividers; labels with number stickers for days.

Background stamped with foam stamp and paints; days are printer-generated.

Hope to get back on schedule now!