New Journal Pages & Mini Book

I've completed a few more doll journal pages. Lately, each of my art journal pages includes one of my hand drawn Paige dolls.

I hope to scan these pages and turn them into greeting cards or tags or maybe notebook covers.

I scanned one of my journal pages and reduced it in size to 2.5" x 4" and made a cover to this mini book.

It's a cute little book that I can art journal in. The inside pages are actually index cards covered with used back drop paper and journal pages.

Here's a few photos of how it started.

Cut out three pieces of heavy cardboard.

 Cover each piece with paper.

And glue together. 

On another note, I had this piece of card board scrap that I decided to paint on...

Sometimes items you just play around with, turn out to be something worth saving. I found that drawing flowers with your non-dominant hand makes for the best art work.

And last, but not least, our team won in the company Gingerbread house contest, for Best Originality. We made a miniature version of the flag ship William Sonoma store on Union Street, San Francisco. 

Here's what the real store looks like...

I also won this year's annual cookie contest, Peanut Butter Crunch Bars...yippee! Sorry, I forgot to take a picture. But I'll make them again for our family xmas party and will take a picture and share the recipe.

Have a great week!

Inside My Art Journal

I've been working in my latest art journal, a smaller version of the one I made in Roben Marie Smith's class. The pages are 5" x 7". I should call this an art "Doll" journal, since most every page has one of my dolls.

I've drawn some new Paige dolls, that I've used on some of my pages.

After I draw the dolls, I scan and reduce them to fit in my journal.

As you can see, I also love to use flowers on my pages as well.

Since the pages are only temporarily bound by elastic, I can easily remove them from the journal and scan the pages flat.

 I'm thinking these pages would make cute greeting cards or tags.

I love the neon colors on these pages.

 So, I'll be scanning all my journal pages to re-purpose into something different.

In the photo above, I used one of my deli sheets from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer Geli printing class on the page on the left.

In the photoe above, the page on the left is one of my favorites, I love the color combination.

On a side note, I actually scanned my favorite pages from my large Roben Marie Smith art journal and reduced them to just 2 1/2" x 4" and made a miniature notebook (the book in the middle) 

I'm thinking of either selling the finished mini notebooks or selling kits to make them or having a workshop to make it. Let me know if you'd be interested. Here's a quick flip through of the mini book.

And on a final note, my daughter Rachel performed in, probably her last, NutCracker performance this weekend. It's a low budget venue, but she did get the lead role as Sugar Plum Fairy.

 Rachel with one of her good friends, Jasmine, backstage.

Have a great week, and go Warriors!

Gelli Printing

This past week, I had so much fun taking a gelli printing class with Julie Fei-Fan Balzer at A Work Of Heart Studio in San Jose. Below is a picture of all the gelli prints I made in class.

Julie is a wonderful teacher and I learned so many new techniques. We printed on deli paper, which is great to use in your art journals.

The class was packed full. You don't want to miss the opportunity to take a class with Julie, because she's so popular!

 My friend, Ruby took the class with me.

Andrea, the studio owner, had drying racks that were so handy, I had to go out and buy one myself. I found one at Daiso (Japanese dollar store) that has 54 clips for only $6.

 It was a great class and it totally inspired me to go home and do more gelli printing.

Below are a couple pictures of my setup at home doing geli printing on deli paper.

 I hung the drying rack on my light fixture over my dining room table and it worked great.

And here's a couple of pages in my latest art journal. I used one of the deli sheets I made in Julie's class to make the page on the left.

In my next post, I'll show you my latest Paige dolls and more finished pages of my art journal.

And as a final note, you can see a couple of my projects in the latest issue Somerset Gallery Winter 2015.

I made the large paper doll on the right page. I used a coin envelope for her head and stuffed it with flowers.

I also made a canvas of tags, each stamped with a different Catherine Moore, Character Construction stamp. The entire surface is covered in beeswax.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Holiday!

Birthday Class With Wendy Addison

We had a special treat of having the amazing Wendy Addison teach a private class for my sisters, Lana and Diana's birthday this past weekend! Not only were we honored with her teaching, but we actually got to hold the class in her own studio - what a memorable day it was!

Below are a bunch of pictures of our wonderful day!

The gang.

Wendy's studio, Theater of Dreams, in Port Costa.

The bday girls.

Having coffee and tea in the morning in Wendy's lovely studio.

My sisters, Pat and Maryl.

Wendy telling us the story of how she came up with the Theater of Dreams.

Amazing angel puppet that dances to music.

Time to open gifts.

Necklace I made Lana for her bday.

Celebrating with champagne.

It was great to have Lana's husband, Steve, join us.

Wendy and her daughter, Monica.

Monica catered a delicious lunch for us!

We had a wonderful cake.

Wendy teaching us how to use her vintage letter press.

Selecting book covers from Wendy's vintage paper collection.

Making sure we don't catch our fingers in the letter press.

We handmade books with vintage papers and use the letter press for printing.

Steve, helping me set my press.

The book I made and the tags I pressed.

Pat, Wendy, Steve & Diana

Lana, Ulla, Bethany, and Vivian

My sister Maryl standing in front of hotel (build 1883) across from the studio.

Peak inside Wendy's studio.

What a treat it was to have a class with Wendy in her studio! Happy Birthday to my sister's Lana and Diana...another great bday celebration!