Journal Freedom

I liberated my new journal (the Dylusions one) from it's stupid "cover" or holder or whatever it was. It's SO much happier now! Ajae drew this face, it's Kelly! We were asking Ajae for a tutorial on drawing curly hair and she was teasing us and sent us a picture of her pen sketch. I messed with it in photoshop and printed it on sticky paper and now it's on the front of my journal! I'm babbling because I had three cups of Dr. Pepper and a grande mocha latte from Starbucks!!! :)

Lost and gone forever!

The cheekster lost a TOOTH! How crazy is that? He's only five! And then he literally lost it on the school bus. Poor little guy was all upset - how was the tooth fairy going to know it was his tooth?!? But, as we all know, the tooth fairy (AKA the molinator) is magic! She brought him a dollar and a note saying that all lost teeth seem to find their way to her and he shouldn't be sad that he can't find it. Look at his little gap!! 

The kit I used for this page is called Sir Plays a Lot and it's by Sweet Digi Scraps and Etc by Danyale.

Subtle is creepy

C'mon, that's a creepy face!! It's from a lesson in Suzi's Paint & Chronicle class, and I LOVE the way her face came out. Mine, not so much! I'm going to practice, though, because it could be really lovely.

  After I took this picture I realized that her eyes are ridiculously crooked:

I managed to sort of fix them. She won't be awful when she's finished, and finished is better than perfect, right? Right?? (Lie to me if you have to!)

Drunk Thanksgiving Journaling

With Kelly, of course!!

Awkward Family Photos??

Nah, I LOVE this pics! Liam was not quite a year old in these pics, and Tena wasn't my brother's wife yet, AND it wasn't 2008, it was 2007!! I should fix that. But I love these pictures! Look at that cheeky little boy, his eyes right on the camera while he steals an ornament off the tree. He'd look right at you, keep eye contact, and think you couldn't see when he was going something bad.

Kit used is Christmas Punch by Sweet Digi Scraps, as well as her Story Time templates.

It's a sickness

I got a new journal. I know, I know. I couldn't help it. I'd actually planned to NOT get this one, especially after someone said that some of the pages were Bristol (they're not).

 It's the new Dylusions journal and I haven't played IN it yet, I've just been messing with the cover a little.

I attempted to color the face like normal (prismacolors), but the cover paper wasn't really cooperating, so I painted her. Poor thing, right? I'll have to let you know if I manage to fix her!

The second half...

Of yesterday's quote:

So, anyone who knows Suzi knows that she's been working with Breaking Free, an organization that helps women in the commercial sex trade to get out and make lives for themselves. She was talking about a ceremony they were having and how all of the girls were still wearing their ridiculously tight clothes and stupidly high heels, because it's all they know. If you know Suzi, you also know that she used to be a GoGo dancer in New Jersey. She was one of those girls who spent hours getting dressed before high school in the morning, while I was the one who scooped up clothes off the floor and tugged them on, then ran out to the bus just in time to climb on.

Recently, Suzi told me that she would see girls who dressed like me - soft pants or jeans, t-shirts, hoodies, pajamas, etc - and she wished that she "could" dress like that. I was totally floored. It never occurred to me that the gorgeous, polished, glamorous girls would EVER think "Hey, I wish I was comfortable enough with myself to dress like that sloppy, unkempt, naked-face chick." I will tell you that I never once wished to be a plastic-looking mean girl, not once. I am who I am. It never occurred to me that they weren't necessarily who they wanted to be.

There's not really a point to this post, I have no advice or words of wisdom. I just think it's interesting to know. "Don't waste time being who you are, be who you want to be." A teacher said that to me once. (Not me specifically, a classroom full of us, but you get my point.)

Don't waste time!

I was skarting with Ajae and Kelly the other night and this is something that came out after I thought I was done for the night. It's just a pen doodle on a torn piece of scrap paper, but I really liked how she came out!

I ripped the paper some more before I added it to a background page, just with a cheap glue stick.

I was working on a different page and ended up getting some black crap on her face, oops!

Then I added some words with my alphabet stamps. I colored them in with Copics and then use a water bottle cap to add the pink circles. 

This is only half the quote: "Don't waste time being who you are"...

Journal Page

Another one?? I know, you're SHOCKED!

Face Up or Face Down

Apparently, this is a question that plagues people. Does your printer print on the front of the paper or the back? I guess most people WRITE on the paper, then print something and see if it printed on the same side that they wrote on. I didn't realize this was a problem for people until I was sitting in class, listening to Stan talk about how he wasn't sure how we were going to print something double-sided and he wasn't sure how the paper printed and blah, blah, blah. So I raised my hand and I told him (and the class) that there's an icon on the print tray. They found this to be amazing, and several of them argued with me that it wasn't possible because they'd never seen it. We went to the lab and the tray was pulled open and chests thrust out in defiance as people were ready to see me FAIL because it was simply impossible that they just weren't paying enough attention. And then I pointed to it and said "See? The paper prints on the front." My teacher was so shocked it was actually there! Good times at ITT Tech.

Here is an example of what your printer DOES have on it somewhere. I promise. Keep looking. The one on the left means that it prints on the FRONT of the paper. The one on the right means it prints on the BACK. If the printer has more than one tray, there is an icon for each. I swear. 

Also, I'd be willing to BET that your home printer will mirror, print double-sided, and do all manner of things you might think are impossible. Instruction manuals are good reading! (I can't help it, I like them!!)

Five Little Pumpkins

I can't believe I forgot to show you guys this!! I know my art friends don't really like the digital scrapbooking posts, but it's really the only think I'm consistent at with art - I digiscrap all the time! But this, I'm really excited about this. For school we had to do a "magazine" type thing. My first thought was "art zine" of course. But then Stan (my teacher) mentioned a children's book and I thought "Hm, why the heck not?"

Mini Me has been singing this little song "Five Little Pumpkins" and it's SO cute. So I decided to do THAT for my project! I'm not going to bore you with the whole thing, but it's a cool example of how to use a digiscrapping kit for something totally different! 

Here's the cover:

Here's just a random page:

It printed AWESOME. Stan also got us a stapler that is adjustable so you can staple in the middle of things, so it's stapled and trimmed and glossy and I LOVE how it came out!!

Project Tangerine Logo

What IS Project Tangerine, you ask? I'm going to ask Kelly to type up an explanation for us, so stay tuned!

Something is better than nothing...

Not a great page, not a great face, but better than not doing anything, right?

Gelli Plate!

I have so many pictures, I could bore the shit out of you!! I don't really "get it", even after playing with it for a few hours. It's super squishy, and mine is the middle sized one, 8x10. My papers are 7x10, so it's perfect for them. Basically, you roll some paint on it. then smash something textured in it, then slap the paper down and peel it off. The instructions that came with it said I don't have to clean it, that extra bits of paint make interesting effects! How cool is that?? So I went to dinner with son and hubby, had a couple of drinks, and then drunk dialed a friend on the way home, so I was drunk and distracted, perfect for making art, right?

This one is obviously a couple of paint colors, then bubble wrap. The sort of cool thing is the bubble wrap color isn't the yellow, it's the pink. (Quin magenta, of course.) So, I brayered on the QM, then smashed the bubble wrap on it, so the paint is removed by the bubble wrap. Then put the paper down on the plate and peel it off and so you sort of get the reverse of the bubble wrap. It was fun, it really was, but it's no big deal. 

Here I did a layer of orange, then used a jar of Ultra Matte Gel to make the circles - just smashed the jar into the paint and twisted to make some cool circles. Then I used a fun circle stencil - put it down, brayered the paint through it onto the gelli plate, put the paper down. But couldn't I have gotten the same effect just brayering through the stencil directly onto the paper? I think so, but I'm not the greatest stenciler and the plate does make it easier because the paint doesn't seem to seep under it like it would if I just put the stencil directly onto the paper and tried to brayer paint through it.

Same things here - paint, circle stencil. Remember, I was drunk so doing it over and over was amusing :)

Here is the bubblewrap technique again but I did it on patterned scrapbook paper that I sewed together. I have strange passions, I guess, but I really like how it came out!!

Biggest lesson I learned last night: you can get wet acrylic paint out of your new jeans if you go after it RIGHT AWAY and use a toothbrush to scrub it!

Laughing - at myself or someone else?

You be the judge! I just read this blog post all about how a particular artist plans and organizes her blog posts. She's got a calendar and on it writes what she's going to post about. I totally cracked up. Then I thought - hm, is that the "right" way to do things? Then I cracked up again. What is WRONG with me today?

This blog is what the inside of my head would look like if you could crack it open, only messier. I don't plan what I'm going to say. That's not to say that I don't sometimes edit a little. But mostly this is just my crap and my opinions and my life.

Yesterday I wanted to sketch an octopus in my new sketchbook, so I did. Here is how it started:

Little more, still pretty cartoon-y, but I like cartoons:

Here he is all ready for inking and paint:

He's orange, I have no idea why:

I colored in his words with Sharpie water-based poster paint marker:

Ajae said he looks angry, but he wasn't supposed to, he's just hanging out. And his words say "Don't worry too much about making sense". I was sketching him in the morning before work at Starbucks and one of the guys who works there came over and asked me about it (even with earbuds in, people still talk to me, I attract lots of stranger conversations somehow!!) and I was like "Oh, yeah. I don't even know why I felt like drawing an octopus." Like I needed a reason!! How silly am I? I wanted an octopus and now I have one. Who cares why?

Jack who?

You know those people who say "Jack of all trades is master of none"? I say screw 'em. I LIKE trying new things, learning new stuff, practicing it until I'm good at it. Knowledge doesn't leak out of your brain when you learn something new, so why not do it? When Suzi said "Let's make jewelry, get some tools, I have beads." I said "OK, I'll be over tomorrow." And you know what? I freaking LOVE it. I really, really, REALLY like working with my hands. I can't always do it because I have nerve damage in my right arm and so I'm always in pain - some days better than others. But this is something I'm going to do more of because it is FUN. 

See my little skully? He's an earring! Would you wear him? He's freaking cute, isn't he??

November Journal

Kelly and I are working on turning journaling back into a habit. I used to journal every day and I'm not really sure how I lost it. I'm not really a habit-forming kind of chick. I've never had any kind of addiction, and there is literally nothing that I do every single day. Believe it or not, there are times where I get up in the middle of the night to brush my teeth because I wake up and realize I forgot before I went to bed. BUt sketching and journaling, I'd like these to become habits. Or addictions. Or something. So, we're working on it and this is a page from that. It's loose right now, I'm hoping to have a whole bunch by the end of the month to bind.

This one is a little blurry, but it's the best nose I've done in a long time, Suzi-style, of course.

And I really just started slapping colors around. I didn't try to make realistic hair at all.

Added lots of color until the only NOT colored thing was her face. The reason I did this was because it was late at night and I was exhausted. My eyes were barely open, and the face is the "hard" part. Not that it's really hard, but it's the most difficult part of this particular page and I wanted to be awake for it.

Here is a close up of the background - I brayered white paint onto a text stamp and stamped it. I LOVE the way it looks:

Are you doing OK today?

Someone at work asked me that yesterday. And I had no idea how to even reply. I just stood there and stared at him. Now, I've always worked. Since I was 15, when I worked for the Dodgers at their minor league stadium in Vero Beach, Florida. I've worked in offices, as a dental assistant, a copy/print shop, in photo labs. Mostly offices. But I've been at home with Liam for almost four years. And I'm an introvert. My face betrays nothing. My body language is always relaxed and confident. I'm great at giving off the illusion of "I'm fine". Probably something to do with a very strange childhood and not wanting people to look at my life too closely.I know how to keep conversations and relationships light, I can talk about anything and everything, have lots of useless knowledge, keeps my opinions about things like religion and politics out of the workplace. I don't go to work expecting to make friends, I am only there to do my job.

My life is very simple. I get up in the morning at 6, shower and get dressed. Make sure Liam has his lunch, whatever he needs for After School Matters, and put him on the bus at 7. I get my computer and go to Starbucks for a few hours to study/sketch/whatever, then go to work. After work, I go to school or run errands. I don't work a million hours, usually between 4 and 5. I get to school an hour or two early and study/homework/projects. After school I call Kelly and then go to bed. It's busy but not complicated or difficult. I don't spend time with anyone other than Tim (hubs) and Liam (kiddo). Neither one of them cares if I'm OK. As long as he's OK, my husband is oblivious to the plight of others. And Liam is sweet and sensitive, but he's 5.

So this question had me completely baffled. Was I OK? Chronic pain from nerve damage, check. Uncomfortable in work clothes, check. Squirmy about being out and about and exposed to a world that I find irritating, check. All things normal and as they should be. Here was the conversation:
Him: "Are you doing OK today?"
Me: I just stared at him.
Him: "You just look a little...grumpy, I guess."
Me: "Grumpy?" (I know, I'm a genius, right?)
Him: "Yeah. You look how I usually look everyday and that's not good."
Me: Frown, SMH. "No, I'm good."
Him: Disbelieving, "All right. Just checking."
I went back to the host stand, he went back behind the bar, and I contemplated what an idiot I am, and obsessed about what could possibly look different about me today then yesterday. I realized that it was my period. My friends ALWAYS used to ask me if I was OK when I had my period. I look sick. Pale, circles under my eyes, I'm always super fatigued and in a lot of pain. But it's been so many years since anyone has noticed.

I've been realizing that I actually like being part of the world again. I knew I wasn't really part of the world when I was at home all the time, but I didn't realize that it kind of made me a different person. I smile easier now. I WANT to smile easier now.

And then you know what I started thinking? The people I work with are really nice. I mean, super nice. I don't know what I expected, but I didn't think I was going to enjoy working at a restaurant (it's my first one). I have zero experience, and it's certainly not going to be my future, but I could try harder to enjoy it there. The day bartender sings. Loudly. We start off every morning with a meeting that includes food and a beer taster (like a shot glass of beer). Since I only work the lunch shift, it's rarely CRAZY busy. I mean, we have a crazy 45 minutes from 11:45-12:30 when table after table comes in. But other than that, we're just hanging out together. I MISS friends like I had in college at USF. People who teased mercilessly, smacked each other on the ass just because, knocked on my window at 4am just to come in and sleep on my couch, who would pick me up for rehearsal because I didn't have a car so I didn't have to walk in the rain. The rain is  lot colder in Minnesota.

So, I guess my rambling is over. I'm glad I got asked if I was OK. Look how much thinking I got out of it. And I realized that even in just a small, "that's a chick I work with" kind of way, someone I didn't even know two months ago cares if I'm OK.

Polychromos verdict: Yuck

I wanted to love them. Who doesn't love a new supply to play with? But they just don't blend. At all. This is me pushing as hard as I could with the cream color:

Yuckola, right? Overall, the page came out fine. I'm probably going to stamp some words on her, but she's done for the most part. I should've just stuck with my prismacolors. Next time!

Little Birdie, why do you fly upside down?

Anyone know where that's from? Give it a guess! Anyway, Liam and I were walking the other day, home from Michael's, of course, and we walked past this dead little bird on the sidewalk. He's SO sensitive about things like that, so I kept him talking about it the whole way home so he wouldn't start crying. We talked about how pretty the birdie was and how he would've looked while he was flying. It was a blue jay, I'm almost certain, and their colors are SO pretty. Liam's favorite color is blue, so we talked about that. And then I suggested that we draw the birdie when we got home, to remember him like he might've looked before he died. So I looked up "how to draw a blue jay" and these are the results:

Kelly likes the angry one best, Liam LOVED them, and I'm thinking they might need a little watercolor. 

Good Hair Day!

Same thing as the other day - printed photo, silly hair. I kind of want to do this with pictures of people that I know. Who wants to volunteer? Guess I'll start with Mini Me. He's always a willing subject!

There's not much texture or shading. Not really much of anything. I feel NOTHING when I look through this journal, but it's probably me and not the journal, right? 

Sketchbook Angel

This is the inside cover of one of my sketchbooks. I'd hoped that if I made this spread really pretty, I'd want to use the book, but so far it hasn't really worked!! I'm silly, I know. I do really like these pages, so maybe I'll haul this sketchbook around with me and see if I like working in it. It's a little bigger than I like. Journal is too small, sketchbook is too big, will Goog ever be happy?? Who knows?

Close up of her and her little friend:

Polychromos!

Are they better than my beloved prismacolors?? They just might be! This is crappy paper (really really really crappy) so it wasn't a great test, but they are really nice to use. They don't give you that scratchy feeling of "pencil on paper" at ALL, they're so smooth! I loved working with them. I just bought a few, some faceish colors, to test them out, but I will be getting MORE. I love them. 

Close up! They didn't blend very well on this shitty paper, but I just loved they way they FEEL so much!

Chevron vs Zigzag

Apparently "chevron" and "zigzag" are the same thing. Same exact thing! Why do we need different names for the same thing? I have no idea. But I really wanted some chevron stamps, so I carved some! 

This one is the full size of the block, about 4x6:

This ons is just a chunk, maybe 2x4:

Both of them make me very happy!