Floral inspiration

This time of year has so much inspiration! Every flower is different and every bouquet is beautiful to me!



I know that I have pictures of things, but for some reason it's never the same as when you sit down and try to draw it.



You begin to notice the small details of the flowers! It's so amazing how very detailed the petals are. Such beautiful creations...



Happy Tuesday!

Bring someone sunshine...

Sometimes I just need to draw. Often, it's because I want to remember something and create an image that will remind me of a moment when I go back. So, I did...



































Sunflowers are so beautiful...



Have a great weekend...

Sketching Charlie Boy

I wanted to capture my Little Man just as he was the other day sitting and looking at me. So, I sat down with my pencil and after snapping a pic (remember dogs aren't still like flowers) began to sketch his image and then watercolor it. What do you think?



Does it look like him?



I thought it came pretty close.



Our little man! He's almost 9 months old now! Time sure does fly.

October Calendar Page

So, here's my page for October!



A little late, but I'm getting it posted!



I've managed to keep up all year so far! I can't believe it!

thinking about the beach

With all the thoughts of Fall, I sat dreaming of hunting shells. So, I decided to sketch my favorite shells. I hunt the beach endlessly for these beauties as you know.



We are going to Florida in a couple of months and I can't wait to enjoy the beautiful sunshine, family time, and shell hunting! I guess I was daydreaming...



Still practicing my sketching and watercolor techniques.



This form of journaling is really neat. How do you journal?



Have a lovely weekend!

Some sketching

I love drawing flowers. From time to time I practice sketching other things, but I think my strength is with flowers. I just love all kinds of flowers. They represent such beauty and peace. They make me smile. As I watched the butterflies all around my flower garden the other day all I could think was how blessed we are to be able to see and experience nature. There were butterflies of all colors just flitting around from flower to flower.

Since we stopped selling flowers at the market we haven't cut the flowers much. It's like nature just moved in. There are spider webs all over the garden, beautiful white spiders on the zinnias, and bugs everywhere! It's like they are thanking me for not cutting their food.

Art calms me, and trust me...I need to calm down most of the time! Some days I need to be creative more than others. It allows me to stop and be quiet for just a few moments and just appreciate the beauty of things. When you sketch something you notice the details. You notice the hundreds of petals that make up a zinnia. You notice the veins in the leaves and how straight the lines run. You notice how perfect and symmetrical nature is. Have you noticed this?

I intend to journal around this picture, but for now this is where it stands. I'm going to try to sketch more. I need the practice, and I need to be still and calm.

2 Thessalonians 3:16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.

September is apple time

I can't believe it's already September! Time flies! And, I've so far kept up with my monthly calendar pages. I can't believe it! I can't wait to go pick apples!!



I really have enjoyed keeping a log of the tidbits that happen daily!



The best part about this journaling technique is that it is quick and easy to do. Have you been keeping any kind of daily journal?

July Calendar Page...Finally!

I finally finished my July calendar page!



Again, due to my limited time, I focused on drawing and using watercolor pencils!



I think it turned out nice! Better late than never!

Oh, and I totally forgot to post my journal page for June, so here it is!







Happy Tuesday! To view all of the calendar pages in the project, click here!

May Calendar Page

I'm only a couple of days late posting my May Calendar Page!



I decided to do a collage this month with the pastel colored pages in my collection.



Hop on over to The Kathryn Wheel to see other lovely pages for this month!

It's April

It's that time again. Another month has passed.



I wanted to do some more watercolor art for the month of April since everything is blooming so early already!!



Hop over to The Kathryn Wheel to see the other calendar pages! Happy April!

march calendar page...a little late

I wanted to share with you my completed March 2012 Calendar page that I did for the 366 Calendar Challenge at The Kathryn Wheel. Sorry it's a little late! Better late than never I guess...

trust journal pages

Just wanted to share some of my recent journaling pages...

It's February!!!

Well, it's February 1st! I can't believe how fast time flies. I guess that means we're having a lot of fun! And...we sure are! Sometimes I think it flies faster when you're keeping track of the days like I've committed to doing for 2012.

Early in January I posted about my commitment to the Art Calendar 366 Challenge. So, part of that commitment is to write down daily quick tidbits of what you want to remember. I really like this way of keeping track of our memories. It's quick and succinct! I do have an idea to compliment this that I plan to share in the coming days. Stay tuned.

So, for February here is my calendar page...



And...a couple of closeups...





Since I'm big on recycling, I used old manila file folders as the actual blocks for the days. Even the messy hearts are file folders cut up. I try not to waste anything!



I'm excited to see what the other participants have done for their pages. It's fun to learn other peoples' techniques and styles!

And...in case you might be interested, here are two pics from my completed January calendar...

Art Journaling 366 for 2012

Every year I try so hard to keep up with documenting our adventures and lives and every year I fail when I try to commit myself to a scrapbooking scenario. So, this year I've decided that I am going to do something that I I think will work better. I found a group of artists that participate in a calender challenge. That is a calendar page each month. So, you create 12 pages with space on each date to write in short snippets of excitement from your daily life.

Here is my January 2012 calendar page...



Once you create your page you simply fill in the blanks as you have things you want to remember. That's it. No printing pictures and scrapbooking. No long writing and reminiscing. Just short quick notes!

If you're interested in reading about the project, visit The Kathryn Wheel. There are lots of participants and different artistic styles.

I am looking forward to documenting our lives this way for 2012! This doesn't mean I won't still art journal or scrapbook when the mood strikes me! I'll post my blank page and completed page for each month on the blog and my Flickr account.

paint + stitching + composition books = grungy journals

So, at "back to school" time I found these composition notebooks. You know...the black and white ones that we used to use in school? I guess they do still use them, but now you can find them in all sorts of colors and styles. But, I went for the cheap ones. Yes, the 40 cent/each ones!

I wanted to jazz them up so I coated the front and back covers in gesso, then put many layers of acrylic, and topped it off with some wild free-motion stitching and vintage lace! Here they are!

















I think I may have these for sale at the craft show I'm preparing for in November! I think they're fun and turn a plain notebook into prettiness! More details on the craft show soon!