My oldest grandaughter is planning a trip to Japan after High School graduation. She loves everything Japanese and is very interested in experiencing the culture live and in person.
I created this nano Traveler’s Notebook with her in mind. I knew, as soon as I saw the papers that it would be perfect. Here, you can see the outside of the refillable cover, and the four pocket folders. The little book inserts are covered in coordinating paper.
When you are working on a small scale, you have to figure out different ways to do things to reduce bulk. Even though you don’t see it when you just look at these nano Traveler’s Notebook covers, the knots of these are sealed with glue.
Here, you see the clips I use to hold the elastic while the glue dries over night. As a bonus, you can see a bit of the inside of each cover, too.
I saw some really cute, woodland pins in Hobby Lobby the other day. I decided to get them because they were on sale. My thinking was that I could use them as “journal jewelry”.
To attach it to the cover, I punched a tiny hole with a 3/16ths punch in the lower corner of my nano Traveler’s notebook. Then I inserted the post of the pin and pushed on the backing.
I haven’t posted a Zentangle from Amanda Higbee, CZT in a long time. The camera on her phone has been broken and other life things have interfered.
But I have one for your pleasure today!
I love the way she used strips of Ambler to draw the eye into the center of the tile.
I also got a big kick out of the list of tangles on the back of her tile. She called Bronx Cheer “boo boo berries”!
A new year means new art journals! I am making some more nano Traveler’s Notebooks, designed to fit in a pocket, to be used for art, journaling or both!
In the picture, you can see some hints: Covers for summer with beach themes, some contemporary designs, a couple of unique grungy in bright colors, even some for Valentine’s Day.
If you’re interested in obtaining one of these for yourself or as a gift, just PM me on Facebook to work out the details!
I woke up in the middle of the night with “faucet nose”, and as the day progressed, it became obvious that I have a cold! So I wasn’t feeling super ambitions about the art for the pages. I wanted something that was fun with pretty colors.
The prompt for this day was “icicles”. I did want to try it because they’re something I’ve never drawn or painted before. But I really didn’t know how to fill a page with them. So I made them small at the top of the page.
The prompt for this day was “animal in a Santa hat.” I decided to double down, and I have two of them here! The hat and the scarf for the reindeer were actually done on another piece of paper, cut out, and glued to the image.
I love the idea of the deer having his own friend, the little winter finch!
On the left side is a color mixing exercise. This was done with the Daniel Smith Ultimate Mixing set. I used Hansa Yellow Medium, Pyrrol Red and Pthalo Blue to make all the other colors.
I was reorganizing Studio II before the holidays. I wanted to get all the little buckets of pencils off of the drafting table so that I could use the table itself.
A couple of days after I started thinking about how to do this, we were walking through Ikea for exercise (you can get a lot of steps in if you walk the whole showroom and marketplace!) and I came across a solution!
When I first started this image in my book, it was the shortest day of the year.
Yes, I am journaling on “the” day, but the artwork is not necessarily finished on the day it was started. That’s because sometimes life happens.
At any rate, I finally finished this, so… ta da… Here is my Solstice art!
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It’s ugly sweater day! Well, maybe not officially, but that’s the theme for this spread.
I did the right side in a pastel palette and the left in a more traditional color choice.
Both are over a sparkling background and incorporate metallic and other gel pens.
So what does YOUR “ugly sweater” look like?
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Left side: I wanted to play with words and a blue/pink/purple color combination. I also used iridescent watercolor, but it doesn’t show up in the photo.
Right side: The prompt for December 9th was Cocoa! Since I think gingerbread cookies are designed to go with hot chocolate, my page is all about these delicious treats!
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My Christmas Art Journal is continuing! Today I’m showing you the page spread for December 8.
The prompt for this day was “sleigh”. So I chose to do Santa’s Sleigh all packed up ready for deliveries!
A young reindeer stands by ready to learn from his parents all about the job he’ll be doing in the future.
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At the beginning of November, I took part in a mini book exchange in the Micro Art Journal group on Facebook.
I made two mini books and sent them both off to my exchange partner.
Although it wasn’t required, my partner, Misty Palek, filled one of the books I sent her with passport/mail art and sent it back! She also included this wonderful antique card that you see above.
I am so in love with this little book! She truly created a beautiful work of art. Here is a video where you can see what she created.
I decided to add this to the inside of the back cover. That area wasn’t reserved for any particular day.
I was digging through some previously stamped pieces that were in a drawer in the studio and I found both the cutout, embossed moon and a piece that had been embossed with stars. I’ve had them for about 20 years ago, when I used to do a lot of stamping. I cut down the background piece and glued it inside the back cover. Then I glued the moon over it.
Left side: Christmas is the time of music and singing. Kokopelli represents music. He is often found in petroglyphs holding a flute. I was a bit tired of red and green and just wanted to play with painting some other colors. The background just called for this musical trio!
Right side: Mamacita, ¿Dónde está Santa Claus? Where in the world is Santa Clause? It’s pretty obvious that he’s hiding out someplace nice and warm!
I love the way gingerbread smells as it’s baking. It fills the house with warmth, happiness and excited anticipation.
That said, I’ve never made gingerbread cookies or a gingerbread house. I think it would be really fun to make them and decorate them. Not sure if I would want to eat them, though! LOL!
So instead, I’ve created a dream of a gingerbread village with houses, people and even a bush!
The prompt for this day was “Christmas lights”. All I could think of is how everyone decorates their yards this time of year. It’s one of my favorite things about the season. I could ride around and look at them all night long.
On the other hand, I find most of the blow-up-style yard decorations bizarre. I’ve seen yards full of them. One of the new-ish ones around here is Santa’s Food Truck. Weird.
The prompt for this day was “candles”. Because my book is nano-sized, I thought that just one candle would suffice. I wasn’t sure how I would handle having a white candle, but I think this worked to give that impression!
In addition to watercolor, I used gel pens on this for the lettering and the metallic touches.
It’s sometimes hard to get a lot of detail on something small. Having the fine point Uniball Signo DX helps a lot because the 0.38 size tips really draw a very thin line.
I saw in a report last week that black Christmas trees are a thing now days. That got me to thinking what color I would like for a tree. Black isn’t for me, but I did think about a hot pink tree with black, silver and white decorations. I might kind of like that!
So, on this day, the art prompt was “christmas tree”. I decided to give my pink tree idea a go. It didn’t really look as good as I imagined. But I might give this another go with a more realistic design. (And no blue!)
Bringing Home the Tree.
Sharing another double-spread because the art went across both pages.
The prompts for today didn’t really have anything to do with this picture. I just felt it was appropriate!
I just had to customize the VW because of the way the stamp was. There were lines, indicating panels. I don’t know if this is what the creator had in mind… But it was certainly what popped into My mind!