Sunday, May 24, 2015

Repurposed Notebook


I have a ton of old notebooks - several are branded promo items.  I decided to revamp a few of these.  Here is a mini-notebook that I turned into an art journal.  (The prismacolor pencil is added for size reference).  I love this because of the smaller size - I can take it with me virtually anywhere.  I also love the funky lettering, motivating statements, contrast of the black against the colorful painted background and the overall aesthetics.

How To:
This is a very quick and simple project that you can make using scraps.  I used painted paper created on my gelli plate, mixed media stickers, washi tape, black cardstock, cardstock letter stickers and metallic gold rub-on shapes.

the painted paper was trimmed to size and mounted on the cover.  Then I decorated until I was happy with the end result.


Here is the inside - an art card that I made a while back mounted on the inside cover.  On the next page you can see a list of planned projects and my dirty little secret - (I have horrible penmanship).



I have made other repurposed notebooks from composition journals, moleskin journals, etc.  This is a quick, easy and fun project that can be given as a gift or made for personal use.  


Saturday, May 16, 2015

Drawing in colored pencil 101


I recently started drawing again but have had to basically reteach myself the basic fundamentals.  I have swatched all of the pens and pencils that I own and have been practicing different shading techniques.

At Good Will I purchased a book on bulb flowers with the intention of.using the photos to practice drawing.  I definitely need to work on better use of white space.   I also need to apply less  - the finished project had a waxy / glossy finish which means I used too much product - I either layered too much color or applied too much pressure when drawing.

The project below was completed using a variety of colored pencils and Faber Castell Pitt Pens.  I plan to finish up the top right corner but this is otherwise complete.


Original image



Initial outlining, coloring and shading


Adding more color and shading


almost finished!



Friday, May 08, 2015

Updates and Six ingredient Paleo recipe

I am still posting older posts that had to be deleted a while back tue to an issue with "unnatural inbound links".  I debated on whether or not it was worth the effort or not but decided that it was.

I decided to work from oldest through newest posts so if you see things coming through, please check the dates.  I am back dating to the original post.  Right now I am still on 2008.  regardless of how tedious this project has become I will continue to post until most of my original content is back on the blog.

Since the above is rather boring, here is something a little more fun.  Recently I have been going on and off Paleo.  I have probably lost 20 lbs total over the last year but have plateaued recently.  I also find it difficult to stick to beyond a couple of weeks

This is one of my favorite dishes - it is not only delicious, but also very simple and easy to  prepare.  I love breakfast but cannot eat first thing in the morning so usually I prepare this for brunch or dinner.


- 2 - 3 eggs, scrambled (tip: add water, not milk, to make your eggs light and fluffy)
- chopped tomato I used about a half of a large tomato
- 1/2 an avocado, sliced
sea salt and course ground pepper to taste.
- hot sauce  I used Sriracha but for someone that is on a strict Paleo diet, stick with regular hot sauce (or no hot sauce) as Sriracha contains sugar.

Bon appetit!







Saturday, May 02, 2015

"Graduation Day with Mom and Dad" chalkboard themed layout

I have not posted much lately.  Blogging really has fallen to the bottom of the priority list.  Between work, my kids activities and my other interests, I just do not have the time or passion that I used to have.  

Lately I have been doing more mixed media / fine art but still occasionally scrapbook.   I worked for a couple of months on this album and wanted to share double layout.  

I made a graduation scrapbook for my DD.  This is one of my favorite layouts.  The pages both have an abundance of layers but these did not photograph with as much depth and dimension as I would have liked.  The entire album was created with chalkboard themed paper and embellishments.  By the time I was finished I was completely over this trend but overall I was happy with the results.

National Scrapbooking Day is today so it is an appropriate time to share!  Please feel free to linkup in the comments section any recent projects that you may have completed.  










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