Practice Supplies

OK, this is something that's going to be hard for some people to hear. DON'T USE PRACTICE SUPPLIES.

Don't draw your faces on copy paper first and then try to draw them in your journal. Don't try to learn how to shade with Crayola colored pencils before trying your nice expensive ones.

Your good paper and your good supplies are NOT going to act like Crayolas on copy paper. I promise. Crack open that good journal, grab a pencil that you paid $2 for, and PRACTICE THAT WAY. Do it. You aren't wasting it if you don't draw a masterpiece. You aren't wasting it if you throw away your first hundred. You are wasting it if it sits on the shelf and gathers dust.

This face is ugly:

It is. It's an ugly face. I draw them all the time. Less than I used to, and lots of times I work at them to make them better. Not this one. She's living right in my journal. One that I paid around $20 for. I mostly used cheap paint, but I also used my Neocolor II's - which are around $2 each. Is whatever this journal spread "cost" me in supplies a waste of money? Of course not. It's what I needed at the moment. It fulfilled whatever need I had right then. I don't think about what I paid for a supply while I'm using it - it's too late. The money is paid. Not using the supply doesn't save the money. It's already gone.

So, please, I'm begging you - grab your Fabriano Artistico paper and your Golden paints and make something ugly. 

Demoland...

I very rarely share graphics that I make here because even though they are technically mine, they don't feel like mine because they're for someone else to use for their own work, you know? But this is something I designed for my him, and it seems OK to share here! PLUS, I'm super proud of how it came out! It's a CD cover for his demo (he's a DJ) and I really, really liked being able to design this for him.

Family Fun by Sweet Digi Scraps

I love all of Liz's work, but HOW GREAT is this kit?? Birght colors + silly fun = Goog's favorite!

You can find it here!

This is me, Ian, Brian, and Pat playing Life in Ireland - I won, of course!

And this is me, Mini Me, and his daddy playing Trouble, with Puma supervising. 

They're both templates (Liz calls them Sweet Inspiration!!) and available in the bundle or you can get the kit by itself and any/all of the other pieces separately. I love templates, I just can't help it! And c'mon, ,look at that pie wedge one, what could be more fun than that?? And here's a fun useless factoid for you - in Ireland the game that is Trouble in America is called Frustration!! Who knew? (Well, I guess people probably do, but I didn't.)

Another Documented Life...

Sometimes things just speak to you, and this was posted on Facebook by someone very important to me.

This is page is so simple but it makes me really happy - and if her eyes are making you itchy, I promise they're whiter in realy life than they look right there!! They aren'y that horrible allergy red color!

The Documented Life

OK, you guys have heard me talk about my Cheap Thoughts Journals before (I swear, you have). This year, Kelly and I decided to do The Documented Life project. They use a particular planner for it, a Moleskine weekly 12-month planner. A page is tipped in (the instructions call for 140lb watercolor paper, but I used Stonehenge printmaking paper, like always).

They're tipped in iwith washi tape. (Which doesn't hold all that well, if we're being honest.)

Here is one of my weeks. On the left is the actually planner ptage. I don't really have appointments, and I don't actually keep a paper calendar (I'm a Geek, I use Google Calendar for that). But I thought it would be a good place for some of my Project 365 pictures, and some of the graphic stuff I design, and the scrapbook pages I do for Sweet Digi Scraps.

I tried it for about a week. I went back and filled in the whole month of January with pictures and little stories from my weeks, etc. I named it James. I carried it everywhere. And I hate it. One spread for a whole week? Plus, I hate those tip in pages. "Treat it like an art journal page" is what everyone says. The problem is that I don't "art" and "CTJ" in the same place. I used to keep noted and lists and things in bewteen art pages in my first Moleskines and then I just glued those pages together. But I haven't really done that in several years, and I don't have that need that some people seem to that says I have to keep everything in one journal.

So I broke up with James and moved on (quickly, because I'm a bitch like that) to this red Moleskine sketchbook that my friend Maggie sent me for my birthday.

I painted the new one and the name Abby is in my head for her, but we'll see if it sticks. I do tend to go with the first thing that pops into my head, so it's likely. I painted it green and of course I put my face on it.

And here is the first spread, with a tip in for the week. I sprayed every page already, so there will be some color in the background. There is some writing in the background, too - just notes I jotted when I was on the phone. Pictures that are just bits of things from my week. Actually, it's only a couple of days because it's supposed to start February first (which is not the beginning of a week).

So far I like it, but I guess we'll see!

Project 365 - January 2014

All filled up! That little number on some of the pictures means that I have that many pictures for that day (just in case you were wondering) and the app I use is called Collect and it's iPhone only (sorry!).

Wait for me

I'm not really a collager, but I've been feeling sort of "stuck" with my journals lately. It's so crazy because sometimes I journal every day and it's just paint or drawings, but lately it's been mostly just words spilling out everywhere.

I joined The Artstronauts Club and Mindy Lacefield posted a video - it's just her playing in her journal, no talking, no teaching - and it was just the push I needed to pick up the paintbrush and start playing. So I did.

I painted over the attempt I made at a Mindy style face - I just can't paint like her. 

So I painted happy instead!

I was just going to put the words "wait for me, I'm coming" but when I started writing, I felt the need to add the "I'm worth it" and so I did...