First Time Bible Journaling

Almost two years ago, my friend Faye gave me this journaling Bible. For those of you who have never heard of Bible Journaling, it's a thing! A mighty cool thing too!

I love it!
Thank you Faye.

The Bible comes with some
fancy schamancy, already spruced-up, 
journal-like pages on both sides.

Other pages are prettied up on one side.

While full-page illustrations can 
be found here and there as well.

Of course, pages with space
for journaling are abundant!

Would you believe that, after almost two years, I'm just now journaling in it?

Like 
TODAY 
was my first day!

It's true.

Yeah, I know.
Shame on me!

I wanted to accomplish a few things this morning before I started journaling. 

First, I ordered several sets of Bible Journaling stamps from the Joy Clair website. 

Next, I hopped on over to Pinterest to pin some Bible Journal inspiration. I pinned a few things as well as a video on The Thinking Closet website where blogger Lauren Lanker listed her 20 favorite Bible Journaling supplies. Her enthusiasm was a joy to watch! 

If you're interested, Lauren's vid is here. 

My Pinterest Bible Journaling board is here.

My Pinterest time led me to seek out a few Bible journaling bloggers so that I could add them to my blog reading list. Done.

At last, I was ready to journal.

It seemed fit to journal the first scripture I EVER learned which was taught to me as a child by my grandma, Mee-Maw Richter.

The scripture is

John 3:16

For God so loved the world that he gave his 

only begotten son that whoever believes in 
him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

Here's the page.
It's simple.

Far from perfect.

BUT

it was fun, fun, fun!

Supplies used:

MozArt Watercolor Brush Pens,

Pitt pen and brads.

See you soon!

May Your Day Be 
Extra Merry & Beautifully Bright,

D~~~~

Colorado Chain Saw Art

In Bayfield, Colorado, not far from the RV park where we camped, chainsaw art carvings are spread throughout the area. Some are along the main roads and others can be found off the beaten path. I thought I'd share some of them with you. I took a separate close-up pic of the number, title and sponsor but, as you'll see, some have missing info.

2 Black Bear & Cubs

4 Sheriff with Radio

9 Slurry Plane and Fire Fighter

This one rests in the playground 

next to our RV park entrance.

10 Racoon and Fire Fighter

11 Mule Deer and Fawn

12 Bald Eagle and Lynx

The information plate is missing 

from this one. If I remember correctly, 

it was outside a firehouse.

Let's call it:

0 Fire Fighter with Missing Info

I can't remember exactly where this cool

piece is located but I wanted to include it.

I think it's near the RV park.

Quite impressive, aren't they?

According to an online article titled, "Only in Colorado: Lake Vallecito's Tour of Carvings" on 5280.com, these chainsaw carvings were born out of the Missionary Ridge fire in 2002, and created by a Pagosa Springs artist named Chad Haspels. The article mentions the Raccoon and Fire Fighter piece at the RV park, and tells the story behind it. The writer, Terri Cook, also states that there are a total of 14 pieces. We drove around looking for them but only found these seven. 

It appears that we must go hunting next year!

Tootles Y'all,

D~~~~  

Painting Rocks in Colorado

In September, hubby George and I met up with our friends Joe & Linda at a really neat RV park in Colorado! It was so nice to escape the Texas heat and we had a grand time while we were there!

Joe & George went jeeping a few times during our trip. One of those days, Linda and I painted rocks while they were gone. 

Okay, maybe not rockS.

It was more like A rock.

We painted A rock.

Each.

First, we gathered our supplies.

Here's some of them.

(You know you need a LOT of 

supplies to paint A rock?)

Okay, maybe you don't 

but we do!

Hee-hee.

And since watching us paint makes life 

sooo grueling for our dogs, we try to make 

them extra comfy & cozy by tucking 

them into their individual chairs.

Here's Tootie & Harley chillin'...

... and Elmer and Chewy 

relaxing next to them.

It takes awhile for us to finish A rock
but we really enjoy the process!

Here's Linda's cute rock! 

And my shiny rock!

Of course, I can't leave well enough alone. 

I had to go berserk with glitter once again!

It was all super fun though!

Linda and I both look forward

to more rock painting in the future!

While the guys were jeeping, they came across this area of painted rocks in Priest Gulch. After we left, Linda and Joe RV'd over to Priest Gulch for a bit. Linda told me that these rocks are pretty big. 

Neat, huh?

See ya soon.

Tootles & Doodles,

D~~~~

Day 29~The Coffee Poem

If you've been following my journey with the Creative Jumpstart class, you know that it was a 31-day online class with a different instructor each day. I had only completed 12 days by the time the month was over. I'm slow but that's okay! The vids stay up until November so I'm doing some of the remaining ones (my favs) at random in between other projects. 

This post is the Day 29 workshop led by Jane Lafazio. Her video was named, Dinner with Georgia O'Keefe. I loved her tri-fold book with it's zigzagged binding so I had to hop on over to do it next. I'm a sucker for sewing on paper!

My tri-fold book is named The Coffee Poem.

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

The entire book.

Like Jane's book, it's bound 
together with a zigzag stitch.

Here's a close-up of the poem.

Materials: 9"x12" watercolor paper, watercolors,  

fabric (for the countertops), copy paper, tissue paper,

Pitt Pens, Misty Fuse, sewing machine & thread.

All this coffee stuff has me craving  

a cup so I think I'll go make one!  

I'll be back soon with my next project.
I'm not exactly sure what it will be though.
I have a lot of choices.
Hmm, decisions, decisions. 

Thanks for stopping by y'all!

Tootle Loo,

D~~~~

P.S. The white background on the photos seems to have a yellow tint. I edited them a couple of times and tried to get it out but to no avail. Sorry!

Day 12~Chimney Picnic Area

I've completed Day 12, and on the last day of the 2018 Creative Jumpstart online class! I have taken it at a pace that allowed me to really enjoy the process. 

The Day 12 artist was Jessica Sporn whose project was titled Canvas with a Story. Her iconic flag of Puerto Rico was very cool and I enjoyed watching her create it! 

Immediately, I thought of the stunning Great Smoky Mountains National Park, my favorite place to be when possible. To me, National Parks are indeed American icons, and with that in mind, I wanted my project to give the Great Smoky Mountains National Park a nod.

The brick was intended to represent nearby Gatlinburg, however, the area depicted here is the Park's Chimney Picnic Area. Obviously, the brick could represent it as well! 

Supplies used: canvas from a tablet, gesso, acrylics, watercolors, a map of the Gatlinburg Art Loop, tissue paper, stamp, stencil, Pitt Pens, thread, fabric (for the tree trunks and stream) and rick rack (for the outer edges of the stream). 

Similarly, the fabric stream looks much like a rock wall, and many of those can be found in the Park too. I'll leave the interpretation to the eye of the beholder. 

What do you see? 

A stream or a rock wall?

I personally think it looks like a rock wall. It started out a stream and unintentionally converted right before my very eyes! Stuff like that happens in art, doesn't it? 

I haven't done a lot of painted landscape art but I definitely like the piece, and had a good time creating it. 

Even though it's the last day, I plan to continue trying some of these wonderful projects but I won't be doing them in order. I have two in mind that I want to do next. After those, I'll do others at random in between my other projects. 

I want to thank each and every artist for their delightful, informative videos and a great big thank you to Nathalie Kalbach for hosting. I picked up some informative and very cool things from this experience, and I've learned things about myself and my art making as well. I think I'll have to do this again next year if it is offered! 

May Your Day (or night)

Be Wildly Creative & Extra Bright,

D~~~~

Day 11~Jeanne in Galveston

Catherine Scanlon led the Day 11 workshop which was titled, Traced Flower Painting. The title describes the project, and it immediately reminded me of a photo I took of my sister Jeanne in Galveston, Texas in 2012. 

After the trip, I traced Jeanne onto a journal page and started journaling the trip. I never felt like the page was complete though, so Jeanne has been sitting there for over five years now, and boy is her butt tired! Tee-hee-hee. I knew the second I started Catherine's video, it was time to further journal Jeanne.

This is the photo I traced. 

It was taken in the 

Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. 

Restaurant & Market. 

The page in progress in 2012.

The recently finished page. 

I really like it!

Truthfully, I still see more changes and additions that I might like but I'm leaving it here--for now, maybe forever. 

It's time to start working on Day 12.

Tootles My Friends,

D~~~~

Day 10~Monoprinting Backgrounds

Annie O'Brien Gonzales led the Day 10 Workshop, titled Monoprint Collage, in which she demonstrated monoprinting which can be used for future backgrounds or anything your little ole heart desires. 

I did not have the vellum paper or the deli paper. Instead of the vellum, I used the same cardstock that I used for monoprinting on Day 7--the Neenah, smooth finish, super heavyweight (110 lb.) copy paper. In place of the deli paper, I used tissue paper.

The first mono print done on tissue paper.

Ghost prints were done on collaged paper.

I collaged mine together the day before.

The ghost print.

A side-by-side look.

The second monoprint on starry tissue paper.

The ghost print on collaged paper.

It didn't turn out very well.

A side-by-side look.

Since I wasn't happy with the ghost print, 

I decided to print over it.

Still not content, I decided to do another set and print over it again!

Here's that monoprint on teal tissue paper.

Here's the ghost print on top of 

the already twice-printed collage paper.

Of course, the white isn't going to show up very well. If I had known I was going to print on the teal paper and use white, I would have collage some color on the ghost print papers but I was flying by the seat of my pants.

The side-by-side view.

When finished, I took the Gelli plate...

...and turned it over onto my work table paper.

I like it!

When the work table paper is full, it'll be cut up to use for something--background paper, collage pieces, whatever.

I'm enjoying the Gelli printing, and

I really like working with tissue paper! 

The first prints were my favorites. 

Do you have a favorite?

Time for Day 11.

See ya soon,

D~~~~