Happy Spring Break and Happy Easter Weekend

Happy Easter Weekend

I hope you are having a great weekend and Spring Break. Make time for some creative play. Take your camera with you. Bring a journal and pens in your bag, car or purse. You never know when the creative muse will strike. 

Julie, Andy and Dexter

Big Juicy Journal Pages: A Little Bit of Faith

Here's one of the pages from My Big Juicy Journal. 

I didn't use any paint brushes for this. I was playing with the technique of scrapping on paint with an old gift card. 

 I dipped my card in paint, 

scraped paint on the page

, added water, 

scraped again, 

added another paint color, 

scraped again.. 

and so on.

The heart is cut out from another journal page from the same journal. This is something I do with pages I don't like. I cover them up or rip it out to use on another page.  The great thing about   My Big Juicy Journal is that there are sooooo many pages.

The lettering is cut out from magazines. That's one of the things I do from time to time is to cut out letters and put them in a tackle box by letter. 

When I'm ready I pull the letters I need to make a word.

The wings I found in a book from one of my  flea market trips.

I was working on another project and accidentally dropped glitter on this page. I cheered "happy accident" and added more glitter around the heart. It doesn't show in the photo but there is glitter all around the heart.

So there you have it ...a page from  My Big Juicy Journal.

Love a cute baby!

Love my little niece Kai.She is stylin' in her big glasses. She looks like she is snappin' her fingers as she listens to some tunes on the radio. Love me some Kai.

Art Supply Haul: Mod Podge and PITT pens

Art Supply Haul

I cannot resist a great deal on art supplies. I am obsessed with great pens and glue. These are some supplies I found in my local Marshalls. I got some glitter and fabric Mod Podge. I've never tried these items but I will now that I found them for $2 each at the store. I also found these Faber Castell pens in a natural and yellow palette. I love these pens because they are heavily pigmented and waterproof. I can use them with watercolors. These pens always go in my travel art bag. 

I can't wait to give these items a try in my journal.

My Creative Time is Sacred

Little Dexter was sick today...time for cuddling

Little Dexter was sick today. He slept in his little house and wanted to cuddle all day. He played a bit with his toys but spent most of the day curled up sleeping.  I think I found what made him sick. The little guy ate the back of my running shoes. Poor fella!

Somerset Studios: Spring 2013 ART Journaling

I'm so excited! I'm in the April issue of the Somerset Studios Artful Journaling Magazine! The publisher sent me an early copy this weekend and the first thing I did was celebrate with a pedicure while I read the magazine cover to cover.

I hope you enjoy the article and I hope I can provide some inspiration on your creative journey.

Blast From The Past: Creating art with Noodles.

That's mini me and my cousin Terri (we called her "Noodles') painting one Christmas. We called Terri "Noodles" because she looked like a little noodle when she was born. Most of my family has nicknames.  Some family members have had nicknames so long I often don't remember thier real names.  :)

 I love our concentration in this photo and our garbage bag aprons. This was the start of it all. The beginning of creating and using all the colors in the crayon box. Its funny I don't remember this specific Christmas, but I do remember the mini art studio my dad created in the corner of my bedroom.  Ever since then I have had a place to create. Even when I was in grad school in the dorms I had a corner dedicated to art.

Dexter's helping me to take better photos...

I few months ago I took Intuitive Lens with Thea Coughlin.
I wanted to learn more how to work in manual mode with my Canon Rebel SLR Camera. Auto mode is great but why have a fancy camera if you don't get to play with the fancy settings. I also wanted to take better photos for this blog. I love reading other people's blogs and I particularly enjoy seeing all the cool photos.  I had no idea some of those photos where arranged to enhance beauty of the setting. 

So here is my little dog Dexter on our bed. My bedroom was a disaster, so I took some time to spruce the place up and arrange the pillows on the bed.  I have one of those "Princess and the Pea" beds that's really high and has lots of pillows and blankets. It takes a while to get it all beautiful again but it makes me so happy when its all done.

Dexter had been sleeping, so he was pretty mellow.  I put him on the bed and tried to make strange noises so he would lift his head.  After this shot he rolled over to sleep in the sun.

Blast From The Past: Gabriella in Brazil

This is mini me going on my first camping trip as a Brownie Girl Scout when I lived in Brazil. That's me on the left and my  best friend Gabriella in the middle. Old pictures like this bring back so many memories.

When I look at this photo I'm reminded of the time that I visited Gabriella after school to play. Gabriella's mom was a president of a bank in Brazil and they lived on the top floor of a very tall apartment building on the beach. I remember taking the elevator to her apartment expecting to see a hall way to other apartments and the doors opened into her living room!  It was amazing and beautiful. There was glass windows everywhere and the sun came in from all directions.

 Gabrella's mom let us play in her old evening dresses and shoes. We decided to get dressed up like 'Big Ladies" and go to see a movie. I don't remember anyone else going with us but I can't imagine anyone letting 2 little girls go to the movies by themselves.  So anyway,  we dressed up in those beautiful long dresses and her mom's shoes and went to see Snow White. 

We went in to the theater and waited for the movie to start. Suddenly the movie started. It was not "Snow White", it was "The Hidenburg" and we sat there too scared to leave.

Glad we where together.

Glad for Summer Days

So glad the weather is getting nice again. Brings out my inner silly girl. 

Playing outside. 

Long sunny walks with our little dog Dexter. 

These are bliss filled days of Spring and Summer I look forward to all year. 

Time to make some time to play in paints outside on my patio and 

time to open up windows to let the light in.

Artist Dates: Visiting the Golden Belt Artist Studios

We took in a great day of art and creativity at the Golden Belt Artist Studios.  The Golden Belt is an artist live work community that is home to over 35 artists.  Since my dad was one of the original artists from the Torpedo Factory ( a similar artist studio space) I thought he and my mom would love to visit. It was the highlight of my trip.  There was inspiration at every turn.  The Golden Belt has painters, jewerly makers, and photographers.

 It was a great opportunity to meet artists up close... like Madelyn Smoak.  Madelyn creates amazing crowns and jewelry using vintage pieces and bits of found objects.  I was so inspired to see her in her process. She was creating this  really amazing necklace from vintage jewelry pieces and tin soldiers.  She explained how she lays out her necklaces on a board to see how everything looks before she puts everything together. She might even let a piece "breathe" over night before she puts together the final piece.  

It inspired me to consider giving my pieces time to form and maybe even breathe over night  before considering it completed.

So I learned something from Madelyn Smoak.
 Give your art time to "breathe"
and be open to new inspiration the next morning.
There may be more creativity that comes with that additional bit of space and patience.