Do the right thing

It took every bit of restraint I could muster to give this greeting card to the person I bought it for.

 I spent a lot of time making it all pretty, but it was not until the final moment, when I was putting the card into the envelope, that I discovered the envelope had a brown security pattern inside.  When did they start putting security patterns in greeting cards?  And brown?  Don't have any that color.

I should have let the recipient know I wanted the envelope back later..  I may need to go back to Target and rummage through the other envelopes there - who knows what I missed.

Journal Laboratory

I am always finding out new things about myself.  Most of the time they are blatantly obvious, but I never think it out loud.  Then the realization of it hits me and makes perfect sense.  Like art journaling.  I think I love the experimental playing part more than the actual journaling part.  I have sort of known that over the past few years, but suddenly Really realized it as a fact set in stone.

I'm working on a new journal spread, with experiments on side by side pages.  Gesso as a base on one side, but not on the other.

Same techniques on both pages, starting with a stencil and texture medium spread through the stencil.

Watercolor crayons on both pages.

Playing around with water on both pages to see how well the crayon blends and mixes.

The real reason I started this experiment happened after I was reading Dina Wakley's new book, Art Journal Freedom.  One page had a simple comment, but it has become my new favorite quote.

She was talking about gesso, and said "Gesso is like underwear for acrylic paint.  You can get by without it, but something isn't right."

That cracked me up.  But it totally took me by surprise too.  I sometimes put down a base before working, sometimes not.  I have a feeling, all future pages will have a beginning base of some kind.  I just can't get that quote out of my head.
:o)

Snake Carving

Yep, you read that right.  I've been carving a snake.  Not a real snake (giant shiver).  I still don't care for snakes.  Even when I draw cute eyelashes on its eye, it is still a creepy snake to me. 

Even though it has words carved into it and is not a real snake, just seeing that snaky shape lying on my work table creeps me out.  I need to finish up my Year of the Snake envelope exchange envelopes and move on to something more appealing to me.  Yessssss.

And They're Off...

Whenever you can, you need to do this...

You might come home with things like this....

 You might explore places like this....

You might consider things like this....

You might avoid things like this....

  But always be on your best behavior.

And update your travel book when you get back, making sure to note where Gnawbone was on the map.