A Valentine to Oneself

I've never particularly been in to Valentine's Day for many reasons, but when I led my mixed media workshop on that Valentine's Day Saturday, I had big pieces of brown paper laid out on the table for each participant. My directions were for us to gesso the page. The next step was for us to draw a large heart in the middle of the page and scribble a letter to ourselves... what ever we wanted to say........... just fill the heart with words, scribble, babble, blah, blah, blahs. Didn't have to be legible. No one was going to read it. The next part was for us to paint, collage, anything to fill in the heart to our heart's content. What they did with it after that was up to them, but my thinking was that they could then use this piece as collage paper in several ongoing projects, such as our altered children's board book. Here are some of those ongoing and completed board books. I am having a blast creating with this small group of women. They are the high light of my week. We are all working at different paces; some have finished their board books and are moving on to altering a deck of cards, and at the same time working on a larger altered book. More on that to come later. Thanks for stopping by.

One Dollar

I hope you had a good weekend. A creative weekend. I spent a good amount of time playing. I started with this ****************Painted them.************They became this. I might add some wings to the backs of them. I might see how they look slid over a red candle. I can see them on a mantle or on a Christmas tree. I also finished the front and back covers of my children's board book from The Dollar Store which I've been showing you the last several posts. Tell me what you think? You can view the other pages in previous posts. At least I can say I have finished something. Yay!! One last thing. I was delighted to view Balzer Designs post on Friday to find Julie had "featured" one of the pages of my Dollar Store book on her website for her Art Journal Everyday. Caught me by surprise.......... Thanks for visiting. Do come again....................jo

Letting Go

Letting go may be shaded in sorrow but it is lit by strength. ~Quinn McDonald The remaining page that I haven't shown you in altered children's board book from The Dollar Store. Quinn McDonald is a writer and artist who's blog I frequently visit. For some strange reason on those days I find her words often resonate with what is going on in my life at that moment, or on that day. I am working on the front and back covers of this one dollar book. I'll show them later. Thanks for stopping by.....Jo

Responsibility

Here is another page in the altered book- a children's board book from The Dollar Store. I did the background on the gelli plate. The face is cut out from my- faces -on -top- of- morning- pages -writing. The torn paper is from copies of my own art. I used sharpie paint markers, gel pens, acrylic paint and gesso to complete it. I hope you had a good weekend and that you took some time for yourself to be creative. I am glad to see the leaves here finally in full color. Thanks for popping in and thanks for all your comments. Please visit again..........................jo ************************************************** I am linking this to Carolyn Dube's November Gelli print party.

Grow Your Garden

Back in June I took the train to Pennsylvania and visited my "bestest buddy," Patty. Patty and I have a history, spanning at least thirty years of friendship. Patty and I met as college room mates. Patty, I have learned over the years is a wonderful gardener. I have watched her garden grow through out the years and whenever I'd visit she'd always have something new to show me. This last time I looked at her garden with new eyes. I took so many pictures because I wanted to draw, sketch, paint her garden. And while she is awesomely creative in many areas, a wonderful water color artist, her garden has been her canvas for a good long while. I am amazed. I do not remember the names of these plants, flowers. Perhaps I should have taken a notebook with me on the tour. Here are a few pictures I took from Patty's garden. It occurred to me that I was working on this Dollar Store board book while on the train to visit her and also at her house. I showed you a peek of a page yesterday because I hadn't decided what I wanted to write on it. I figured it out. Sorry about the green grid underneath the photo. I didn't have enough natural light left by the time I took the photo. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a creative weekend........................jo I am linking to Aimee's Glue It Tuesday Carolyn Dube's November Gelli Print Party and Balzer Designs Art Journal Every Day.

A Peek

Here's a peek of part of a page from my altered book from the Dollar Store. It's one of those children board books that I sanded to get the gloss off and then threw on the Gelli Plate for backgrounds. I haven't decided what to write on this page yet so I'm just showing you the bottom half. I was in the mood for gel pens and lots of color. Stay tuned for the rest of it. Thanks for visiting.......................... I hope you come again...................jo

Be Nobody But Yourself...............

.................. and Creativity Comes From Trust ~ Rita Mae Brown This is another couple of pages from my overhauled children's board book from the Dollar Store. I gelli plate printed the background and used the faces I did on top of my 5 am Morning Pages. I am trying to play and experiment with lettering. All torn paper is from my art work. Thanks for stopping by and thanks for all your kind comments. ............. jo........................................I am linking to Balzer Designs Art Journal Every Day where there's a ton of good stuff. And Carolyn Dube's Gelli Plate Print party.