Still Working on She Art

I'm really enjoying these videos and having a blast digging in and creating.  These are so good for my "perfectionist" mentality when it comes to my art (believe me, it's not at all in my housekeeping).  But in my art I do like things to be precise and Christy is anything but that in her videos.  But I like it because it's helping me to loosen up a little bit....not too much, but a bit.  Anyway, here are two more. 

I'm just working on the last one for week 2 but had a problem with the video.  When it reaches a certain point, it goes back to the beginning.  I've tried it over and over and even tried a different browser but no luck.  But it's ok.  I don't particularly like the way she did the skirt anyway so I'll just do my own thing.  I can see, on the next video, what the finished look is. 

I do love the versatility of this technique, however.  There is so much you can do.  I think the main thing is to know when to stop.  It's easy to get it too busy.  I've had to go back and "white out" stuff when I thought there was just too much going on.  But that's another good thing about it....the fact that you CAN go back and redo it whenever you feel the need.

More She Art

In my last post I mentioned that I was going through all the She Art videos and doing all the pictures before my year is up.  I really liked the way the first two girls turned out so thought I'd post them here.  It's rather hard for me to get away from my favorite colors - namely the pinks, blues and purples.  Perhaps I'll have to try harder on some of the next ones.

Latest Creative Endeavors

Well.....it's been way too long since I've posted on here and it's not because I haven't been doing any crafty endeavors.  It's just because I couldn't be bothered to write on here about them.  So last summer I signed up for a She Art workshop.  I was all enthused about it for a bit and then seemed to lose my momentum and never finished it.  But I did make a couple pictures and this was my best one.

This is an 8 x 10 canvas.  It really was quite fun and I played around with it a bit and made a couple more, but than got interested in other things.  Now I'm back to it, though, and want to finish all the videos (before my year is up - I get access to them for a year) and do all the techniques and make a book of it.  I got this wonderful machine to bind books called a Zutter and want to make the pages into a book so I can remember all the techniques. 

I have been getting side tracked from doing this, however, by getting into Zentangle.  If you've never heard of Zentangle, it's really just sophisticated doodling.  I've actually been doing this since high school, doodling down the sides of all my notes, but we didn't have such a fancy name for it back then.  This is a little different than that, however.  Instead of doodling down the side of a page, you fill up the whole page (well, I suppose you can doodle down the side too).  Here's my first 2, done on 3.5 x 5" paper and my third on 4.5 x 5.5 paper.  I had a small "Visual Journal" with mixed media paper that I was going to use, but I found that the paper was a little rough for the pen I was using and the ink didn't flow very smoothly.  I have some paper just for ink so I made a little book (with my Zutter) with pages measuring 4.5 x 5.5.  It works much better.

It's something you can just zone out and do.  Although I did make up a little cheat sheet too, with ideas for patterns.  I used a drawing program I have (Corel Draw) to make squares on 8 1/2 x 11 inch paper.  Then printed them out and folded the pages in half.  The paper was too thin to use both sides for inking, so I glued two pages back to back to have a folded page for keeping a record of my patters.  Here's a half page so you can get an idea of what I mean.

The half page does have a half inch border all around, but I don't think you can see it in the picture.  I made 1.5 inch squares but, if I had it to do over again, I'd do them in 1 inch.  As you can see, I'll put several different options in some squares.  It's fun to figure out new patterns, but I get a lot of ideas off of the web too.

So there you have it....an update of what I've been up to.  I've done some other stuff too, but will save it for posting another time.  I made the most amazing book using the Graphics 45 Ladies Diary paper and following a tutorial on YouTube.  I need to photograph it, though.  I don't think it will work using the scanner.  So I'll try to get that on some time soon.

That's all for now.  Ta ta.

My First Finished Mini Book

I started this book some time ago, and after letting it sit for several months, finally got the inspiration to finish it.  So here it is.  I wanted to make a book with Bible verses telling of God's love, so that's the theme of this book.  Most of the pages have a card that pulls out from a pocket and there's another verse on the other side.  I didn't show the other sides of the cards, but I did show the two pages that open up.  This was the first book I've made using binder rings and find the pages a bit hard to turn sometimes.

I used cereal box cardboard for the base of the pages and then covered them with the printed paper.  This is one of the things I love about my die cut machine....I can make the different parts exactly the same size so they are a perfect fit when glued together.   For the paper I used K & C paper.  I loved the Victorian look of it.  Their papers are some of my favorites.  On to the pictures.....

Watercolor Pencils

I've been using watercolor pencils on my Bible verse creations but have started venturing out with other things as well, such as faces of people, a bird and now this quaint little cottage which I copied from an antique postcard. I really had fun drawing/painting this picture and have absolutely fallen in love with using watercolor pencils. I splurged and bought myself a set of 60 Faber Castell Albrecht Durer pencils and am really enjoying them. I kind of wish I'd really splurged and got the 120 pencil set, but oh well....I can still buy them individually and continue adding to my collection.


I did this on 5 x 8 watercolor paper in a Strathmore Visual Journal. I am really loving these journals too. They are a nice size and good quality. I use a mixed media one for my Bible verses, which also seems to work well for watercolor pencils. The paper has more texture in the watercolor one, but I like the way it looks for this painting. I also have a bristol one which I'm planning on using for mixed media. All the ones I've bought so far are 5 x 8, but I'm wanting to get some 9 x 12 ones too, but Dick Blick, where I order them from, is temporarily out of the 9 x 12's so it will have to wait. By the way, if you've not checked out dickblick.com, they have great prices for art supplies.

Vintage Post Cards

I wanted to share a few of my antique post cards, which I scanned in. Feel free to print them out and use them in your own creations. I did change one thing on the 2 cards with doves. There was writing on the cards around their necks and i removed it. I hope you enjoy them.

"Truth" Cards

For the last several weeks I've been taking an online course called Soul Restoration. It is through bravegirlsclub.com and has really been amazing. One of the things we make in this course are these cards that remind us of the "truths" which we want to remember to dispel the "lies" that we've been listening to all of our lives which have been detrimental to where we want to be in our life.