My Independence Day Flag

It's A Grand Old Flag

Art Journal

Pen, ink, rubber stamps, acrylics

 

Details are hard to see here, but these pages are all about our freedoms...to live, love, worship, read, listen to music, get an education, live where you want, vote, take vacations....the short list of why we celebrate on July 4 and everyday.

Still Life

Altered Book

"Still Life"

Collage/painted background

It's been a hectic week with no time.  I'm posting this just because....I loved the photo of these fish when I saw it so I cut it out and glued it to this page that had a background using my Gelliart plate. (This was only half of the fish photo, so you may see the other half in another post).  The paint chip color says "Still Life"....thus the name of this post.  Simple.  These fish are kind of ...red, white & blue.....don't you think?  I just can't get away from those colors....

Searching for the Light - Printed!

I've been doing art journals and altered books now since the summer of 2007.  I love this art form.  You can paint in them, draw, collage, write, try lots of different mediums and express yourself so differently than you would if you were doing a larger canvas.  For me, it's instant gratification.  If something's on my mind...2-3 hours sitting at my art desk....I can complete what's on my mind.  Sometimes I have a very clear vision of what I want to do....and sometimes I sit there and look at the journal and hope the inspiration will come.  If I don't have the time to capture what I'm feeling in that moment...it's often lost.  It's hard to explain. 

Having this blog where I can pull things together from the different books I am working on at the same time...is great.  Some of the postings have been more important to me than others.  I have often thought on many occasions about how I could "capture" my blog in print so that if I ever let the blog go...the things I had to say would be saved.  So now I have it! 

 Believe it or not, I ordered it earlier this week and it came today...unbelievable.  I have Sharon Tomlinson to thank....one of my favorite artists.  I just happened to be visiting her blog where she said she was waiting for her blog book in the mail!  And she provided the link for a discount coupon that expired the very day I was looking at her blog.  Serendipity.  

The paper is nice quality and I'm really happy with it.  I could have spent more time choosing the cover and such...but that wasn't as important to me as making sure I've saved what's inside.  It literally took me 15 minutes to choose and order this book! 

I was concerned that the photo size I chose might be too small....but it's not at all....and if you go larger...the price goes up.  

The company I ordered this from is SharedBook.  If you want to save your blog...go for it!  I have every single posting in this one book...close to 500 and the book has 214 pages in it.  You could do one year at a time...depends how much you post!  You can put a dedication in and even a table of contents if you like....lots of options....but most importantly, my blog is saved!

 

SCRAPS

Altered Book

Looking at the surface of my workspace this afternoon....I realized I didn't have a workspace!  Left on the table were pieces of this and that...some chosen for a potential page and then left behind.  Being too lazy to put them in folders that made sense for possible future use....I decided to do a "Collage in Blue".  

I grabbed some blue paints and covered the background pages.  On this page I glued a paint chip sample and a piece of fabric.

This page includes a small photo of a beach house, a blue & white stripe umbrella, a tag from a gift, an "I Voted" sticker, a photo of blue & white pillows and the Blue Sky Vodka label comes from a gift I received...not vodka, but a blue glass star made out of the bottle!  TGIF!