Lilly-of-the-Valley

.........My last posting evoked many thoughts about memory scents. This is another memory scent from my Mom.

What a learning experience!

National Drawing Day

Today is National Drawing Day!
A wonderful excuse to spend some time with my art journal! This is the start of drawing my art doll pin collection. A source that should keep me in drawing subjects for a loooooong while!

1 a Da #8!

These are the rubbing textures I experimented with. I am MOST pleased with the metal embossing hard plastic strip. The soft blue rubber texture mat is great for polymer clay but is useless for rubbing. The clear plastic sheet is useable...but because it's not solid, if you rub hard to pick up all the texture, the pencil color is way too dark. In reverse, if you rub lightly, you won't pick up all the design. I used Prisma color colored pencils.......it's worth a try with another brand. Just by doing this experiment , I've thought of lots of other "What if's"!

1 a Day #7!

This is the second half of the page with my grass Chia Pet. I'm finding that working on 1/2 of a page does facilitate fast! It's no problem finding things to draw...just whatever pops into my head, I go with.

Pretty soon I'm going to have to spring for a new Moleskine!

6 in a row! I drew this on 1/2 a page......partially because I wanted to do something quick, the design wouldn't support a full page and I really am trying to conserve! I'm thinking you could have a whole journal with the pages divided up into 1/2's or 1/4's......would be interesting to see if it would promote more drawings.......

Louise gave the BFF lunch bunch this "grass" Chia friend. I've kept it growing since St. Patrick's Day!.....Although her hair is now really really dry and has very bad split ends!

Would like to see it being done one of these days......just to know!

4 IN A ROW! I MUST ADMIT THIS HAS CUT INTO MY QUILTING TIME...BUT NOT ENOUGH TO MAKE ME STOP!

I can't believe it! I have actually done 1 drawing a day in my journal for 3 days! The wine bottle is today's, May 29th. The pincushion is yesterday's and the Easter Bunny is my beginning........I really am enjoying getting back to working in my journal & will do my darndest to keep it up!

Finally...A NEW post!

It's been a long while since I've had the opportunity to draw something in my Moleskine. I've been quilting like crazy, which is a good thing. Not having the time for my journaling, a bad thing!

1 thing a day......I can do this!

Time flies when you have a lot to do!.........I really haven't had time to work more in my AJ......But yesterday I got to spend just a few $$$ on some supplies! OH YAY!! I got a new set of Pitt's, new kind of eraser (MOO - I don't know if I'll like it though) & a good sharpener. Getting ready for AFIC (Artistic Figures In Cloth) that I'll be going to next week, from Thursday to Sunday evening...I'm really excited about the classes I'm signed up for.....and really excited about working in my AJ while I'm there! Been thinking.............(always dangerous!) I don't want this blog to stagnate when I can't produce new stuff...........so I thought I'd pull out some of my favorite pages that I've done in the past. I am a POP-UP junkie & I've been putting a lot of them in my AJ. The possibilities are endless with these wonderful surprise elements .........So stay tuned...........Eventually I'm planning on giving pop-up toots here also! When uou open my recent AJ, this is what you will find!.....................

I was bound & determined to find the pictures I took in Ireland of the Blarney Castle & the Blarney Stone......I was successful!

I scanned them and did a Sheer Heaven transfer to my AJ.

How memories fade & change through the years!....I found that out when I saw the picture of me kissing the Blarney Stone. I did have the how to kiss it part correct though........laying down on my back and bending my head backwards into the hole..... didn't remember the handles & thought the guards held my hands & feet..didn't remember the guard holding my waist.........the hole was different too, way scarry! I still am pleased with my original drawing of the "hole" (in a previous post).....I like the perspective that I achieved...to me it really looks like I'm looking down a hole...eventhough that in reality it doesn't look at all like it!

How memory fades over time! I went searching for the photos of my triip to Ireland, specifically the ones of me kissing the Blarney Stone....

this is what I found! At least I got leaning over this huge hole right!

This is my latest page............soon to be spread! I issued a "St. Paddy's Day" Challenge in the LTJ group & got hung up with posting something because I wanted to find and photograph a couple of T-shirts that I bought at Blarney Castle in Ireland. I didn't want anyone to think that I copped out on my own challenge so I tried to draw the "hole" where the Blarney Stone is located. The Blarney Stone is one of the stones in a Blarney Castle tower wall........waaaaaaaaaay up. So way up that they made a hole in the upper most floor of the tower so people could risk thier life in order to kiss it! Aaaaaaaaah, but once you've kissed the Blarney Stone.......you will have the gift of "blarney" forever!!!!

I thought everyone would like to see what takes most of my time away from art journaling! I've been long-arm machine quilting for quilters since 1998. My original plan was to quilt my own designs on my own quilts. I had visions of doing unbelievable thread pictures for my original art quilts..........But if you are a quilter or know a quilter, I bet you can figure out "the rest of the story"! Soon after I learned how to operate "the Beast" I started getting.......Jerrie, I'm in a crunch, could you PLEASE PLEASE quilt my quilt by......They're my friends, so of course I helped them out. Then it began. I started getting phone calls: Jerrie, so & so told me you machine quilt & I was wondering if you would do mine.....This has kept me so busy that I have NOT been able to piece a quilt top for myself for over 4 years! What was supposed to be something that I could earn extra $$$ after my DH retired turned out to be a full time job! Not that I'm objecting mind you, in todays economy it has really helped. It just happened a little bassackward in my plan of things! Funny........When my kids were growing up, I always wished I could find a stay at home job to earn extra dollars. I'm really glad now that I didn't! If you have a home business, you have it 24/7, 365 days a year. I would have lost precious time with them....Now, I'm really looking forward to being able to "retire" so I could devote my time to following my "Muse of the Moment"!

Have you ever wondered what your Art Journal pages will look like 100 years from now? I think that this would be a pretty good representation! O.K. O.K. I'll admit it...I just wanted to play with my new PS action! I'm a techno junkie, I just LOVE doo dads that do things in PS. I'm thinking that you'll probably see a lot of this kind of stuff on my blog in the future. At any rate, meet my muse "Oh My". She made her visible debut while I was taking Jessica's LTJ1 on-line class. The spider though, has been my creative symbol for at least 1/4 of a century!

My house

Lets see if this will do photos! Jerrie