Spinning In Circles AJA Wk3

Wow! Almost didn't get my post done.  Gramps turned 94 yesterday so we bought a sheet cake for the Memory Care staff and residents.  We also replaced the recliner in Gramps' room with a much nicer one that is easier to keep clean. They had him all cleaned, shaved and wearing the new clothes we had dropped off the day before and he was one happy camper. Between that and all the chores we had done in the morning, we were pretty tired by the time we got home and had dinner so here I am at 5 AM trying to crank this post out.

For Week 3 of the AJA we were to work with circles. I began with a wash of Dylusions paint in White and Fresh Lime followed by White, Cut Grass and Vibrant Turquoise through Donna Downey's Bubble stencil. I have no clue why I chose these colors but they worked.

Next I cut circles out of a sheet from a Paper Studio pad to fit into the largest bubbles leaving about a 3/8 inch border around each one. The paper circles were applied with Matte Medium then, once dry, shaded with a gelato in Iced Rose and highlighted with a large white PITT pen. I outlined the lightest of the stenciled bubbles with a fine black PITT pen and highlighted them with the large white PITT pen.

The final step was to doodle around the paper circles with assorted sizes of black PITT pens and a white Molotow paint pen. Added a little journaling around the bottom left circle, signed and dated the page and I was done.

So there you have it. Post number 3 is done and on schedule. Yay me!

Til next time...

Happy Mother's Day and Week 2 Joggles AJA

I am so excited! I have a new post up exactly when I said I would.  I'm not doing too bad after only 1 week post op. Still bruised and uncomfortable but it gets better every day and my blood pressure is finally in the normal range without medication. Life is good!

Week 2 of the Joggles 2016 Art Journal Adventure was working in a grid. For me, the first step was to decide what I wanted in my grid. I chose Doodle Flowers by Inkadinkadoo and a bird set from Close to My Heart. Once I had my stamp positions worked out I penciled in my grid blocks and used Archival Ink to stamp my images inside the blocks.  For the background, I used the same technique I had used for last weeks page, wetting the area where I wanted the color to be and then floated on my 2 Distress Spray Stains (Ripe Persimmon and Mustard Seed) being careful to avoid my grid blocks. Once the background was dry, I colored my stamped images with Distress Markers and a water brush. I used a PITT pen to outline my grid blocks and doodle on the block backgrounds on the left page. On the right page I decided to just add a color wash in the opposing corners of the blocks using a water brush and the same 2 spray stain colors as the main background. The final touch was to add some tiny leaves in the top left corner with a PITT pen and fill them with a few metallic Gelly Roll pens.

If you like what I'm doing and/or want me to continue with this blog, please leave me a comment so I know I'm heading in the right direction. Any encouragement would be very appreciated.

Til next time...

Let's Try This Again

It's been an extremely long time since my last post and it would take at least a dozen posts to catch you all up on the highlights so I'm just going to dive right into the present.


This was me Sunday and it's a bit of an improvement over the last few years! I had major oral surgery on Friday to remove the last of my teeth and reconstruct the inside of my mouth. This should bring an end to a lot of my medical problems and let me get on with my life. Just have to unload some of the tremendous stress my husband and I have been dealing with.

I have been doing a lot of mixed media, art journaling and card making since my last post to keep me sane but just didn't have the time or energy to photograph, video record or post about it.

I am currently participating in the Joggles' 2016 Art Journal Adventure which is a year long, 52 week project. We are in Week 18 and I am only a week behind so that is pretty good for me. I am hoping to post the week's project on Sundays and add a post or 2 from my other projects on a monthly basis. We shall see. As for videos, I will need to be able to talk before I can do those unless I just play music and add captions. Not up to it at the moment so won't worry about it.


Barb, our fearless leader at Joggles, chose to do this adventure in the Dylusions square kraft Creative Journal which is about 8 by 8. Since I just completed 30 double page spreads in a very large Moleskine journal, I decided to give myself a break and use the Dylusions Kraft 5 by 8 Creative Journal. I am finding it both enjoyable and challenging working in the smaller format.

Our first page was simply a title page using Distress sprays as watercolors (Broken China, Seedless Preserves), a paintbrush, PITT pens, metallic gelly roll pens and I added my General's Sketch and Wash Pencil for shading the letters and numbers.

I wet the areas where I wanted color, dabbed those areas with the 2 spray stains and let dry.

Penciled in the year and the title then went over them with a black PITT pen. Also doodled in some diamond shapes with the PITT pen. Painted in the letters and numbers with the same spray stains. Filled in the diamonds with a gelly roll pen. Added shading to the letters and numbers with the General's Sketch & Wash blending it out with a waterbrush. Signed, dated and called it good.

Til next time...

Discover Bister

Bister is a concentrated color wood stain from the Netherlands. It comes as a granular, water soluble powder in 8 colors and can be purchased from I Brake for Stamps. All the information I found on the internet was in Dutch so in this video I explore how the product reacts with other art mediums.

Til next time...

WOYWW 282 & 283

I was getting my supplies ready to film a mixed media project last week and even photographed my workdesk for last weeks WOYWW when our main computer was hit with multiple viruses simultaneously. My husband called me immediately and I was able to disconnect my network from the internet and isolate the computer to stop the spread but the desktop was toast. Windows and Office were rendered useless and after 3 days of chasing down and killing viruses I finally gave up, wiped all the hard drives clean, bought Windows 8.1 and started over. All is back up and running, I have better virus and malware protection and my husband is actually handling the change to Windows 8.1 better than I expected. He usually does NOT handle change! Now I can go back to crafting.

This was my desk last week just as the viruses hit. The big clear bottle with the black top is my new spray bottle that was designed in Holland and purchased through my hairdresser. It sprays such a beautiful mist with no drops.

And this is my desk today all ready for my next project to be filmed today as soon as I design one more Christmas card.




Til next time...

We've been bombed

I had 2 videos and several projects to post but we were bombed with multiple viruses last week. These were some of the worst viruses out there and they were in a multi-virus bomb that literally exploded on our desktop and released so many viruses at once that the virus protection couldn't keep up with it.  After finding 15 of them and still having issues with the system, I did a complete wipe of all hard drives and did a clean install of Windows but I am still installing all of my other software.

I am so careful about protecting my computers and yet this mess got through so obviously there were weak spots that I wasn't aware of. I am now so paranoid about getting anything that I am running 3 different kinds of virus and malware programs and you can't even check the time of day without inputting a password.

It will be several more days before I can upload anything to the blog but I'd like to leave you with a wee hint... Bister.

Til next time...