Favorite Friday's and Journal Pages

Favorites this week:

This post on Halloween by Gris Grimley, who is an awesome artist. My son and I love the books he's illustrated. Our favorites are Edgar Allan Poe's Tales of Mystery and Madness and Gris Grimley's Wicked Nursery Rhymes. 

(Kelly, if you aren't familiar with Gris's work, do check him out. You'll like it the way you do Gorey's. I guarantee it!)

This mural in Paris. You have to look at the whole, then the close up to really appreciate it. I'd actually posted this one last week, but my favorite Friday's post went off into the ether never to be seen again. 

This blog on creating a Daily Heart for 365 days

Was playing around with sequin waste, distress powders and a few circular clear stamps so got to thinking about the nature of circles and spirals.
Not an unusual train of thought for me at all.

I'd run some metal exhaust tape through the embosser and loved the vintage tin ceiling look it created, so had to add it to a page. I colored it up a bit with alcohol inks.
Unusual for me is the lack of journaling on this page,
 just the thought that came into my head as I looked at the photo.
"She had no shame. Just stood around in bloomers all day"

Journal Pages 10/18/11

  I'm counting the days until my new great-nephew arrives. He's due to make his first appearance in the world on November 10, but babies arriving on a specific date is like herding cats. There are no guarantees they'll do what you expect them to. 

  I'm still in cleansing and purging mode. The back of the truck is getting full of clothes, shoes, household goods and books to donate. Tomorrow I'll probably make the drive to the Salvation Army and drop off. I'll try to resist going in to see what vintage coats need rescuing, but as with babies and herding cats, there are no guarantees!

Done while sitting at Vincent's listening to the music.
Collage, Sparkling H2O's, Gellyroll pen, ink jet transfer

Done at Vincent's.
Collage and Gellyroll pen

Jack O Lantern

An old fashioned Jack O Lantern, carved by my son and placed on the front steps to welcome the Ancestors and keep malevolent spirits at bay. you can tell Jack's getting a bit moldy inside. The boy just couldn't wait until closer to the 31st to carve it up!   In our house we celebrate Samhain, the ancient pagan festival, and Dia de los Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead. and yes, he does like to go trick or treating too. 

Journal Pages

  Today is going to be a babbling day. If you prefer to skip the babbling and go straight to the art, go right ahead. I'll never know....  
    It's been a busy week for me. For whatever reason, late autumn is the time I feel most compelled to clean and clear. For three days now I've been going through closets, drawers and cabinets cleaning them out and amassing piles of things to donate. Clothes and shoes mostly. Or rather boots. The women in my family seem to have a hoarding issue when it comes to boots. Especially black boots. I'm not sure what it is about boots, black boots in particular, that we love so much. This love, and hoarding issue, carries over to coats too. I in particular have a weakness for vintage wool coats that I find at the Salvation Army. Something in me cannot possibly leave a vintage 1950's red wool coat with black cuffs and collar or a 1947 full length black wool pea coat to languish, unappreciated, at the thrift store. So I, of course, buy them, usually for less than $10.00, give them a good cleaning and wear them with pride. And love. Lots and lots of love. But I digress...
    What is it about late autumn that makes me want to get every nook and cranny of the house in order? I believe it's an instinctual knowing from deep inside. I know that the cold, dark days and nights are upon us and my time will focus on indoors. Somewhere inside I know indoors needs to be tidied up, swept free of summer's energy and made cozy for the long months ahead. For me, all this must be done before Samhain, October 31. As a pagan, Samhain is one of my most sacred and important seasonal celebrations. It's the time we say good bye to the harvest, give thanks for the abundance of summer, welcome back our ancestors and focus our hearts, minds and spirits on the darkness ahead. It's really a time of renewal and reflection for me and others who dance the spiral of nature based beliefs. Which completely explains why every year I am compelled to cleanse, purge and release that which is no longer needed.

Tiny journal pages, 4.5" x 7".
The one on the left was created using Neocolor II crayons on 9/30/11
The one on the right was created with collage and Gellyroll pens on 4/29/11

Another tiny journal page created with collage and Gellyroll pen on 10/9/11

Page created with collage, ink jet transfer, Sparkling H2O's, and Gellyroll pen
on 10/10/11

Mixed Media Monday

A few mixed media pieces started this week:

  There's Cinderella's little known Bar Hopping Slipper from her pre~prince days. She use to be quite the party animal before settling down with Charming and this is one of her favorite party all night shoes. As is typical for Cinderella, the other one is lost. It was created from an old bridesmaid shoe, beer tabs, a bottle cap, UTEE and molding paste. 

  The other pieces are paint and gesso transfers on masonite. 

  The shoe is finished, the paintings aren't. I love mixing things up so working on that shoe was a blast! Not to mention it was a neat use for an old shoe that had been languishing in the closet. I created another art piece from the matching shoe a few years back which can be seen here

The top front of Cinderella's Shoe

Side view of the shoe. I love the textural quality of this piece!
It's amazing what molding paste and can tabs can do.

Small, mixed media piece in progress.
Masonite substrate, paint, conte and gesso transfers

Small, mixed media piece in progress.
Masonite substrate, paint, conte and gesso transfers

Missing Post & Mini Book

  Hmmmm, I have no idea what happened to my Friday post! It seems to have gone off into the ether and never found its way here. Ah well. It happens. 

  My niece was married yesterday and I've made her a mini book\photo album as part of her gift. I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it. 

  This was the first time I used my Zutter binding system and am quite pleased with the results! I'm planning to make a bunch of spiral bound books to give as holiday gifts. To me, a gift of creativity is the best of all. 

I had this paper for ages now and thought a wedding book was the perfect use for it.
Not to mention my niece is quite the Princess. But in a good way...

The cover and a tag I clipped to the side telling them to fill the book with photos and memories. Just in case they have no clue what it's for!

Top view of the book. I used all different papers, added some distressing and inking to the edges and then bound it with the Zutter.

Journal Pages

  A couple of recent pages from the same journal I've been uploading photos from the past few weeks. This is getting to be one heavy, chunky, memory filled book! 

The mini file folder stapled into the journal adds interesting shaped pages. 

I love how you can see the tops of the other folder tabs peeking over

I'd left this un-journaled for a long time. 

I don't tend to do 2-page spreads, 

but this one just had to be done together.

Tuesday Night Journal & Music Fest

  I'm at my favorite Tuesday night journal spot, at My table, listening to the great acoustic music, soaking up the vibes and enjoying the atmosphere. Thought it would be cool to show a photo of the musicians I mention here so often, so here you go! Both guys are in many different bands and do a wide range of music. I like their originals the best. Missing tonight is Michael Thibodeau.

  Can you see some of the cool photos on the wall? There are tons of them, all from ages past and of local folks. There's a reason I love this place. totally inspiring atmosphere.

This is Scott Riccuti, one of the best songwriters, singers and acoustic guitarists around.
Scott has played with Jim Caroll, Shana Morrison and many others

This is John Donovan. Another great musician.

Journal Pages

  A few recent and not so recent pages. I love making journals that have staggered pages, pockets, fold outs and envelopes for stashing mementos in. This journal has all of those.

  I love this vellum envelope for storing ephemera tidbits. 

Can you see the Bin Laden face? It's from a firecracker we had this summer!

There's also a bit of text from an egg roll package in the envelope. Had to keep it as what it said cracked me up: 

P.S. In case of of emergency defrost 10 minutes and separate into individual pieces.  An egg roll emergency? Goddess forbid!

The journal page beneath the vellum envelope.
You can see one of my skull lino prints peeking though.

I was having a bad pain day and feeling left behind once again.
Best way to get over it is to journal it out!

Yummy Mail

  It was a good mail day. One of my favorite catalogs, Sacred Source, and my Flock Shop order arrived. Yummy fibers & a cool stencil from Flock Shop and soul stirring Goddess images in Sacred Source. The best of both worlds! And, is it me or is Flock Shop totally dangerous? Just what we need, art supplies on a time limit so we feel even more compelled to yell 'I must have that!'