Finished Mini Art Journal & Starting Large One

I'm thrilled that I finished my mini art doll journal, but I didn't hesitate to start a new one. I decided to go much bigger this time! The large one is about four times the size as my mini journal, pictured in the center. 

The large journal is actually made from an Urban Outfitter Holiday catalog they gave out free in the stores. The catalog measures 12" x 14" and is made of non-glossy heavy paper - I picked up two :-).

Below are pictures from my large art journal/catalog...

 I used white gesso, acrylic paints and distress inks.

A couple of the black flowers are stickers that my cousin gave us from Paris.

I liked the black flower stickers so much, that I tried recreating something similar to use on some of my other pages.

 I like the pop of the thick black drawings.

 As you can see, I also love bright colors and flowers.

I get my inspiration from these wonderful artists: Pam Garrison, Roben Marie Smith and Rae Missigman.

I'm also using stencils and stamps on my pages. It's fun to use some of my supplies that I've been collecting.

40 more pages to go, this project should last me awhile. Sorry models, I'll be covering you up soon.

Now to show you the final pages of my mini doll art journal...

I'm scanning each page of my mini journal, hoping to create greeting cards or post cards from them.

I'm planning on teaching my midori notebook and black ink drawings soon - hope you might be able to join me!

Have a great week!

Watercolor Class Taught By My Sister

My sister, Pat has been painting with watercolors for several years now and she has created some beautiful pieces.

Today, to celebrate my sister, Frances's birthday, we asked Pat to teach us some watercolor techniques.

This was Pat's first time teaching and she did a great job showing us beginners how to paint.

Everyone created some beautiful pieces.

And Pat was there to help us each step of the way.

It was amazing to see how just a few colors, some warm and some cool can make so many different colors.

What a fun way to spend the day together...I love our birthday celebrations!

Thanks Pat for teaching a wonderful class and bringing all the supplies and samples for us. I had a great time! Happy Birthday Frances!

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!