Not What I Should Have Been Doing Today

My little granddaughter, Lily, is learning to write, and loves to draw.  I always take a little notebook when we go out to eat for the kids to draw in.  I got each of them their own little spiral notebook, but wanted to make a journal for Lily.  Then I remembered the Doodlicious Daybook that she helped me make last year.  I decided to revise it to make it Five-Year-Old Friendly.

First I swapped out the chrome-colored metal binder rings for pretty colored ones, and added some fiber and ribbon wraps.  The front cover is a transparency printed on the computer with my doodles.

The whole journal was inspired by the online 21 Secrets journaling class with Tracie Hanson.  We created the painted pages by taking big sheets of brown craft paper and white drawing paper and painting with acrylic paints.  Then we cut those up into journal-size pages, often sewing them back to back with other papers.  In the photo below, the left side page is one of the painted brown papers outlined with marker.  The other side is cardstock painted and stamped.  I started a few doodled faces.

Here is a pocket page containing some raw materials to cut up and glue.

I like pocket pages and included several.

I made the pocket from a page with Zentangle doodles.

This page has a mini-book attached, as well as a quilted fabric bookmark.  The bird is a glitter transfer.  I have given her a few journal start ideas.

On the right is another painted paper from last fall.  On the left is a calendar page decorated with a duct tape flower.  Don't you love those printed duct tapes?

I never throw anything out, it seems.  When I have extra paint left on my palette, I often just spread it around on card stock.  I made a tag out of the blue painted flower.  There is a message on the back.

Here's another glitter bird transfer perched on the L from Lily's name.

The back cover is watercolor paper with a design stencilled on.

I hope Lily will have fun making art in this journal...and I hope she invites Gigi to do some pages along with her!

Finished Paintings

I spent some time working on paintings this weekend.  Both of my projects from last weekend's art classes are now finished!  Ta-Daaa!

Here is the hollyhock watercolor painting from Karlyn Holman's class at Art of the Carolinas.

There are some elements of collage and mixed media in this piece.  Do you see sort of shadowy images of letters in some of the background areas?  We sanded watercolor pencils over a stencil while the background was wet.  That adds a little bit of interest to the negative space.

Additionally, there are some bits of Japanese paper collaged into the painting.  You add it in while the paint is wet.  When the background painting is dry, you adhere the bits of paper with YES paste.  When you paint over the collaged paper, you get some surprises and some nice color variety.  I like the texture it adds.

And here is Miss Zentangle from Suzanne McNeill's class.  She was almost finished when I last showed her, but she had a bit of nystagmus in the eyes!  I admit to using black felt-tip marker to try to even out the eyeballs and eye shapes.

Did I mention that I have been taking an online art journaling workshop called 21 Secrets?  Lots of great information and ideas.  Here is one that I did for the " I Am Magic" workshop with Andrea Schroeder.  I fooled around with the computer, and magically changed myself into different colors.  Queen of Pandora, maybe?

I also signed up for a free art journal workshop by Tam at Willowing.  It is called Art, Heart, &  Healing. This is a four-lesson workshop that begins with a face painting page.  What an incredibly generous gift to offer this free opportunity to learn new techniques.  You can still sign up and join the other 1100 of us that are taking advantage of these online videos.

Here is my Lesson One.

Let me tell you, this page literally glows!  I stamped with Lumiere gold paint, and did some outlining and doodling with gold leaf pen.  So much fun!

It has been so beautiful here in North Carolina.  The mornings are chilly, the afternoons warm and sunny, the trees still clinging to the last of the bright colorful foliage.  It makes me happy just to walk outside!

                  

Oh, yeah, and my college football team beat our arch-enemy North Carolina yesterday in a thrilling game, making it an almost perfect weekend!

Doodlicious Daybook- 21 Secrets Journaling Class

When you create a journal out of brown bags, leftover wrapping paper, old calendars, and manila cardstock, it immediately removes the "preciousness" and fear of the blank page. 

If you have a four-year-old who can contribute shapeless globs of paint, you are good to go!  I immediately saw ghosts and a pumpkin .

When I posted the above picture on the 21 Secrets workshop page, Tracie Hanson of Doodlicious Daybook pointed out the pink snaggle-toothed monster lurking on the page.  Then I was off and running!

The page on the right is from an old Quilting Arts catalog.  Perfect to set the mood!  I added this cute little comic of a wiener dog wearing his hot dog costume for Halloween.

I hope you and yours have a fun, safe, and happy Halloween!

Doodlicious Daybook- 21 Secrets Journaling Class

What a beautiful day!  I treated myself to an hour-and-a-half walk on the greenway near my house.  Since it was such a gorgeous autumn weekend and we were not in the mountains to enjoy it, this walk along the creeks, woods, and wetlands was a great substitute.

After that, I took a set of watercolor paints outside and used a fall palette to paint some background papers.  Then I stitched some of these to other painted and assorted papers, from calendars, magazines, and scrapbook papers.  I assembled these with loose-leaf notebook rings into a "Doodlicious Daybook" or journal.  It is fat and funky!

When we had the grandkids in the mountains last weekend, Lily and I did some painting outside on brown Kraft paper and card stock.  She produced the pink page by smearing her hands all over a glob of paint.

I used a technique from the online workshop 21 Secrets, which is a series of videos and instructional pages by some of the top names in journaling and mixed media.  This one was called The Doodlicious Daybook with Tracie Hanson.  You are supposed to paint really large doodles on mural-size paper.  I just used the brown paper left over from wrapping paper rolls.  Then you cut up the big sheets to create journal pages.

On this page, a part of a big doodle is on the left, and a failed painting on the right.  This is a great way to use paintings that you don't like, but wouldn't mind journaling or collaging on top of.

I didn't realize I had so many paintings I could use for this purpose! 

One of today's painted backgrounds is on the left, and a NC Wildlife magazine cover is on the right, with the delightful zebra duct tape.

Painted doodle on the left, watercolor on the right. I used those cheap acrylic paints like Folk Art from Michael's for the doodles.  I buy them when they are on sale for like 69 cents apiece. 

This is one I did today...can you tell how happy this beautiful fall weather has made me?

India ink doodle on watercolor on left, big doodle on right

Doodle on left, pocket made from scrapbook paper on right to hold bookmark

Well, you get the idea.  This is going to be so much fun to fill with journaling.

I hope your weekend was fun!