Don't Just Survive the Day, Triumph Over It

I decided to step up my sketching. In my art journal, I printed out and pasted some sketching tutorials (eyes, mouths, hands, etc.). The opposite pages I left blank so that I could try my hand at them.
So this page started out as an exercise in eyes, but I decided to flip through the tutorials to finish a full face. Daughter says it looks vaguely like the character from the TV show Medium. Hubby says it looks somewhat like Suzanne Sommers. I didn't try to make it look like anyone, just placing some lines on a page with watercolor pencils and adding a wet brush to it all.
Either way, it was my first drawing with the pencils, and except for a few issues with proportions, I say it looks good. LOL

Be at Peace with Yourself

I have another project today for this month's theme of PEACE over at the Path of Positivity Challenge blog. It is an art journal page with a watercolor background and another beautiful digi image from Sparkle N Sprinkle. The image is called Winter Cardinal.

After my background dried (be kind, I am a beginner in water colors), I colored Winter Cardinal with Copics and sprinkled fine glitter on the pine needles. Then I fussy-cut (one of my fave techniques) the image and popped it onto my background.  The sentiment is from Decosse's Dynamite Digis, and when you play in the Path of Positivity challenges each month, you'll get a free sentiment just for playing!! 

I used olive branch stickers, adhesive-backed jewels and a shaped button to embellish and my page is finished.

Life is way too short to spend another day at war with yourself.  I love this quote, because there aren’t that many people who are at PEACE with themselves.  Whether you feel too fat, too skinny, not smart enough, not enough friends in your life, too loud, too quiet, it is a virtual war zone within your soul.

Society doesn’t help much with magazines telling us how we can “improve” on our looks, our style, our behaviors.  People are quick to criticize but slow to compliment.  No wonder our teens are growing up with low self-esteem and body image problems!

It’s time to “give PEACE a chance” in tiny ways so that they slowly but surely build on each other like a snowball rolling downhill.

Start making PEACE with yourself:

  If your weight bothers you, list all the things you can do with the body you own, right now, without changing a thing!  Are you strong, are you flexible, do your children, grandchildren, husband, love to cuddle with you? Have those you love and love you actually complained to you about your being over or under weight?

  If it’s confidence you lack, list your talents and strengths, without changing a thing! We are our own harshest critics.  Listen to your loved ones; they know your value better than you do yourself.

  If it’s your past, list the good experiences you have had and the lessons you learned from the bad, because you can’t change your past!  You’ll discover that everything you said and did, everyone you met and loved, everywhere you’ve been, has combined to make you the marvelous person that you are today.

Stop declaring war on your body, your looks, your mind, your career, your location!   Make PEACE with what has happened already.  If you’re still not happy, then rejoice that you are still alive.  That means you have time to change if you wish it:

 Work out to become stronger, healthier, beef up, slim down.

 Learn new things, make new friends, experiment and explore, so that who you see is as strong as who others see.

 Sometimes I regret joining the Army right after high school.  However, if I hadn’t, I would never have met my husband of 37 years, had the son and daughter I cherish, met my daughter-in-law and gained 4 more grandchildren to the one I had already fell in love with.  When I think of the many crossroads in my life where I took the wrong turn, I see now that I only lost the battles and that I had won the war. 

So Make PEACE, not war…Starting with yourself, as all good things should begin!

Don't forget to link up your post/project with the Path of Positivity before May 4! We welcome anyone who would like to share their positive or uplifting take on this theme.

Love Rules without Rules

Today I made a card for my girlfriend, who will celebrate her wedding anniversary next week.  I love, love, love this QKD image called Steampunk Heart.  I had so much fun coloring and embellishing it!  Here I popped my colored image onto a piece of Tim Holtz Idea-ology patterned paper, tearing the edges.  I added to the effect with some diecut gears.
I adhered it all to background paper that was designed by me using three different acrylic paints and a credit card to scrape it all together into the pattern you see.  Punching holes at the bottom, I tied ribbons using more Tim Holtz (this time in the way of brads).   After adhering the whole thing to some sheet music, I finished off my card by rubbing some metallic acrylic gold paint around the edges.
You can play with this heart as well as other QKD images by checking them out at the Shop.  There are images and stamps for every crafting style!  Whatever you choose to make, have fun crafting!

Coloring My World One Art Journal Page at a Time

Time to show off another water colored background page from my art journal.  I use just the kids' watercolor paint sets from Crayola for my pages, but I am painting more and more and can definitely see an investment into those expensive little tubes of watercolors coming to a future near me soon! LOL

Here, I wet a page from a vintage women's magazine and loaded my brush full of color, sometimes letting it drip down (or up) the page. When it dried, I added flowers and leaves to the corner.  I wanted another nice sentiment or quote, so I rummaged through my rubber stamps and found this one about friendship. After stamping it with CTMH ink, I punched two sides of it and popped it onto cardstock before adding it to my water color background.  I added the line of jewels 'cause I like some sparkle.

I also made a watercolor background using a paper doily.  While visiting Seattle this week (and the University with my daughter),

I got to play in my Zentangling notebook. So I tangled a flower and cut it out to place on my paper doily. I had very little choice of colors with which to play with my tangle, but I still like the idea of my water colored paper doily being the background for my blossom.

Whatever craft you create, whatever medium you use, always remember to have fun!!  My motto is "Love what you do; Do what you love."

Diving Into Water(colors)

I resolved to try new techniques this year, and have started experimenting with watercolors.  While a lot of my pages were, um, blah, I recently colored one up that I thought might have possibilities.
After it dried, I used a 4x6 photo frame and moved it around the page, looking for inspiration.  I found two parts of the page that had potential.

Watercolors never interested me, as there is very little control over what the paint and water will do on the page! I never knew how much of a control freak I am when it comes to art.  But I am on a personal artistic journey and am learning to let go, learn, experience and have fun.

So far, all I've spent on this new hobby is a couple dollars on a WalMart paint set, but I had to buy some good watercolor paper.  It's a cheap way to pull your Picasso or Monet persona out of your soul and onto the page.

Here's the second scene I discovered within my water-colored mess.

Again, the way the paint clumped, flowed, and merged made me think of a landscape. I love this quote, because it also applies to art. I had so much fun with these two landscapes that I created an art journal specifically for water colors and quotes.  I'm hoping to find more than landscapes in my artwork, but we'll just have to wait and see!

Whatever your passion, wherever your curiosity and courage take you in your artistic endeavors, remember to have fun doing what you love!