Say "yes"

I've been working on these two pages in my Dina Art Journal for over two months now. Life kept getting in the way, but I was needed, so my art had to take a back seat. I didn't know where I was going when I first started laying down ink and paint, but I would do a layer, get interrupted and walk away. This went on for two months. Then the other day, Dina did a video using her new acrylic paints and posted it to her blog and she used her Scribbly Birds stamp set, so that was the inspiration behind the birds. Then I found this fabulous quote and knew I had to say "yes!" 

 

Silhouette Mermaids

Don't fall over from shock! Two posts in the same week from me is hard to believe lately.

I got all 6 of Dyan's new Spray Inks and her new Ocean Backgrounds and Under The Sea stamp sets last month when Whim So Doodle got them in. And when I was there last month for Dina's class, I got HER silhouette masks. I combined the two since Dina and Dyan love each other so much and played in my Dyan Journal. I love the vibrancy of Dyan's new inks. So lush! The White Linen ink is how I achieved the look on the silhouettes. And the stamps are pretty fun to play with as well. I decided to turn the silhouette lady with legs into a mermaid! There's also lots of Signo Uniball White pen work around all of the sea creatures and stencils.

Dina at the Doodle

I had the pleasure of taking a Dina Wakely class last week at Whim So Doodle in St Pete. If you've never taken a class with Dina and ever get the chance, I highly recommend you do. Not only is Dina a great lady, but she's also a "no rules" sort too, which makes her A-OK in my book!! Also joining me was my new "craft class" buddy Donna Gibson and we got deliciously inky and painty together.

We made an interactive art journal-y piece that I finally got finished up yesterday. I find it quite amazing that some of my layers of paint from class over a week ago are still sticky. Hoping that as the acrylic cures that the sticky-tackiness goes away. The lady on the front is my first foray into Dina's "magic pencil" as she calls it. It's pretty cool in that it goes on like a pencil, but once you wet it, it turns into more like ink. The trick is not to wet all the lines but to leave some of them still looking like pencil. As we were finishing up for the night, Dina was telling us to make one something that would be the "flow" between all of our pages. She like circles. And she spotted a piece of art on the wall that had birds on it. And she said, "Take this picture. You think you can't draw but I bet all of you think this bird is cute. You can draw this bird. Just try it." So I did! He is the bird at the bottom right hand corner of the third picture. The little yellow one. So the birds are my "flow" from page to page. I came home and drew three different size birds. I cut them out and used them as a template and cut about a gozillion out of old book pages and a page that we also created in class with acrylic paint, spray inks and stencils. I used the magic pencil around them as well. There are also a few bird quotes on the pages. Dina uses a big loopy script on her art that you can kinda make out a word here and there, but not every word is meant to be read. So I tried to follow that lead and mine aren't necessarily going in the "right" direction, but that's the way I wanted it to be. Oh, and the orange piece on the second page? That spins and has four different stamped images around the circle.

Had a great time, Dina. Come back and see us soon!

Altered Art Journal Book

I spent Saturday at Posh Scraps with about 12 other wimmens and we were taught by the wonderful Roc Nicholas how to alter a book and make it our own. Without giving away all of Roc's trade secrets, we pulled the "guts" out of a book, then covered the outside and inside covers with our own conglomerate of shtuff and then made our own inside pages and re-attached them to the book. Mine is farrrr from finished, but it is going to be so much fun to finish! Anything that is plain now will not be in the end. I have Gesso and Modeling Paste and old papers and flotsam and jetsam to cover and ink and paint and do whatever my little heart desires!  I will share some pics as I get the book finished. It will be interesting to see how it turns out because while I DO have a couple of ideas for where I want to go with it, I have NO idea if that is how it will end up!!This is a picture heavy post, so let's go!!

 Roc shows us her book

 Front cover of my book. Found The Earth without Art is just "eh" in a magazine. It was an advertisement! Three stamped images on the bottom are Roc's and can be found at www.stampotique.com

 Inside front cover

 first page. I  had to put a couple of things in it to see how I was gonna like it. The name tag was mine in class so Roc didn't have to call us "hey you!" and limes for my Bloody Marys!

 second page. The tag swings independent of the page and it is a leftover from the Dina Wakley class I took during the summer at Whim So Doodle.

 two round coasters make up page three.

 then another tag is page 4.

 6 x 6 definitions is page 5.

 A couple of file folders are page 6 and yes, the bottom one is crooked. I think it adds to the "organic" nature of the book!

 Page 7 is a pocket that was shared by one of my classmates. We all shared things that we had extra of with each other. We even shared with Roc! Trying to bribe her to come back and see us again!!!

 Page 8 is another classmates share in a paint sample.

 Page 9 is a narrow 2" x 11" piece that I cut off my first page.

 Page 10 is another cut off piece. The top was sticking up above my book cover and I didn't realize it until I had everything adhered. So another happy accident and I used my Threading Waters punch then tied Bakers Twine in the holes!

 Left my flingers in page 11 so you could see that it is a clear bag. Don't know yet what will go in it!

 Page 12 is another tag. As I was deciding if it was going to be page 12 or 13, one of my classmates said she really liked the Kraft tag against the stamps , so page 12 it was!

Stamps is page 13

 Page 14 has a small pocket that also moves freely from the page.

 Page 15 is clock resist cardstock.

 Page 16 is two banner chipboard pieces.

 And page 17 is a brown mailer.

 Back of the mailer

 Inside back cover

 Back cover

Roc and I with our books.

Dyan mashup

A few of us (you know, the troublemakers who sit in the back of the class and spit spitballs at the goodie-goodies who sit up front near the teacher!) on the Art Journaling FB page that I'm a part of decided we'd take some of the "less flattering" pics of Dyan off her blog and use them as a theme in our art journals. I found one of her goofing at CHA with her plastic glasses and fake 'stache and decided I'd use the title "I've got friends in low places" from the Garth Brooks song back in the early 90's. I didn't want all of the background clutter, so I decided to cut the just Dyan's body out and her arms were at a weird angle with one on her hip and the other on a table and when I cut out the clutter, it made her arms look deformed, so I cut them off. One of the other Art Journaling ladies pointed out that it made Dyan look like the Venus de Milo!  I give you, our Lady Dyan as an Angel Queen.

Ending or beginning?

Another page in my art journal. Lots of layers and white pen work on this one. The girl with the dog and basket were a free download. Everything else I used was all flotsam and jetsam from other projects that didn't get used and were cluttering up my scrap table. I've got a 6' table and generally work in about a 6" space!

Building doors

I don't think I'd done a page in my art journal using CTMH stuff. Got an email from my wonderful CTMH upline Susan this morning with this quote and decided I really liked it and I needed to journal it. Started with a piece of CTMH Goldrush cs and applied CTMH inks in White Daisy, Goldrush, Autumn Terra Cotta and Chocolate in a swiping fashion on the cs. Then used my Distress Marker in black and applied the lines for the planks and nail holes. Did the quote on the computer and doodled around it. The doorknob is a CTMH Durables Round Stud.

Guardian Angel

Wonder if Dyan ever saw Rainbow Ruby as a Guardian Angel when she created her?! Also used Right Up Your Street for the houses. Lots of doodling with my white Signo Uniball pen. Hard to tell from the pic, but the wings on "fly" are pop-dotted on the tips.

Strength and Courage

Playing in my art journal today after no creating for a week. Have a jumble of ideas in my head, so hopefully I can get. them. out. and onto paper!

Started with old dictionary pages. Then applied acrylic paint thru Dyan's stencils. Random stamped in a few spots. Used my Lonely Girl stamp from Dina Wakley and added a few pearls to her crown. Paper flowers, vellum quote and rub-ons from my stash. Lots of doodling with my white and black pens.

Feels so good to have inky, painty paws again!