Earth to Linda

OOOO. Was Earth Day yesterday? I have a good reason for letting it slip by me. You see, I celebrate Earth Day quite regularly. Almost every day as a matter of fact.

Just today I brought home these cuttings from the overgrown geranium bush in the school garden. I consider it pruning and pruning promotes healthy growth. Plus, it'll make a great addition to my garden!

Wow, look at how pretty the cuttings look all ready! Don't they have an Asian flair about them? They remind me of cherry blossoms.

To prove I celebrate Earth Day on a regular basis, this journal page from Monday has a saved hand that I've been holding onto for a couple months. I knew I'd need it one day. My habit of saving really pays off in a pinch. You can click on the picture to read my entry. This journal page is for the round robin I'm in.

I decided to show a little "Earth Day Spirit" on this page by using scraps of saved paper and featuring inchies made from recycled items. Yes I'm still making inchies!

Today I found myself taking cuttings from the school garden. The pale pink geraniums yelled at me from the library window to come out and help myself. So I did. I noticed a few plumerias in need of water so I'll have to tend to them and get them in shape cause I'll probably be taking a cutting or two from them next.

Earth Day is a year-round celebration with me. Not only do I take cuttings and happily add them to my garden but I find myself searching through bags of paper scraps for art projects and I enjoy flipping through pages of saved magazines for the perfect phrase or words to use in my journal.

The next time you find yourself reaching for a scrap of paper from a former project or catch yourself taking cuttings for your garden, take that as a reminder that you also celebrate Earth Day on a regular basis.

Artventurous Relief

Meet "Found Memories; a Waterfall of the Past." OK, so it wasn't really called all that but it best describes the project Ellie and I presented for the Extravaganza event last weekend and "Found Memories" was as far as we got for naming it, btw.

We wanted something that could be personalized by each participant. The thought of black, cream and metallics appealed to Ellie and I and as you know, everything goes with black. We asked everyone to bring in copies of photos to add to the waterfall. The waterfall sits behind the black tumbling blocks to the right of the "cardlet."

Once the front panel is opened, a waterfall of stamped and embellished panels are revealed.

Here's a close-up of me and my sister from the mid 70's.

The front panel could also be turned in another direction where more memories sat waiting to be discovered. Here's my brother riding MY tricycle during the 50's.

And the last found memory features me and my two sisters in the backyard where we once swam, played tag, monster, dodge ball and kill!

I've been submerged in a pile of black paper, funky stamps, frosted inks, embossing powder, twill, lace and brads. Sounds like a recipe for a vintage riot and that's sort of what it was.

Despite the excitement of developing an idea for a project and then watching it unfold, I'm so glad it's over. Ellie and I met religiously almost every weekend for a month putting kits together, tweaking ideas, cutting, gluing, laughing and wondering if it could all come together in an hour and a half. We were in for a challenge and we faced it like two mad craft warriors. Shielding our hearts with a heating tool we knew we were ready to face the music, uh, reality of a workshop with a timer.

There's nothing like a sigh of relief knowing that your project was well-received and that everyone completed it on time. Relief also comes from knowing that all the hard work (a whole lot of it), long hours (overtime galore) and the extra effort to make it flow (and flow it did) were all worth it. If we had the chance to do it all again we most definitely would. I think. LOL!!

Tuesday Artventures

I'm feeling it. Yes! Spring has finally sprung!

The sunshine yelled at me to come outside and take note of some outdoor art. This is the first piece of art I noticed. Funny, as many times as I've hung keys in this door I've never paid attention to the funky artistic character it has.

I turned to my left and realized I wasn't alone.

My stoned angel was looking good as ever. The sun beats on her year after year and she still manages to maintain a youthful appearance. No wrinkles. Not fair!

There was a time when I could rattle off the name of all the roses in my garden. Wha happan? This rose is now known as my "Pink with a hint of yellow rose." HA! Sounds good to me.

I love this geranium who is known as Mexicana. I love the bright magenta color.

Intrigue Rose. Love it. They say if you want really big blooms, you should pinch off the little side buds cause they rob energy from the main rose. I can't do this. I love buds just as much as I love large roses. The smell of these roses is incredible. Old fashion scent with a hint of lemon. So good.

My Iceberg Roses never fail to bloom a riot of white among deep green leaves. They're so showy and resist disease.

Each year mid summer I tell myself I'm gonna pull this rose out of the ground cause it gives me so much grief. The blooms are huge and beautiful at the beginning of spring. Then the leaves get rust. You gardeners know what I'm talking about. By the end of summer it looks dead cause it doesn't bloom anymore which is fine with me. I just prune the thing down to get rid of the rusty leaves. Then spring comes around again and once more I'm rewarded with beautiful fat yellow roses.

Day two of my Easter vacation has me feeling the spring bug. I took a walk outside to experience nature's art. Speaking of nature's art, do wrinkles count? Are they like natural zentangles? Ooo, imagine?! Too much fun in the sun! Hope you're enjoying nature's art wherever you are.

Serious Saturday Artventures

I've been swimming in a sea of tags and it hasn't been pretty but it's been artventurous. This is all I could manage for now. I can't, won't, refuse to create chaos in the minds of those who will stand before these tags having to make the difficult decision of which six to choose. Glad it's not me.

I love the look of color and the feel of fibers.

I kid you not when I say that the kits and supplies to all the above tags stretch from one end of under my table to the other end. What do you mean I forgot to include the instructions?!!!!!

This is one of the main reasons I do a lot of standing.

In an attempt to do some spring cleaning I decided to hold a workshop featuring a potpourri of tags. I've been assembling tag kits which means looking for paints, making sure the paints are in good condition, searching for rubber stamps, and making a short shopping list. You see, although the tag components are safely kept in individual packets, the supplies I use to create backgrounds such as paints and rubber stamps are always immediately put away when I get home from a class.

I ran a fair amount of completed tags (my samples) into the shop today with a brief description. I felt relieved to finally get them out of the house and was ready to jump into my Extravaganza project until I realized one important, really, really important, missing item. The instructions! Oh man. Did I mention my computer crashed a while back and most of them where lost at that time? So, it's not quite over. Sigh.

Tuesday Thoughts

I've been meeting with my friend Ellie lately. We've both teamed up to present an art project at the "Extravaganza" at Stampin' From the Heart in Los Angeles. This is a sneak preview of what we're doing. Traditionally, all projects have been kept a secret and only revealed on the day of the Extravaganza. Ellie and I are not that good at keeping secrets and Karen, the shop owner, gave us the go ahead to give you all a little glimpse of our Found Memories Waterfall Booklet. This is all I'm saying and showing for now. We can't reveal the whole cha-cha but we can give you a peek. I will tell you that behind the panel on the right is a waterfall collection of memories. If you take the class, please bring at least 3 photocopies of pictures that you will be tearing down to the size of 3 x 3 or smaller. This project is a very personal one that you will want to make over and over again and give away as gifts. The Extravaganza will be take place on Saturday, April 17th. There will be 3 other teachers with projects for you to complete as well. Imagine, a day full of like minded souls, breakfast, lunch and bags of free stamps and other goodies plus 4 projects! Karen will post more info on her blog in the near future.

Don't forget, if you're in or near Los Angeles, I've got an Alice in Wonderland Make it Take it this Friday beginning at 4:30 at the Stampin From the Heart. Go here for more info and to see pics.

TGIF

In just three more months my favorite season of all time will be here.

The above page is an entry I created for Joanne's 4 Seasons themed journal. Although it's feeling like spring and it's right around the corner, all I can think about is that in 3 months I will be doing the summer lounge thing. You know, staying up all night. Getting up whenever. Doing whatever. But making sure the car has enough gas to get me wherever I want to be. TGIF everyone!

Artventure Overload?

A member from the journal round robin group that I'm in chose the four seasons as her theme. I never know where I'm going when I begin a page in my journal but I know I like to paint. My first instinct was to paint pages that reflect the seasons. The weather in Los Angeles was cool, dark and rainy when I painted this page a couple weekends ago. Good timing cause our temps have been in the 80s over the past few days. No way would I have been able to interpret winter under these circumstances. It wasn't until last night that I begin to embellish and write on the pages. Click on the pic to read my winter thoughts.

Texture was the theme of my journal which is currently in Northern California. This super large flash card was found in my stash of "one day" ephemera. I love finding goodies that I can work into my art. TOUCH seemed like the perfect word to describe the textured journal I wished for. I filled in the letters with Papier Glitter which dried to a clear and glossy elevated finish. Very touchable; good textured element.

This is from a page in my Texture Journal. I included a tag from a workshop I gave a couple years ago that had loads of texture with journaling on the back. I made a pocket for it to sit in.

I created removable pages to encourage members to lay it on and not worry.

Even my tags can't escape the way of layers! This is one sample of two Alice in Wonderland accordion tags that we'll be making at Stampin' From the Heart in Los Angeles on March 26th beginning at 4:30 until 8:00. I'll supply the tags, paint, stamps, ink and colored pencils. All you need to bring is a small pair of sharp scissors. The samples are in the shop. Drop by to check it out.

So far I haven't asked myself "What were you thinking?!" so I must still be in the sane mode. That may change as I hurry to make the mail off deadline in the journal round robin or as I sit in my art space doing all nighters trying to get all my make-it-take-it kits together. Oh yeah, I forgot about the other two workshops that are one week within each other in April. Sigh. Artventure overload? Artventures - YES, overload - NO! You can never look at art as being too much work or you'll stop all together. Oh, I forgot about the mailing art swap with Christina and Bea's challenge. I just keep telling myself that there's no way being creative can ever kill me. LOL! Now go make some art!