Flippy-Floppy Spread


Here is a full spread from my flippy-floppy journal.  It is a journal I reconstructed so that it opens from both sides.  I had posted about it earlier, but here are four pages in a row.  I tried to stick to similar color schemes, but that's not hard to do, because I seem to gravitate towards those colors.

I'm also really enjoying drawing little faces and adding random quotes to them.
And, I just finished this book and can't wait to read the next one!

Buried in Bricks

My husband has hobbies too!  He is really into building Legos now and he even started his own lego blog.  I think the title of his blog is cute and I love the picture he put on his heading.  Let me tell you, between my art related and scrapbooking hobbies and his Lego/Magic/comic book collections, we have no shortage of STUFF around here!  Anyways... there are no official Lego stores in Madison where we live, but one JUST opened an hour away from us in Wauwatosa, WI.  Andrew just started becoming involved with the local Lego group here.  (They're called LUGS-- Lego user groups)  Have you been to a Lego store before?  You know how they have all those floor models set up around the store?  Well, they usually send those to the LUGS for them to build.  Andrew spent a whole day in Kenosha with the Lego group there building all the sets for the store.  They had some really cool set ups.  So, when the store opened last week, we went out and visited the store.  Also, the people that volunteer to build the sets got discounts, so that made Andrew really happy as he was able to pick up some items he wanted for less money.

These are the feet that Andrew made!


I think this one was my favorite!





Here is Andrew and my little girl Daria.  I think Daria was more interested in her Hello Kitty book than anything else.




It's here!

Finally!  My copy of the magazine has arrived.

Featuring magazine was started by the lovely Marit in the Netherlands.  It is about art journaling, mixed media and other arts.   She had a call for submissions and applications to be a contributing editor and I was thrilled when my article and application were accepted.   After several months of brainstorming, interviewing and writing.. plus the countless hours Marit and her husband spent with layout, editing, printing and everything else... the magazine has been printed and delivered to my door.  I'm excited! Go to the Featuring website to find out information on how to order.






Painting Fabrics

I taught my third/fourth grade students how to doodle on fabric (graffiti-style) and then use spray inks and stencils to create a vibrant painted fabric.  The above one is my example and the bottom one is a student.  I blogged about the art lesson on my other blog about teaching art.  

The kids had so much fun and they were saying it was the best art class ever!






Art Journaling

These pages feature some of my "homemade stickers" as described here.   I have lots of art journaling to show you, but I will space them out over a few days.




And here are some of the fun things in my Etsy Shop!  Just for being a loyal reader of my blog I'm offering a 20% discount for any item in my shop:  Just add the code APRIL2012 when you check out.
That's a great deal, since most of my items are in the low range compared to other shops.  I'd like to build up some sales and feedback before listing lots more stuff.  So, if you're interested, check out the site.   I've been a collector of postcards and vintage ephemera and inherited a lot of stuff from my grandpa.  I have so much of these items that I thought I would start moving them.  There's only so many I can use and right now I don't need all of them.

A few of the things from my shop:

Journal Pages/ Just Journal Link Party

The Featuring Magazine has gone to the printers and has been shipped! It's not too late to order your copy of the PREMIER ISSUE.



We have all worked very hard on the magazine and I can't wait to see my copy!   Three of my articles are in the magazine... one about my own doodling, one about blogger Natalie Malik and one about Jennifer Rikker's travels to Africa and her artwork. 

To learn more about the magazine and receive updates, visit the facebook page.

Now, here are some of my recent art journaling pages....




Those were a few of my recent journal pages. Now show me some of yours!




Grab a button for your page:


Journal Pages




A blog and giveaway you might be interested in

Kristin Wilson started a new blog and is having a $100 giveaway to an online scrapbook store.  If you are interested in card making and scrapbooking, check out her blog!

Paint Party Friday

I am the featured artist on Paint Party Friday this week.. visit the site to see links to lots of other fun artists. 

This week, I am showing a couple pages of watercolor doodling from my sketchbook.



Good things are happening! Sketches and new Etsy Shop!

Good things are happening all around!  Spring is here.

I've been sketching in my flippy-floppy book. I'm feeling really excited by this format.


We saw the Hunger Games this past weekend.  It was our first trip to the movie theater in about 3 years!  That's what having a baby will do.  I loved the movie.  I also loved the book.


The Featuring Magazine now has a Facebook page and an image of the front cover has been posted.  Go over to Facebook to "Like" the page and get updates.

And.. I set up my own ETSY shop.  Ta Da!  That was one thing that I had on my to-do list over Spring Break.  I wanted to take baby steps to set up a shop.  One, I of course, wanted to sell some artwork and maybe get prints and greeting cards made up.  But also, I have a huge collection of vintage postcards which I haven't used in the past 15 years I've had them.  I use one here or there, but they are just sitting in a box in my house, so I may as well move some of them. If some sells, great, I will buy more art supplies, but it's not the end of the world if it doesn't.  It's nice that it's so cheap to list things and I like how the listings stay up for 4 months.   Since I put the postcards up last week I've already had two sales.  Yay!  And I realized I needed to charge more for shipping.  oops!  It's a learning process I guess.  Here are some of the items in my shop and slowly I'm going to add more postcards and other stuff.  I promise I won't spam the blog with Etsy advertising.   So, add me to your circle if you wish.  I'm trying to figure out the whole Etsy thing.. it's a whole other community there.  And every time I go on there to search for shops and do some research I end up wanting to buy lots more stuff!

Journal Page/ WOYWW



I have signed up for the online The Journey Within workshop with Kelly Kilmer. I love all her ideas and photos in her workshops.  Here is a page I made using some of the techniques learned.

Linking to WOYWW

Just Journals Linky

Every other week or so, I post a Just Journals link up where you can post a link to art journal or sketchbook pages you have been working on.

Show us your pages!





Grab a button for your page:


Mixed Media Collage



This is a mixed media collage I made during the past few weeks.  I'm still not entirely happy with it, oh well!  I think it's time to move on...

Linked to Paint Party Friday and Daisy Yellow.

Creativity Update + WOYWW

I am playing along with Daisy Yellow's Creativity Challenge and here is my update of my art adventures.

It is Spring Break, so I have a little extra time to play around!

Art journal page

another art journal page


Today I went to my friend Sarah's house and we decorated Easter eggs.  She is just like the big kids at school who don't want to wear smocks, so we had to take her shirt off.

I made some more stickers by creating images and printing them off on sticker paper (just full sheet of Avery labels).


And here's my desk view... well, it's actually our kitchen table.  My husband makes sure that I get it cleaned off before dinner every night!  I have decided that I am going to make baby steps towards opening an Etsy shop.  I have a lot of vintage postcards which you can sell there.  So, here I am organizing the postcards while watching a video online.


While organizing the postcards, I found these old letters from a Japanese penpal I had when I was a child.  I should look her up on facebook.  She always sent the coolest letters :)
Here is a reconstructed sketchbook!  I bought a pad of Canson's watercolor paper, cut the pages in half and used the bottom of the sketchpad as the back cover.  I took all of the pages to the UPS store and had them bind it on the edges.. They put the black covers on it for me too.  I love this sketchbook.. it will be perfect for watercolor.  And look at the next picture..

This is how it opens!  It opens on both sides to create one long quadruple spread!  UPS store bound it for about $4, a pretty reasonable price, don't you think?  The only thing is that I should have asked for a fatter ring to bind it.  If I add collage materials, the sketchbook won't lay flat anymore, because it will bulge out.  Next time I will remember to leave some room.

Creativity Queue Challenge Day 5

If you are coming here from Daisy Yellow's blog, welcome!  I am the hostess for Day 5 of the Creativity Queue Challenge.  This is a challenge where you are charged to do something creative that you have been meaning and wanting to do.  Anything goes, as long as it is something you have already started (in your head or actually physically).

My challenge:  Create a digital birthday card using parts of my own art.
I had been wanting to make and print out little birthday note cards to have on hand to give out to my students at school when it is their birthday.  I have over 125 students, so it needed to be something small, quick and easy, where I can just write a brief note and sign my name. 

Here are the steps I took.

1.  First I downloaded a background from 100+ New Watercolor Textures
I suppose I could have painted one myself, but I just wanted to find a fun one quickly.

2.  I took an old watercolor painting of mine:
 I combined the two images.  I put this painting on top of the background.


3.  Then I used some downloaded brushes to create a frame. 

4.  Next, I erased some of the inside to make a place to put the text.

5.  Then, I uploaded the jpeg to Picasa.
     When you look at your gallery of photos, click on the one you want.  Then, go to "actions" and then "edit in picnik" where you can add lots of fun effects.
6.  Save it to the computer again.  Finally, I reopened it in Photoshop again and added more star brush effects on the side.  I downloaded the brush effects from one of the web sites I listed above.  Voila!  Done!

Also sharing with My Mojo Monthly.