Summertime

On Melisa's blog she posted a page in her journal called "No Big Deal" and the technique she used was such a great idea I had to try with my own journal!

This is another entry into my "Composition Book" journal. What I did was pick out a picture in a magazine, glue it onto a page, gesso over top of it (lightly over the image so that I could still see an outline of the image)... When that fully dried (I would leave it a few hours) I used watercolor crayons to paint overtop of it. The effect created vibrant beautiful colors. The one thing I did notice that made it a little difficult for me was if I blended the blue in the color went a mucky color because the paint underneath it was not a permanent. Over on Melisa's blog she used Derwent Inktense Watercolor Pencil Crayons which are permanent. I am going to look for some of those and give them a try.
I hope you like it. I had a fun time creating it. Thanks Melisa for the idea.
Happy Creating Everyone!
Thanks for stopping by my blog.

July Mood Calendar Entry

I am taking a long time to finish this calendar! Usually when I start a new project I follow it through to the end right away, but this one is bigger than I thought. Each month has a lot of thought into it and I am experimenting with new mediums that I never thought of before... such as using Gesso. I had never used Gesso before this project ~ I didn't understand what the big deal was in using it to prepare a page until now. It makes the pages of the Composition (or Exercise) book act almost like canvas paper thickening and strengthening so you can use almost any medium on it. It is fabulous!
For this page, after Gesso, I drew outlines of flowers all over the pages and then colored them in with promarkers! I know... it almost looks like paint doesn't it? I think that is what the Gesso does. Plus these markers are wonderful! My last 'painting' was actually done with markers instead of paint! I am getting tremendous results using these markers on a Gesso page. Then I simply colored the background with green, cut circles out for each day of the month and adhered them with rubber cement, as well as the letters of July. Then I outlined the circles and the letters with a vibrant orange/yellow marker and voila! a new page done!
Now... onward to August I go... unless I get distracted by some beautiful weather! You know me, I am a sun girl, what can I say!
Happy Creating!

My Favorite Reads

It is summer... aaahhhh... and with summer comes the best time of the year to read books! I adore reading and I have read many books! My hubby can testify to the amount of books piled high beside my bed! LOL!

In my sidebar I have posted a number of books I have read and all of them are books that I would definitely recommend. If you go to the list of books and see one that you might like feel free to contact me and I can send you my review of the book.

One of my pet peeves is getting sucked into a book from the contents of it's description on the back cover only to read it and discover it is a horrible read! I have learned that on most books (if not all) the descriptions are not even written by the author of the book, nor is the cover chosen by the author. For me, I am a visual reader, I picture the characters exactly as they read in the books. Many times I discover that the picture on the front cover doesn't even match the description! It's all a 'money game' for the publishers.

Well, I can tell you that the books that I have posted are all great reads, you will not be disappointed. If you have a list of books that you recommend please send it my way as I am always looking for new books to read ~ especially books that come highly recommended by normal people not (NEW YORK BEST SELLERS LIST). While I have nothing against those lists I find that people are more real and are apt to give more heartfelt reviews of the books.

Take a gander through my list and if you have any questions on the books please feel free to comment and I can answer them for you.

KAREN KINGSBURY - NEW SERIES REVIEW

Karen Kingsbury is one of my favorite authors for many reasons. Her heartfelt books deal with real emotions that we have all experienced and or are experiencing right now making it easy to relate to them. Her characters are so well developed that they draw you in and make you want to know all you can about them. You cheer them on throughout each series and long to know the futures of each character. Karen does not disappoint and leave you hanging as she continues to write about her favorite characters bringing them along with her as she begins a new series.

One example is The Baxter Family.
She has written about them in her REDEMPTION, FIRSTBORN and SUNRISE series and now she continues with a few characters bringing them to her ABOVE THE LINE series. Not all characters follow to the next series, only the ones that are not completely developed which is great because the reader is filled with the 'whole picture' at the end.

Her new series ABOVE THE LINE takes the reader on a behind the seen of making a Hollywood movie from a Christian perspective. The main characters, the directors, are taken on a journey of trying to make their way in a very 'worldly' market and still hold firmly to what they believe. The issues that arise range from temptation, to college, to trusting in God for the impossible. I highly recommend all the series that Karen Kingsbury has, so graciously and with a full heart for God, written.
Happy Reading, and send me a comment if you happen to read any of the books ~ I would love to hear from you~

Conversation In My Head

Over on Blissfully Art Journaling (a group I belong to) there was a one word prompt this past week called "Conversation". I thought about that for awhile before beginning this project and I decided to do this prompt on the conversations that go on in my head. I find I am always talking to myself (not audibly always - lol). I started by drawing my face and hair. I like drawing my hair because it is long which means a lot of space for writing my thoughts. The thickness of my hair makes me think that I am holding secrets beneath it, maybe this is the reason for my constant need to 'brain-dump'.

After I finished drawing my face and hair I wanted to color my face... I ran out of skin color in my markers and so I chose blue to represent what was inside my brain. I look more like a member of the 'blue man' group or 'Mystique' from X-men more than anything! I chose blue because even though I know my blood is red within my body my mind (thoughts) always felt like they would be blue if I could choose a color to represent them, probably due to my struggle with depression and attributing 'blue' with sadness.

I then wrote down my conversations that I was having with myself as the day progressed in "conversation" frames. When finished I felt somewhat superficial, like I had not put my heart into the piece... so this is when I began to go a little deeper as I wrote out my thoughts into my hair. For the background I picked out conversations that I had been having with myself lately... the book "The Artist's Way" that I am on chapter 6 now... has made me think about how I have self-sabotaged myself in ways that I didn't realize. I know it is always good to continue to learn and grow from life, but this lesson was somewhat painful for me. I didn't know how far I have gone to self-sabotage myself. Ways like procrastination, being unmotivated and giving in to doing everything else but my art or my writing. I discovered I have this fear inside me, fear of succeeding... or fear of failure maybe. I am going to continue to work on it as I painfully go through the process of finishing these lessons by Julia Cameron. Who knew an art book would be so challenging emotionally???? It's a good kind of challenge though. It will clear the way for God to get in and do His work in me.

Wish List For Fadwa

A lady from the group Blissfully Art Journaling I belong to had an idea to start an e-book recording wish lists from people all over the world... so... this is my small little wish list from one Canadian Girl to the world. I didn't know what kind of wishes I wanted to put on this wish list. I thought about what was in my heart and I came up with these items for my wish list.
From a "worldly" perspective of coarse I want "World Peace" (I sound like a contestant in a beauty pageant - Lol). I know that peace will come to this world in the end... it would certainly be nice to have it now.
From a "longing to travel" perspective I wish to travel to Italy, Greece and all those beautiful Mediterranean places. I long to see the cultures and the colors, the artwork and the paradise-like-qualities of the Mediterranean.
From a "life-changing" perspective I wish to live near a lake where I can sit out on my porch and let the peaceful calm water wash over me. Of coarse I wish to be healthy and fit... that is coming as I am going to see a natural path next week.
From a "family" perspective I wish for my family to be God-centered and filled with love, peace, joy, abundance, happiness, kindness, gentleness... just a few things.
I think I could go on and on but these are only a few of the ones I thought about for now.
Happy Creating everyone.

BBC Book List

The BBC says most people will only read 6 of these 100 Books.

Instructions:Cut and Copy the list into your notes... then...

1) Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read. (remove other persons X's)
2) Tally your total at the bottom.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X
2 The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien X
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible X
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte X
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare X
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell X
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams X
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens X
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X
34 Emma - Jane Austen X
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen X
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres X
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden X
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery X
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding X
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan X
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert X
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen X
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens X
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck X
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas X
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding X
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville X
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens X
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White X
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare X
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

My Tally: 33

Been Away to Edmonton Pictures

Last week we tagged along with hubbub on one of his business trips. We basically hung out at the hotel. We changed hotels after the first night because the boys weren't allowed to swim or work out without an adult there. Hubbub surprised me by renting the "Presidential Suite" of the Delta Hotel for my birthday, which meant it had an upstairs and a downstairs. It also had a jetted tub. Now me and jetted tubs in the past have had a few hiccups... I always tend to get hurt in them. This trip was no different. The turn on button for the tub was by the door (which was not close to the tub at all) so I filled up the tub above the jets and turned it on ~ water still went shooting every which way and I managed to slip on the floor and further hurt my back. I loved it once I got in and everything worked accordingly though. Ben loved the jetted tub especially the robes that went with the room. He looks so tiny in the robe. (hee-hee)
We took in the sites at West Edmonton Mall and saw a sea lion show. The shopping was nothing out of the ordinary. I did manage to find a lovely little art store and did not over spend. Hubbub took the boys to the big Waterpark in the mall and they had a blast sliding for a few hours.
ON the drive to Edmonton we stopped at a rest stop and found an awesome tree meant for climbing. We took some pictures and took our time in getting to Edmonton. All in all it was a great relaxing trip, even if it was only Edmonton. lol.

Finally Finished May Mood Calendar and Other

I have not been the most motivated person lately... however, I did manage to finish up a few journal entries that I have been working on. My May calendar entry for my mood journal, a texture page with cool border edges, and a verse page which I began awhile ago. My May calendar page took awhile because I loved the big orange flowers so much that I didn't want to cover them... I ended up putting numbers on the pedals of the flowers and adding in extra leaves with numbers. I have been experimenting with different felt markers and really liking the outcomes.

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile but we were in Edmonton last week... coming will be pictures from our trip...
Well, happy creating.

Thanks To Gypsy's Inspiration - My New Painting

I was browsing through some of the art blogs through Blissfully Art Journaling and I came across one blog Gypsy and she posted a picture that instantly made my mouth water. It was so fantasy-like that I wasn't sure that it actually existed. I think it does exist because it is a photo (I think). Anyway, as soon as I saw it I saved it under 'my pictures', printed it out and went to work on my canvas to see what I could produce from this sublime picture. The funny thing that happened is that I decided not to use paint but my permanent Letraset Promarker Markers. I have never used markers on a canvas before, I had no idea how it would work. It turned out the blending of the colors amazed me and before I knew it I was finished. The outcome looks like I used paint doesn't it? Now, how to preserve it? I think I can just paint Liquin overtop to preserve it, not sure. Does anyone have any suggestions?
Fadwa, thank you so much for the inspiration from the picture you posted.
Happy Creating everyone, I hope you like my painting and the picture I was inspired from. If anyone knows where this picture was actually taken from let me know as I would love to visit it!

The Beauty of Flowers

Aaaahhhh! I love spring and summer when all the flowers come out to play. Their beauty captures me, entrances me, makes me to dream of Heaven and what is to come. I picture myself being tiny as an ant and climbing to the outer edge of a pedal on a poppy and sliding down into its soft pillowy center, and like in the movie "Honey I shrunk the Kids" ~ I would not be allergic to its pollen as my nose would be too small! LOL! I wonder if architects and engineers have studied the shapes of flowers for their ideas for buildings and rides at amusement parks, it wouldn't surprise me. The colors of flowers alone must have inspired many an artist to create their masterpieces. My mouth begins to water as I picture all the colors coming alive before me when I walk around my neighborhood taking in all the sites, shapes, textures and most of all colors. I feel as though in a dream floating high above on a cloud as I view the treasures I have forever captured on my camera during one of my art walks. My camera has been through a lot with me! The poor little thing! Signs of wear and tear appear upon its body with cracks bursting out the edges! The zoom is not fully operational (I think anyway ~ of coarse my husband has fixed anything I have thought wrong with it!). As you can guess I am longing for a new camera! I went looking the other day and I have tempted myself almost beyond what I can take as I held its smooth body and looked through its sleek lense... sigh... but no... I do not need a new camera yet! (YET BEING THE OPERATIVE WORD! Wink wink!) I must keep telling myself and choose to close my eyes and ears as they call out to me in the stores. (LOL). I do not need it! I do not need it! (She gently whispers to herself...)

Happy Creating Everyone! May you be inspired by all the magnificant colors around you!

Additions to Doodling While Camping

Art was not huge on the agenda while we were camping at Mt. Kidd. I tended to read my book more. I did manage to work on and finish a Zentangle Doodle though it is not a very good picture of it. Then my friend Nicole wanted to color and so I drew the tree with a butterfly in the middle for her to color and I doodled over top of it to complete it. Great job on the coloring Nicole!
Zentangles are so relaxing I am glad that I was able to finish this one.
Before camp I worked on a page of "inchies" zentangle doodle ideas. When I finished I cut them all out and glued them to canvas paper (on both sides), then cut them all out again, punched a hole at the corner of each one and put them all on a key ring. I call this my "Doodle inspiration ring". It came in handy for ideas of what to use to fill in white space on my Zentangle doodle. I will probably end up carrying it everywhere just in case! LOL.

Hope you enjoy them.
Happy Creating Everyone!

After Three Years of Renovations!

Finally after 3 years of being in 'Renovation' mode ~ we have received our granite countertops. It was three years ago that we installed our beautiful cabinets and have put up with the old laminent countertops and plywood with mactack over top! I am so pleased with the new granite. The island granite is a piece of artwork in itself as you can see the shapes of larger rocks. It reminds me so much of a piece of artwork I discovered at a 'gem' store in Banff. I was salivating over the art and now I am salivating over my countertops! It has been a long time coming but it is so worth the wait. Now Randy has to finish the stairwell! Amongst all the other little odds and ends in the renovation process. We are not completely finished yet but we are certainly on the road to getting there!
Let me know what you think by leaving a comment.
Happy Creating everyone!

Back From Camping

We are back from our camping adventure up at Mt. Kidd. It was a fabulous trip with sunshine and fellowship and lot's of Dutch Blitz! We went up with about seven families from Church so there were many things going on to keep everyone occupied. I got my baby fix in with 16month old Isabelle who handed me pinecones and brought back memories of when my boys were little ones. She talked herself to sleep every night in the tent ~ it was very entertaining!
The boys and some of the girls went fishing a few times and managed to snag one fish which they all enjoyed picking at over a campfire. The weather was lovely and really didn't rain much and the best part of the whole trip was there were no bear sitings! I am freaked of bears ~ especially since we were in "bear country"!
We rented an RV which meant I could sleep and not pay for it too much in the mornings with back pain. I have a difficult time sleeping in tents as my back tends to go out from sleeping on the ground. I am spoiled I'm thinkin!
Well that's about it! We had a wonderful time and are well rested and ready to take on the rest of our summer!