WRAPPING UP 30 DAY CHALLENGE

Hello Everyone! 

Welcome to the final days of the Get Your Art On challenge! Here's are some journal pages I've been working on this past week. 

Day 23 Oh Happy Day 

Day 23-Oh Happy Day!  Having a great day plastering on papers and adding a bit of ink, water color pencils to this page. 

Day 24-Groovy

Day 24-Groovy:  This isn't my favorite page but it is what it is. I was out and about this day having a great day adding to my Distress Ink collection. I found acrylic paints on sale so I treated myself to a few bottles in bright tropical colors and came home and played with them. 

Day 25 Tropic Winds

Day 25-Tropic Winds: The winds began to pick up from Hurricane Sandy as it was approaching off shore near the Bahamas.  I started with scrapping pink and blue acrylic paints vertically on the page, adding spiced marmalade and mustard seed Distress ink to the mix. I cut palm branches from text and inked them, also leaves were zentangled for fun. 

Day 26 Baby Girl Loves Pink & Purple

Day 26-Baby Girl Loves Pink & Purple: Yes it is true, my 3 yr. old grand daughter is in love with these colors. She will hoard pink and purple crayons too! I threw in a bit of red gelatos and yellow acrylic paint for a bit of variation on the Pink and Purple theme. Added the zentangle scalloped border for fun. 

Day 27-Gator Chomp

Day 27-Gator Chomp: I'm a Florida Gator fan. I had this great gator stamp but thought it looked a bit weak on the background so I decided to make my own Gator from newsprint! I really like this page. GO GATORS! 

Day 28-By Grace

Day 28-Reformation:  Romans 3:23-24 "It is by grace we are saved. ²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, ²⁴ and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus". 

I sure had a great week experimenting/playing with my new colors! I hope you had a creative week too!  For those in the path of Hurricane Sandy in the North East, please stay safe and know that our prayers are with you! 

GO MAKE ART! 
Suzy

Linking to: Get Your Art On www.tracibunkers.com; Paint Party Friday http://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/;Art Journal Everyday http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2010/12/art-journal-every-day; Show Me What You Got www.marywalkerdesigns.com

BOOK AUTHOR'S WORDS INSPIRE JOURNAL ART

Hi Everyone! 

Something really exciting happened the other day! I fixed my PB&J and sat down in my favorite chair to eat  and read as I normally do during lunch (unless I'm working or watching the grands)most days.  I recently downloaded some free books on my Kindle www.amazon.com.  One of the books I downloaded was Midnight Marriage by Lucinda Brant. This is a Georgian Historical Romance based on a true story and the first time I have read this author's books. 

 I was munching on my sandwich and reading along when I came to this: "She was sure if she swung higher her toes would touch the clouds".* Ok, let me ask when you are reading a book, do you have a running movie going in your head? Picturing the scenes, the characters, what they are wearing and how they look??  I do. You might remember, I've got "watercolor eyes" and so my mind immediately went into journal/painting mode. I tried to ignore it but I couldn't concentrate at all on the words, my mind keep conjuring up the images so I ran back to my art room and got busy with painting and cutting paper to make the scene in my head! 

Day 22 Touch the Clouds

Afterwards as I was writing the author's words onto the page, I thought I need to contact the author and ask permission to use this quote! (Big Gulp! First time ever contacting an author!) I immediately Googled: Lucinda Brant found her contact information and emailed her, including an attachment of my journal page with the quote on it.  I really didn't think I'd hear back but within hours, I had my answer! Lucinda had graciously said yes! I was over the moon with excitement because she said yes! AND she was asking my permission to pin this painting on her Pinterest board http://pinterest.com/lucindabrant/ for her fans to see! I hope you will all go over for a visit to Lucinda's website http://lucindabrant.com/midnight-marriage.php and download (Kindle & Nook) the story of Deb and Julian! Tell Lucinda I sent you!  

A special thank you Lucinda for inspiring me and graciously allowing your quote from Midnight Marriage to be a part of my art! And thank you for the pin on Pinterest!  

Thank you my family, friends and followers for your encouragement and kind comments each week! I look forward to hearing from you soon! 

Have a blessed weekend!

Suzy

*Quote used by permission from author.

Linking to: http://www.marywalkerdesigns.com; www.tracibunkers.com/blog; www.sewmanyways.blogspot.com;http://paintpartyfriday.blogspot.com/;http://creativeeveryday.com/

30 Day Art Challenge

Hello Everyone! 

Here's a few pages from my GET YOUR ART ON journal. More than half way through this 30 day challenge of making art.  I'm enjoying the process and having fun making each individual piece. 

This week I pulled items from a long forgotten box of paper treasures and made this page for Day 16: A Season For Everything.  There's a seed packet cut from a card our niece sent, a vellum piece with script,text paper leaves and heart cut from a stencil, a teapot painted on needlework canvas, and circles cut from a discarded watercolor project. They all came together to make a page that speaks to the change of season here in Florida. This is our growing season.

Day 17-Let the Son Shine In. I LOVE  Pears! I actually drool when the Harry and David catalog appears in the mail box!  They have THE BEST pears I've ever eaten in my life.  Anyway, enough about that...I was feeling joyful this day so I added flowers hand cut from some book text and leaf shapes cut from recycled watercolor page and more text. There was a piece of paper in my stash that had Joy stamped on it and I thought it was perfect to go with the is piece.

Day 18-Until You Have The Courage. A prompt about quotes last week led me to make this page. I had two quotes both about the ocean and this one just needed a page. I worked it in collage with pieces of maps and sky and water then distressed inked the edges to give a feeling of an old world map. The quote : "You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore." Christopher Columbus. 

Day 19-She was beautiful. This page drove me crazy!  I was going for a vintage look and ended up with something entirely different! My page just didn't want to be vintage. Does that ever happen to you?  SO I changed courses but by the time this happened, the page was already over-saturated in color. 

Day 20-She is Happy.  While working on the previous page I was wiping ink onto this page and just decided to let it stand and start another page with the base of color. The design on the tag was inspiration in the center of She was Beautiful, and I wanted to include it on this page. After adding the borders to the page it looked like a party getting started and that makes me happy, so I added streamers!

Day 21-Was Your Heart Not On Fire?  "Let your heart burn with passion. As we see the glory of God in the face of Christ." We were singing this song at church this morning and it stuck in my head. I was humming this s as I started my page and soon my heart was on FIRE. I remember the scripture about the  two disciples that were walking on the road to Damascus when Jesus appeared to them.  Luke 24:32 They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”  

Have a wonderful week! Get Your Art ON! 

Bee Creative!

Suzy

Linking to: Get Your Art On www.tracibunkers.com; Art Journal Everyday www.balzerdesigns.typepad.com

LI'L JOURNAL PROJECT WEEK 6

Hi Everyone! 

I'm so happy you dropped by to check out my LI'L JOURNAL PROJECT post today.  This is Week 6 in the series, so if you have been following along during the process you've seen a lot of art work in the past 6 Weeks! It's been a blast to make art journal pages from the daily prompts that Ashley Hackshaw over at Li'l Blue Boo presents each day! Ashley started Week 6 by asking "Where does your inspiration come from? What inspires you"?  Good questions, huh?  And she asked that we make a list of inspirational materials, blogs or whatever inspires us to create. You know how I feel about list making, so here is "list" in art form. LOL! I had such a blast doing this page that I carried it over to my Get Your Art On journal pages and expanded on the Zentangle idea. 

Day 26 Inspiration

To view Week 6 journal pages, please click on the Page Tab above Li'l Journal Project.  I'm so happy you have stopped by and I hope you will find  something to inspire you today! 

Bee Creative!! Linking to: http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/ & www.sewmanyways.blogspot.com
Suzy 

GET YOUR ART ON TROPICAL STYLE

Hello Everyone! 

If you've been following along with me on this project you might notice a difference in style this week. There was a slight breakthrough for me this week while making daily art pages for Get Your Art On! If you are new follower, I hope you will come along and watch as I make my way through 30 Days of making art and trying to discover my style. As you view previous pages, maybe you will also see the difference in what I'm doing. 

Day 11 Welcome to Paradise. Living in the Sunshine State we have abundant tropical flora and fauna.  When we first moved to So. Florida my neighbor told me that the Fall and Winter months were like Spring and Summer in the rest of the States.  Fall is when the landscape comes to life here! While most people experience the changing of leaves and eventually dormant trees branches, we get more vibrant colors, blooming flowers and greener grass.  

Day 12 Sound of the Waves: So this is the time of year we spend more time by the pool and at the beach. Folks from the North flock down here during "season" to escape the cold winter months and enjoy warmer weather. The ocean is but a mile from my house via two Causeways and I long to spend time at the beach. I rarely go there but that is about to change.  

Day 13 Pool Time. It was a beautiful day to spend by the pool, grilling out and enjoying the afternoon breezes from the ocean. 

Day 14 Can't See the Forest For the Trees. We started a new Bible Study series at church this week. This page represents my thought process about End Times and how people are always trying to look into and predict the future. 

Day 15 Zentangle. Earlier I was working on a Li'l Journal Project about inspiration, not wanting to make a list as suggested, I came up with the idea of making a Zentangle in which I could write my thoughts. And wanting to explore the concept of zentangle further, I started this page in  Get Your Art On journal. It's not quite done but I'm enjoying the process and will add text later. 

I hope you enjoyed this week's Get Your Art On journal pages.  

GO! Bee Creative! 
Suzy

Linking to: Traci Bunkers www.tracibunkers.com/blog
www.sewmanyways.blogspot.com

LI'L JOURNAL PROJECT WEEK 5

Hello Everyone!

Happy Friday! I'm SOooooo Happy that Ashley over at Li'l Blue Boo is back with the word prompts for our LJP!! This week in THE LI'L JOURNAL PROJECT the prompts have been about word associations and mapping.  I like the word associations and thinking about each word I can't help but put the words into visual meanings. Being a very visual person, this is how I interpret my world, some people tell me I have "watercolor eyes".  Watercolor eyes are when you see everyday objects or scenes in watercolor terms, visually trying to paint what you see. Guilty! Yes, I'm always trying to figure out what color things are made of and if it were a painting, how would I paint it? Does anyone else's brain work like that?  Do you have Watercolor Eyes? 

Click on the LI'L JOURNAL PROJECT page tab above to see each Day and the stories behind them.  Thank you for stopping by and I hope that you will also be encouraged to start a Li'l Journal Project of your very own!  Have a wonderful weekend! 

Bee Creative!
Suzy

Linking to:

The Learning Prompt

Hi Everyone! 

Working on two journal projects this month has been pretty exciting stuff for me, a learning process.  The Li'l Journal Project over at www.lilblueboo.com is based on prompts that  Ashley Hackshaw creates daily and posts on her blog.  Each prompt subject (s) leads to a past or present experience in your life. I find myself deep into thought some days from a one word prompt, other days is seems like silly fun to me but either way, I am having a wonderful time interpreting these word prompts. I look forward each morning to getting a cup of coffee and sitting down in front of my computer and to see what prompt Ashley will have for me today..... 

Knowing Ashley was taking a little break from prompting last week I began working on another art project called Get Your Art On, Check it out at www.tracibunkers.com. It's a 30 day project to make art, any kind and there are no prompts. Okay, by the Third day in this process, I discovered that I really like word PROMPTS which seem to give a  focus or direction to creating a page. I know, this might sound a bit lame to some people, being prompt less (LOL, is that even a word?) but speaking for myself and left to my own devices (prompt less), I wander around the pages kinda willy-nilly. So here's a big thank you to Ashley for the daily prompts! 

Here's some pages from the 30 Day Get Your Art On series:

Day 5: Push Beyond Your Norm. Sorry for the shadows on the page, it's been a crazy week weather-wise for photos.  Continuing to work with stamped tissue paper and adding acrylics to the mix. Pushing Beyond the usual inks and color palette.

Day 6: Making Art with Bree. Brianne is my oldest grand-daughter, she is 3 yrs. old and loves to come to Mimi's house to "make art". We played colored pens, silk leaves and glitter glue, after she left, I made this page using some of the same materials. 

Day 7: Morning Has Broken. When I photographing the background of this piece I noticed a shadow on the page that looked like a tree with branches, so I pulled out some papers to make a collage of the shadows. I'm not entirely happy with this but it is what it is for now, I'll go in and modify it later. 

Day 8: What's That Buzz??  You might think the title has something to do with the Bees and honeycombs but actually it was about the buzzing noise I heard when working on this piece. We were having some electrical problems and the buzzing was the air conditioner trying to come on! Yikes! This page inspired by a journal prompt on Li'l Journal Project. 

Come back and check out the Li'l Journal Project Pages later this week! Until then, GO.... GET..... YOUR..... ART.... ON!!!

Bee Creative!
Suzy

Linking to: www.lilblueboo.com  www.tracibunkers.com

Getting My Art On This Week

Hi Everyone!

 Happy Thursday! It's almost the weekend and I can officially say that because I started a new job today! My job is part-part time and I have a deal with the boss that my hours will be flexible since I watch our grand babies the other days. Sooooo, what does that have to do with today's post? Well, one of the pages happens to be about this and I also have other wonderful news to share in another page....I'll let you see what that news is: 

GUESS WHAT!!?! That's the same line I used to open the conversation with my mother 32 years ago. 

Li'l Journal Project Week 4

Hi Everyone! 

During Week 4 of the Li'l Journal Project we were asked to make a Job Time Line, do some mapping with a twist, make a diagram of our social network, remember a trip or vacation and look at magazines subscriptions. 

It was a very exciting week for me, some of the prompts we were given had me digging deep and realizing I've have a blessed life. My attitude of gratitude is renewed for the many gifts I've been given. 
Here's what I learned:   

• God is the director of my social network
• Blessed to be a Wife, Mom & Grandmom
• I have a Adventurer's Heart and an Artist Soul 
• Love to travel, but Home is where this heart resides.
• Love magazines 

You'll get the scoop with each page if you click on the Page Tab above marked Li'l Journal Project.  Here's a Sneak Peak of my favorite prompt: 

 Ashley is taking a week's break with the journal prompts so this is a great time to play catch up on your pages or jump in and start a Li'l Journal Project of your very own! You can check it out by clicking on the link below.  I hope you will consider joining (let me know if you do!) and I promise you will have so much fun! 

Go Make Art!
Suzy