"It's So Fluffy!!!" Sharing the Unicorn Love

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I don't know about you guys, but when Anges screams at the unicorn in Despicable Me I was done... Done... Done... Done... Head over heals in love with Agnes, the movie and of course the Unicorn with its cute little swirly nose.  Love It! When I was a little girl I was totally obsessed with Unicorns, Pegasi, and Pegicorns.  I had them everywhere: on my walls, clothes, and books.  You name it I probablly had a unicorn on it.  I even had still have a Unicorn sticker collection.  

When I was a tween ages and ages ago... I wanted a Purple Unicorn with a golden mane and golden hooves.  I looked everywhere for a purple unicorn... I see them everywhere now, but not then.  My family parted ways when I was very young and there was one special visit with my dad that he bought me a unicorn stamp.  I have treasured this stamp ever since, 'cause it connected me to him and because I had a purple ink pad, so I was making purple unicorns by the millions... I maybe exagerating, but not by much...  I believe that this stamp was the first of my obsession with stamps even now.

Even still my favorite Christmas present this year was a pair of knee high purple unicorn socks!  Some things never change, right!?!!

Have you ever wanted something so bad that once you got it you didn't quite know what to do with it?

Its a weird place to be in... 

I grew up an only child... 

I wanted a sister so bad... to do things with, share things, to be connected you know?  What I didn't know then, but I do know now is that I do have a sister and loads of brothers too that grew up many many miles away; separated by states and unresolved familial issues.  

I have a Sister and that is so exciting, but we're both adults now and its weird trying to find that common ground.  I have found that we share a love for Unicorns and maybe even purple ones.  I believe that is an awesome beginning to our future as sisters.  

This is for you, sis...

Vintage - An Art Journal Page - Traveling Journal

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When I get old I will NOT be Old.  I will be VINTAGE!
Vintage: quality, prime, select, choice, best, and superior.

This particular page was started in the fall of 2012 when I first ventured to Whispering Winds Scrapbook Retreat with my scrapping friends.  Just a quick word about Whispering Winds... Its awesome!!! The house is amazing. My friends and I had such a fabulous time that we went back spring 2013.  I'm hoping that we can plan another sojourn sometime this fall.  I'm thinking I may just need to do a blog post on just Whispering Winds to give you the full effect.

This journal is a mixed media strathmore visual journal 5.5 x 8, 90lb. I like the heavy paper as it stand up to whatever wet media I throw at it.   This spread was EX-tremely purple and unfinished at the end of our stay at Whispering Winds. This journal has been picked up and moved so many times in the studio that 99% of the pages are screaming white.  One of my goals for 2014 is to finish projects and as I always seem to be scrambling to get my supplies packed for a day out with my girls I have made this small journal my traveling one.  It stays in my art bags during the week until I head out again.  I added a couple of new spreads to it, which I showed in my post Journaling Withdrawals.  Every time I open the journal I come to that PURPLE first page so at my last day out with my chicks I decided to finish and fix it.  Here is the final result...

Supplies List

Matte Medium

The lady, labels, and domino came from a ephemera sheet that I found on Pinterest.

Faber-Castell Pitt artist pen big brush in May Green

Scrap paper

Liquid Paper correction pen

Prima Washi tape stamps

Copic Marker in 4 Neutral Grey

7 Gypsies Vintage Stamp

ChicTags Journal Tags in Birthday Cake Artisans

Faber-Castell Pitt art pen Fine


there you have it art fans whereever you are... and if you're out there looking for more pics check out my Traveling Art Journal Album on Facebook and give me a thumbs up for updates!!!

Gettin' Daft Punk'd! 3 Free Fitness Apps up for appraisal. A phone app review...

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I'm so very pysched today! I was able to accomplish something that I didn't think I could EVER do. 


Butttt... before I get to that... a little fitness history per se... went from tree climbin', bike ridin', roller skatin', tennis playin' super tom-boy to ultra geek/nerd girl when puberty hit and I've never recovered.  I transformed into a total nerd and forgot about being outside.  My time was invested in books and movies and maybe a little dancing to Madonna or Van Halen.  Or perched in front of my uber cool TRs80 with cassette drive. Oh Yeah! Not to mention playing on the Atari 2600!  That is until my mom gave it away.  GRRRRRR! That's okay 'cause I eventually got a Saga Genesis and ran Sonic all over the freakin' place until the system died two days after getting it.  Sent it back and what did Sears send me instead... a Super Nintendo!  Move over Sonic;  Hello Link! Sonic might be a uber fast hedgehog and super cute, but Link is a fey with a super sexy green hat.  Yeah! Baby! And then... and then came Dungeon's & Dragons 3.0/3.5. (thank you, Neverness... I did resist or tried too...) I've played my share of elves, half elves,and halflings. Ultimately I was one kickass "primative gun" toting gnome. After a brief hiatus then came dun, dun, dun... 40K's Warhamer Fantasy & Dark Heresey where I've annoyed Da Masta Cheef with my Sister of Battle, Secunda... so much fun that... I've got a Wood Elf that can take down Dragons with a bow in Skyrim.  Wanna be badass in Borderlands.  Those character's had more strength, dexterity, and charisma than is even possible in real life. They are so bad-ass. They were all the me that I wanted to be and wasn't.  I've gotten a lot of game/life achievements since then. My working hours are spent in front of a computer or dealing with overly dramatic employees. I've logged several thousand hours on the 360 sitting in my husband's comfy chair. Or standing in front of the stove making something really tasty to eat.  Oh yeah, I love to eat... let me say that again... I love to eat good food.  That said, twice! I made some effort a few years ago, but when my workout buddy had a life changing event and moved away my motivation just fizzled out.  

I've found my motivation again and working hard at getting Daft Punk'd: 

HARDER, BETTER, FASTER, STRONGER! 

- From their Discovery Album.

I have two fitness goals that I'm currently working on:

1. Couch to 5K - an 8 week program

2. Relearning to Bilaterally Free Style Swim.

I got myself back into the gym in February just to get used to moving again.  I've found 3 iPhone/android apps that have assisted me in making progress on my fitness goals.  I've tried several like:  Calorie Counter by Fat Secret and FitDay Mobile by bulletin solutions.  The three that I've stayed with are:

a. Endomondo

b. My Fitness Pal

c. C25K by Zen labs

 A. Endomondo - Free
     Endomondo tracks the duration, distance, and calories of your workout.  It has workouts from Badminton to Windsurfing.  You can choose what you're doing and it does the rest.  It will also track your routes for comparison if you have GPS enabled on your phone.  It will give you your average speed, max speed, hydration level, total ascent/descent, some weather info and min/max altitude. It keeps track of your workout history for you and you can also join community challenges.  You can also add gear to help you track your Heart Rate like the Jawbone Up. (I would love one of these bad boys, just sayin')  The Up is a bracelet style body monitoring system.  It will track your sleep patterns, how much you move, and how you eat. Also, it will connect to my next app... My Fitness Pal.  They make regular updates to the app, but the one drawback that is a little frustrating is I ran yesterday, it didn't track my distance quite right.  I know that has to be due to GPS and running in place so I can handle that until they fix it. And when communicating with My Fitness Pal it logged it as Walking 2.0 mph, slow pace.  Which I tell you was not the case.

 B. MyFitnessPal - Free
     It does all sorts of cool things for you.  From the apps home screen you get your daily summary: daily calorie goal, +food consumed, -exercise, and your net calories.  All at a glance! You can add friends to help you with your fitness agenda, to give encouragement

or challenges or fuss when you've missed a day or two.  It has a food dairy, with an extensive database for foods or you can add your own.  Build your own recipes to determine calorie content of your favorite breakfast muffin.  I use this feature alot!   You can track your weight or measurements and it will give you a graph showing your progress.  It will even give your nutrient details.  It was a shocker how much sugar is in things, random supposedly good for you food. This part of the app helped open my eyes to things that I was eating on a normal basis.  There are so many good things about this app that they far outweigh my one issue....1...  You can access your app data from the MyFitnessPal website. You can add to your diary, track cardio/strength workouts... whatever you can do on your phone you can do on the website, but there are adds and sometimes those adds will mess with Internet Explorer and Google Chrome, which on some days is annoying.  That's my only complaint... yeah adds.  chrome crashes hello! phone app...

C. C25K by Zen Labs - Free
C25K is an eight week program designed to get you from your couch to a 5k race. It is also a free app.  Zen Labs is a supporter of Breast Cancer awareness, which is totally cool in my book.   SAVE THE TATAS!

Before you begin you get a Motivational Quote, which I enjoy.  I save these away to use in my art journaling.  Exercise tips for lifting weights, walking, or running.  It will also give you a blurb on another of Zen Labs free apps or some of their pro apps like for abs and legs.  What the app does is start you out week 1 day 1 with a warm up walk and then alternates you for 60 secs of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for like 20 minutes. Once completed it moves you to week 1 day 2 and so on. So, you can see from the screen shoot that I've got check marks in the boxes for Week 3 Day 2 and Day 3. I've completed those.  The other cool thing is that I start Endomondo first and then I start this app and use both at the same time to track what I'm working on that day.  

You guys remember what I was saying at the beginning of this post... I'll refresh your noggins...

I'm so very pysched today! I was able to accomplish something that I didn't think I could EVER do. 

Sweet Victory - with sweaty flushed cheeks!

Even in high school I was never able to run the mile for Phys Ed without walking 95% of it. I made it to week 3 day 2 of this app before it KICKED MY TOOKUS all over the gym. I've actually repeated week 3 because when i got to Week 4 Day 1: 3 minute run, 90 sec walk, 5 minute run, 2.5 minute walk, 3 minute run, 90 sec walk, and 5 minute run. I THOUGHT I WAS GONNA DIE! I never made it to 4 minutes before my chest felt like it was gonna 'splode!!! I DID NOT complete that day. It defeated me that day. So after running through Week 3 again, which this app so conveniently lets you do and recommends it as well.  Yesterday, May 14, 2013, I, the non-runner, finally killed that 5 minute goal and the 3 minute and came so close to killing second 5 minute. If you wanna learn to run I highly recommend this app.  Just gather up 30 seconds of courage and do it!

When I'm not on the treadmill I'm in this pool.  I was on the swim team when I was a little girl and in the intervening years since then I've forgotten how to swim correctly.  Face down breathing out full tilt!  Its great to be back in the water.  There are days when the 'ole lungs don't work the way I think they should. Running is helping alot with my endurance.  The more I progress running the more I'm able to do in the water.  Very nice symbiotic relationship there.   

Anyways, if you're interested working on your fitness and/or eating habits check out these apps, I highly recommend them!

I've been working in my 2013 Mo Bigger Art Journal: 

Traps, Treasures, and Secret Doors!

Pin It Now! Having watched the 2001 sequel to Secret Garden, The Return to the Secret Garden recently.  I've had floating around in the ole brain pan the thought that my current Journal, Secret Garden needs to have a secret door.  Also, being slightly addicted to Pinerest (first stage is denial, right?!) I've seen that there are a few cards being made now that use an embossing resist for the central design.  When I started this layout those two thoughts were forefront. I started out by stamping the branch and leaf pattern then embossing with clear powder.  I then took the same stamp and using Mowed Grass Distress Ink stamped again.  I used my heat tool to dry it a little bit and lightly wiped off the ink from the embossed surface. I then stamped the Lock and Key.  I had the butterflies floating on my desk so I transferred them using gel medium.  The embossed surface also resisted the transfer so the butterflies look like they are behind the branches.  Very cool!!!

That green really needed additional color and I've had these Prima flowers in my stash for quite a while so I starting gluing them down.  The larger flowers I used brads to secure and then glued to the page.  After all my elements were down I drew the framework of the door around them, which you can see in the photo below.

I took out my Prometheus Pen and Black Magic and inked in the door frame.  I couldn't help adding the tiny red bird to the foliage.  I'm currently debating on whether or not to paint the door a different color or leave it as is. hmm...

Oh My Goodness, Oh My Goodness, Oh My Goodness

Pin It Now! I've been MIA I know, but WOW what a couple of months!  Its been insanely busy.

I've been a little swamped the last two months with new car, the theater, art dates with my scrapbooking girls, inventory, inventory, inventory, and vacation. I have found time to finish my Moxie Art journal though, so here is a update as to what I've been doing.

Thanks for Watching, so long art fans...

TGIF! Friday background sneak peak...

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 I'm working in the center of my journal and though the 8x8 size is unique I'm thinking of making the 8x10 journal I started with once I finish this one. Here's a sneak peak at the background I'm working on.
     It's kinda funny because I was inspired to do this technique by the rugs that are scattered throughout the dungeons in the Skyrim Xbox game.
     It's a light back ground with a darker stamped image on top that is outline in white. I used my Neocolor 2 crayons to create the blue/purple color. Stamped in faded jeans distress ink and outlined with a white Gelly Roll pen. The left side took about 45 minutes, but the effect was worth the effort.
     The stamp is by Hampton Art 4x4 cling mounted stamp and every time I've stamped with it the square shape is very apparent.  I very pleased with this out come.

So Long Art fans, you with your visions and dreams...

That's Just Me COOKIN'!!!

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I love to cook!  I LOVE to COOK!!!

Of course in the grand scheme of life sometimes I don't.  I think I might even consider myself a foodie... That is if pressed.  There isn't just one thing that I enjoy. It makes me think of a line from City Slickers, where Billy Crystal is asking Jack Palance the meaning of life and Palance's response is its just one thing ..his index finger held up for emphasis... (If you haven't seen this movie, watch it at least once)  I'm going to disagree with Jack. *gasp* Its many things: the process, the ingredients, and ultimately the edible result.  I cannot deny that I like food and the more complicated it is the more I like it.  I cook cause it make me happy and I've been told recently that it makes others happy too.  That declaration makes me even more happy and giddy.  

I'm beginning to see my practice of art in the same manner.  There's not just one thing that I can point to and say that's it.  It isn't just stamps (totally obsessed), paint, pens/pencils, tape, paper, etc, etc, etc... its the whole kit and coboodle.  The Bink told me the other day that he's delighted to see that my OCD isn't affecting what I'm doing at the art table.  It was an AH HA moment for me, 'cause I have to constantly remind myself to let go and walk away if its too messy.  So, when he says this it means that I'm making some progress.  YEAH ME!!!  

I'm currently obsessed with a Mini Journal.  I even got the Bink to help me trim paper for it.  Its 4 inches by 4 inches and totally cute. I'm finding that there are days when I just can't art but a few minutes and my large journal was too much for such a short period of time.  I've got enough space in the mini to journal short and sweetly.  I like that I'm using those scraps that are forgotten in the bottom of my stash.  Because I used Binder Rings I can take pages out to work on them and reorder the pages as I like.  

I've been reading Life is a Verb by Patti Digh.  I have to admit that its my fall back book for when I finish a book and don't have something else to read to finish my workout.  So, I've been reading it spurts.  Days pass and I don't even think about it.  Don't get me wrong there are parts of it that I laugh at and nod my head to.  Sure, I've been there something similar has happen to me or to someone I know.  Patti tells a good yarn.  Today, though there was a passage in Chapter 6 - Intimacy: Love More (Give Free Hugs) that even though my elliptical machine had stopped I couldn't quit reading.  So, there I am standing on the machine reading about Juan Mann, his Free Hugs Sign, and Patti Digh's daughter.  I was riveted by the story and by the time I got to my car I had the Free Hugs Video up on my phone.  I cried, I laughed, and I cried some more. I found it again when I got home.  If you've never seen the Free Hug movement videos, follow the link above or search via YouTube.  I think its well worth it!

So Long ART fans where ever you are!!!

Rising from the Mud

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"I rose from marsh mud
algae, equisetum, willows,
sweet green, noisy
birds and frogs."
― Lorine Niedecker

You may remember that last week I was struggling in mire, just digging myself deeper and deeper into the ooze.  I love, love, love, the color brown, but I'm discovering that when on paper or canvas it helps to create mud very easily.   Earthenmagic sent me a message about last weeks post and her insight was extremely beneficial.  Walk away and refocus intent.  I set my BOD aside and worked on playing with beautiful faces and copic markers. If you are interested to seeing them, they are on Flickr.  On a side note, my flickr gadget key code, blah, blah, blah quit working so I had to take it down.  *grrr*

I pulled out my Vol. I BOD to finish up that final page spread with tip in.  For some strange reason I started thinking about centerfolds.  I started sketching while watching the movie Due Date, HILARIOUS by the way.  My centerfold is sketched and all I need to do now is add some color!  I was left with a prepped tip in and I moved it forward a page and continued the doodles I had there on to the tip in.  Why didn't I think of that before!?  Doodling fun.  


I finally pulled Vol. II back out and just started removing the images I had attached from the front of the cover.  I really like the images I had chosen, very turn of the century botanical garden-esque.  I then reached for the gesso and had at it.  I even removed the binding tape from the spine and started over with a new piece "dyed" with watercolor.  The left image is the new Book of Days 2012 VOL.II.  The two right images are of the original cover & journal sleeve.  What do you think? What are your thoughts on my journal sleeve? Creepy or cool?

I want to thank Artistcellar for the FANTASTICALLY AWESOME rose window stencils and the Stewart Gill Byzantia paint.  This is my first use of Stewart Gill and the color is so Intense, love it.  Also, the watercolor effect of the window was inspired by Earthenmagic's Magic Tree.

Beautiful Disaster

Pin It Now! What a day! The all day drizzle brings out the need for a great big mug of Caramel Hot Chocolate with marshmallows!  Yumm, yumm... Its a good consoler after all.  I've been feeling a little strung out due to my minions not showing up to work, causing me to spend my days on the production floor and not in my office. There is so much that I want to do and I am finding that I'm sacrificing some things in order to do others.  I want to do it all, dang it!!!  Cue QUEEN:

I'm a man with a one track mind, 
So much to do in one life time (people do you hear me)
Not a man for compromise and where's and why's and living lies
So I'm living it all, yes I'm living it all,

And I'm giving it all, and I'm giving it all,

It ain't much I'm asking, if you want the truth,

Here's to the future, hear the cry of youth,

I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now,

I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now,

The boys were watching crap on YouTube Sunday afternoon.  I'm supposing because they had a hard day filming on Saturday.  It was bad enough that Hanzmo spent more time in at the art desk with me than with them.  We concocted a clever plan, let us go to the MOVIES!!! Worked too... no more listening to crap videos from the other room.  We went to see HUGO!  I found it a pleasant escape for a Sunday afternoon.  Visuals were stunning.  I found it rather Steampunk-ish.  There were steampunk elements to it, such as: clocks and automatons.  It wasn't dark and dank, but light and expectant.  One key shot was of the main character, Hugo, standing looking out the face of a clock tower.  That particular aspect stayed with me and it is the basis for this week's Monday spread. 


I had a horrific disaster at the art desk.  I had painted my background and working on building layers of color.  I was using Eucalyptus Walnut Ink. Makes a fabulous stain.  Not quite sure how I managed to do it, but I knocked over the bottle and 90% of its contents went across the desk.  Luckily for me it missed my Book of Days Journal.  It was a really good thing that I had my craft sheet down too.  After a couple of failed attempts to "clean" it up, I had to holla for the Bink.  Through great team work we managed to get 80% of the liquid back in its bottle.  The rest was everywhere like a thick dark green swamp.  The Bink's solution... Kleenex... 1 Kleenex...  I was going for the roll of paper towels on the desk, but he was back so fast and was already wiping up.  We both had green hands after that fiasco.  The Kleenex held up, but the layers came apart easily.  Bink is going, "It looks like Camo!"  He looks at his hands and goes, "It'll wash off, right?!"  Sure will, at some point.  

beautiful Disaster

Week 5 PROMPT: Affirmation

Challenge: Use an envelope 

Kleenex + eucalyptus walnut ink

After the clean up I was ready to call it a night, but as I stared at the Kleenex wad on my desk I had an idea.  I treated it just like tissue paper and placed it down with Matte Medium.  I let it tear and wrinkle when it wanted too.  I then went to bed to let it dry. 

I removed any excess hanging over the edge and any parts that didn't adhere well.  Shabby, shabby... right on track... It was very dark once it had dried.  I really wanted the texture to stand out, but not to lighten it.  I wanted that gritty Steampunk feel. I decided to fall back on a miniature painting stand by ~ drybrushing.  I hadn't used that technique yet and so I went to it and worked fabulously. 

close up of the texture

My envelope tip in.  I got such a tremendous response to my Pen Pal envelope that I decided to do another.  She looks a little frustrated or disgusted don't she. 

Clock "Face"

 Its missing something...  I'm sure that I'll continue to tweak it.  

Final with Envelope tip-in.  

Check out the rest of my week of journal pages at Flickr, follow the link at the top of the page.  My parting gift of chocolaty goodness.  So Long Art fans, wherever you are...

Mrs.Bink...

Caught in the Matrix...

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Time seems to be running oddly in my house this week.  Last week's blog was yesterday and forever ago, maybe I'm caught in the Matrix and need either a blue pill or the red pill... Anyhoo, I've got a little "time lapse" photography of some of the things I've been working on in this ultra - dimensional time sequence of a week.  

The following is my rendition of BOD's Week 1 spread.

Week 1 PROMPT: Looking Forward

This Week's CHALLENGE: Using a tag in your journal

This prompt and something my husband said recently greatly influenced the main image in this spread.  He asked me why I did not use my background in religion in my work.  I've been stewing on that for a while now.  Way back in the good old college days I studied the philosophy and history of various religions such as: Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and so on...  I was fascinated and still am to a degree by the religion's use of divination.  They've all had at some point a method to discern what the divine was trying to relay to their followers.  Priests and laymen alike would 'read' something: some watched birds in flight, the way smoke wafted from incense, abnormal lumps on animal livers, but most looked to the stars.  We still do, I'll take a wild guess and say 85% if not more of the American population knows what astrological sign they are.  So, I did some digging and found some old research that I still had stashed away on a bookshelf and pulled some images out.  Looking forward is, in a manner, to me a method of divining the future and stepping out onto a path, whether or not we take the first fork that we come to on that path is unseen, but still a viable choice.

Astrological sign:  Libra

Brief Explanation:  The Inner ring is the Path the earth takes around the sun and where the Solstices fall in that path.  The 2nd ring is astrological signs and the 3rd and 4th rings are the months and days in relation to the path of the earth and seasonal solstices. 

Very short Disclaimer:

*I do not profess to be able to accurately read this chart as I am by no means an Astrologer, just a mere dabbler at this point in time.*

My best-est bud in the whole world told me about gouache.  I know what you're thinking, where is she going now, but bare with me.  Gouache is an opaque watercolor.  He convinced me that I should try them, so I got me a little set and its what I used for my background color.  I've been playing with them and I so prefer it and watercolor over the apple barrel paint I also have.  I can manipulate it with much more ease.  And the color comes out very intense with or without water.

Background and tag added to right side.

The image of the Key hole and key is very symbolic for me and just had to add it.  The added tag acts like a door and to look forward into the milky mists of 2012 you must unlock that door and open it.

Full background with tag open.

The central image is a map of the heavens so to speak, so it seemed natural to place map imagery on the tag as well.

Looking Forward 2012

I've been scanning in my journal pages as I can't seem to get the photographs to come out worth a darn.  I'm recruiting my hubby to help me, but I have to move our vacation pictures off of the camera's SD card first.  For some reason that seems like a chore.  *sigh*  BUTTTT... this particular picture was from the digital camera and I've included it because you can kinda see the texture on the right hand side of the page.  I love the way that tissue paper melts into the background when applied with Medium, matte or glossy.  I happened to be doing laundry and was throwing out the dryer sheet, when it occurred to me to use it like tissue and too my surprise it worked awesomely.  It gives some fantastic texture, which you can sort of see.

The following is my rendition of BOD's this week's spread.

Week 4 PROMPT: Surrender

This Week's CHALLENGE: Painted Text

Surrender - taken with my phone :(

I hated this as I was working on it.  I really surrendered to the mess.  I had tattered angels spray coated on my hands.  Wasn't happy, but kept at it.  I used a page torn from an old dictionary and to the left added graph paper on top of that.  *I love graph paper*  Then I added the painted text and thought WOW what an S and then wasn't happy with the rest of the word.  It really wasn't working for me.  I went to bed.  Got up Tuesday Morning, did yoga and finished it.  I love it!  Weird...

I Surrender ~ Monday, January 23rd, 2012

Its past my bed time, sees you later!!! Hope you enjoyed.  There are more pictures on Flickr, follow the link at the top of the page.

So long art fans, where ever you are

~redbirdmuse

Wednesday is Blog Day!!! Bazinga...

Pin It Now! I think I've been pretty productive since my last post.  I made several cards and got them in the mail.  Worked on my art space getting it a bit more organized and pretty.  I'm super excited as I've signed up for the Personal Geographies with Jill Berry Webinar tomorrow and an art class at the William King Art Museum in February.  I've been embracing my inner turtle and working my way through the prompts from Book of Days 2012.  I've completed my inside cover, calendar spread, and I'm almost done with my first two page Monday spread, take a look.  

I created my background with Tim Holtz distress inks and water.

I really love how the Ranger Archival Ink Sap really subtly pops on this envelope.

The Scrap & Stamp magazine has this wonderful section in the back called the Pen Pal Exchange.  I added my name to list a couple of months ago and I've gotten a tremendous response. I've gotten so many beautiful cards and treasures from them.  Here's a sample of some of my post I've sent out.  If you're interested in exchanging letters send me an email.

So long art fans, where ever you are

~redbirdmuse

Book of Days 2012

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   I have joined up with Effy Wild over at WildPreciousLife to develop my journaling practice. I found Miss Effy through chance as I following a bit of advice and was perusing the Art Journal groups over at Flickr.  I was hopping around click, click, clicking away and I found a journal page spread that I really liked (which I now can't find) and the description had a bit about Book of Days 2012 and a link.  I followed the path before me and I was hooked immediately!  I'm totally stoked by this project.  I'm embracing my inner turtle and going full speed ahead.  It's such a coincidence that my husband helped me with my new journal, a 5 X 7 version of Teesha Moore's Amazing Journal, just a couple of days before, synchronicity at its finest.  'Cause there was a blank freshly bound journal just waiting for color.  I spent most of Sunday, January 8th, 2012 working on the cover.  Monday and Tuesday evening I spent finishing the cover and starting on the inside cover.  Yesterday morning and this morning I worked on my first calendar spread page.  Its an ode to our trip on New Year's through the mountains and into North Carolina.  I'm hoping to finish it up tomorrow morning. *fingers crossed*  More pictures soon!!!

Book of Days 2012 ~ MOXIE

A Gauntleted Creative

Pin It Now!   The Gauntlet was thrown in the middle of the KaPow Art Gallery, go figure, in Asheville, NC. The dialogue went something like this...

"I really should sell some art." Neverness said with a sigh.

I replied, "I will if you will."

  Sometimes I can be a cheeky little sh*t and get myself in trouble, especially when there are rather giant-like smart butted witnesses around.  That said I was only trying to prod my best-est compatriot into actually doing some art instead of doing some talking about doing some art. 

  The first part of this Thrown Gauntlet was for me to create this blog and post pictures of my STUFF as a way of documenting my transition into the world of ART.  A chronicle to discover my style and to take myself seriously (maybe) and have accountability.  A learning tool in mastering techniques and finding my favorite mediums. *YIKES* 

  I was reading the article, Nests & Eggs by Michelle Ward in the Jan/Feb 2012 issue of Somerset Studio.  Michelle talks briefly about how making pretty things will give the maker the designation of being creative, but that in some circles Creative is used as a noun. That resonated with me, as I knew exactly what she meant. I am a CREATIVE! I've always dabbled in various things: cross-stitch, crochet, fiber arts, sewing, & miniature painting just to name a few.

  I began my very first Art Journal shortly after the beginning of 2011 and have been painting, bookbinding, stamping and creating ever since.  I've even started learning how to draw faces and sketch, which for me was something totally right brain and alien.  

  I have pulled on my gauntlets preparing for battle.  "So, Enough talk!" 

  Enjoy the following fruits of my early 2011 labors.

ENJOY!

Secret Dream

This was my fourth journal entry and the one that hooked me.  I wasn't expecting the results I got and was thrilled at its outcome.

Summer Solstice 2011

I completed this spread right after the Secret Dream Spread.  This was a successful watercolor tape transfer of the rose and butterfly.

Vintage Blue Rose

Vintage Rose was a further development of the Summer Solstice spread.  It is one of my favorites. 

So long art fans, where ever you are

~redbirdmuse