Purple & Green

This has been a week of unpacking, laundry and open house, but I saw that Inspiration Avenue was using a purple and green prompt this week. Knowing that I love both those colors I thought I would share a couple of purple and green photographs of flowers and one of my journal pages I did but originally wasn't going to share.You know a  journal page that is just so, so and just for you, but it fit the bill for this post so I decided to include it.

The one thing I love about the Mr. is he always comes to give me a kiss in the morning prior to leaving for work. 

 

White Sage is so beautiful when it blooms in the spring

 

I don't know who loves Rabbits Ear Lavender  more the bees or me? 

Lisianthus is what we used for a pop of color for the wedding flowers, the buds open to the beautiful flowers. 

Purple Kate Spade Shoes my daughter wore under her wedding dress I altered my photograph and gave it a green border

I had to sneak in a photograph from the wedding photographer Kelly Boitano just in case you want to see more purple and green & wedding photographs in a journalist style!

Then don't forget to pop by Inspiration Avenue there is still time for you to join in the fun prior to Sunday's deadline for this week or visit their blog to catch the list of participants to see what everyone else created for the prompt. Hope you drop by Sunday for some more journal art. I promise to share some painting as I get back in my little art space and creating again now that things are settling down from all the festivities of the wedding.  

 "But, luckily, he kept his wits and his Purple crayon." --from Harold and the Purple Crayon (1955)

 

"Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises." --Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Spanish Poet and Playwright, 1600-1681

What is your favorite shade of purple or green? What color shoes did you or would you wear under your wedding dress? 

Free Journal Prompt " Explore, Create, Blossom"

Hello there journalers I hope this finds you well. I decided to share this journal prompt with you today showing you how I added flower cut shapes and layered them into my painted journal page. I used the flowers cut from the page and also layered the pages with the cut out flowers in the corners to balance my page. So basically I have inverted the order of the position of the flowers. I kept the pallet simple and drew in with color pencils some words around her head. The words are Create, Explore and Blossom. I used bright pastels to make the flowers and her face pop. As you can see in the close up there is quite a bit of paint layers. You never know what you will create if you explore and let yourself blossom! So I hope you make a journal page where you explore using cut out pages with flower shapes or what ever shape you like and see where it takes you. What is your favorite part of journaling?

Journal Prompt: Use cut flower shapes in your journal page. Words; Create, Explore Blossom

Quote: An artist has to be a little like Lewis and Clark, always exploring in new, uncharted directions. C. W. Mundy

Food for thought:  Strathmore 90lb Mixed Media Paper is great for visual journals.

Free Journal Prompt and Journal Page

 

This week I am showing you an example of how I incorporated layered paper into my page. Not lots of layers but just elements that fit in a section.On my page here her wings are of paper and the flower is painted on added cut out paper then adding other layers of paint. To make the house I first drew it in pencil and sketched the angel around it later. I painted the background and then the angel. I written all the words you see inside the house with colored pencil and on the side of the house with charcoal pencil and white color pencil.This was actually where I started my page from.

"She is not alone" was created as a reminder to myself to nurture my dreams and to let them flourish, not give up but to let myself blossom into who I am. When I feel like I can't move forward with my art or goals to know that I have an angel to listen to my fears and thoughts. To remember I am supported in many ways.The flower represents me having planted the dreams and goals that come from my heart and waiting to see them blossom. I just began this page with the house, it just evolved from that and the words I had written inside the house.This journal page is an example of how you can create a page that harbors the essence of your dreams safely. What ever you create just start with one of the elements and let it grow by playing on the page. But try doing a page that only has a few layered elements and has some simplicity to it. 

Do you ever feel like you need to nurture your dreams better? Or have patience to see your goals to come to light? 

Journal Prompt: Add a few layered elements that fit in your journal page. Write about nurturing your dreams and having patience to see them blossom. 

Quote: All art requires courage. Ann Taylor 

Food for thought: The Creative Entrepreneur by Lisa Sonora Beam

Free Journal Prompt "Aura"

An aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object.

I created a journal page after thinking about my youngest daughter and how she is as a person and seeing what her aura radiates. She is not very girl y, always when she was little was in pretty dresses yet played in the garden collecting bugs and digging. Now she wears jeans and tee shirts and is kind of a tom boy. As she grows I she her personality and who she is developing and when I look at her her aura is pink. Her aura is pink due to the fact that she radiates compassion, love and the sweetness of a child growing into a caring person. She is wise beyond her years and shows in many ways. So this journal page isn't about looking like her but the feeling I get when I am looking at her aura.

 Maybe her aura has many meanings. So I set out to learn a little more when I came across this explaining some of the Aura Color meanings. You have to scroll down landing page for the meanings but they are written out very well if you are interested in reading about it drop by here for Aura Color Meanings. If you are interested in learning more there are many readings on it on the web.

Here is an article of how to see Auras the article also explains the color meanings again with a body chart.
Have you ever been interested in auras? Do you notice that many religious images that have been painted have had auras in them?  


Journal Prompt: Aura

Quote: The Aura given out of the person or object is just as much of them as their flesh. Lucian Freud 


Food For Thought:

She Followed Her Heart to Happiness

I think I have been doing quite a few journal pages that have to do with the heart and heart felt thoughts. I guess those whispers of doubt have been creeping back and I had been  finding procrastination at my door, not completing projects that are started or things that I have intended to do completed! Well listen doubtful whispers be gone! I am doing this for my happiness, I have a plan and am working on it maybe not as fast as I want but I am! I want to say Yes to my dreams, let me trust and follow them. I can say I have planted the seeds! Are you with me?! Lets chase those self doubts away! Trust your heart let it be your guide~

I have to say I love the word happy! It is something that I constantly struggle with, but I am seeking that daily and working on that, I hold that word in my heart.  What I love about the word is its definition and what it means and I think that if you find your happiness that all should follow~
noun Happy adj.Happier Happiest 1. characterized by good luck, fortunate. 2. enjoying, showing, or marked by pleasure, satisfaction or joy. 3. being especially well adapted, felicitous: a happy tum of phrase. 4. cheerful, willing, happy to help.

I love that happiness is enjoying, fortunate and willing to help. It is like a full circle word all in one~ 
I hope this happiness rubs off on you  today and you create a journal page about creating your happiness, planting your dreams and following your heart.
 What makes you happy? Have you made any changes to create your own happiness? If so how?

Journal Prompts: Let Your Heart Lead You, Plant the seeds of your dreams, Happiness~ 

Quote:  Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing you will be successful. ~ Herman Cain

What we think, we become. ~Buddha

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it. ~Buddha

Food for Thought:

Illustration "Happiness Is"

Happiness is finding inspiration, creating it and seeing it finished on my work table~

Happiness is watching my child swinging on a fall day while in the sun reading~

Happiness is swinging in the sun~

This weeks prompt at Inspiration Avenue is "Happiness Is"....
Here is my illustration for "happiness is" from the artist, mom and me ~ Yes I still like swinging as much as my daughter does & we both like reading books in the sun~I can think of a lot of things for happiness is. I might just have to create something else too. What does "happiness is" mean to you?

While we try to teach our children all about life, Our children teach us what life is all about. ~ Angela Schwindt

Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour onto others without getting a few drops on yourself. ~ Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Simply Sunday "Hope" For A Breast Cancer Cure

I have been meaning to post this journal prompt for some time & finally I can share it. My journal prompt for this week is "Hope". As it is still October and even when it is not we should hope for a cure for breast cancer not only in words but actions. I am putting a link up for donating to the cause directly~ Feel free to Donate this link takes you directly to the Pink Ribbon Breast Cancer Charity (Official Site).
My journal page above all in pink as a tribute to breast cancer awareness and added some thoughts beside hope such as women, pink, a cure for cancer & our future depends on it. I am sure there are many causes that come close to our hearts and for me this is one of them~
Is this a cause that touches your heart? Have you done your self exam? Self exam link
Learn from yesterday, live for today and hope for tomorrow.~ Albert Einstein
Hope is not a dream but a way of making dreams become reality. ~Author Unknown

Together lets hope & wish for a cure so one day our children can be free of breast cancer!

Journal Page

Rabbit Ears Lavender
Community* prompt from "Simply Sunday"

Like lavender growing so are our communities. Reaching out to each other, sharing our aspirations, dreams and sometimes our fears~ What I love about having an online community is having inspiration from others, having connections and knowing that I am not alone in my feelings. There is knowledge to be shared, love and support to be given, mentoring to be done, learning to be had. We are growing. It is a group of ordinary people doing extraordinary things~

Every individual has a place to fill in the world and is important in some respect whether he chooses to be so or not. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

Journal Page Love

I wanted to share a quick post on a journal page I did incorporating a paper bag that Sammie wrapped a gift in for Mother's Day. I cut the bag where she painted her picture and then cut out the big heart she made and painted on the bag. I colored a back ground on the page before applying with matte medium. Then I glued down her elements and I glued cut out hearts and painted around them, painted the date and journaled what she had written to me over the top of the bag and at the bottom of the page journaled what we did that day. You can do this with any gift wrap or card and then you will have a memory of that day. The above photo with the three shows the differences in what it would look like if you used a photo editing program the 1st one using gritty + 60's the, 2nd one with a color correction, 3rd one with boost. You can see the different feel it gives to a picture~ Sometimes its fun to play around with digital. I would love to learn and do more digital and incorporate it into some of my art. I hope you will give this simple technique a try in your journals it is a great way to save memories. What ways do you like to preserve your memories? Do you scrapbook as well as journal? Have you tried using digital or photo programs incorporating your art?
To look backward for a while is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and to render it the more fit for its prime function of looking forward. ~Margaret Fairless Barber, The Roadmender

Trust Journal Page

I thought you might enjoy seeing the full journal page. I posted it in flickr so you may view it full size too. This journal page was done in a large journal book. I am working on some larger pieces then I may take the ideas and put them on wood or canvas. I will take a photograph of a smaller version of a painting that is similar in many ways but different and has a more realistic bird. I have been busy with baby showers, visits from family and lots of to do s on my list. I need to get sketching and painting. I have my outdoor faerie project that is waiting for nicer weather and things to do in my art space. My time has been all over the place lately as Sammie's birthday is this weekend she turns 8yr. old, she is in a piano performance and also the week after going to a ceremony where children from a writing contest are being presented with certificates. Sammie took 1st place in her grade level for a story she wrote (county wide)! I can't wait to get my hands on what she wrote and read it!
Listen to your heart, trust it and follow your dreams~ Theresa Huse

Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you. ~Marsha Norman

Altered Journal Page "A Mother's Love"

resize in flickr Rubber Stamp Credit Woman in Repose Suzanne Nicoll
I took a photograph of my journal page and altered it in a photo program. I added purple as it represents royalty. I wanted to share this with you early in case you like it and want to journal some thoughts and share it with your mom~
You are welcome to download and print this as a card, photograph or page to write your thoughts for your moms or just for a personal journal page. You may use a program to change the colors for yourselves if you wish. Get creative. If you change it I would love to see what you create! Please leave me a comment with your link! You may use it for personal use only~ You may share on your blogs if you wish but credit back to me here with a link. Thank you~
I may do a pretty vintage page later to share. I will see what I am feeling up to.
I have new art work and posts coming once I am over this cold/flu bug!

Creative Courage

I thought you might like to see the journal page in full size~ From the Simply Sunday post.I used found images and drew the figure of the goddess and then painted her. I also added acrylic and colored pencils to the journal page. I am not sure what Indian goddess she is but I really was drawn to a image of a statue I saw. If I come across it I will post a link for you~
I am inspired to draw Goddess Saraswati she is the Goddess of arts, music, knowledge, and wisdom. I found out about her after looking for images to find the one above~
What types of things have you been creating in your journals? Do you find yourself drawn to creating a series of certain things? Any arts and crafts that you have been drawn to lately?
The heart to conceive, the understanding to direct, and the hands to execute. ~Junius