Art Journal Caravan - A new journey

A new year and a new Caravan from Tangie Baxter at Scrapbook Graphics.    Tangie and her co-conspirators  er, ah....co workers are sponsoring a second year of prompts, digital scrapbooking kits, fun, and opportunities for personal growth.  It is meant to be a personal journey; to touch those parts of you that are easy to pass over.  I debated whether to join again this year.  I got behind a week or 10, and once I was that far behind I gave up.   I also didn't have a clear idea of what I was supposed to accomplish with these prompts and kits.  I have a much better idea now.

This is for week #3 of the Art Journal Caravan.  I used the kit that was created for this prompt and some elements from last years kits.  I decided that I will not only create something even when I don't feel like it but I will also be honest about the emotions that are running through me (and sometimes running my life.)  I really hope that this will help me to break the funk that I find myself in and also fulfills the part of me that needs to create my vision of art.
Stop by Scrapbook Graphics and check out the gallery and see what the participants are doing.  Studio Tangie Blog is also another place to visit if your curious about Tangie Baxter and her kits.

Finally!!! An ARCH template!

Ignacio the founder and creative GENIUS behind Nice Crane Designs has created at Gothic Arch for those of us who want to create and submit digital arches as well as paper ones.  I used mine today for the first time and I am sooo happy!!

I even went to Adobe.com and posted an inquiry on the forums asking how I could make my  own cookie cutter template for the arch, but got no response to my inquiry.  So Gothic Arches, I'm BACK!!
Thanks to Nice Crane Designs for such a wonderful tool!  Tangie Baxter for the elements from her Art Journal Caravan and Parcel #2 kits,  TLC for their blog train goodies that I collected from Craft Crave (formally known as DigiFree)

Simplify Me

Week 5 with the Art Journal Caravan and this week the prompt is Simplfy and also Just Me.  So I combined both of them.  Yep, thats me!  In all my "glory"....ie sans makeup.  Not bad for 50 if I do say so.
The quote is from Thoreau, the infamous "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams..." and the strips around my little head are single words like breathe, love, family.  Words that have heartfelt meaning to me at this time in my life.
Join the Caravan over at Scrapbook Graphics, or go through the gallery at the wonderful creations there.

AJC - Mend

Here is the second page to my art journal.  The prompt I used was the word "Mend". The journal writing describes a woman looking back through her trunk of memories and wondering if she had a been of service to others when their hearts were broken, but not able to be one one with a broken heart.
When I got the prompt I thought about some of the quilting pieces that I love the most.  There is a wonderful vendor, Cotton in the Cabin, who comes to the Road to California Quilt Show here in Southern California with marvelous antique pieces of hand sewn quilt bits.  Every year I that I get to go I treat myself to another bit of unknown history.  I say that because I will never know who spent a few hours hand piecing bits of fabric together with thread.  Occasionally there are bits of quilts that have required mending, worn areas carefully sewn back up as to be useful again.  It brings to mind darning eggs and socks, tatting shuttles and pearle cotton, radio instead of television, and conversation instead of texting.

This is the ATC that goes with the page.  I added the key and took away the watch. (I forgot what settings I used to modify the original colors...sigh)  I am going to print them out when I have enough to make a contact sheet.  I have a feeling that I will be a very familiar face to the ink refill people.  I just printed out the first page and have it mounted in the book I am using for for the journal.  But since there will be 52 pages and ATCs' its going to be a bit of an expense in ink and cardstock! Ohhhh....cardstock...humm...guess I'll have to make it to the Original Rubber Stamp Show in Carson this March to go get some.  (Boy, that was a stretch for an excuse, but I'll take it!)

A Journey Begins

This has not been a stellar year for creativity for me.  Marriage, family, work, and school have done their best to eat up what free time and energy that I have.  I have diddled around the internet and admired wonderful art journal pages, digital scrapbooking wonders, postcard art that I would love to receive in the mail, listened to great music that has me sighing at the singer/songwriters that seem to pull out lyrics and melodies that can take my mind to wonderful places.  And I  have been sitting in my chair looking at the piles of papers, boxes and books ( not to mention the orphaned kitten that we adopted) hoping that the organizing fairy would stop by one night and wave the magic wand and POOF! I have my studio back!  Yeah, not so much.......
Over at Scrapbooking Graphics there is a wonderful designer by the name of Tangie Baxter that is conducting at 52 week "journey".  Yep, its a full year into the world of art journaling.  Digitally.  I paid for my "ticket" and I have boarded the Art Journal Caravan.  My idea is to create the pages digitally, print them out, and mount them into a watercolor/drawing journal (after I have colored and altered the background a bit.)  Another designer there, Ruby Rhyne, threw out the idea of creating a matching ATC and by the end of the year you could have a full deck (I'll never have a full deck.....insert stupid grin here) of artist trading cards.   I like that idea.  A lot.
So here is my first page.  It was based on the word "accept"  For me, and many others, I am accepting the fact that I'm flawed.  And those flaws aren't just patches on a personality that is lacking.  They are what make me what I am for all of my "glory".  At my age, and thats 50 by the way, I am starting to recognize the "gift of age" that is part of an "I don't care what you think of me" mentality.  And I for one really like that!  It really is the confidence to be just who you are without the temptation to change for the sake of someone else.

I will be putting up the links to the Art Journal Caravan site for anyone who wants to join.  I will do my best to add the pages as I make them, but just remember, I AM part of the Blogging without Obligation crowd!