Reaching the Finish Line (21-Day Art Journaling Challenge)

Here are my pages for Day 21 of the Art Journaling Challenge.

The prompt was "Would you like fries with that?"

I used a watercolor wash background, drew and painted the cows, and dripped India ink from an applicator to make the Eat Mor Chikn text on the signs.  The tails are made from yarn.  I printed out the logo from the Internet and enlarged it, then traced it onto white tissue paper.  I colored it in with a red Sharpie, and then applied the tissue with gel medium.

This page was lots of fun to create...and it was a good feeling to actually complete the challenge!

Spring in Bloom in Raleigh

 It's my favorite time of year here in the South...dogwood and azalea time, that is!  We have massive hedges of azaleas around our driveway in front of the house, backing up to the woods.

And there's nothing more elegant or graceful than the dogwood, our state flower, in lovely drifts along the branches of the trees that are native to our woods.

And look at this pretty little bloom in my garden!

I am almost finished with the 21-Day Art Journal Challenge on Facebook.

Day 19:  I've Got to Hand it to You

Day 20:  Mandalas.  I loved drawing and painting this cheerful sun face, inspired by the sunshine artwork on the CBS Sunday Morning show.  I have been sketching several more mandalas in my journals.

I have just one more to complete, and I started it today. I am totally having fun with this one!  Just in time for the next challenge to begin!  I will post details when the rules come out.

Grandchildren, Journal Pages, Easter...Fun!

It has been a busy couple of weeks for this sewing/painting grandma!  I had our two oldest grandchildren here in Raleigh for a few days last week during their spring break.  Since I also babysit for the littlest one on Mondays and Tuesdays, it was a fun time for me and the little cousins.  You might understand why I have not had much time for blogging!

We did lots of painting and sidewalk chalk art.

I took them to the sculpture trail at the North Carolina Museum of Art.  It was a beautiful day to be outside.  Little Charlie saw this giant sculpture and must have thought it was a big patchwork quilt. She went running up to it...

but when she touched it, it did not feel like a quilt at all!

At the end of the walk there was a sidewalk full of pulsing fountains to cool us off!

We have lived in a rented house in Raleigh for close to two years, but never tried fishing in the pond in front of the house until recently.  My husband got two fishing rods for his birthday in March, and we discovered that we have a perfect fishing retreat right at home!  Lily caught a fish right away.  Most are bream, but I caught a little bass.

Now everyone wants to go fishing all the time!

Lily wanted to do some sewing while they were at my house, so we started a patchwork project.  I had a lovely floral block made for me by my friend Tama.  Lily loved it, so it will be featured on her tote back when it is finished.  She picked out all the coordinating fabrics and colors.

I had to take the big kids back to their daddy on Wednesday, but on Thursday we went to our cabin in the North Carolina mountains for Easter weekend.  Dave, Emily, and little Charlie came too.  It was a wonderful family weekend.

We have a family compound up there.  My sister and her brother-in-law also had all their grandchildren there!  We had a giant Easter egg hunt in Katy's back yard.

Here are Lacy and Holly checking out the treasures they found.

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Then there were sack races across the yard.  I think there were lots of good memories made that day.

 Okay, so I have not had much time for sewing or painting, but I am still trying to complete the 21-Day Art Journaling Challenge that I joined on Facebook.  Here are some pages I have made according to the daily prompts.

Paint Over a Photo

Kitchen Kapers

Hearts and Wings

Map It!

Home is Where the Heart Is

I have also been doing lots of printmaking while watching the weekly video lessons from Traci Bautista on the Strathmore website.  The lessons are free.  It is a messy process.  I will share some of my printmaking attempts next time.  I'm not sure it is my thing...but it's lots of fun!

One More Journal Page

Here is one more journal page I created for the 21 Day Art Journal Challenge on Facebook.  Day 4's prompt was "Sing a Song."  I chose Color My World by Chicago, one of the songs from my 1971 wedding.

With a title like that, the pages had to be exuberantly colorful!

The left hand page was inspired by Joanne Sharpe's book The Art of Whimsical Lettering.

The right-hand page has a watercolor world with a photo of my husband and me at our wedding. The song lyrics are on both pages.

I will probably be using the Joanne Sharpe book again for the next challenge, "Letter" Go.

More Journal Pages

It has been a crazy wild weather ride here in Raleigh over the past few weeks.  Ice storm, snow storm,    more snow, then seventy degrees, then freezing rain...I am ready for it all to be over and for spring to arrive.

During one of the snow events, my granddaughter and her best friend Annabelle/Tinkerbelle played in the snow and inspired this journal page for the 21 Day Art Journaling Challenge theme of Faces.

I did a watercolor wash for the background, painted my granddaughter Charlie in watercolor from a photo reference, collaged in a photo of her BFF Annabelle, and added dimensional paint and glitter to finish the scene.

I also had time to do Day 3 of the challenge, Zentangle.  I have had some experience with Zentangles, and decided to do something similar to a Suzanne McNeill workshop that I took at Art of the Carolinas.

Basically, I traced a photo I liked from the web, transferred the drawing to the journal page, and then put down a wash of light colors like blue, yellow, turquoise and light red.  Next I painted the zebra stripes with a black watercolor marker.  After that I divided up all the background space with a pencil, and pencilled in some Zentangle doodles.  Once the doodles were in place, I accented them with more watercolor paint in similar colors.  Last of all, I found a quotation that I liked and added it with permanent black marker.

My husband called this one "Calm Before the Storm,"  since we are babysitting for our 2-year-old granddaughter for the rest of the weekend.  Sure do love to paint with her!

21 Day Art Journaling Challenge

I joined a group on Facebook called the 21 Day Art Journaling Challenge.  Each day there is a theme or prompt.  Day 1 is to journal about a day in your life.  Since I am lucky enough to be retired, I chose one of my happy bright backgrounds from last weekend, and drew a tree over it with text describing the things that I like to do.

Life is good!

Another snow day...this time in Raleigh!  It sneaked up on us without much warning.  Instead of babysitting for my little ray of sunshine, I stayed home and watched the birds when I wasn't playing with paints.  The owl was in his usual post.  He did not seem one bit perturbed by the snow, which has fallen all day.

I usually don't have much luck attracting bluebirds to my feeders, but I guess the snow forced them out of their comfort zone.  There were four hanging around the back price feeders.

Hope you are safe and warm wherever you are today.