Gardening

   Trying to get ready for a trip and getting a garden ready in the Spring is not something I would recommend.
   This year I decided not to put in any annuals as the clumps of perennials have matured and filled in the empty spaces. It's been a wonderful year for the Peony Trees with multiple blossoms on both of the trees. The For-Get-Me-Nots and Virginia Bluebells are prolific give the garden greats swatches of blues. Another terrific bloomer this year has been the lilac tree sending out wafts of perfume. The early clematis is blooming as well with beautiful creamy flowers.
 Enjoy a little tour of my garden and view the photos below.

Geting Ready

   It's not very long now until I leave for Nice, France. I've been busy trying to figure out what to pack, I always over pack and trying to guess what the weather will be like. Does anyone else have that problem?
   One of the fun parts of getting ready for a trip is making a travel journal. Mary Ann Moss has been an inspiration to me,  sharing her journals on her blog.
   The journal I made for this trip uses a  Diamond X binding that I was taught in the on-line class Ticket to Venice. The journal consists of 3 signatures of 10 full pages (40 individual pages).  The pages are made of a variety of papers, folders and plastic pockets. For the cover I made a  collage using corrugated cardboard, Japanese papers and other bits and pieces I had around. I used a photo that I altered in Photoshop as the focal point. This book is 8x10" a bit larger that I usually make and  most of the pages had to be stitched together to get the right size.  I don't like a blank page I find it intimidating, to get around that I  lightly spray stenciled the white watercolour pages.

 Now all I have to do is pack the journal and my travel kit of pens, tapes etc. and enjoy the trip.

The Path

 

 

 

I am hoping I'll find this street when I visit Florence, Italy in a few weeks. I find looking at it something mysterious and at the same time magical.

Travel

Thinking about my upcoming trip to Nice, France I created this page using Anna Aspens digital papers.

Bucket List

One of the (many) places on my bucket list to visit is Monaco. There is a good chance that my wish will be fulfilled later this month when I will be visit friends in France. But until then photos from the Internet will have to suffice.

First tooth

One of my granddaughters lost her first tooth last week while at school. We carried it very carefully back to my house where she was going to have lunch and stored it in a safe place until her Mom came to pick her up.  We talked about the Tooth Fairy ( in case you were wondering she's sill around) and what she would leave under her pillow. Apparently money is still the Tooth Fairy gift. This granddaughter  does not like to have her photo taken and usually makes a face or sticks her tongue out, but surprisingly asked  me to take her photo to commemorate this milestone in her life.
I used the photo to make a page for this weeks Anna Aspnes Lift Challenge.

Socks

I took up knitting again last summer to complete some  knitting projects. What prompted me to start  was a baby sweater that I found in the back of my closet half done. The baby that it was originally being made for graduated  from university last June! I found that I was enjoying knitting  as I watched television in the evenings.  I knitted several sweaters for my 3 granddaughters and scarfs for myself, my daughter and son. What next! SOCKS!

Socks are easy to knit, there are wonderful yarns to chose from and make great presents. The dark striped sock was an anniversary present for my husband.  In both socks above I used self striping yarn. What is magical about this yarn is that each of the pairs knitted were identical.

 I'm now trying to knit a pair of socks from a pattern that I found and purchased online, it is made up of seed stitches and captivated me with is beautiful design .

 

 

Unfortunately the pattern has a number of errors in it and I'm having to improvise. So frustrating!  I had hoped to be able to purchase the same yarn as in the photo but no luck. Its from a small boutique yarn company that only produces limited quantities. Instead I'm using a hand dyed yarn made of merino, cashmere and silk combination which feels heavenly and is wonderful to work with.
 I'll post updates on this project as I continue to work through the pattern.

Artfully Abstracted

Moving right along with the  Letter Loving 101 class lesson #11.

 After watching Joanne's inspiring video I completed the assignment for lesson #11 using Pitt Pen to draw my name ,vines, flowers and other bits and pieces. I then switched over to Tombo & Zig markers to add colour. I also used Copic markers (love, love these) blending the greens on the leaves to give some shading. I have had most of these markers for awhile and I'm enjoying learning how to use them in new ways. Looking forward to the next lesson "Vintage Typeface for Lettering".

First Embroidery

My   twin granddaughters turned six recently. I thought a fun project would be to teach them how to embroider.  I love to embroider and want to pass on the joy of  this skill to them.
When thinking about how to start the project with my granddaughters, I knew I needed to keep it simple and that it should not take to long.
I came up with the idea of a rainbow. I had the girls draw rainbows with magic markers and then provided them with matching embroider floss. The girls took several visits to finish the project  and were so proud of themselves when it was completed. They decided they wanted to give the finished pieces to their parents on their own birthday as a surprise.  I offered to mount and frame the embroideries for them.  What surprised me the most was that the girls were able to keep the secret and not tell their Mom or Dad what they had accomplished until presenting them with the framed project.

Letter Love 101 lesson # 10

I worked on Lesson #10 in the Letter Love 101 class yesterday. The lesson  was labeled "Delightfully Doodled Alphas.

I used a pit pen to draw the letters, a Zig marker to fill in the zentangle designs and then using my new LOVE, Copic markers to add in the colour. Pan Pastels were used to give a bit of colour around the lettering. I have not yet gotten the hang of using the pastels and I'm finding it a bit frustrating not being able to blend them well. No doubt we will cover this in later lessons. Still loving the class and I look forward to each new lesson.

This says it all!

It is still winter in my part of the world, snow and below freezing temperatures when we usually have spring flowers popping up. I'm finding myself yearning for sunshine and warmer climes. Maybe next week???

Sera

My youngest Granddaughter spent the morning with me last week. She is a sweetie and a pleasure to have around. I snapped lots of photos and the one I used on this page is my favorite.

Letter Loving 101

I started a new on line class this week given by Joanne Sharpe called Letter Loving 101 and I'm lovein' the class.This class is about creating "artful lettering" over 29 days of videos. You have access to the videos forever and can progress at your own speed. There is a class supply list and I found I had most of the items already in my stash.  So far I've worked up to 5 lessons. One of the early lessons is using all of your black marker to write the alphabet. I was amazed and a bit surprised that I had soooo many black markers and how different the lettering looked with each one.

In the supply list Joanna asks for two books, one a old fashion Composition book to practice in and the other a Strathmore Visual Journal. Lesson 5 had us working in the Visual Journal. I used markers and Pan Pastels to create the page you see above. Not too bad for a first attempt I think. The jury is out on Pan Pastels, not sure if I like using them or not. What I am sure of is that I'm looking forward to working on Lesson 6 tomorrow.

The Red Rocket

The electric street car in Toronto is affectionately know as the Red Rocket. Sometimes loved and some times hated depending on how long you have to wait for it. I rented a wide angle lens a few months ago to see if I really NEEDED one. The weather that day was awful, cold, gray, and snowy not a bit of colour anywhere. As I was walking back home after trying to shoot some photos at a local park I noticed the Red Rocket moving towards me. A wonderful splash of bright colour among the grays of the day.
If you would like to see more photos of a street car check out my friend Linda Kittmer's blog Fiber Art Fun.
My conclusion after using the wide angle lens for the weekend I decided I really did not NEED it.

The kindness of strangers and signatures

In my efforts to update my blog I decided that I wanted to add a signature to each post.

I worked on the the design, sized it, got it ready for the web, uploaded it to the blog. Yhea, I could see it in the preview, looked pretty good, pressed apply and......nothing happened! Yikes, what did I do wrong? When through the instructions again redid the uploading....still nothing. I next looked the web for help. Checked out Google help page and posted a request for help. Still nothing seemed to work. In my search I found Marie Mosley  and her tutorial on how to add a signature to a blog. I sent a email to Marie last night and she answered me this morning having looked at my blog first. What she found was my signature just where it was supposed to be! Go figure!! I still can't see my signature when I am signed in but it can be seen by others. It impressed me to no end that Marie took the time to check out my blog and write to me. Thank you Marie. I would suggest checking out Marie's web site she has some great tutorials for bloggers.

Henrietta Wren

I've been meaning to post this photo of Henrietta Wren that I made while visiting my good friend Nola in Los Angles. Henrietta is made of cloth, stuffed and has wire legs wrapped in floral tape.
The pattern comes from The Artful Bird by Abigail Patner Glassenberg.

I love the finished bird but have to say it was very fiddelly to make.

A New Look

If you are reading this post you can see I have a new look on the blog. I had not been happy with the look of my blog for awhile but had no idea how to change it.  And to be truthful a bit frighten that in trying to change it all would be lost!
Last week I started a class at my favorite site to take classes Jessica Sprague.com. Jessica  led the class through the process of using Photoshop to develop the design and the how too's of uploading the new items onto our blogs. Her lessons were clear and easy to understand, giving us both the visual of videos as well as PDF's of written instructions. One of the best parts of the class is the forum where you can post questions and triumphs. There is always a great support of help when you need it. I still have a bit of tweaking to do but I'm happy with the results. I would love some feedback of what you think of the new look.

I Never Win Anything!

 In Anna Aspnes  newsletter  this week there was give away. All you had to do was enter your name for a Shutterfly Coupon . Now I never win anything but thought what the heck and entered my name. WooHoo, in this mornings email there was a coupon for a 8x8 hardcover book. I had pages for a book all ready to go and was waiting for a sale at Paper Kiwi where I have order books before. I've been very happy with what Paper Kiwi had done for me and it will be interesting to see if Shutterfly is as good.

The book is totally devoted to pages of my travels over the years converted into sketches using Photoshop. Below are some samples of the 30 pages which will make up the new book.

Portofino

One of my favorite places in the world is Portofino, Italy. It nestles between the hills and the Mediterranean and is beautiful beyond belief. I created the page above dreaming and hoping to be able to go back again.

There was a challenge at Oscraps to create a page about Spring.  Spring has not sprung in my part of the world but I can only hope it will arrive soon. The photo of the early blooming clematis was taken last Spring in my garden.

I'm a Guest

I have asked to be a AnnaGuest for Anna Aspens designs at Oscraps. I'm a bit blown over and delighted to be asked! What do I do while I'm a guest, well, I post some of my digital pages using Anna's wonderful products. Not very hard at all. And am terrifically flattered to be asked.

This is the first page that I posted as a AnnaGuest. I've used Anna's ArtPlayPalette_Truth, and ArtPlay_ArtsyKards Truth. Don't you just the love quirky frame? It another Anna product called Free Form Frames. The darling little girls are my granddaughters showing me what they learned at ballet. 

Envelope

Clever Alice over at Jessica Sprague.Com posted a page using a envelope to show photo's she had waiting to be scrapped without actually doing layout. I thought it would be a nice FREEBIE to give   a gift to those who read my blog an envelope can be used in the same way.

Check out Alice's page and download this envelope and let me know if you used it.

Digital Whisper

No matter how often it happens it always a thrill to me to have my work recognized. This week 2 of my fantasy pages are featured on Digital Whisper.

 

I Want to Fly

Sea Girl

 

Digital Whisper has just reopen and is a site that is "A community of dedicated loyal artist who make their art come alive with just a whisper".  I'm not sure about the whisper part, some times the art work I view on the site shouts out in it originality and beauty!

There is a lot going on over at Digital Whispers right now with the reopening. If you have a interest in fantasy art come over and have a look.





Rose Bowl Flea Market

 

Today we went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market. It's  3rd time that I have had the opportunity to visit this amazing market and see   of STUFF for sale!

We were greeted at the entrance by this fellow when we arrived about 9:30 am. Which is late the market opens at 5am. The parking lots were fairly full and we had to park quite a distance away from the entrance.

 We walked, and walked up and down the many aisles. It's unbelievable how many things are for sale, from antiques, old clothing, paper bits, and just downright junk. But one mans junk is another mans treasure.

 I loved this view of a wooden horse popping out of a truck.

 There were people of all ages searching for the perfect thing or bargain.

After  4 hours of walking and finding wonderful treasures which I hope will all fit into my suitcases we found the exit and headed for the long walk back to our car tired but happy.

Finishing Up

After a great day walking around La Brea Tar Pits, visiting the Folk Art Museum and lunch at The Grove Farmers Market, some of my very favorite place in LA we headed home mid afternoon. Tired but happy to work on finishing my journal I spend some time watching the videos Mary Ann Moss provided for us in her class Ticket to Venice on how to make the Diamond Cross Bookbinding stitch.
Once I watched the videos and Mary Ann's excellent instructions I went full steam ahead and completed binding  the journal.

I  really like to look of this type of binding and I am planing on making another journal  once I get home using it.   I'll add more signatures to the journal now that I am comfortable with the stitching.

Play Day in LA

 

 

This week I'm visiting my friend Nola in LA. Today we had a play day in her studio. Our project was to make a art journal. Joining us was Ute (see her blog on the sidebar) an old friend from Doll Camp and a wonderful artist. We started with brown wrapping paper and acrylic paint and the instruction from Nola to just doodle. Above is what I came up with

 

 



In this photo you can see the jars of the very bright acrylics that we used.

Ute hard at work

Nola, myself and Ute.

Nola with her interesting doodling

My journal almost completed.



 

After finishing putting the journal together I relized that I had not made the spine large enough to hold all my signatures. Rats!!! After some thinking I cut the spine out, made it larger and with a good suggestion from Ute, painted in the missing bits that I had to cut off. It hardly shows where the new paper had been attached.

My next step is to add the signatures to the book using a stitch that Mary Ann Moss taught us in her latest and fantastic class Ticket to Venice.

 

All in all a wonderful day with good friends.