I made a new journal for a workshop I am taking over at a yahoo group called A.R.T. I made it with a bisquick box for the cover. Why a bisquick box? Because I like to bake and more, I liked the colors! I used grosgrain ribbon for the spine so it'd be firm enough for sewing the signatures into but that created a small problem in that the book doesn't stay firmly closed. It works fine; it just doesn't stay shut on it's own but stays open about 1/2 inch. Maybe time will help.


I made four signatures using heavy weight drawing paper as the guide for the size of the book and other pages. The paper was 9x12" so I just folded it in half. I added some MiTientes pages, watercolor and a floral petal paper. I encased each signature in a smaller paper that matched the cover colors and then sewed them into the spine with red pearl cotton.


I am happy with it and can't wait to start using it.

Sea Glass

I made a new page in my journal celebrating sea glass. I posted it on my general blog but it fits here too. Have you ever found any? One beach by my sister's seems to get quite a bit. (The beach is in Oxnard, CA). Several years ago I would walk the beach with her as she walked off the hurt of her husband of 18 years leaving her. I found mostly brown (guess there are lots of brown bottle beer drinkers), some green and on a rare occasion a bit of blue. I also found some white but that wasn't very exciting. So I made an ocean page with some sea glass on it. I really intended to make the sea glass more dominant but it works this way as you have to look for the sea glass just as in real life! Hint: if you click on the page it will enlarge and you can see it easier.

The picture was made with Pan Pastels mostly. I added a bit of sharpie poster pen and white gel pen for the foam, waves and birds (I wish the birds showed up better too). A touch of colored pencil for shading and Pitt Pen for writing.

Saved Stuff

I don't usually put this type of journal page on this blog as I tend to stick with drawings but this one includes old sketches I was trying to find a place to keep when I threw the notebook they were in away. I was working on a page in my journal and needed to put a protective sheet under it to protect from runover. I didn't realize it had something sticky on it which ended up transferring to my journal. Thank goodness it wasn't a finished page but I couldn't shut my journal like that so I ended up sealing the sticky with acrylic paint layers. I added a couple of strips of paper to tie two sketches I wanted to save together and glued the sketches on top. I ended up saving my old sketches and my journal with a page I am quite happy with. I added the hearts and flowers just because I WAS happy about saving the page.

Journal Page

Okay, it WAS too good to be true - what I said in my last post about posting more often. Ah well, at least I am finally posting something new!

I have made a new journal page in which I added some folk art painting. I haven't done any of that kind of painting in several years so it was quite a stretch for me. I like how it turned out and hope to do some more of it. My journal gives me a place to use this painting now that I don't have furniture or other things I want to paint on.

And Another One So Soon?

Wow, I've posted twice in a week's span. I sure wish I could keep this up. This journal page was done for an online workshop I am in at the Yahoo group A.R.T. We are using the book by Gwen Diehn, The Decorated Page. This is my version of one of the lessons. I don't always post lessons from classes as they tend to be just that - lessons. But, this one is really just a depiction of where I want to be some day and I keep it in mind in several ways with it cropping up in my journal rather often. I also realized this is all drawn and painted. I stamped the word Treasure and the frog but the rest is my work so I feel like it fits this blog and am posting it.

I used Pitt pen over a pink acrylic wash edging with beige acrylic paint as the base for the map. I sponged on a little golden color for texture in the parchment and added some quick shading. Some of this is water color pencil (most of the color on the map). Once I got started I had fun with this.

Hey, A New Post!

I have finally done another drawing. I know, I know it's about time! Goodness where does the time go? This probably fits one of the EDM challenges but I haven't looked it up yet. This is a drawing of a box. My grandson knew I liked small boxes so for my birthday several years ago he painted a box for me and glued pompons and sequins to the lid. I love it. It's somewhat faded over time but I still have it and it sits where I can see it everyday - on my art table.

I saw a picture of some bottles sketched over a pre-painted background over at Genine's blog Broadhurst Street which led me to doing some background pages in my journal. Then it was time to sketch on them. That's when I realized I would have to work in pen and skip all my erasures. That got scary. So I picked this box which is really colorful and went for the penwork without pencil but I started on a plain white page. I didn't want to mess up my prepared backgrounds! Now I have to get up the nerve to just do a sketch on a background. The worst that can happen is I do a lousy job, right?

So this picture was drawn with a Micron pigment ink pen and then filled in with water color pencil. I'm quite happy with it especially since I couldn't erase. I really find shadows hard to do and almost worked my way through the paper to the other side. Thank goodness I didn't as I have a sketch of my cat on the other side. Being absent minded, I drew and painted in my box and THEN checked to see if it would bleed through. It didn't thank goodness.

International Drawing Day

Today is International Drawing Day. I put the button over on my sidebar. I'm a little late in the day but I traveled to my daughter's house today so I have a bit of an excuse. After I got there we went to eat dinner and then dropped one of her daughters off for a party. While my daughter chatted with the hostess I took the opportunity to do my drawing. I was sitting out in the van so I drew the neighbors mailbox. Not a great drawing but it is a drawing and it was done on Drawing Day. I did it! Did you?

This was drawn in a small notebook I keep in my purse with a regular #2 pencil.