back to playing with paper, ink, and glue--

you've probably noticed that I haven't done any art-making for a while, haven't you? I get plenty of inspiration on the web for scrapbook layouts and art techniques, but just haven't felt like actually executing any of them lately. This makes me feel 'out of sorts' and even less inclined to do any art-- it's a vicious cycle that's difficult to break out of. It seems to go in cycles for me, between scrapbooking, art journaling, and regular life (laundry, hanging out with Tom, cooking dinner, dogs and cats, working, you know- the usual life stuff) along with other things. Lately it's been the other things that have taken over- I've been doing a lot of reading (I've read some pretty good books and I still have a stack of 'to-be-read' books sitting on the kitchen table), which is good, since I love reading. Scrapbooking seems to take too much preparation and planning, so that's out till my next weekend getaway (in a couple weeks- yay!!) but I've finally gotten to the point where I just had to do something with paper and glue-- 

Last weekend, I went to the Creating Keepsakes Convention vendor fair-- I picked up a couple new products that I'd been wanting to try (along with some yummy new scrapbooking paper I'll show you soon), and this pile of papers is my first results. One of the more popular things out there right now is spray inks, which you can use by themselves on your scrapbook or journal pages, or use with masks or stencils. I got 6 colors of ink, and a new stencil: The photo above is some of my inky experiments, on brown paper, vintage writing paper (you know, the thin brown paper with lines, that little kids use when they're learning to write?) and a scalloped piece of textured scrapbook paper.

This was made with the new stencil (it's of an antique ledger page) and some of my new inks- the brown, sunshine yellow (it looks a bit orange here) and green are new Dylusions Ink Sprays. Very vibrant, saturated translucent colors, and they're going to be fun to play with once I get the hang of them. I've oversprayed the ledger page background with another stencil- the thin branches. (by the way, this was all done on the brown paper bag the stencil and inks came in, from the store- how's that for recycling?? lol!!) The blue is a different ink I already had (October Afternoon Sprinklers) and gives more of an opaque coverage.

And here ^^^ is the first art journal page I've made in months. I used a bit of one of the stenciled and inked papers (it's in the upper right-hand corner-- it's got pink, green, and the sunshine-yellow inks on it), and a few things pulled from here and there in my collage stash. The background is heavy watercolor paper, which I colored with my Stabilo 3 in 1 Woody pencils. (they're chunky colored pencil-slash-watercolor-slash-wax crayons, and they're a ton of fun to use!). I also used a couple of my newest decorative tape purchases from Target (the blue stripe and the light pink polka dot). 

Here's a close-up of the text; a Georgia O'Keefe quote which reads: "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way- things I had no words for." I thought it was fitting, since I had been without my 'art-making' words for a few months, now-- it feels really good to get back into it again!

Here's an extreme close-up: I also drew in details with some of my Signo gel pens (sparkle, glaze, and my favorite, the white pen- the one from Japan-- it's the best!). 

And, because it is still spring in the desert (even if it DID break a heat record from 1949 yesterday with a temperature of 105F recorded at Sky Harbor Airport- yick!!), I thought I'd close with a couple spring-ish photos. These photos are of our backyard mesquite tree in full bloom. Not your typical-looking flower, are they?? Actually, each of these fuzzy catkins is made up of hundreds of tiny flowers. 

They are a somewhat messy tree, actually, between the teeny oval leaves (they fall off in the winter and are impossible to rake, being that they're only about 1/8 inch long) and the beanpods that form after the blooms are pollinated, but I do love the shape of the tree, and the shade it gives the backyard! So now, I think that brings me up to date with what's blooming and growing in our yard-- I'll have to keep my eyes out for the next thing!  (after I make a few more art journal pages, that is- lol!!)