New Pages for my Danger Danger Sketchbook Project Theme

I know there are a number of pages here... I have been busy. For some reason Blogger and Yahoo would not let me post the photos last week. So... you get them all in won bang!!! What can I tell you about these pages... First of all... the cover. The cover was completely out of my comfort zone as those who know me would agree... I am pretty much the last person to care for skulls! I think they represent death in such an ugly way in this world ~ but to me death isn't a skull, it is our soul being released to our Heavenly Father. It's not an ugly bone that encases our brains!
I chose the skull however after much pondering on my theme from the Sketchbook Project: Danger! Danger! because it seems to represent danger in this world. I think anyone who is an 'adrenaline junkie' more than likely owns some sort of clothing with a skull printed on it! Not that you have to be an adrenaline junkie to wear things like that! For the cover I found a skull rub-on though I did not like the way it looked, it wasn't representative of what Danger is enough... so I added glue to it, then added red glitter, then I added self-levelling gel, and on top of that I painted it with 'Poppy red' Twinkling H20's. The effect sort of looks like blood and blood is dangerous right??? (This theme is so not me... but in good sportism I continue on to finish).
The dark blue page I have used a number of techniques here... I painted it first with a matt watercolor, then over that with a twinkling H20 dark blue. For the border I painted a magazine page with a lot of text on it with twinkling H20 in blue and cut out the round shapes. Then adhered it to the edges of my page. For the envelope I used a 'coin' envelope and covered it also with a painted text page from a magazine, then added the skull stickers, beaded a rope to lift the lid of the envelope. Inside I am still working on... I am going to do a few "adrenaline junkie" paper charms. This page is on all the extreme sports people do for an adrenaline rush. In researching this idea I discovered that people do a lot of CRAZY and I mean CRAZY things for a rush! And I have to wonder... WHY???? What are they looking for??? And what will happen when they have done every adrenaline rush they could think of? Where will they be then?
The Twilight: New Moon page is pretty much self-explainatory. I went to see New Moon on the premiere night and was almost run down by a bunch of teenage girls getting to my seat! LOL.
The Red page with the woman walking down the street... I completed the page one way and then my son Ben said, "Mom, you wanna know what I would have done for that page?" and so he told me to make it darker so it shows that it is night and not put all the journaling down the middle of the page. He is one smart cookie with a great eye as his idea is much better than mine. The poem I wrote about four years back while reading the Bible. I remember reading on how much evil there is in the world and that we need to be wise in what we do to not be entrapped by it.
The Green page is from a writing technique I have learned called 'word-webbing'. It helps you to think through your ideas and possible connections to your ideas. The main idea on the page being Danger, it stems into all sorts of other ideas that I can use with this project. I thought it would be interesting to put my thought process down on paper for others to see.
Well, that's about it. I hope I haven't forgotten any pages.
Happy Creating Everyone!

Sketchbook Project: Danger! Danger! Theme 3rd Page

My third page for the Sketchbook project: Theme: Danger! Danger! is done! I did this page on "Family". Why? Well, I think many families are lost in 2009. The idea of 'family', two kids, a dog, a happily married couple... white house picket fence and all... Is there a family today without some sort of dysfunction? Are families getting worse or better? I think Families are in Danger of being molded to the world. We text back and forth and have no human contact between each other, we are busy busy busy doing all sorts of things but where is the quality time? It is pretty sad actually.
I love my family. My hubbub and my two sons - the family that God has blessed me with. We try to be strong in the Lord and not be 'worldly' in our wants and needs. It is hard to stay strong though. We all know families who are broken and it is sad for us to see. We pray for God to strengthen our families and to bless each and every one. We pray for those families that are broken that they might find wholeness again. Amen
Happy Creating!

Sketchbook Project: Danger Danger Next entries

Well I have had a little bit of time to work on my sketchbook for my Danger Danger theme. My book has arrived with the due date for December 1st. That gives me 10 days to work on 20 2page spreads. I have finished four pages. This particular page I was able to work on while I volunteered for the program "Inn From The Cold". My Church hosts one night for this program to house 15 homeless people. My hubby and I volunteered for the first time the other night and I had the first part of the night to stay awake for five hours. I was able to work on this page during that time.
I set up the page before I left by painting it with my H20 Twinkling watercolors in Green. Then I cut out the border from a magazine with a lot of text on it and painted it with blue H20. Once dried I outlied the border in black sharpie and adhered to the green page.
I used a white and a black poster paint pen for the lettering.
This was a very mind numbing but fun page to do as I practiced my lettering styles.
Hope you enjoy.
Happy creating everyone!

Sketchbook Project: Danger! Danger! Page 1

I have yet to receive my moleskin journal from "The Sketchbook Project" that is due the beginning of January... so ... I decided to start on the pages myself and I will add them as tip-ins later. My theme is Danger! Danger. I have had about a month to digest my theme and I have pondered upon many ideas. This page came to me as I was watching the movie Lethal Weapon. Not that the movie had anything to do with my page, however, there was alot of violence and drugs, alcohol, murder, immorality etc., in the movie... so... maybe it had more influence than I give it credit for.
I started by simply drawing the words, "Losing Ourselves" as I thought about our world and how we as a society, as the people of this world, truly are in danger of losing ourselves. I thought about the state of our world and how dark it really is, how there is so much violence, anger, hatred, depression, pain and suffering... I realized how easy it is to lose ourselves in this world. Like I say on the page... the world has kicked God out of our schools, government, marriages, even out of our minds as it is being made clear that we are not even allowed to speak our religion to others in some places... we have created a world without protection from God because we have insisted that He not be present in this world! What a sad state of affairs our world is in! I am going to be doing more pages on this as I feel our world is in danger of many things.
Stay tuned...
Happy Creating Everyone!

New Journal Series: Past/Present/Future - My Past

I am going to try and teach art journaling classes at some different Churches and so I am coming up with different prompts to try out. This first one is a prompt from a series I made up called: Past/Present/Future. This page is the first of the series from my past.
I divided the page in half from one corner to the other and drew an outline of my hand in each space. The top space I used for things that I liked in my past. The bottom was for things I disliked about my past. I used the hands to represent myself during that period. As I was doodling I asked myself questions about my past... what were my personality traits? What was most important to me? What did I think? How did I feel? What did I love about being young? What did I hate about being young? What were some things I conquered from my past? (eg. fears, personality traits I didn't like about myself)
I doodled things that I felt were pertinent to myself during my past such as a web because I felt stuck in the "role" I was playing. I didn't know myself back then. I drew a border that was like a movie clip because that is how I see my past ~ in pictures etc.
I think I am going to have to do a less detailed page to teach as I know that not everyone is as detailed as I am. I LOVE detail as I am sure you can tell from my previous works. I think I will do a simple one with suggestions of what to right about or doodle about for those learning for the first time.

Hope you like it!
Happy Creating!

Teesha Moore Inspired Journal Page

So... after following along the conversation on Blissfully Art Journaling I went to the Teesha Moore Website and watched her recent video postings on how to create her fabulous art journaling pages. Her videos are easy to follow and she gives very clear directions and tips as well as revealing which products she likes the best. From watching these videos I was able to create this page and had a great time doing it!
I always wondered how she created her beautiful pages so full of bright colors. Now everyone can know. I highly recommend checking this out! She did a great job! More video tutorials are coming on how she does her lettering! I can't wait!
Happy Creating Everyone!

My Community Pumpkin Walk

Last night the community where we live held a 'Pumpkin Walk' and it was very beautiful and such a fun experience. They gave out free hot chocolate as everyone walked through the aisles of lit up pumpkins donated from the people in our community. There were some amazing pumpkins as you can tell from the selection of pictures. My favorite was the face of the cat. The intricate carving of the skeleton coming out of the pumpkin left me baffled as I had no idea pumpkin carving could be as elaborate ~ same with the skeleton eating the mouse.
Next year my family vowed to take part in the walk and carve some pumpkins too. We don't do 'Halloween' so we don't usually carve pumpkins - but next year we will be sure to have some fun with it!

I hope you enjoy the pictures. Let me know what your favorite is?
Happy Creating!