Two new journals

My new handmade FauxMidori journal made at our artist group get together. Thank you Miriam for showing us how to do this. Great fun. Although these covers are usually made from leather, I made mine from vinyl cut from a pocketbook that I just couldn't throw away. Now to organize the separate journals inside.

I missed our last month's get together. The project was to make a cover for a notebook and was inspired by Roben Marie. Thank you Cindy for putting the project together and all the supplies. Well these special artist friends made one for me and one for Susan who also had to miss that month as well. What a treat and so special of them to do this. Thank you Cindy, Jane, Miriam and Darlene.

A Tale and A Visitor

Every since I can remember, our family has had amazing visits from a variety of creatures. Some were funny like the mother Robin stomping on the top of the newspaper mail box on the patio to tell my Mom to come out and see her babies. Once satisfied that Mom chimed about how wonderful her babies were, mother Robin took her babies 'home'; several horse runaways charged through our corn field like thunder; 2 river otters slithering over each other keeping close coming through the yard. Mom was sitting on the yard swing and they stopped to say hello to her climbing all around her feet then off they went down to the river across the street. Turkeys, pheasants, cows, a tomato frog (awesome), a big and plump yellow spider with black stripes (so beautiful), yellow baby chicks that Dad was raising and squirrels one of which jumped on the screen door and scared Mom bad enough that she fell down. That was the end of feeding the squirrels. Bunnies that would eat the flowers and were just too funny leaping and jumping. Once I spread moth balls around the flower garden, supposedly to keep critters out and discovered several black birds rubbing themselves with the moth balls to remove mites from their feathers. What? we couldn't believe what we were seeing. What wonderful lives these characters have and what joy they bring us!

These kinds of visits continue here in Florida. The other night my husband went out to check out the sunset. Walking between the screened patio and the car his foot bumped something. He came in to get a flashlight to check it out. It turned out to be a turtle. What? Is it a land turtle? Did it come from the river or the lake? Is it a female or a male? Is it lost? Why in this spot? It appeared there within a couple of hours as I had walked that space earlier and that spot had been empty. We were having lots of thunder and lightening and maybe it was scared and took refuge.

Well I was so excited I needed to take a picture. Well, of course, it was tucked in its shell so it looks more like a rock but I didn't care. We talked to the turtle for a little bit and thanked it for visiting and left him/her alone. Checking later, the turtle was gone and because it was very dark by then we couldn't see where it went. I imagine the adventures and stories they could tell us as they have given us so many adventures and stories to tell.

Although I'm sure the turtle just picked up all the vegetation on its shell as it traveled, it also has the feeling of camoflage. The creature was about the size of a large dinner plate. Researching to discover more about this little visitor.

Love to hear about the characters that have visited you.

Sun Print Testing

Here are a few samples of sun printing using acrylic paint in preparation for an art day coming up this month with my art group. You can see a beautiful sample over at Alisa Burke's blog here using fabric and here using paper. This is definitely fun and challenging with having supplies ready, the patience not to peek too soon and to know where the sun will be within the approximate 2 hours it takes for the fabric to dry. Wind is an issue as well.

I used Golden Pthalo Blue (red shade) acrylic paint and a variety of fabric to see what would happen. I discovered I needed to add more water in order to really saturate the fabric. My first attempts dried to soon to get the desired results. I also discovered using white fabrics is the best for getting the brightest contrast.

On this first attempt, the fabric was not saturated enough and it dried too soon. You can see just a hint of pines needles on the left top piece and a hint of leaves on the right top piece. The top pieces are muslin and the bottom piece is a satiny material with a design (white on white). Although nothing happened with this print, I now have a beautiful piece of fabric.

These pieces, although I added more water to the paint, still dried too soon for full effect. The piece on the left is canvas and I used elastics and pine needles. The piece on the right is muslin and has netting from an onion bag. Will try this again as I think it would be beautiful on white fabric.

This piece came out the best (practice and testing is always good). Although I think it would be fabulous on white fabric. This is off white muslin. On this piece, I think I found the right mix of water and paint to really saturate the fabric and the leaves are laying flat on the fabric. The leaves are cut from the fronds of a small palm tree in our yard. I just let them fall as I cut without arranging.

It is definitely fun creating your own fabric prints and nothing was safe in my art room…coffee filters, dryer sheets are now blue and will also be getting printed in the sun. Testing fabric paint and dye are next. The sun print paper has been ordered and is on its way. A fun art group day coming up if the sun cooperates.

What are you creating today?

Round Robin Art Journal Play Day

Several years I ago I took an online travel art journaling class with Mary Ann Moss called Ticket to Venice. Several women from that class, being within driving distance to each other, formed an "in person" art group. So fabulous. We try to meet once a month to create, teach, share, discover and have fun. Thanks to Mary Ann's class, I've made some very special artist friends.

This past Saturday our art day included doing Round Robin Art Journaling. Deciding on limited supplies and a time limit of 3 minutes, we began creating marks. Here's my journal pages:

I love this page and each artist created marks on these pages. A wonderful treasure and lots of memories. This is also special because it opened up the possibilities for creating in this journal. I was keeping it too precious and therefore empty. Now it is getting filled up…yay!

Beginning April Tangle Calendar

So busy…so far behind…not to worry.

With April calendar pages, I thought I'd play with more than one tangle at a time. This page seems very Spring like to me.

This page includes: BTL Joos, Fescu and Lazy Eights.

March Tangle Calendar Finished

Goodness! April Fool's Day! Flowering trees are blooming here - Bottle Brush Trees, Kumquat(?) Trees are filled with little yellow fruit and of course the ever present green pollen from the Pine Trees. Sneezing going on everywhere.

Day 25 - antidots
Day 26 - snood
Day 27 - eyelet and lace

Day 28 - spawn
Day 29 - aqua fleur, a Zentangle
Day 30 - spupa

And last in March…
Day 31 - fish net

More March Tangles

I'm one day ahead and that is fine with me. Company is flying home today. Early morning trip to the airport in the rain. They are headed to 18 degrees and lots of snow/ice from our 81 degrees and although rainy here, it has been warm and sunny with a lovely breeze.

Day 19 - B'Twined
Day 20 - inapod
Day 21 - onion drop, a bit wonky

Day 22 - paushalov
Day 23 - afterglo
Day 24 - HiC