Crane

Morning everyone, well my well organized - over scheduled week came to a crashing halt yesterday when my battery on the car died, gone, finished, done with, lol.  So waiting for DH to decide what he wants to do and am playing whilst I wait.  Our itinerary at the Art Journal Caravan for March is Japan.  I love that Country, it is a little jewel.  One of our prompts are some of the animals and I chose this morning the Crane. All elements except for the lanterns on the right which is one of mine are from Tangies fabulous kit at Scrapbook Graphics.  Have a great rest of your week, hugs

Thank Heaven

Happy Friday, the Art Journal Caravan in its 3rd week in Paris, getting ready for the final week there, I wanted to do a page on Maurice Chavalier before we leave, oh how I love a French accent and the language itself is one of  my favorites.  I think I have seen just about everything Mr. Chavalier has ever done.  Have a safe and fun weekend, hugs

A secret place

I am learning to blend my images with other images in PhotoShop, the girl is mine and used elements from Beth Rimmer "Butterflies" DeviantArt Scraps and the forest background is from Emka "A Secret Place" Scrapbook Graphics, the parrot is from Mr. Whiskers "AirPirates" DeviantArt Scraps.  Happy Wednesday, hugs

Life's a puzzle

This weekend I played a lot with my Spellbinder's paperdoll die for an art journal page.  This morning as I was cleaning off my table some, I noticed magic had happened on my spray sheet, I love it when that happens, so I scanned it in and turned it into an art journal page, with my new favorite paperdoll that in real life is hinged together with brads, so he will move his legs and arms and make me smile, I am sometimes so easyily amused.

My journaling says, "life so often seems like a puzzle we juggle, not knowing what to do with all the pieces. One minute it makes sense, the next it disappears.  But, if we give it time the entire picture appears, as if by magic we understand"

Have a wonderful Monday, and a good week, hugs

Mud Puddle

Hey, Happy Saturday, we are looking good in the weather dept. today, low 70s, however in one fell swooop we will go to 48 next week, grrrrrrrrr, brrrrr.  But just gonna love these pretty days while we have them.

I get closer and closer to my Bamboo Create Tablet every day, my PhotoShop skills are getting there,  but have sacrificed some of my drawing skills to lack of consistency, so I am taking at least one hour a day from PS and working on drawing.  While playing with my art journal pages, I have fallen in love with art dolls, I wanted a quirky one of my own, so this is one of my first honest sketches in a while, she is a line drawing and then worked her over with Copic markers and then took her to photoshop.  Umbrella and leaves are from Emeto "Welcome Winter" kit.

Hope everyone has a safe and fun weekend. Hugs

My heart is all wrapped up

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.  Wow we are going to have temps in the low 70's today, what a fab Valentine pressie from Mother Nature, the windows will be open here.  I continue my saga with PhotoShop, this week has been my best so far.  I am feeling more comfortable and can actually do a page or card without stopping to search up a tutorial, lol.  I wish everyone love today, hugs

Shine

A card done in photoshop6, I extracted the rose from an old photo.  Then used elements from Viva's Confucius Says kit at Scrapbook Graphics.  It says, Our light will always shine when we are open.

Happy Tuesday everyone, hugs

Welcome Little One

I did this for a friend that has a new great grand son, on her copy it has his name and birth date, I changed the text to post on my blog.  PhotoShop is coming along, I feel like I have jumped a major hurtle with the ability to extract from a photograph.  Not perfect yet but it gets better and better the more you play.  All elements are from Dawn Inskip "Handle with Care" kit.  Hope everyone has a great week, hugs

Bringing New Life to an old Card

 Happy Weekend everyone.  This morning as I was playing photoshop, I was playing with this juicy background paper from Viva "Confucius Says" at Scrapbook Graphics.  It reminded me of a card I created about 5 years ago.  So I dug out some of my files and found the card, I took it to PhotoShop extracted my focal element and started reworking the card. So now I have an entire new look, how much more fun can that be?

This is the old card.  Hugs

Less is more

My goal this year for my cards is to find a way to add just enough layer and dimension that the card is interesting without popping the postage.  I used two layers to my card blank, the two top layers have a band of ribbon wrapped around them.  This satisfies the tactile, and then used some heaving drop shadows on my images.  The images are from Viva's "Confuscus Say" kit.  Since most of my work this year has been getting my PhotoShop skills up, this goal has sort of taken back burner, but still think about it and experiment here and there.  This card will fit into a 6 1/2"X 4 3/4" envelope which is the largest envelope that will mail at 46cents.
Happy Friday and have a fun and safe weekend. Hugs

Troubairitz

Oh boy, we have a new port of call this week at Art Journal Caravan, which took me on a little side trip to investigate Troubadours, especially 1100-1200AD, which is about the time of their appearance and high activity.  The loose translation of Troubadour is to invent or write, they were initially from the upper classes because it took education in order to write the songs and poems and compose the music.  The subject matter was generally isolated to their local and addressed, politics, religion, and LOVE.  The information was  no tightly woven to truth, snipits here and there but the songs were written to entertain and sway the masses to adopt an idea or political/religious attitude.  So wouldn't you say these were the social networking devices of the 1100 and 1200's, much like our facebook, twitter, etc, lol.  

Okay, but what is a Troubairitz?  It is a woman Troubadour, they were much fewer in numbers and their works rarely survived.  I did find this one which gave me a good morning giggle.  For more information on Troubadours in France visit this link. Troubadours 

So as I am reading, this page began playing around in my head.  The background paper and jounaling block is from Vivas "Grazioso" kit.  The Turbadours and flourish are from the internet.  So wishing you LOVE this week as we go into Valentine week, hugs

A Valentine

Last week I had a coffee date with a friend, one of the things we talked about was playing with canvas in our art journals,  I shared that natural canvas (duck dloth) from the fabric store was a fun element to play with.  When I got home, I could not quit thinking about duck cloth, so I dug out mine out and started to play.  I punched out this heart with one of the Spellbinder's dies, duck cloth ravels a lot, so what happens after painting and playing with it are these jagged edges, I loved them and took the heart to photoshop and created an element.  I scanned in an old pillow case that I can not part with and created a background paper with creases and folds.  Then used two brushes I created of spatters and hearts.  Put them all together with some fun words and you have a Valentine.  Hope everyone has a fabulous LOVE filled week, hugs