Half empty or Half full

Yep.. still behind on my assignments for Documented Life Project journal.  The year is more than half over.  But when I look at my journal, I'm happy to see it is roughly half full.  Of course, it's half empty too! 

I need to add some writing and other things to the June page I was working on.  I made a fold out page and combined three weeks.  It just seemed that the themes for those three weeks fit together as one for me.

 

If you look at the colorful paper on the page where my tags are, that is "geo paper" that I made several years ago.  It took me forever to find a link to the instructions (mainly because it's from 2011).  It's the last piece I have from the play session back then.  Jill Berry has a tutorial here and it's lots of fun. 

Even if I get behind on the weekly assignments, I do work on the monthly calendar for each month, and am now working on both July and August.  September... right around the corner!!  Breathing down my neck!

For some reason, I started thinking about that phrase about half empty versus half full.  In my mind, if something is half empty, it seems more of a negative thing.  Something is missing.  But if it is half full, it is a positive thing... there is potential for something else.  There is more in the future!  Or at least that's how my mind was seeing it, as it rambled and wandered around those thoughts!

What Day is It?

I think I am avoiding my DLP journal.  I'm not positive.  But I do seem to keep finding other things to do instead.  I must be stuck.

I do keep up with a writing journal, nothing spectacular, just mundane day to day stuff.  I have some days of the week stamps I use in it, but don't like any of them.  So, I carved my own.

 The size was determined by the erasers I had on hand.  I lettered the days, outlined them with pencil, and transferred the reverse image to the eraser and carved.  There are plenty of how-to videos out there if you are interested in carving stamps.

Mine aren't perfect by any means.  I can see now the wobbly sides and all the imperfections.  But if the words bother me when I look at them on the page, I can always doodle around them (like I did on the "Fri").  All the wobbly lines magically disappear!

 

Have a good week, all seven days' worth!

Bright Spot

I've been playing.  Not necessarily in my DLP journal, but on other journal pages.  I went to Stampaway in Cincinnati last weekend with friend Gaye.  Unbelievably, I did not buy a single rubber stamp.  First time ever.  But I did buy stencils, stamp pads, tools, and paints.  I try not to jump on the band wagon of every new thing that comes out, but can't help but be drawn to the new Dylusions paints.  I love anything Dyan Reaveley does anyway, and really enjoy watching her demos at Stampaway each year. 

Most of my color palette is along the earth tones.  I also love bright colors, but just don't use them a lot.  I have been adding more bright colors to my paints and stamp pads over time, however.  Thus, I did come home with bright bright paints, and if that does not brighten up my life, I don't know what would!  They match the Dylusions sprays I already have and use.

I have only played a little so far.  The first night I was home, I could not resist opening one jar (Fresh Lime), and making some circles with a round applicator tool.  A little of this paint goes a long way, so I made more circles on other journal pages, then used what was left on the sponge with a new stencil.  This paint even looks great on plain old newsprint paper!

I have continued to play a little each day this week, mostly in my "test" journal where I play with new things.  Bright yellow background (Lemon Zest), red and purple on top with stencils (Post Box Red and Crushed Grape), and black added (I did not buy the Dylusions black, but used black gesso that I already had on hand).

Any leftover paint goes into other journals... this is a small journal that already had a layer of grayish paint on the pages, and I used up the purple and black gesso.  (The purple is not as bright because it is mixed with white gesso... I had a reason for doing that at the time, but don't remember what it is at the moment!)

Lots of fun!  I only bought four of the round applicators, and you certainly don't have to have those to use the paint.  But I do like this tool.  It's been a week since I used the green paint, and the sponge did not dry hard at all.  I liked using the edge of the sponge to get paint in only a small part of a stencil.  And on the big purple flower (if I remember correctly), I might have used the edge of the sponge tool with almost no paint left to just swipe "ghost" streaks around the flower (look closely to see that).

Wishing you Bright days as well!!

DLP Catch Up Week 16

I keep jumping around in my DLP Journal.  I went back to April, Week 16, and worked on a double page spread.  The  Challenge was "gelli plate".  I don't have a gelli plate (which is probably why I skipped that week in the first place!)  But I did have some painted deli papers that were used as gift wrap on some birthday presents I received a few months ago.  Back in Week 1 of DLP, one of my goals was to "use what I have".  If there is one thing I'm happy about, it's that I have done a lot of that with this journal. 

First, I stamped out the prompt "A lot on my plate" on the top right side.  On the left side, I did random writing about what I have on my plate (work, life, worries, etc).   The deli paper was then glued on top of those two pages, with the writing and stamping showing through the deli paper.  I had just enough to cover the two pages.  I put down regular masking tape to stamp out the theme and date, adding some washi tape too.  I used yellow acrylic paint and stencils to add some leaves and flowers to the pages.  It wasn't as bright as I hoped, so I outlined them with black pen.

I still need to work with the pages to make them pop a little more, and I think I will add another piece of paper to write about my technique.