Fall Colors

It's been far too long since I had play time.  I just needed to paint something.  So I got out some paint and stencils and spent a few minutes painting in my planner/journal.  I tried to leave enough room for writing :)

If it's August...

I should be finishing up the laundry... but instead I am playing in my planner...

 I should be packing, but instead I'm setting up a little travel journal.  I wonder if the Field Notes notebook will be too small.  I'll give it a try!

Happy 25th Year, Stampaway USA!

One of These Days

One of these days, I'll get around to finishing up my recap of my trip to Western Kentucky and Tennessee.  I'll probably show the little travel booklet I made.  I'll show the stamps and stencils I got.  And I'll talk about the Dina Wakley journal I bought, the one with pages made of watercolor paper, burlap, canvas and kraft paper.  Yep... I will, one of these days...

Mini Getaway - Part 1

I am seriously behind in my blogging, my play, and my sleep.  I'll tackle the first one today!

I have had a series of unplanned job changes over the last 3 years.  I work in what used to be a very stable industry, which has become the most unstable place to be (healthcare).  I only mention it because that's the reason I have not been to see my family out of state in almost three years, not even at Christmas (It's that healthcare thing - hospitals don't close on holidays.)

I finally accrued a few vacation days with my new company and started planning a long weekend trip.  In the past, when I drive from Kentucky to Tennessee, I always passed the Paducah exit on the interstate and think, I should stop there sometime.  So, as I was making my plans, I decided to make an overnight stop there.

Paducah is a small town on the Ohio River.  I did some exploring on google earth and felt like I didn't even need a map or GPS after just a few minutes of getting the lay of the land.  I made my hotel reservation and in a couple of weeks, I was on my way.

Along the way, I made a stop for gas and visited the Cracker Barrel restaurant and store nearby.  They are famous for their rocking chairs on the "front porch" and I discovered chairs in several different colors.  It was a pleasantly warm March day, and I sat in one of the chairs enjoying a soft breeze, and caught up on text messages and missed calls. I'd forgotten what it was like to be away from all the demands of work, to just sit and relax for a few minutes. That's what the whole weekend was about for me.

It's not that far to Paducah for me.  When I got there it was too early to check into my hotel, so I drove around, checking out the area near my hotel.  The weather took a turn for the worse about that time, with torrential downpours, and I had no choice but to go inside a Tuesday Morning and check out the deals.  (Did that sound convincing?)  I found several things under a dollar, and probably could have spent more but I tried to restrain myself.

My biggest decision when packing for the trip was what supplies to take for journaling.  In the end, I packed next to nothing.  I had a small journal in my fake Midori planner.  I took a few water color pencils, a water brush, some washi tape, and some sticker paper with dates stamped on them.  I did play a little in the hotel that night.  I discovered the stamps I bought at Tuesday morning  (self-inking, set of three that stack, in the picture) were on sale for a reason.  The word Observation was missing the T.  It also leaks, which I didn't realize until later when I wondered why everything I touched left black marks!

I caught up on sleep that night.. and the next morning.  My plans for getting an early start both days didn't pan out.  But I really needed the rest and did not feel guilty one little bit.  The maid eventually came around and I asked her to come back later.  That was when I noticed the magnet on the door.  I guess they no longer have the hanger that goes on the doorknob that says Do Not Disturb!

After plenty of coffee and packing everything up, I went out to explore some of Paducah.  That will be in Part 2.

February Planner Pages

Playing catch up today and took pictures of my planner pages for February.  Just the normal--a little stenciling, a little stamping and painting, using anything lying around within reach!

 (Above right background art is by Lorraine Belle and is a free download as part of her online class which I took to make this journal/planner. For Info, click here.)

Making Stuff

Once again, I've fallen behind in posting anything here.  Rest assured, if I'm not posting something, I'm involved in creating wonderful things.  Or maybe I'm working on a top secret government research project.  Or maybe I'm napping...

One thing I've been pretty much obsessed with lately is making journal/notebook/datebook things.

I had looked from time to time at Midori Traveler's Notebooks.  They fascinate me, with all the inserts available and different versions and sizes.  It's a whole culture out there, and I had no idea just how big the TN culture was.

Meantime, I kept seeing Teesha Moore making her own version of these books, using her journal art on the covers, and selling them in her etsy shop.  Since they usually sell out before I can get one, when she made a new batch, I jumped on it.  I bought one in a medium size, similar to the passport size.  When it came, I carried it around from room to room.  I kept it on my desk while I worked so I could look at it and pick it up to feel the leather.  I ordered another.  Actually, I ordered two more, in the micro size, and gave one as a gift.

If you are a subscriber to Teesha and Tracey Moore's Artstronauts Club, you know how generous she is in sharing her art process, her journals and how she goes about filling pages with her art. I wasn't sure how she was putting art on these leather covers.  I researched online trying to find a company that printed on leather.  Then, when I was catching up on watching some of her videos, there it was.  She mentioned she had posted a video a while back showing how she did this.  What? It was right there under my nose the whole time.

This called for a play day at my friend Gaye's.  We played with transferring Gaye's background art onto leather.  There's a learning curve, but we were very happy with the result.

Over the next few days after I got home, I made another one, using pages from a 2015 art journal for my cover art.  Since I had copied the pages from a journal, they were second generation, so when I made my collage, I used colored pencil and markers to add more depth and color to the page.  I used a thinner leather, mainly because I had more of it, plus I'm not close enough to Gaye to go over and use her heavy duty sewing machine to sew through the thicker leather.

Once again, I was very happy with it.  I have ordered a few inserts from Amazon to go in the books, but mostly I have made my own inserts.  One I made is an address book.

I cut a piece of ledger paper the size of the pages I needed.  I typed and drew on the page and made a copy.  I put both copies on a piece of copy paper, with the center of the page marked.  Since I put it dead center, I could copy on the back side and get front and back.  Then cut to size and put in the book.

I'm finding all kinds of uses for these books.  It's still a learning curve, but it's been a fun journey!

Plans Change

Some notes on how I prepared my planner/journal for this year.

Once I decided on my journal with the grid pages, I wanted to make the pages a little stronger to take whatever media I put on them.  I made sure I had enough pages available, then I used glue stick to glue every 2 pages together.  I ended up with pages that are double thickness and which should stand up well.

Another thing I did was to play around with calendar layouts in the back of the book on spare pages.  I worked on layouts for a full month calendar spread, and also the weekly calendar page.  I was pretty proud of myself, putting so much thought into my journal!

 After I had my full month sized out, I went to the front and drew out January and was getting ready to ink it in.  Then I realized that when I glued my pages together by 2's, I totally forgot to factor in the 12 monthly spreads I would need.

I have no problem changing plans before they even get started!  I decided I didn't really need separate calendars for each month.  So I went to Mr. Internet and searched for free printables and found a calendar that was bright and colorful.  I put that on the page that had originally been intended for a January double page spread.  I added some fun washi tape at the bottom.

I like the way it turned out.  Works just fine!

Right out of the box

It's a brand spanking new year.  It's like taking a new toy out of the box to play with.  So much possibility.  365 days for us to use in whatever way we want to. I will try not to squander mine away.

So far this year, I have doodled with this scribble tool online

 And in the last few days, I have played around with what I think my journal will be this year.

Happy New Year Everyone - Hope 2017 is all that you hope for! 

Candy Corn Research

I've had a lot of fun playing in my small Moleskine journal lately.  I have to admit, I have been influenced and inspired by Jose Naranja.  Such finely detailed entries in what he calls his notebooks, because he notes a lot of things in there.

I've had this small journal for several years, in fact I think it is the first Moleskine I ever bought.  A few pages even have something on them. Some have sketches so horrible I will not even show them.  Early on, I had numbered a few pages and drew a line around the page, but there's nothing else on there.  But really, everything looks better with a line or circle around it, right?

The first double page spread I did when I got this journal out again was just playing around.  I picked up whatever way nearby, which happened to be vintage postage, with stencils and scraps.  I also wanted some words on the page, but didn't want to "journal".  I had some odd book pages laying around and copied some text from them about earth and seas.  None of it really means anything, just filling up the space and having fun with it.

My next double page spread was about Security.  Security envelope patterns.  Again, what to put on the page?  I tried to find some copyright information about security envelopes but didn't find exactly what I was looking for.  I found other patent applications, and picked one with a lot of detail about other types of envelopes.  I wrote parts of it by hand on the page, using blue pens.

I got ready to start a new spread and decided to research candy corn.  Found a couple of things to copy, along with some illustrations.  Stamped some test tubes (and didn't even notice one had a spider on it until I just looked at the picture here!)  I can't vouch for the accuracy of any of the information, but it filled the page and I had fun.  I'm liking my little book now.

Journal Play

Another journal page in progress, in a journal where I paint the pages with leftover paint from other projects.  I needed some play time, and didn't want to do a whole page, just doodle.  I started with a big stencil and some watercolor pencils.

I traced around the stencil with two colors (black and brown).  Just a messy trace, not really pretty.

 Used a brush to paint the pencil lines with water.  It really gave it a dimensional look.

 A couple of days later, I used different stencils to put pattern in a few of the openings.

 Today I used a face stencil and added half a face.

 I like having this to doodle on just to take a break from other things. Who knows how it will end up!

Random Play

At random times, I'll use up extra paint with a stencil on a journal page, or use a stamp I had out, or just other spurts of playing around, because it's there.  I wasn't liking any of this, then one day, it looked okay to me, after adding a little more to it. Just paint, stencils, stamps, art sticker, more paint, cleaning off a round paint applicator, etc.  It's still in progress...

I'm sure some day soon, that bird is going to grow some legs while I'm waiting for the coffee to be ready.

Twenty Sixteen

Happy New Year!  I always feel like I have a fresh start on the first day of a new year.  I don't make resolutions, no sense setting myself up for failure.  I do like to have goals in mind, but there is no punishment if I don't accomplish them all.

I have unfinished business from last year, mainly my Documented Life Project 2015 Journal.  There are several weeks that I skipped over, and I will finish those.  The assignments will be a nice change of pace from whatever else goes on this year.

I am already suffering from Journal Indecision for 2016.  That is not a good way to start the year.  It is not uncommon for me to have more than one journal going on at the same time.  But this year I am very indecisive about what I want to do.

I usually have my "grid journal", a small journal for writing that has graph paper pages.  I couldn't find one this year and ended up buying a larger lined journal (above).  It will mainly be for writing, but I will also add stamping and stenciling, washi tape, other fun stuff.

I have also signed up for Documented Life Project 2016, the Unplanner.  This is a three ring binder with inserts.  I have played around with their generous downloads of pages for calendars, weekly planner, lists, etc.  I'm anxious to see where that will take me! To see what it's all about, watch their video here.

Before I got my lined journal, I bought this book, Year of the Doodle.  I really love the images of ephemera used on the printed page. I didn't get it to doodle, but planned to use it for my writing journal.  Then I decided that I sometimes need more room for certain days than what that provides.  Not sure what I'm going to use it for yet.  Maybe an idea journal.  I'm always jotting ideas on scraps of paper while I'm working, and then they end up lost or accidentally thrown away. 

So, that is the State of the Arts at my house on this first day of 2016.  Hope everyone has a most wonderful year ahead, lots of creative ideas, and a heart full of joy!