This is one of my favorite art journal pages-I just love it! I designed it in Nov.2011 by covering up a monstrosity of a page. Normally I believe all AJ pages should be left as a testament to where you are going & where you've been but as there are no rules in AJ... so I covered up my Godzilla page & turned it into this piece of awesomeness. I started by covering the entire old page with acrylic paint. I spritzed black glimmer mist using circle stencils, randomly. Next I took a black piece of card stock & using THoltz's tag die with some movers & shapers cut out the arrow & car. Those pieces were glued to my page & doodled with Uniball Signo White gel pen-my favorite white pen. The tag was run through the clock face texture fade. I spritzed it with perfect pearls mist-awesome on black & hit the high points of the embossing with white paint. I added some more paint with punchinella & some tissue tape on the tag. I added fibers to the tag, than adhered it to my page. A few more stamps & some writing, my favorite page was done! YAYA. The writing is important too-"I need to remember to Enjoy the Journey not rush through my life just trying to get my list done."

Wearable art

Ok so this isn't new. It was one of the projects I did last year as a finalist for Graphic 45 DTeam. It is however very Holtzy as I used his masks & stamps to create it so.... it is definitely a wearable & fits into this weeks Grungy Monday-yay. I had high aspirations of altering a pair of jeans but life got in the way.... I would love to tell you how I did it but there are about 4000 techniques here so maybe one day I will do this as a class.... enjoy!!!!

My 1st Grungy Monday!

Here is my Valentine tag for my 1st Grungy Monday. This weeks challenge is being sponsored by Simon Says Stamps. One of my goals this year is to participate in this challenge regularly. I can't believe February is almost over & that is the theme of my Valentine tag.

The paper, metal & stickers are by Bo Bunny. My heart is embossed with Tim's clock alterations, using grunge paper, painted black & spritzed with perfect pearls mist. I love that look!!! I even added some cute beads to hang from the ribbon. Metal pin & hangy things (Tim's chain tassels) add a little fun. Enjoy & take time to art!

Be Bold.

Hot off my Dyan Reavely class I was feeling very taggish. I decided to make this tag for my class swap. The stamps are her new Dylusion set- totally love the mushrooms! I added some Glimmer Mist sprays with Crafter Workshop stencils & painted the shrooms with water color paint. I liked the tag so much I added it to an art journal page I thought was finished. Apparently not!

Love the add on to this page & at least 1 tag has a home! The AJ page was done with acrylic paint, gelato stencil circles, archival stamping & acrylic ink circles to finish it off. Lots of nummy layers that show through. The caption "Evolve" is just to remind me to keep moving forward, try new things & new techniques. Adding "Be Bold" means do the afore mentioned in a bold fashion, like try out for a design team or teach at a second store. Very exciting because my Canson 60 page journal is almost full!!! I have no white pages left but lots of background pages just waiting to be finished. It is super chunky-love that! Ok now go work in your book!!!

Feeling Scrappy.

I'm sure I am not the only one who buys up scrap book paper because "I have to have it" & than it goes into my craft room abyss, never to be used. Well the other day I bought this paper by My Minds Eye, came home & scrapped it!! Yay for me. It came together very quickly, just some spray, stencil, washi tape & stash chipboard. I used some stash flowers too & I felt such a sense of accomplishment to get them on a page it was ridiculous. Also a photo acetate overlay of which I have a zillion - one! The photo was taken by Deborah Mahnken during our recent Dyan Reaveley class. The class was awesome! The hot pink color is one of her new Dylusion sprays by Ranger. They are super vibrant colors, I can't wait to get my hands on all of them! I still have my Belize hair in. Just don't want to give up my Island look quite yet.

30 second art journal page!

This page came together ridiculously fast. When I am using lots of paint I put a piece of packing paper on my table. This background was created from painting demo cards for my class. When I was finished I looked at the awesome creative mess & simply cut it out & adhered it to my journal. The quote was way too perfect! Voila-done. What a great way to recycle!

Quote

"I'm pretty sure that if my life depended on me being focused today-I would surely perish"

Karen Bearse

You Better Belize It!

I just got back from a family vacation in San Pedro, Belize. It was amazing, fun, sad, emotional & amazing.Yes I said that twice. Here is a photo of the sunrise from my condo balcony. I got some great inspiration for art journaling & actually got to talk to some of the artists there which was a treat. So while I get my feet back onto earth reality... Enjoy!