Little Scraps of Magic

Restrain Yourself...and a Bit of Inspiration, Too!

This was inspired by Hanna, who was inspired by Michelle. Both of these women are beyond awesome.

Hanna never fails to inspire, and I leave her blog with my ideas popping in my head, just like that bag of microwave popcorn doing its thing! And, Michelle? Super talented, beyond generous, and a gifted teacher. I know 'cause I've taken classes with her, and, oh, she's wickedly funny as well.

So, restraint...not in my makeup! I love color, and I love to cram my pages full of it and texture. I'm not much for white space, so, like Hanna, I wanted to keep going with this page. I'm thinking pink lately, so I grabbed some paper, a paint swatch, and a few ripped up journal pages. And, then? Well, then, I left white, and I am okay with it. In fact, it's growing on me.

When I opened this particular journal, I found a page where I had randomly glued on bits and pieces of art table goodness, and a lot of...well, you know, ....white space. So, I grinned, and then I journaled. And, once again, I had me some fun. So, I think I'll do another quick little page when I'm done here.

Just a bit of fun, and a bit of play, and it's oh so good for the soul.

Now, pop on over and visit those two ladies!

Summer's Palette, Take 2

 
So, here's take two for Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team, Crusade 52!  As much as I loved the one image, she wasn't really mine to use. So, I did some digging through my stash to try to find things to make it work. I came up with the bird, a shot I took a summer or two ago  Out came the pens, to add a touch of blue and to lighten the photo up a bit. It seemed "heavy" to me. I added the flower...maybe a bit scrap booky rather than a journal? Nothing wrong with scrapbooking - I do it myself! I didn't realize that the yellow tape "x's" mimicked the tape at the tape until just now. It's funny how the mind works, isn't it?

Head on over to Michelle's site...and maybe, we can persuade you to play along?

In A Scrape, Part 2

I spent a few precious hours playing in the art room yesterday and today...more of Michelle's GPP Street Team Crusade for this month. I played a bit with mixing white with each of the following: burnt sienna, Payne's Gray, and Quin Magenta. I worked with an old gift card and scraped on some paint thicker than others. If you look closely, I stamped a bit in the upper right corner using a cork, blotting it a bit with a paper towel afterwards to soften the circles and make them blend in a bit more.

The corrugated cardboard on the left had been used for mark making. I peeled away the backing to make it a bit thinner and flatter, but then went ahead and glued on a tiny umbrella from a strawberry smoothie I enjoyed at an "Artfest" on Solomon's Island, MD. The gal comes from a recent mail catalogue and the paper behind her from a mail art friend. A bit of stamping, a bit of jounaling with a fine tip Sharpie, and "tah dah!" another page!

Since I always use too much paint, no matter how hard I try, I always keep some extra paper nearby.

Except for the round "donuts," everything here is scraped as well. These are rather large sheets, so I'll ending up tearing them down to size and use them as pages for a future journal. I love accumulating a stash like this!   

Texting!

Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team challenge for August is to use text. I've always loved doing this, and I have a cigar box full of random phrases that I pull out periodically, either for a finishing touch to a page, or to jump start one.

I began by just sifting through all my collected words, really looking for color and what might "Pop" against the background. As I shoved one here and another there, I realized that I could just about spell out a little sentence sort of thing! So, of course, I did so! Sheer luck.

Hope everyone is enjoying the remaining days of summer. Last week held meeting after meeting and getting my classroom into order. I pretty much came home every day one tired puppy. (Maybe I should say one tired old dog?) Tomorrow, the troops arrive. Looks to be a busy year, but a great one. I loved seeing all their faces on Thrusday's meet and greet...the students are really the best part of it all! (The paperwork I could do without.)

Just a bit ago, I cut up slices of various sorts of tomatoes, some fresh mozarella, somee fresh basil, and drizzled olive oil over it all. Sounds yummy, don't you think? And, we head to the beach this weekend..steamed clams, crab legs, fudge, ice cream - but not all at once! I'm so ready to just inhale the salt air.

I'm going to go and read the Sunday paper now; this day has been a busy one!  

Grid Lock???

Michelle Ward over at GPP Street Team, issues a new challenge each month. I've played along a few times, but somehow never got to posting.

This month's challenge...go play with grids! The one you see above is super simple...just tags aligned...but tons of fun. It's just what I needed after sending my sixth graders home for the final time this school year.

I needed simple...trust me when I say that the brain was not in full gear. So, I used some paste paper from my classes with Albie Smith (Boy, did I hate to cut that paper up!) as a background, and then grabbed a bunch of tags. I covered them with paper gleaned at Art & Soul this past May; the packet, snagged at Vendor's Night, came stuffed in an envelope from the "Superintendent of the Poor." All sorts of legal documents, some written in pencil were stuffed in that envie. (Note to self and others...pencil smears!) I grabbed some stamps - on an effort to use more of my "stuff" and just played.

Arrange them all in a grid, and voila...one pretty cool page!

Thanks, Michelle!