Stand Fast

How beautiful it is here... 

weather wise. Low 90's with a gentle, cooling breeze... just a perfect day to be out of doors.

I hope this page

presents that same sort of release from the confines of life.

The background is

Golden's Cobalt Teal and Artist's Loft Parchment acrylics, toned down with a rub of a baby wipe, and a thin coat of gesso. Stamped first with script then an assortment of leaves with Jet Black Archival Ink. I then "painted" the leaves with Evergreen Bough Distress Ink.

My pretty songbird

is from Digital Perfection on Etsy and was distressed with my Idea-ology Paper Distresser and Black Soot Distress Ink. To go with him are several die cuts made with Alterations Caged Bird, Mini Butterfly Set and Mini Branch and Leaf Set.

I used Black Soot DI on

the die cuts and around the page edges. The pearls are from Queen & Co. The computer-made verse is outlined with an Ultra Fine Point Sharpie black marker and the reference is shadowed with soft charcoal. I wanted this to have a serene look about it... I hope that is what you see.

May you all have a wonderful and safe weekend.

I am linking my page to:
Balzer Designs: Art Journal Every Day

Thanks for the visit!

Hugs!

Linda

Bake Sale

City Crafters Challenge Blog

is having a Bake Sale this week.

Hostess Kirsty says the
challenge is to include any baking images, like cakes, cupcakes, or make a recipe card, recipe box, or any home-baked item decorated with papers, or even anything related to baking. Yummmm!!!! Sounds good, huh?

The other night my

daughter-in-law, Sarah, and I were making chocolate chip cookies, and I remarked that my recipe (cut from a magazine about a million years ago) was getting in pretty bad shape. Ahhh, now is the perfect time to make a new card, and enter the City Crafters challenge all at once.

The papers are all old

ones from my stash. Red corrugated cardstock, Webster's Pages Spring Market, and a Crate Paper Random Collection sticker. The other paper I used had already been de-labeled, so I haven't a clue as to what it is... but it has cute tea and coffee pots all over it... perfect complement to cookies. 

Be sure to check out the

CCCB Design Team's fabulous work and their Guest Designer is Rebecca Deeprose (awesome blog).

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs!

Linda

Extra Grungy Art Journal Pages

Jack, our canine house guest,

must be adapting to living with us, as he has taken to barking at everyone who walks down the street (forget yesterdays comment). Now I don't mean a bow wow... I mean... BWOOW WWOOW! It's amusing to watch grown men run past our yard in panic. And he's such a gentle looking animal!

Today I'm unveiling

the little gem that did this page in. After all the time spent on these pages, I was hoping for a better result... but never-the-less it finished up super grungy...

It started out with

burlap adhered with soft gel medium, a coat of gesso and some stenciling (which I hated and painted over).

I glued on some vintage

ephemera using the soft gel and applying a coat over top.

I mixed some molding paste

with paint and used it with a stencil... but it sunk into the burlap so I ended up smearing it around with my fingers.

Sponged on Vintage Photo DI.

Finished with some random

stamping with Jet Black Archival Ink.

Another learn by your

mistakes project... Paula Phillips calls them floppertunities. Ahhh, I love art journaling!

Hope you all have a good

day and may our southern USA friends stay safe with Isaac dumping tons of water in that area of the country.

Thanks for the visit!

Hugs!

Linda

I Found A Place Of Delight

In making ART!

Well, I guess to me it's art!

This page had gesso and 

some green ink splotches already on it (leftovers from a previous project), so I misted it with water, pulled the sprayer cap off my Dylusions Fresh Lime and dropped on a little more. Quickly blew on it using a drinking straw, spreading it across the page. I sponged on Tumbled Glass and Peeled Paint Distress Ink over that. Pulling out my Crafters Workshop Mini Tile Texture stencil, I dabbed on Evergreen Bough DI on top, then edged the page with Black Soot.

I had this torn piece 

of burlap in my scrap box. I cut the finished end off and glued it to the bottom of the page and the remainder in the center. Gave it a wash of Titanium White Liquitex acrylic paint and water. Topped it with a key and keyhole from Dear Lizzy and a bow of red May Arts burlap string.

My journaling is

ChitChat from Idea-ology, the heart is cut from ancient corrigated cardstock with Alterations Mini Heart Set and covered with Glossy Accents. I doodled Art with a #2 pencil and some coloring with a Cerulean Blue oil pencil. More outlining with my ultra fine point black Sharpie marker and soft charcoal. It still needed something... so I grabbed some rubber stamp sets... Stampers Anonymous Bitty Grunge and Unity's SHEart Doodles... and finished up with Jet Black Archival ink.

We have a visitor

staying at our house this week... Jack. Cassidy is not at all pleased about it, but the Penmaker and I are enjoying his company immensely.

It will be quiet here

when he leaves and goes back home. Not because he barks, but because our dog hasn't stopped since he came. Ahhh... the trials of owning a jealous canine.

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs!

Linda

Live And Learn

More lessons from

Linda's School of Hard Knocks... 

• NEVER, NEVER, NEVER start a new journal project on a page following one that you haven't photographed!
• Consider not using your cheap composition book for projects that require a lot of gesso even though Paula Phillips can get away with it!

Example...

 Just A FEW wrinkles!

So, I did this page

the other day while the Penmaker was out golfing. All was peaceful and quiet and I went to work with some of Golden's Cobalt Teal over dried gesso and a baby wipe. Topped that with Delta acrylic craft paint in Brown Iron Oxide and Passion Violet.

Several stencils from

Crafters Workshop came next... first Mini Summer (with a haircut) using Golden's Molding Paste plus a pallet knife, then Titanium White Liquitex brushed over it. Next was Mini Chicken Wire with Dusty Concord Distress Ink sponged onto three different areas. At this point I stamped on some script with Jet Black Archival Ink. Then grabbing my pallet knife again, I put on more Molding Paste using the Mini Time Travel stencil.

My computer generated

verse was sponged with Vintage Photo DI then glued and applied to my project. I did some outlining with my black Faber-Castell Pitt pen.

I added a bit of 

journaling on a scrap of copy paper, inked with Vintage Photo and shadowed with soft charcoal.

Why, oh why didn't I 

pick up my camera then and take the photo??? Who can tell... was it because the guys came bursting into the house with their score card... or that I had to fix supper... or that the light was gone from that side of the house... or about a dozen other reasons...

Actually, none of that matters anymore...

what is important is that I will NOT start the next page until I DO photograph the previous one!

Isn't it funny how that

layers of gel medium, burlap and gesso on the backside of two sheets of paper glued together can cause so many wrinkles on the front side?

You know, ladies... we have to 

keep a happy heart and smile at the little things! Love you all!

Thanks for the visit!

Hugs!

Linda

X-Treme

Do you save all

your vacation receipts? I generally keep those from hotels. If we want to stay at that particular one again, we have the phone number and a reference as to cost. But why did I put away this receipt from Disney for some gifts we bought our kids? I haven't any idea, but it sure brought back memories of that day. I can remember leaving our hotel and taking photos of each other out in front, the six of us having breakfast at Wolfgang Puck, shopping at Disney Marketplace and then the sad farewell as the Penmaker and I drove off toward Gatlinburg and the kids toward home. I've gotten a lot out of this little old receipt... I have to keep this gem!

This is that awful

background I started here and gave up on. This baby had about twelve layers of gesso, paint, distress stain, inks and molding paste piled on it before I finally liked what I was looking at.

I loved this X from

the Basic Grey Clippings sheet 5th Avenue. I did a little X-tra inking and doodling to get the look I wanted. Family adventures are from Authentique's Diction stickers. I used Crafters Workshop Mini Time Travel and Mini Tile Texture stencils.

Here is that little

slip of paper that caused all those memories to come flooding back to me.

I'm grateful I didn't throw it away!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hugs!

Linda

Wishi Washi 2

Ros, City Crafters hostess 

for Week 123, has come up with an interesting and fun challenge for us... use Washi or Tissue tape on your project... BUT... you can only use two other items. YIKES!!! Now that is a challenge!!!

Hope this little number qualifies...

I did a masculine card,

and used DP and a vintage ticket (from my friend, Deb Hickman) besides my tissue tape. The papers are Basic Grey Clippings and 7 Gypies Conservatory.

This was a tough one

for me as I always seem to use a bunch of different elements. When I'm limited in the amount, my ideas for design are hard to pull together. I added extra layers of die cuts made from my DPs to make up for the lack of variety. I "think" it worked! Anyhow... it was fun and definitely was a challenge.

Stop over at the CCC blog and take a look at the lovelies the DT girls have created for you.

I still haven't gotten

my new sewing machine out of the box... reading instructions and watching the DVD. My old Singer was bought in 1968, and I could work that baby blindfolded. So this old dog has to learn some new tricks!! Should be interesting.

Thanks for visiting!

Hugs!

Linda