Doodle Valentines

A couple of years ago, I made some doodled Valentines for my family.  Maybe you remember them.  If you need a refresher you can find the original post HERE. 
Well, the other day, I was going through my blog stats and found that those Valentines are, hands down, the most popular thing I have here on this little blog of mine.  Thanks to Pinterest, that page has been viewed nearly 1000 times and I've seen it pinned EVERYWHERE!  I think it is so cool to be searching around Pinterest and see something that you have created.  I'm so grateful for all of the support.  So in honor of Valentines day, and in gratitude to all of you who like the Doodle Valentines, I have made a little gift.

I made you your own Doodle Valentines.  All you have to do is print and color them.  Now since I gave away the original Valentines to my family, I had to doodle new ones and while they are not exactly the same, they are pretty close.  You can find the PDF HERE.  I used watercolors on the original Valentines, but I wouldn't recommend using them if you print the PDF with an inkjet printer.  Use a dry media, like colored pencils.  If it were me and I wanted to use watercolor (which I would), I would print the page and have it photocopied on 110 lb. cardstock.  You can read more about the other supplies I used on the original post.  I hope that you enjoy coloring them and giving them to your loved ones this year.
Disclaimer:  To say that I am not technologically savvy is an understatement, so it is likely that making this PDF has taken me ALL DAY.  Also, it is highly likely that this link won't work and if that is the case, let me know and I will try banging my head on the keyboard again!

Just Can't Let It Go

How can you NOT love the day when the new Dick Blick catalog arrives in the mail?  You know, the BIG one.  How can you NOT cancel all plans and items on your to-do lists on the day that a catalog that states, right on the front cover, "over 70,000 art supplies inside" finds its way to your mailbox?  How can you NOT love when that day rolls around each year?  It is an absolute joy!  (By the way, I think I should mention here that I have not received the new catalog yet.  I can actually hear people yelling, "What's going on?  I didn't get mine!") 
I crazy LOVE the Dick Blick catalog, which is why I think I have such a hard time letting go of the old one.  I have (almost) no trouble getting rid of the old phone book but, while the phone book IS full of good collage fodder, it only has a page or two that are really interesting to me.  Not true with Dick Blick.  Nearly every page contains something that I didn't even know existed, but now must have.  The Dick Blick catalog represents POSSIBILITIES to me.  Beautiful, colorful possibilities.  So, in an effort to make myself feel better about discarding the old catalog, I've been trying to use it up.

See all of these itty, bitty, color swatches?  Well, that's what's left after I used about a bajillion of them making this:

This entire page is made from bits and pieces of the 2010-2011 Dick Blick catalog.  I'd like to say that making use of my old catalog has made it easier to get rid of, but no, I think it has made us even better friends.  Now I am just thinking about even MORE possibilities!

Progress On All Fronts!

Here's what has happened to my "bleeding canvas" since my last visit here.

You may ask yourself, "Why, oh why, is that thing covered in little circles and then big circles, just circles?"  The answer to that question is, as usual, "I have no idea!"  It is always such a big surprise to me to find out what will happen when I start painting.  That is why I do it.  My painting method leaves me with one of two choices...I will either like it and it will stay, or I won't and I will just keep adding layers upon layers.  This isn't finished so I can't tell you which way it will end up yet.  The next time you see it, it might just be covered in gesso!  Who knows? 
I also got the first page in my new journal finished.  Wanna see?

My son wanted to work in his art journal, so I helped him tear out some pages from his book and glue some together.  As I was cleaning up my desk, I saw this picture from his book.  It's a mom putting away dishes, a boy drying the dishes, and another one rooting around in the fridge.  Now that it's Thanksgiving break, it looked just like my day.  It was a picture I could relate to!  I love having my kids home on school breaks (I know, I'm weird) but the thing about having them here is that they are always hungry and neither of them seem to be hungry at the same time.  All day long it's, "I'm hungry." "What is there to eat?" "Do we have anything 'good' to eat?"  "Is the dishwasher clean or dirty?"  AND my absolute favorite question..."What's for dinner?" 
Just as I was taking a minute from my feed child/clean up after routine to glue this image onto my page, my son came in and informed me that he was hungry.  True story.  I cannot make this stuff up!  At least I never find myself sitting around waiting for gel medium to dry. 
By the way, for all you English buffs out there.  I totally know that the hyphen should go after the "S" in "Thanksgiving" but I just ran out of room.  I tend to ignore such rules in my art journal.  The visual is more important to me than the proper use of hyphens here.
This last little project was something that I haven't done in FOREVER.

I did this for the November Sketchbook Challenge.  The theme was the "Spice of Life".  I've pretty much given up on pencils and erasers.  If I use them I can make a drawing take approximately FOREVER.  I just don't have the time (see above feeding routine) to sketch unless I make it fast.  I've just decided to be brave and go for it with a Pitt pen and let the cards fall where they may!  I sketched this in a Moleskine sketchbook and used watercolors to add the color. 
As you can see, I've been a busy little bee.  I sure hope my busy streak continues!

Housework Schmousework!

I don't know if I've mentioned it before (maybe only approximately 1,000 times) that winter is my LEAST favorite time of year and around here winters are longgggggggggg.  So the other day I woke up to a day that could probably be best described by the word (if it even is a word)...BLAH.  It was gray, cold and of course, windy.  I had a "fabulous" day of housework planned but when I saw the "BLAH" I found myself highly unmotivated!  Then someone posted this on Facebook or Pinterest or something and BAM!!!  We have a day changer!

That was all it took for me to forgo housework and get some coloring done!  What can I say?  I obviously don't require a whole lot of convincing if some e-card on the Internet can cause me to make a big mess instead of cleaning one up.  I traded my bed sheet fort for my trusty green vinyl tablecloth (that thing has been with me longer than my children have), my coloring book for a big canvas, and my crayons for my Golden Acrylics.

Here is my "couch cushion fort" on my kitchen table!  This day is looking brighter already, well other than my 6 year old told me that my painting was bleeding.  I'm not sure that's good, but hey, at least it is "bleeding" bright colors.  AND right beside me ready to catch any extra palette paint, was this:

It's my brand new art journal.  Hand bound with a fabulous stitch I learned from  Mary Ann Moss' class Full Tilt Boogie that you can find HERE.  It is my first hand bound journal with 140 lb. Fabriano hot press and let me just say, that painting on it is an absolute joy!  I now know what all the hullabaloo over 140 lb. Fabriano hot press was all about.  I'm sure the cover of this will evolve over time but for now I just LOVE my "Second Easy Drawing Book" journal.  It turned a BLAH day into Happy. Happy. Happy.  (I suppose I should mention here, my love and slight obsession, of all things Duck Dynasty, including, but not limited to, the use of Happy. Happy. Happy.  I'll have to elaborate on that another day.)

Silly Me

So, when you send off a journal to Art Journaling, you can include a self-addressed, stamped postcard for them to mail back to you when they receive your submission.  I took this little opportunity to send myself some happy mail and a reminder to be glad that I was brave and sent something in.  I made myself this little postcard and yesterday, it came back.

It got a little banged up in the mail (which I kinda like) but it made me happy when I opened my mailbox and that was the point.  I also may have taken the liberty of writing myself a little note from Art Journaling (I hope they can forgive me).  I'm a little silly that way.  It's just that I am usually a bit hard on myself (like, ridiculously) so I thought I'd try giving myself a little pat on the back for a change.

 

That was nice of me, don't you think?



Warm Thoughts

Well, I did it!  I bravely boxed up my little journal and sent it on its merry way.  I went with UPS and have been faithfully (obsessively) tracking it along its journey.  Right now, according to the UPS website, it is "on time" and in Las Vegas.  I am kind of wishing I was in Las Vegas myself.  It's not that I am a big fan of Las Vegas...I don't gamble (well, unless letting my family talk me into a dog counts as gambling).  I don't drink.  I'm not really into Wayne Newton and I have a years long distaste of Nevada (a whole other story), but I really, really don't like COLD and winter is starting to set in where I live and it's making Las Vegas look a whole lot more appealing. 
Anyway (kinda got on a tangent there), here's another little page from my journal.

Doesn't it look warm?  I think I was fighting against cold when I did this.  Here's hoping that you are staying warm (at least in your journal).

I'm Finally Finished!

I've been journaling now for several years and all though I have done many journal pages, I have to tell you, I have never actually FINISHED a journal.  That's right never!  Unbelievable, I know, but true.  Well, until now, that is!

Play Book is FINISHED!  Wahoo!
I have completed pages in spiral bound journals, sketchbooks, a Moleskine, and altered books, but for one reason or another (paper issues, book size, exploding bindings, etc.), I haven't finished the books (yet), so I set a goal for myself.  Here's my goal:  I was going to finish a book and when I was done, I was going to submit it to Art_Journaling.

So here's the last page on the inside back cover.  I'm pretty proud of myself for completing a big goal!  It's taken a bit more than a year to finish up my book and there is a labeled package on my desk just waiting for postage.  Sending off my beloved Play Book is a bit nerve wracking but doing the safe thing and letting it sit on my shelf would not accomplish the final little bit of my goal, so I'm going to be brave and have faith that it will come back to me safely!  Don't let me down USPS!!!  It's also a little scary to send away a little piece of yourself and have to put yourself out there, but I am quieting my "not good enough" demons and sending it anyway!  For me that is a WIN!!!