Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Spread 26 and a Special Hello

At long last, here's the final page in my drawn out Sketchbook Project Fun Journal!  I finished this page in late November but just got around to sharing it. The center of this was actually a waste print (proving there is no such thing as a waste print).  I had stenciled the angel wings on another page and then just turned the stencil over onto a random sheet of deli paper to transfer the extra ink.  I liked the way it looked so I set it aside to dry, rediscovered it weeks later and added a bit more to it.  I've art-ed up the covers of this journal as well and will photograph that on a sunnier day to share with you.

This journal has definitely been a learning process.  I can look back to the very first pages (when I actually thought I was going to do a page a day and finish this thing in a month in order to actually send it off to the Sketchbook Project....ha!), and see that I have made tremendous learning gains. It's fun for me to see the progression and how I've definitely loosened up.  The book spans two years, so I hope I would show some growth in two years!  You can go to this Flickr set to see all the pages. 

I wanted to send out a special hello and a thank you today.  The girls and I popped into Zaxby's today for lunch while out running some errands.  A lovely woman named Britta asked me, "Aren't you Kelly from Happy Shack Designs?" When I answered yes, she said, "I read your blog!  I love it!"  Britta, you truly made my day!  Thank you so much!   

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Spread 25...Spreading a Little Sunshine!

I've actually finally finished up this journal but still have a few more spreads to share with you! I did this spread back in October. I collaged the background first with various origami papers. That circular piece is an inked and stenciled coffee filter!  I played around with it a while before I decided to turn it into a sun.  The writing around the rim of the circle says "bright sunshiny day."  The blue paint is true to form finger painting.  I'm definitely more of a paint with my hands and fingers than a brush kind of girl.  The black accents were done with a Sharpie paint pen.  Looking forward to sharing the last page and a review of the whole book with you soon!

On a side note, I started teaching my ENC 1102 class tonight.  I'm hoping I haven't scared them all away!  We are writing blogs as part of the class!  Hopefully they will stick with me.  I think once we get into our groove we'll have a fun with it, but I can understand how writing a blog for an English class can be a bit terrifying at first!  Off to write them a "please don't panic" post on Blackboard! 

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 19

Happy Monday! One more page in my Sketchbook Project Fun Journal. The center rectangle of this is actually a baby wipe.  I use baby wipes to wipe my hands and stencils and such when I'm playing with other projects and straighten them out and save them if they have some pretty color in them. Funny that you can see the little bear face imprint just a little right of center!  I learned with this page though that the baby wipes are difficult to write on, so I kept it short and sweet, using a Sharpie paint pen. Before adding the baby wipe, I just smeared some paint around on the spread and then after gluing down the baby wipe, added some stenciling and some flower punches and some outlining.

We had a nice weekend around here. I had Friday off with the girls, so we played most of the day.  Saturday morning, I headed up to Fernandina to meet with my book arts group.  We practiced more long stitch patterns and worked on coptic a little more. I'm definitely hooked!  Sunday, we loaded the bikes on the back of the Trooper and headed over to the park to ride.  The girls took their first spin around the skate park and did very well!  I can't believe I didn't have my camera with me!  Next weekend...  

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 18

Happy Tuesday!  Oh, how the days they pass! At long last, I finally got around to a few more pages in my long forgotten Sketchbook Project Fun Journal.  This is spread 18, a hot mess.  A while back the girls and I played around with some coffee filters, and when we were working on this page, I put one in. Pretty cool how it just melts into the page. It's actually the largest circle.  This page seems a bit dark and space-agey to me, but for some reason, I really love my little tree at the bottom. Subconsciously, I must have added it in there to bring the page a little more life. I have a couple more spreads of this book to share over the next two weeks, and then I do believe I'll call this one done.

One of my goals for this year has been to work through all the online classes I've signed up for over the past two years!  Thankfully, I know thyself well, so I only sign up for classes that are open ended; otherwise I'll just be wasting my dollars.  There are just so many wonderful classes out there that I see them and squeal "Oh!  I want to do that!" and immediately sign up. And then the reality of my day-to-day schedule kicks in, and I think "Now, when am I going to find the time to do this?" :-)  I just signed up for Donna Downey's Canvas Create this weekend. I really enjoy watching her Inspiration Wednesday videos, so I figured I'd enjoy a longer version.  Thankfully it's also open ended!

And yesterday, Kim Klassen's Beyond Layer's began. This one I think I'll be able to keep up with since I think it aligns well with my Project 365.  There is a bit of logic to my craziness, anyway.  Of course, these two classes are only the tip of the iceberg...

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 17

Still slowly working through my Sketchbook Project Fun Journal… I may not be timely, but I’m persistent! This is page 17, and I think this may be my new favorite. On this one I used a little bit of everything…paint, stencils, masks, oil pastels, spray inks, pad inks, used deli papers, and a black Sharpie. As you can see, this one is dated May 29 and I haven’t worked in it since, so I need to get back to it.

Two things coming up tomorrow. First, I’m heading up to the Big Apple with my students for the annual Association for the Promotion of Campus Activities Advisors Summit and Student Leadership Institute. This is always a wonderful trip. I’m starting to feel like a New York veteran at this point, but it’s always so cool to see the big city through the eyes of my students who are seeing it for the first time. This year, since the trip falls on my girls’ birthday, my family is also coming, so they’ll have a bit more play time while I’m in sessions. Luckily, though, the conference schedule allows for time to explore the city; that, in itself, is a very educational lesson for my students! We’ll be taking the girls to FAO Schwartz Friday afternoon for their birthday. Say a prayer for me! I’ve given them a dollar limit and a size limit!

Also tomorrow, I’ll be participating in Seth Apter’s annual Buried Treasure project. Tomorrow all participating artists will be reposting one of their favorite posts, so mine, and why I chose it as my favorite, will pop up here tomorrow morning. Be sure to hop over to Seth’s blog tomorrow as well to see all the other Buried Treasure.

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 16

More playing with ink here! Day 16 from my Sketchbook Project Fun Journal. The left half of this spread contains a page from an old butterfly book I was using to play around with masks and ink. I have a stack of these pages sitting around amongst my messy workshop. The right side of the spread is mostly masks, stencils and spray ink. Intermixed on both sides are oil pastels smudged around with my fingers. I'm learning that just as I really like working with stencils, masks and inks, I also am very much a finger painter. Much more fun and less intimidating for me than a paintbrush! Hope you are having a great week!

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 15

I created page 15 in my fun journal back on May 27, my 16th wedding anniversary. It was actually a pretty quick page! I started it before we went out to dinner and then put the finishing touches on it after we got home.  The left side of the page started with a old book page on which I had played around with stencils and spray ink.  I added some extra paint with paint daubers and highlighted with a black Sharpie.  The right side was done with paint daubers, my fingers, and a Sharpie for the writing and scribbles. 

When I did the hearts on the right side of this spread, a memory flashed into my head. Before we were married, way back in 1992, Benny and I went up to visit his cousin in Fredricksburg, Virginia. While in the area, we also went up to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  You see, Benjamin is a Civil War buff, and that trip was my introduction to all the roadside and park monument plaques in my future. We visited every Civil War battlefield within driving distance on that trip, and near the site of Pickett's Charge, on the corner of a bench up at the top of a hillside forest, are two little hearts with the initials KN and BW carved into them. Spare me the defacing public property speech, and just enjoy the memory with me. :-)

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 14

Sharing another page from my Sketchbook Project Fun Journal today. If you look back over the previous pages, you’ll see I went in a totally different direction with this one and I really like it. I love using up scrap deli papers that have been used as paint pallets or worktable protection. I learned this trick from Roben-Marie Smith. Roben-Marie is such a dear and so incredibly talented. I'm happy to have had the chance to spend time with her in person!

For this page, I started with a map scrap (I’m addicted to maps), and then just added the used deli paper and did some stenciling over that. I love letters and numbers too and find that I pop them into my work pretty regularly.

Speaking of which….I just signed up for the Sketchbook Project 2012. I know that my track record for this so far is rather poor, given that I signed up for both 2010 and 2011 and didn’t finished either book on time (okay, I’ll admit I never even got started on the 2010 book), but I’m a glutton for punishment and willing to give it a go again! My theme for the 2012 book is “Writing on the Wall.” I thought that was the perfect choice for me with my love of words and letters. Anyone else signed up for 2012 yet?

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 13

Happy Thursday! So here for you is the true testament of just exactly how far behind I am in posting these Fun Journal pages. I created this page the day the girls created their Christmas presents for their Granddad and Papa (so, um....that means they were done December 2010!). You can see them here. I just did the same process in my journal as they did on their canvases. Interesting to see the difference in our hand sizes! Their canvases was 4” x 4”, and their little hands barely. My sketchbook open is about 8” x 11” and my hand barely fits! I’m a tall girl (5’10”) with long skinny fingers. This was fun to do. We love to get messy, and painting your hands is the ultimate in mess making! We used basic Apple Barrel craft paints from Michaels and some letter and number stencils. The light brown smudgy paint on my wrist was due to my lack of patience. I had closed the book while the 13 was still wet and it imprinted over to the other page, so I tried to doctor it up a bit!

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 12

I hope those of you in the States had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend.  It was a four-day weekend for me since I have Fridays off during the summer and brought with it some much needed downtime. We were homebodies pretty much all weekend.  We went out to Ted's for dinner for our anniversary Friday night (in our usual Ted's flip flops, t-shirts and shorts attire), and then went to the beach for a bit Monday morning, but that was the extent of our excitement for the weekend.  Well, the girls did have a sleepover Saturday night, so there was the excitement that comes with keeping three seven-year-olds underfoot instead of the usual two, but between the alien pod pool, drawing in their art journals (VERY big into drawing fairy families right now) and watching a movie (I highly recommend Gnomeo and Juliet), we managed to keep them entertained.

As luck would have it, one of the things I got around to this weekend was cleaning up my studio, and I unearthed my Sketchbook Project Fun Journal! Nope, I never submitted the journal to the actual Sketchbook Project since it was a long way from finished by the time the deadline rolled around, but now that I have found it again, I'm determined to finish it!  I completed three more pages this past weekend, but in doing so and searching here on my blog, I realized I hadn't even shared the rest of the pages that I had finished already!  Yes, I am often this scatterbrained.

This is page 12.   I didn't real care for page 12, but here you have it.  I started with this scrapbook paper that I thought I really liked, but then once I got it in there, I didn't really like it any more. I tried to salvage it the best I could, adding some stamping and some doodling with paint pens, and this is what I ended up with.  I was still pretty close to my "page a day" mode when I created this one, so I'll chalk it up to lack of time and inspiration!  More catch up pages to come.  How would you have improved this page?

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 11

You just never know what you will find when you search for quotes! I loved this one from Oprah.  I'm a shoe fanatic myself.  My DH doesn't understand why I need five different pairs of black shoes.  But it doesn't stop there!  I love colorful shoes. I have two pairs of red, one hot pink, one lime green (really...lime green, and they are fabulous), one purplish blue, one black and white leopard with pink trim, two cheetah (you know, one pair of flats and one pair of heels...), two different florals, and I could go on. It is a weakness. The first time I walked into DSW, I thought I had died and gone to Heaven....Shoe Heaven... I cut this pair out of Glamour.  :-)  Tell me about your favorite pair of shoes...

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 10

Were you a Sesame Street kid?  I know I'm dating myself here, but I LOVED Sesame Street as a kid.  And I was so excited when I was able to introduce Sesame Street to my girls.  It gave me an excuse to watch all those old clips from when I was kid.  Sesame Street premiered in 1969.  I was four, and I still remember so many of the characters from those early days.  So, of course, when I came to page 10 in my Fun Journal, the very first thing that popped in my head was "10!!!! Chocolate!!!! Layer Cakes!!!!"  Come on, you guys of a certain age....you know you remember it. Go back and relive it; I promise the song will be stuck in your head for weeks. :-)  Here's the clip.

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 9

Slowing working through sharing my Fun Journal pages with you. This is Day 9. This was the day of our campus holiday party, and I was asked to sing and lead some carols. I decided that if I was going to have to sing, I was going to make it fun, so I recruited a Santa-looking friend on campus and we put together a little skit, me singing the classic “Santa Baby” and he playing a sarcastic Santa. For each verse of the song I sang to him, he held up a random sign, like “Not a chance,” “She’s been a very bad girl,” “Wallet’s empty,” etc. We had a great time!  I can be a ham if I'm not on stage alone!  I thought it would make a fun journal page. Here’s the original recording by Eartha Kitt. I was surprised to find that on You Tube!

The background paper and tree are cut from some Christmas scrapbook paper I had left over from the Christmas tags I made last year. Helps to be a pack rat! From there I just did a little stamping, added a few lyrics, smudged around some oil pastels, and there you have it. It’s probably the thickest spread in my book because all the papers used are card stock weight.  Now that I've let go of the idea of turning my book in, I'm enjoying playing in it more and more.  What are you working on these days?

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 8

Since I've accepted the fact that there is no chance in H-E-double hockey sticks I'm going make the January 11 Sketchbook Project mail deadline, I've decided to slow down a bit!  What's the rush, right!? I was starting to realize that once I finished the book, I wasn't going to want to give it up anyway.  :-) 

Here's page eight. The girls and I spent a day going through magazines cutting out images (did I tell you I am a magazine addict?), and Olivia spotted this heart-shaped leaf and gave it to me.  I love purple and green together, so the purple was a must.  I started the background with pink chalk ink and then covered it with purple acrylic paint smeared around with my fingers.  The harlequins are a wood mounted rubber stamp in a pale taupe chalk ink, and the green hearts are from a hand made Alisa Burke stamp.  The smaller dragonfly is a wood mounted stamp, and the larger dragonfly is a foam stamp.  The Live Love Laugh and the flourishes are also wood mounted stamps.  I much prefer foam stamps since they are so easy to clean!  I accented with black and white Sharpie paint pens. I have become addicted to Sharpie paint pens...

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Days 6 and 7

So as I had feared, the creating-a-journal-page-everyday plan has not been working out very well. However, not to fear! I am slowly but surely filling the book! I do a little bit here, little bit there….and I’ve completed 15 pages so far. I’ve taken the pressure off, and as trying to remember this is supposed to be fun!

So here are pages six and seven. I teach on Tuesday nights, so that’s what the “school night” is. I actually really, really like this page. I think it might be my favorite so far. More to come! So a question for those of you that art journal. Do you do a page a day or is it more random? Do you have several journals going as once or just one? I think what’s working more for me is having a theme. As I think I’ve mentioned before, I’m not one to use a journal to record my thoughts so much, so that’s been the first block I’ve had to get past. Now I’m just trying to play around more with paint…just to do something creative that’s just for me. Though it definitely is giving me ideas of some other things I can do, so I guess it is served that purpose as well.

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Days 4 and 5

So that you know I haven’t been totally slacking…I am funning, I just haven’t been posting! This project has been a very challenging one for me, both time wise and creativity wise. I think I’m just a bit of a perfectionist, so the time I want to spend on each page has been the biggest challenge. I still have a few days of catching up to do, but I’m getting there. Friday is my last day in the office until January 3, so I should be able to really get the ball rolling then! Here are days four and five.

Day 4 wraps up my day trip over to Tallahassee to deliver a dog to a new home. Bugsy is a gorgeous yellow lab whose owners, who live across the street from my pa-in-law, could no longer care for him, so now he’s happily romping around the woods near Tallahassee with a friend who lives on about 200 acres.

Day 5 stands in for the fun visit the girlies and my friend Katie and I had going to see the Radio City Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. It definitely was WOW! We took a cute picture of the four of us, but it’s now unfortunately trapped on a memory card that refuses to cooperate.  Darn technology really gives me a headache at times!  :-)

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 3

Here’s Day 3 in my Sketchbook Project Fun Journal. I’ve always loved this quote.  And now, reality of my life is that by Day 4, I was already behind!  Oh well, I’ve started on Days 4 and 5 and hope to finish them and Day 6 tonight while I watch the ACM awards to be back on track (love me some Trace Adkins, who’s hosting tonight).  I’m really trying to do the daily thing or at least close to it, so since the weekend was super crazy, I’ll just have to catch up.  I guess I’ll keep you in suspense as to why the weekend was so crazy since that’s what I’m doing my Day 4 and 5 pages about.  :-)  

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 2

I'm learning things here.  First, the pages in a Moleskin are very thin.  Second, gesso dries pretty darn fast and doesn't seem to thicken up the pages any, but it does make the ink slide on a bit easier! Third, this is reminding me how much I hate my handwriting. Oh, to have pretty, swirly penmanship...  Fourth, I sure can't get much done in the morning before work.  For this one, I got the pages gessoed and inked in the morning and then finished the rest after DH and the girls went to bed last night. 

When I got home from work yesterday, the girls had made me two more birthday cards and wrapped up another present in wrapping paper they made.  It was a lovely rock they found in the back yard. :-)  They actually made me open my initial gift on Sunday, so I could use it Sunday night. It was a restock of my favorite bubble bath; they knew I was completely out and had been using theirs. :-)  DH helped them make brownies when they got home from school yesterday, which was the lovely smell I came home to, so after dinner at Ted's (best restaurant in the whole wide world in our opinion, partially 'cause we can walk there...), we had brownies topped with chocolate ice cream. Nice quiet birthday with family.

Sketchbook Project Fun Journal: Day 1

Inspired by my friend Leah, I am attempting to dedicate myself to my Sketchbook Project journal for the month of December.  Rather crazy to attempt this in December, I realize, but what the heck.  I'm nothing if not crazy.  In that, I’m attempting to do a quick spread every day this month. Notice, I say attempting.  Just throwing that out there.  My theme is "Whatever it is, it'll be fun," so I'm planning to have a quote that includes fun or play on each page (got any good ones? send them to me!).

Yesterday, I got up a little early and gessoed the first page spread…then went upstairs and took a shower...then came back downstairs and inked the spread…then went back upstairs and made the girls and myself breakfast...then went back downstairs and punched the circles…then went back upstairs to do the makeup, hair, get dressed thing…then went back downstairs and put all the circles, the book, some paint pens and a glue stick in a zip lock bag and put it in my purse with the idea of attempting to finish it during a break at work. Well, that didn’t happen…but at least I did finally finish it while the girls were in the tub last night. So here you go! Dec 1 page!

Today is my birthday. My last two years' birthday posts were much more inspiring so I’ll send you there and there to take a peek. Today, honestly, other than my students bringing me lunch and cake and one very sweet phone call this morning, has been a rather crappy day at the office (as have the last two months, but I digress). But the workday is over so I get to spend the rest of the day with the family…it should get much better!