Art: Journaling: Mermaid page

It seems like forever since we went camping, when it's only really been a week since we've been home. And since we've been home, everything has been a flurry of activity. 

I am taking a break from my craft space overhaul to share the page in my Art Journal that I worked on before, during and a little bit after our camping trip. I slipped outside this morning to get a really good picture and glad that I did, it's now gray and dreary outside.

I know we didn't go to the ocean. But whenever we go to the River, I always start daydreaming about merfolk. This trip was no exception.

I painted the background before we left on our trip. I had hoped to work on my journal a lot while up there, but with a 5 year old who needs a bit of entertaining, that really didn't happen. But I did get to spend a few hours drawing the mermaid in the upper right hand corner and the tail fin of the diving mermaid. 

I finished the layout after returning home with another image of a mermaid and tried something new for me that was really fun, packing tape transfers.

The poem is by Lord Byron titled "There be none of Beauty's daughters..."

There be none of Beauty's daughters with a magic like thee;

And like music on the waters

Is thy sweet voice to me. 

When, as if its sound were causing

The charmed ocean's pausing,

The waves lie still and gleaming;

And the hill'd winds seem dreaming.

And the midnight moon is weaving

Her bright chain o'er the deep,

Whose breast is gently heaving, 

So the spirit bows before thee

As an infant's asleep.

With a full but soft emotion, 

Like the smell of summers ocean.

Happy Crafting!

~K.Michele

Art: Journaling in July: page 2 spread

I can't believe July is almost over, where has all the time gone?! I was hoping to have more pages in my journal finished, but I guess with everything going on lately, 2 is good :)

Anyway, I started this page a few weeks ago. One dusk evening, it was cool enough to sit outside and talk with the family. We even let the kiddo stay up later than his usual bedtime. As we sat on the deck, the lightning bugs started to come out and play. Well I just felt like a kid at that moment. I grabbed the kiddo's hand and told him to follow. 

What resulted was a few hours of catching lightning bugs in our hands and letting them go. The look on my son's face when one bug decided to hang out and crawl around his open hand a bit was priceless. At one point, he asked if we could catch them in a jar to keep. When I explained to him that lightning bugs need to be free to live and not kept in a jar because they'll die, it seemed to hit home.

We've since spent a few evenings together, just he and I, hunting down, catching and letting go of our glowing friends. And there's been no mention of glass jars since :)

This page I played more with layering of different kind of papers. I used my favorite vellum for the faery's wings as well as the jar. I drew out a shape of a jar on regular paper, glued some glitter swirls, and covered the jar with the same shaped jar cut out of vellum. 

The quote says...

Freedom is the oxygen of the soul ~ Moshe Dayan

The blue background is mainly watercolor with some blue ink accenting the ridges and folds of the paper after the water color dried. I'm still trying to get the hang of the water color background. I think my pages have something to do with it not working all that great. The water just soaks right into the page. But for the most part, I really like how the background turned out.

The other background is Distress Ink in Tea Dye by Tim Holtz. Oh My Gosh do I love that ink! I went to his website and spent all afternoon looking at all the products that he puts out and all his videos. It's gotten me really excited about paper crafting. Michael's is definitely my new favorite paper crafting store. They have a bit more of a selection than my beloved AC Moore. 

My next page is in the works already. I find that I get inspired for the next page as the previous page is nearing completion. I've read about some techniques over on Craftster and that just kick started the creativity even more so. They were techniques for ATCs, but I think they would work just as well for an altered journal.

Well it's time to get back to work on my swap items and get them ready to send out before our camping trip. I will definitely be bringing some paper crafting supplies with me to work on, since I've already started thinking about working on a page there lol. 

Happy Crafting!

~K.Michele

Art: Journaling in July: page 1

Today was a pretty good day. It was comfortable as far as weather goes, the kiddo was behaving, Mom and Dad were in a good mood, Mom and I went through the rest of her boxes full of craft supplies. So over all a really good day. And then...

It all went down hill from there. Kiddo broke his being good streak, my sister pissed me off and we got into an argument. So instead of working on the pages I had already painted the background on, I decided I needed to de-stress and work on a different page. 

I worked on the title page, just inside the front cover. And this is what I came up with. I have to apologize, my lighting in my craft space isn't the greatest so the colors are a bit washed out in the photos. I'll have to find a better place in the house to take pictures I think.

The faery sits inside the little window. I glued a few of the pages together a few nights ago and cut out a little window tonight for the faery. I love dragonflies. I drew the one that is on the page and cut out its wings from vellum and glued the center onto the dragonfly and left its wings free from the page.

And a close up of the page.

I'm really happy with how it turned out. Working on the page was a great way to de-stress. I can say I'm cool as a cucumber now :)

Happy Crafting!
~K.Michele