Today is a Happy Day

Yup, it sure is. Today is a happy day. I spent the day hanging out with my new baby boy who is 5 months old, doing art stuff, and altering an old journal.

I found this old leather bound journal today. I think I got it as a gift ten or so years ago. The pages are nice and thick like a Moleskin book, so I knew I had to alter it so I could use it as an art journal. I removed a few leafs of paper from the center of each signature (you can see the space in each signature in the photo above). This gives me room for my pages as they thicken the book up with the mixed media, paints, and papers I use for my art journal collages. I'm excited to start. I think I may use this for a "Me and My Shadow" project where each page shows my positive attributes and their negative counterparts. I think it is important to love the bad bits of your personality in order to be balanced and whole. Also, who the heck wants to be perfect 100% of the time?!?  Not me. No way.

Above is a journal page I finished up last night. This birdie is stamped on a pocket which contains all the choices I have to make in the immediate future. I am at a crossroads in my life right now where I have opportunities and choices about my work, my family, and my health... so all of this is sitting quietly in the pocket, instead of in my head.

And this is what I have started on today.  These are my favorite colors. I used chalk pastels and clear gesso for the background. I still have a lot to do on this page. I plan to do journaling in the flowers, stamping, some glittery bits, and whatever else my muse can think of adding to the page.

I hope everyone had a lovely day today!

I've got friends in weird places...

So last night my daughter and I were prepping dinner. She was peeling potatoes when all of a sudden she noticed this....

an odd little fella, but a friend nonetheless. 

My daughter named him Mr. Potatohead. No, not very original, but it does fit. 

This makes me grateful for the little things in life which make us smile. Mr. Potatohead entertained my daughter and I most of the evening. He now sits next to the sink, and I smile each time I walk by.

Blog for my art, writing, and other musings.

My first blog post on my new blog! How intimidating. I have so much I plan to share with the world. Things like my art journaling pages, art workshops I'm doing/plan to do, etc. Papermaking, mail art, cooking, writing, playing, creating, smiling, laughing and just spreading my bliss into the world.

Today I am going to post a couple pictures from an online workshop I have been doing called Soul Restoration. I decided to do the workshop because my life was starting to get crazy like life tends to get when you forget things like how important creativity and imagination is to a healthy well-being. Soul Restoration has helped me break through my creative blocks, reconnect with my joyful self, and is the reason I am starting this blog.

This is the cover of my Soul Restoration book. I made it with spackle to get a nice texture all over the cover, then I stenciled a flower and painted it pink and purple. On the title tag I added a metal frame I found at Michaels and I used dimensional gel to make it shiny. 

This is my house page. I had so much fun creating this spread. I made all the paper myself using spackle to get a stucco feel like a real house would have, and fibers mixed with stucco for the roof pieces. To create the texture of the grassy areas I used Golden Heavy Body Medium. The only thing it still needs is a couple of flowers planted in front of the house.