Was it meant to be?

Last fall during my visit to LA I visited the Folk Art Museum. Now when I go to a museum my first stop is always the gift shop. Luckily my good friend Nola feels the same as we do so much traveling together. The gift shop at the LA Folk Art Museum is one of my very all time favorite places to brows. I always seem to find a treasure to buy.

Getting back to last falls visit I noticed a beautiful bag, I fell in love with this bag, I really wanted this bag. But....I did not buy it, the price tag was high and I felt I just could not justify spending the money, it was large and I was not sure how I could pack it to take it home.

Today when we were downtown in LA Nola mention how close we were to the Folk Art Museum and maybe we should stop by. My thoughts went immediately to "The Bag" and I though it would not be there after all this time. My heart going pitter patter we walked into the shop....and there it was waiting for me! I snatched it up, clutched it to my bosom, and all but ran to the check out desk. Telling the nice man at the desk my little story he gave me a discount, and the beautiful bag is now mine.

The 83rd Academy Awards

This morning we drove into LA and Hollywood Blvd. to look at the preparations for the Academy Awards tomorrow.

This is the tent where the interviews take place before walking down the red carpet.

Oscar under wraps

Lots of security surrounded the site.

Grauman's Chinese Theater forecourt with the signature Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward

Mickey's star

Me and Marilyn!

Hollywood Blvd. walk of fame.






What fun to see where it all happens!

My bee-yoo-ti-full bag

After much discussion about camera bags on the Jessica Sprauge photography forum I purchased a bag. The bag is made by Epiphanie and is the Bella. I am absolutely delighted with it. It's pretty and

functional. It has lots of space for the camera, several lens and my wallet, keys etc. I'm certainly

going to be very stylish traveling with this beauty!

Stencilry With Friends continued

Continuing our stenciling, today we worked in Ute's studio, which is wonderful, big, bright and well organized. I do envy it. Ute is a very talented doll artist and if you would like to see her work this is a link to her web site http://www.enchantingdelights.com/. Nola (another very talented doll artist http://www.etsy.com/shop/nolasdolls) lent us her expertize in how to make our own stencils. We did not have spray paints or inks today so worked with acrylics on our stencils once cut. I've posted a photo of my book now bound with bright red duct tape. I'll add the journal pages next as well as more lettering on the cover before I call it finished. I've also posted a work in progress page from a journal started sometime ago following instructions from Teesha Moore, today I added some stenciling to spice the page up. Still a bit more work will be needed to finish this page off. Looking forward to tomorrow when Nola and I will spent some time working on these pages.

Stencilry With Friends

My journal cover

A play day in LA with friends what could be better. Three of us got together today to work from a class by Mary Ann Moss - Stencilry. We spent the morning drinking tea, catching up on news and making our journal covers out of cardboard and paper .

After a lunch break of delicious soup made by Nola, we started to decorate the journal covers using stencils. Nola gave us a quick lesson on how to use the spray paints before we started.

Nola has a "wet studio" set up in her garage and as you can see from the photo's we used masks and a respirator while we were spraying the paint. Using a variety of objects which included doilies, punchanella, paper stencils and lace we sprayed our journal covers.

As we started using the spray paints we decided to move outside to help with the fumes. Even with working outside and with a respirator I found myself with a headache at the end of the day. Tomorrow we will make pages to go inside of the journals, this time work out of Ute's studio. We will be using acrylics, and spray ink, no respirators will be needed which will be a lot better.

What a wonderful break from winter this is. Although Nola tells me it is cold, to me it's bliss to be able to go out side with just a sweater on, no coat, boots, gloves, and hat!

Inside a book

I was asked the other day what my finished journal pages look like after a trip, and I though I post a few here. The journal and pages are from my last trip to LA in November. If you look closely at the pages you can see that they are made from scrap paper and sewn together. I also add pockets on to some of the pages as well. I embellish the pages with washi tape (I LOVE washi tape), stickers, colorful clips, safety pins, and sometimes ribbons as well. While traveling I try to journal each day adding photo's, postcards and just "stuff" that I pick up as well as my reflections of the day. On the journal pages that I posted I also added date circles to the edge of the pages. I have a small box that travels with me with that I keep my pens, pencils, glue, tape, scissors and other bits and bobs that I will use to embellish with. Today I spent time in getting everything together for my trip, only 3 more sleeps!

Lesson Four

Whew, lesson 4 finished and all done for week one of classes. I love the large photo I used of my grand daughter she looks so grown up and dreamy.

Moving on Lesson 3

Stretching I think would be a good word for keeping up with this class I'm taking in Photoshop. Each lesson ratchets up the difficulty. I'm keeping up but it does take me hours to complete a lesson. Saying all that I'm loving the challenge and the fact that I can do it.

Big disappointment today. I had booked a class with Kelly Kilmer for my visit to LA and it's not going to happen ;-( I planned the trip to LA around the class and was so looking forward to it. The shop did not even let us know about the cancellation and I found out by accident checking Kelly's site. The shop has offered to give us another class and Kelly offered me a chance to take a on line class with her. I am sure I'll enjoy the on-line class, but it won't be the same thing. Ah well life goes on.

books, books and more books

I get great pleasure out of making books these days, both out of paper and cloth. This little book is 2" square with 10 pages and several "secret" pockets.

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I've added photo's, tags, tickets, ribbons, and other bits and pieces to each page to give it interest . The tickets were made on Photoshop adding a different inspirational word to each one. This little book will be a gift for a special friend on her birthday. But I'm not tell who ;-)

LA Journal #4

I have a trip booked for LA next week to visit my dear friend Nola and see some sunshine and green grass. A nice break from the very long winter. I have made a journal to take with me this past weekend. The journal cover is made out of medical Tyvek, painted, backed with silk, stitched and then distressed by using a heat gun. The cover has a felt backing. Unfortunately it has not photographed well, the colours are much prettier than shown. As in the past I've created the pages for journaling using scraps of paper stitched together as per the Remains of the Day class I took from Mary Anne Moss a year ago. I love the scrappy look of the pages and using all the various bits and pieces I seem to collect over time. I had never kept a journal before but find that I now enjoy recording my days travel, adding little photo's that I print out on the small Pogo portable printer that I take with me. And I'm surprised how often I go back to these journals to look for some information.

Lesson Two

Finished lesson two for my digital class tonight.I found this lesson a bit challenging, but I did it! What surprised me is that I was able to create the base layout without instruction. Feeling quite proud of myself.

Lesson One

Today I completed lesson one for the Photoshop class. I used the same photo's as before but this time followed the instructions in the lesson.

What do you think of the layout?

Assignment 1:Sketch

Today was day one of a advanced on-line Photoshop class I started with Jessica Sprague.Com. Our first assignment was to find 3 photos and build a layout from scratch that tells a story. Tea parties are a favorite with my little granddaughters and it has become a tradition when they visit. It hard to resist not taking lots of photo's.

These were taken on Sunday and lent themselves very well to a layout.

Tyvek

Last weekend I took a 2 day workshop with Gordan Brelik. Gordana is an accomplished fiber artist and very willing to share her knowledge and expertize.

My efforts on the weekend did not turn out very well so I decided to try again at home. Above is a 9x7" book cover that I made using painted tyvek with a backing of felt , stitched and then zapped with a heat gun . I made the signature out of hand made paper from Spain that I purchased from Joggles. I made several other book covers and will post there photo at another time.