PLAYTIME SKETCHBOOK

Hi Everyone!

Nothing better than PLAY TIME in a sketchbook or journal!  I love to spend time with my glue stick, stamps and watercolors.  It is good to spend time creating without any purpose whatsoever! You never know where it will lead you creatively.  I don't feel the need to finish a page or make it pretty. In my sketch books and design journals you'll find lots of unfinished pages, some with stamping and nothing else. Like this page below created when trying out new stamps and deciding between black or brown ink. Personally I like the look of both on this page. 

Whenever I purchase a new stamp(s) I always try them out in a sketchbook first! Stamping the designs over and over again helps me visualize other ways in which they can be used. Using different color ways also is a wonderful way to see how color effects the design. I enjoy doodling around designs and writing any ideas down next to the stamped images. 

I use watercolor pencils, ink, craft paint, scribbles, crayons, etc. Nothing is off limits.  

Mixing stamps designs is fun! Here's a page where I was experimenting with houses, drawing trees, stamping with feathers and even a birdcage. Yep, I know it's upside down! Who knows what THAT'S about. 

Being a quilter, I love pattern and fabrics and they sneak their way into my sketch books too!  Here's a little pattern for a bug quilt I made for my great-nephew. The fabrics are glued into the book with a glue stick and the curly cue antenna was a practice applique piece cut out and glued on to the page.

As you can see, anything and everything goes into the design sketchbooks. I so enjoy looking through these pages and getting new ideas and using some of the old ones too! 

Hope you are having a wonderful week!  Go glue or stamp something in your sketchbook!  WHAT??? NO! You don't have a sketchbook?  Well head over to the nearest Joanne's or Michael's and pick out an inexpensive sketchbook! Get your glue stick out and glue down a random piece of fabric or paper, add color or a nice doodle....get started now! Have fun!

Happy stamping & glue sticking!
Suzy

KEEPING A JOURNAL OF IDEAS

Hi Everyone! 

Some days I like to doodle and stamp random designs on my journal pages.  I dabble with watercolors in different color combinations and often the results sparks more creative activities, like the one below I used to make a birthday card.  

 I used book text to create a twisted stem and a leaf on the flower below.

 Another flower made with book text for the center of a hand drawn flower. 

 Gluing punched circles onto the page with a few squares and then some doodling.

 See how the design doodles above morphed into another design which in turn was used on a greeting card. 

 I jot down ideas to the side of the designs for future consideration. 

How do you process your ideas for different projects? Do you keep a journal or sketchbook to record them?  

Busy Bee-ing Creative!
Suzy

ICAD WEEK 3

Hi Everyone!

This post is a bit late today but better late than never, right?  I've been getting things spruced up around here for my darling daughter and grandson to arrive this week (DSIL will follow soon).  They are in transition, moving from Texas to Michigan and will be staying with us for a month.  We are looking forward to spending time with our 3 month old grandson, DD and SIL. Jackson is growing so fast! He is smiling and getting such a cute personality, we are certainly blessed to have them stay with us.  

It's been a wonderful week making index cards each day, so much fun! My plastic bin of goodies sit under the table waiting to be sifted through for just the right tidbit to add to the cards.

If you'd like to read more about the details of each card for this week and any previous ones you might have missed, just click on the "Index Card A Day" tab on side bar to your right. 

Thank you so much to all who have left such kind comments, each one makes me feel so loved. I can't wait to share the cards with you!  Please share with me which is your favorite and why. I love hearing your thoughts.

Happy Doodling!
Suzy

Linking to : Daisy Yellow; Paint Party Friday; Art Journal Everyday

NEW CHALLENGES ON HORIZON

Hello Everyone!

Lately I’ve been reading many blogs on art journaling, drawing and sketching and I got caught up in one that I love, Tammy Garcia’s Daisy Yellow blog. Tammy's hosting a challenge for all you art lovers out there called Index Card A Day (ICAD). The idea is to use an index card and doodle, paint, draw, collage or whatever your little artistic heart enjoys. One card a day for the month of June and July. I think I want to try this out! It sounds simple enough, Tammy will provide optional prompts and that might be fun too! You can read more about ICAD here!

Tammy is one of the most generous artist when it comes to sharing ideas, free tutorials and art classes. I love that about her blog, it is ALWAYS a fun and interesting place to go!

Looking forward to sharing my Index Card A Day art with you in future posts. Maybe you’d like to join the group? Just click on ICAD here or on the button over on the left! The more the merrier!

Another challenge I’ve been longing to join is EveryDayMatters because I’ve recently fallen in love with Danny Gregory’s work! Go check him out: http://dannygregory.com/category/journals/. After finding Danny’s blog I have really come to enjoy his style of journaling. He has inspired me to begin drawing, sketching and painting again. I want to take the challenge of drawing every day and yes, I will use the daily prompts. Please take a moment to go over and visit Danny and check out his incredible travel journals!

Start watching for my ICAD and EDM posts beginning next month. I hope you will be inspired to join one of these groups or just start sketching and working in your art journals! Don’t have an art journal?!? WHAT??? Go GET a sketch book and start today!! You can call it a sketch book, notebook or journal or nothing at all….just start today.

Happy Doodles!

Suzy

Link to: Daisy Yellow; Danny Gregory

The Ordinary Life

Hi Everyone! 

It's been awhile but I found myself playing in my art journal this week between working and caring for my grandchildren.  In my Monday night theology class we were discussing the spirituality of vocation and the fact that God is in everything we do, our work, our relationships, in our ordinary life. I was thinking that my vocation and ordinary life intermingle and sometimes it seems that my life is mostly the same day after day.  Maybe you feel that way too. It's not a bad thing, the ordinary and I'm not complaining, I'm just saying there is comfort in living the ordinary life. Looking around and seeing the blessings of each day, in the ordinary. So this week I suppose I was recording ordinary life in my journal pages. 
You can check out this ordinary life by clicking on the page tab above: ART JOURNAL. I'll share my personal art and stories behind the art with you. 

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Tell me, does your art imitate your personal life, your vocation and your relationships? 

Happy Painting!
Suzy

Linking to: Paint Party Friday, Art Journal Every Day,

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

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

May Day

Hello Everyone!

Happy first day of  May!  Can you hear the shouts of HELP! HELP! HELP! (May Day, May Day, May Day!) coming from this screen? Last week I was taking a leap of faith in linking to Make a Friend Friday, over at Sew Many Ways! This week I'm in the process of learning how to add new features to my blog. Maybe you already know about linking up, gadgets, buttons and such  if you are the least bit computer savvy, but for me, it is a big learning curve.  I'm not the most techno-savvy person you'll meet but I do enjoy learning new (to me) things from time to time.  So bear with me while I make these changes and feel free to offer advice or how-to information (be kind and K.I.S.S.).  I was recently thrilled when Karen of Sew Many Ways shared with me how to "fix" my email issue (thanks Karen!).  On her blog she provides a nice tutorial called Blog Buddy in which she answers blogging questions. Check it out! http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com. Oh, you will love this blog! She has wonderful tips and projects! Tell her I sent you!

Anyhoo, you might notice (I hope) the two new pages that are under construction? They are  Bible Verse Journal and Art Journal just in case you didn't see them.  I'm pretty geeked up about sharing these journals with you!  Here's a bit of a "pre-construction zone" view of  the Bible Verse Journal and how it all started only a week ago.  I was checking out some blogs that had recently peaked my interest on Pinterest when I came across  a blog artist named Nancy Babb, and her blog site http://polly-wollydoodle.blogspot.com/  (love that name!) and instantly was drawn to her Bible Verse Challenge page. After reading the challenge and praying about it, I wrote a note to my BFF who had just that day told me that she wanted to do "more spiritual artwork" and asked her to check it out and tell me if she would like to have a little challenge.  She promptly replied, "YES!" and we agreed that we would do a private daily challenge using the Bible verses provided by http://www.biblegateway.com.  I would encourage you to check out Polly-Wolly Doodle  and sign up to participate with Nancy on her Bible Verse Challenge! And I hope you will come back and follow along with me on this journey of both spiritual and artistic growth.  

Now, let me tell you give you my disclaimer on the Art Journal. I don't consider myself an artist really, I just like to dabble and play with my art supplies, paper and scissors. The Art Journal is where I go to work out the stuff in my head.  Doodles, colors, thought process, etc.  Some times the pages are Smash work. Smash work is where you put bits and pieces you've collected during the day  into a journal page....I like that kind of art myself, especially when traveling, it is a great way to keep a daily page reminder without lots of writing. Have glue stick will travel!! Maybe I'll make a Travel Journal page to share with you!  Any way, the point of the Art Journal is to do something daily, I don't always have time to do a page a day but when I do, it is a joy to work in my journal. I look forward to sharing my journals with you.
Blessings!
Suzy