I'm joining the ranks of artist's who are involved in the Art Journaling craze. I've attempted it before, but never with any real direction or thought process. Plus, nothing that I think I'd want to share.

This time I'm going to try and do a theme to each page and instead of doing my usual self-doubt, self-critiquing and so on, I'm going to try and just let myself go with it. I think like most artist's I have a tenancy to hate some of what I do, especially if it is a new process or a new avenue I'm venturing down. Usually I would have looked at this first page and thought, "No, that looks weird or wrong or whatever...." But I've got to allow myself to make the mistakes &/or learn from the actually process. Especially with an Art Journal, there should be no wrong or right to it because it's just me being expressive for myself.

I will be showing pages from my Art Journal from time to time now. This is actually the first page. The journal itself is actually 6x18, so it's very long and impossible to scan one whole page. So I've scanned it in two sections. This is the top and the bottom of this page will follow.

Any thoughts on my next artistic venture? Anyone interested in starting a journal with me? We could pick a theme or issue for each page and then post our results.

This is the "Summertime" piece I made for the Maya Road contest. It's very similar to the one I made before (parts of it are in my blog banner), except this one doesn't have people in the windows.

Like I said, I am luckily a finalist, I just don't know where I placed yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed I will get first place and all the goodies that goes along with that.

I've gotten to where I enjoy making these street scenes. They are great to hang in a kitchen or a whimsical room in the house. I'm going to make a Christmas street scene for the holidays next.

This is another one of the new ATCs I've been working on. It seems like in the swaps we've all gotten away from ATC trading and we are doing everything but. Am I the only one who thinks that? We are trading Moo Cards, Art Dolls, Inchies, Twinchies and so on. And while that's all great and I love those too, I want to start trading ATCs again. Anyone interested?

I also have some good news. I entered a Maya Road contest and I am a finalist, Yeah!! I don't know yet where I placed, but being a finalist is good enough for me. I'll post my winning piece tomorrow or the next day. I'm so glad though because I love their products and unfortunately right now I can't afford to buy any new products. So winning some for free is always a good thing, right?

Right now there are some really great new products out there. Certain times of year are hard for me because I see all these new products coming out after the CHA shows and I just want to go crazy buying it all up. I'm not really a scrapbooker but I love all of the products that scrapbooking has. The beautiful, beautiful papers, the embellishments, rub ons, it's just all so great! Are you familiar with the Graphic45 papers? Aren't those just the best ever?? And when Basic Grey comes out with anything new, I have a really hard time avoiding that. I love anything Basic Grey!

This is just one of the ATCs I've been working on. Trying some different things.

Thank you so much!

I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank everyone who leaves me comments. Whether it be just one comment or if it is someone like Laura Haviland who leaves them for me all the time and they are always so incredibly kind. I may not always respond, in fact I'm pretty bad at it, but I always appreciate the comments more than you will know. I don't want anyone thinking that I don't respond because I don't appreciate your comments so very much, because I do. It's just that I am always running short on time. So thank you very much for all the continued support and kindness.

Can you guess who the woman is in the collage??

This is a collage I finished a few months back. It was my first attempt at this, so I was really quite happy with the outcome, especially since it was my first attempt. I had the whole "Masterboard" technique in mind when I started this. If you are not familiar with that, it's where you make a "Masterboard" and then copy your image, regular full size, reductions and so on. You then use those copied images in your artwork for other art pieces. Stampers Sampler has published a lot of these and that's where I actually got the idea. Helga Strauss is doing something similar right now on her blog as well.

This particular one all started with a magazine picture of Penelope Cruz that I came across that I thought was so beautiful. I pretty much just ripped the picture out of the magazine, slapped it on a thin canvas with some gel medium and built the collage up from there. I added printed tissue paper, ephemera and collage images. I also stamped several different images on the piece and I also embossed on it. Pretty much you can do a little bit of everything until you reach a point where you are happy with the outcome. I also went over it with some handmade acrylic paint washes, Distress Crackle Paint and different inks.

Give it a try if you've never done it. To be honest they are fun to make because there are no restrictions or rules.

When I was done I took it down to Staples and make some nice quality colored copies of it. I make full size copies and reduced size copies. From there I made some tags, cards, ATCs, just about everything I could think of. And the great thing is that it's your own work that you can incorporate into whatever you want from here on out. It's not someone else's image that you are using in your work, it's your own creation.

I want to make one in blue's and green's next and then yellow's and orange's.

By the way, I do realize that artist's have been doing this for some time, making their own original collages and then copying it and reincorporating it into their other artwork. I just personally happen to get the idea from Stampers Sampler's Masterboard articles.

This is the third and last corrugated tag. Each one obviously had a different color combination. I think I like how these turned out? I like how they are rustic around the edges and then there is the finished inner areas. Kind of a contrast I think?

This is the second of a corrugated tag set of three that I've been working on. The first was awhile back and the theme was Paris. It had violets and pink hues in it. (You can look back in my older post's to find it if you're interested.) They all include music paper, some type of chipboard, one main focal stamped image (I'm using the re-released Acey Duey stamps from Stampington on all of them), and of course the corrugated paper.

I got some good news from Amanda Nolan at Stampington this past Friday. It looks like my "ATC's to Go" submission to Sew Somerset is going to be a technique based article in the winter publication. Yeah!! It's always great to get that kind of good news. I never, ever take it for granted or get used to being published, it is always an incredible honor. When you think about all the many, many talent artist's who send their work in for possible publication and then when you get picked, it's a very humbling.

I haven't been able to post as much to my blog as I want to right now. My arthritis is unfortunately probably the worst it's ever been. I'm starting to lose the use of my right hand and I of course am right handed. It's very scary. When you realize all that you do with your hands and that you might not be able to use it, it's very hard to come to terms with. My biggest fear is that it's going to get so bad I won't be able to create, use scissors, paint and so on. I just hope I don't lose any of my great followers yet. You all have been so kind and wonderful with your comments. I'm hoping that this is going to pass and my hand will feel better soon. Keep your fingers crossed for me because lord knows I can't cross mine. (a little arthritis humor for ya)

Introducing my assistant "Rambo"!!

I wanted you all to meet my good buddy and arts and craft assistant "Rambo". He's a little trouble maker with all kinds of personality and I love him to death.