imagination - an ATC

This is my last ATC for a February challenge that I'm in to create three ATC's about self-love.  I'm not 100% thrilled with this one, but hey, it's done, right? lol  I love that I have a big imagination and I hope the whimsical nature of this card reflects that a bit.

you can watch me create this card here :-)

Thanks so much for stopping by!

di

dream - an ATC

I needed to make another ATC for a challenge that I'm in for the month of February.  We had to make three ATC's and the theme was love of self.  That was a hard one for me.  I looked around in my drawers of ephemera and found a Carter's childrens clothes tag with the word "dream" on it and that's what started this card coming together.  I love that I'm a dreamer....even when right now I hate to admit that I feel like most of those dreams won't get to come true.  We will see....

you can watch me create this card here :-)

Thanks so much for stopping by....and I have one more card to share for this challenge!

di

more pages from my collage journal....

A few weeks ago, I was able to do a few pages in my collage journal.  I absolutely LOVE this type of art journaling.  For me, and where I am in my life (a.k.a. no free time from being full-time mommy), it is the easiest way for me to be creative and get some of my emotions out in my journal and not bottled up inside.  After I discovered Kelly Kilmer and her amazing journals, I knew that it was something that I could easily do, with not many supplies needed, no big space needed and I could work on pages as I could and finish it when I finished it.  One of my biggest struggles with working in my other art journal is that I have always felt like when I started a page, I HAD to finish it.  So, a lot of times I rushed to get it done and didn't truly enjoy the experience of getting all of that paint all over my hands.  I'm not sure why, but for some reason, I do not feel that same pressure to finish a page when I'm working in my collage journal.  Some days I get a page done easily in one sitting and other days I might take me all weekend to just finish a single page.  No stress.  I work on it when I can.  Maybe it's because I don't have to pull out a lot of stuff to work in it and make a big mess that I know I will have to clean up.  I have a tool box that opens on each side and I have all of my supplies in it that I need to work in my collage journal.  Well, everything except a magazine to get images from.  I need to take some time and share that with you, because it's made such a difference in my being able to create anywhere.  I even take it with me when I go to pick up my daughter from school.  If my son is napping then, I can sit in the car and work in my journal and everything I need is in that tool box or my tote bag.  I keep it upstairs at a little desk in our living room, so that I can work on it during the day as well.  It is absolutely freezing in our basement during the wintertime, so I really hate going down there to work in my art area.  Having that tool box with my basic supplies is perfect for keeping on the main floor and always there when I have a few minutes to work in my journal.

Another reason why I adore this type of art journaling, is that I love looking through magazines and such for images that relay what I'm feeling at that time.  It's an easy and quick way to share in my journal what I'm wanting to express.  I can think more about what I want to say when I don't have to really worry about creating a multi-layered page of paints and whatnot. I have always loved clipping images from magazines since I was a little kid, so I know that's a lot of it, too.  And who doesn't like gluing things down?  I could sit and cut images and words from magazines and then glue them down all day long.  It's like some form of stress relief for me. I have tons of words and phrases that I have cut out, too, and am trying to decide of a good way to sort them for easier use.  Even as simple as a box with "happy feelings" and a box with "not-so-happy feelings".  If I think it will ever work in my journal, I cut it out and save it for later.

This journal is definitely a place where I spew out some of the yucky stuff that I'm feeling and/or thinking.  It's not all pretty and not all happy thoughts, that's for sure.  And it's comforting to know that I have a safe place to go art out some of those things....good and bad.

So, here are a couple of pages that I finished recently:

visit my YouTube to watch me work on some of these pages below :-)

Thanks so much for stopping by :-)
Dianne

I'm No Shrinking Violet - an ATC

Hello everyone!  Well, first of all I can't believe that I haven't done a single thing on here since mid-September.  Wow.  I have to say that I really hit a crummy point and was just down.  It seemed like my Muse had packed up and left along with all of my sense of keeping my life running smoothly and happily.  It all just fell to pieces.  So here I am, finally trying to pick up all of those pieces and start putting them carefully back together again in a way that works the best for me, who I am and who I really want to be.  Wish me luck! lol  It's going to be a lot of work and not an easy thing to do, but it's got to be done.

I am in a group on Facebook called The Studio and I had signed up for this months challenge.  It is an ATC challenge where we have to create several cards and share them throughout this month.  The theme is LOVE.  But not love of others, but sharing something that you love about yourself.  Wow, was that a hard one for me to think about.  Especially after how I felt about myself after this past year where I felt like I had completely fell apart.

I had no idea what to do, so I pulled out a magazine and started flipping through it and found the sentence, "I'm no shrinking violet."  After I saw that, I knew it's what I had to use.  Heck, I just survived one crappy year and I've been through loads of other pretty awful things and guess what, I'm still here, still moving on, still plugging along, still trying to make it work and make things better.  Then I remembered a magazine ad that I had in my stash of papers for collage.  It was covered with violets.  So down into my studio I went (a.k.a. the dark, creepy and freezing cold unfinished basement lol), I turned on my video camera and here's what I created.

You can watch me create this ATC card here :-)

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  It's been quite awhile since I have made an ATC and I sure have been jealous of all of the wonderful ones I've seen people swapping on Instagram.  I hope to be able to join in some swaps soon, that's for sure!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope to be sharing more this weekend.  I have completed several pages from my collage journal that I'd like to share and I will also have a video of my working on some of those pages as well.  I also finished an art journal page and need to work on the video for that one, too.  Lots going on and it sure does look like my Muse decided to come back home.  Wow, am I ever so grateful!! <3

Take care,
di