Sunshine on my shoulders....

Sunshine on my shoulders...., a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

I *totally* meant to take a picture before I journaled all over this page, but I uh...forgot. ;-)

It's nothing too private. I was describing everything I saw, smelled, felt, heard while I was sitting outside on Sunday.

I did the whole page with watercolor crayons and my brand new waterbrush. Man, what did I do before I got that??? :-)

I punched a circle from a piece of manilla folder and used that as a stencil for the orange circles. I outlined them in black and then just did little circles of yellow around the orange ones. I roughly painted the background with blue watercolor crayons.

After I started journaling inside the big orange circles, I felt like the little yellow circles (petals?) needed something so I used my Bic pen to outline them. I think that makes them stand out a little more. (That was after I took the picture.)

I also noticed, once again, that I really, really need to keep practicing my handwriting with watercolors and paint. *shakes head in embarrassment*


Thanks for stopping by today--I really appreciate your visits!!

~Cynthia

Hot Sunflowers!

Hot Sunflowers!, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

After Saturday's cool blue scheme, I decided to heat it up!

I bought a brand new stencil at my local scrapbooking store. I so hope they decide to carry more! This one is a 6x6 size, by Crafters Workshop. It's partly quilt-like and partly Aztec-like. An interesting mixture!

I actually have three stripes of color, ranging from dark red on the left to a lighter yellow on the right, but I covered everything with a few more layers of acrylic paint, plus the Glimmer Mist I used for the stencil.

I followed Paula's (Journal Artista) recipe for an art journal page. Lots of layers, lots of colors!

This is in my little lined journal and I used the remnants of the clear gesso for the first layer. The layers of paint even out the grit in the gesso. I discovered when I went to write on the blue page from Saturday that Bic-type pens don't like writing on grit!! Oops!! Lesson Learned. :-)



Looks like we've got some bad storms headed our way tomorrow so I'm trying to get all my work and errands now. I might not make it back into the craft room today. OH THE HORRORS.


~Cynthia =D

Weather or Not...

Weather or Not..., a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Wow. The colors in this picture are NOTHING like what it really looks like! How weird is that???

This page is from my little lined journal. The prompt was to make a page about something you loved about summer. I'm pretty sure it came from Janel at Run With Scissors. Heh. Pretty sure. Yep.

One of the things I love about summer is the weather. And by weather I mean thunderstorms. =D I used a cloud stamp, a raindrop stamp, and my favorite face sun stamp. The stamps are layered on Broken China Distress Stain and a bit of clear gesso. I used Black Soot Distress Ink for the letters and really smooshed them down on the paper so they would bleed a little.

I just noticed the blatant stripe down the middle of the journal. I used masking tape to keep the ink/paint from bleeding through to other pages, but I seem to have totally neglected to actually COVER the tape with ink. Nice.



Have a great weekend!!

~Cynthia =D

Flowers make everything prettier

Flowers make everything prettier, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

This page is a redo of a redo of a redo of a page I didn't like. I posted the original earlier, then painted over it all. Then painted over all of it again.

Finally, I was done dealing with it and ended up with this flower garden, which I kind of like actually.

I still don't like the background though.

The flower are from the Circle Graphs set from Inkadinkado and I just free-handed the stems and leaves.

After I took this picture, I found this quote and added it:



There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice. (John Calvin)



I thought it was just a little bit ironic that the color of my background does NOT make me rejoice! ;-)


***
Sorry that I haven't been around here this week. I've been so busy that I haven't had time to create much. I *have* been smashing stuff into my faux smash book though. Five minutes of creating and I have a little snapshot of my day. It doesn't involve a lot of thinking, just a glue stick.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!! =D


~Cynthia

New Journal

New Journal, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Ooooo, I got a new journal!! Well, technically, it's really more of a diary-type journal. But still. It's cool.

It has lined pages and a kicky little magnet closure on the flap. It's also a smaller size (5.5 by 7.5) than my other art journals. Love that.

I treated this just like my other journals. I applied a layer of clear gesso first. Sadly, it was the dregs of an old old old bottle and I guess I'll just have to go buy more! I really like how the lines are still visible.

I found some funky, waxy, shiny tissue paper and adhered that over a layer of yellow acrylic paint, followed by a layer of brown acrylic.

The result is a dusty, Rosetta Stone, archeology kinda look. Love that too.

I'm not sure which direction this journal will head. Paula Phillips (Journal Artista) has one that contains something like positive thoughts. That might be cool. Some of my other journals are more rant-oriented. =D


Happy First Day of Summer!!

~Cynthia

Scavenger Hunt!

Scavenger Hunt!, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

Janel on Run With Scissors is running a 30 Day Journal Challenge. On June 15 the challenge was a Scavenger Hunt.

Seriously, how cool is THAT.

I played along because it was so different from alllllllll my other art journal pages and it totally looked like FUN.

I...ahem...changed a few things. I so hope that's OK. ;-)

The Hunt was on for:
something red
a dictionary definition
a map
a footnote
a ticket stub
a postmarked stamp
a business card
something with a circle on it
a piece of a security envelope
a name tag
an illustration of a chihuahua
the header of your favorite blog

...and I quickly found most things. I left off the blog header and I like birds better than dogs so I put in a crow. I did have to make my own nametag though. I used bits and pieces I had laying around, which I think is the spirit of the Hunt and therefore totally legal. Heh.

Up at the top left, check out my letters S and H. I made those via a tutorial from Tim Holtz. One layer of grungepaper, one grungepaper letter, bit of glue, black paint, sandpaper and then a layer of Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink. They kinda sorta look like those vintage print block letters. I think they look super cool, like corkboard, and I will be making more of them. :-)

I left the background plain gesso, like Janel's. And I used different products to adhere all the Hunt findings: Quick Dry Glue, Glue Glider Pro, and Tim Holt's Tissue Tape.

For being such a simple activity, this was so much fun! =D


Have a lovely weekend!! And thank you so much for stopping by!!

~Cynthia

Flower Power

Flower Power, a photo by HikerCynthia on Flickr.

I've got some seriously funky layers of stuff going on here! :-)

First off, I applied gesso to the page then placed a stencil I had used on another page into this page and closed the journal. The leftover Color Wash left a cool branch imprint.

Then I hit it with several different Smooch Sprays and homemade smooch sprays.

The flowers were also used elsewhere and I slapped them in here to create little outlines. To finish off the chaos, I used watercolor crayons to color in the flower outlines. It's kinda busy, but you know...it's kinda growing on me too. =D



Happy Friday, everybody!!

~Cynthia