More Mermaid Love

I've always liked mermaid images. I doodled this one in my journal over the weekend. It's not the greatest, but I only had limited supplies since I was on a trip. I drew her with a graphite pencil and then colored in with watercolor crayons. I brushed over parts with a wet brush, which works great over watercolor crayons or pencils.

You can see some other mermaids I've made here, here and here. As you can see, I like mermaids, whether painted or drawn, flat or 3D, rendered in jewelry, ATCs, collage, shadowboxes or really any medium. I even have mermaid costumes for my Blythe dolls. But I would call this just a fondness or attraction, not an obsession. An obsession with mermaids would probably involve an adult size costume, and I can safely say I do not have one. What is your "almost-obsession"?

Scrapbooks and journals, oh my!

Besides my February table above, I wanted to show some pictures of the outstanding fabric journal my niece Abby, 13, made and sent to me. When I was at her house last fall, I noticed her busily sewing scraps of fabric together, and she showed me the darling journal cover she was making for one of the art journals I had given her.

Knowing my terrible sewing skills, which usually end up being solved by fabric glue, I asked her if she would make me a journal cover, and when she came to visit I sent her home with a bunch of flannel and other swatches.

A few days ago a fat package arrived, and in it was not only the wonderful journal cover above, but also the teeniest, tiniest one-inch journal with paper inside- perfect for my Blythes and their dollhouse! (I wonder what they'll write in it?!)

Meanwhile, I have been printing color photos of my Blythe dolls for about six months, fully intending to put them in a scrapbook, so I could remember the dolls I've bought and sold. I finally got that going this month. As you can see in the top photo, I had an interloper inspecting my work during the photo session. More pictures on my Blythe blog here.

A new journal for a new year

I hoard journals. I love all sizes and types, from purse-size Moleskine to hand-made and hand-bound journals, board books, bound pages, whatever. I treasure journals I have received as gifts. I have a gorgeous handmade one from Laurie Blau-Marshall. I have a beautifully-covered one from Michelle Geller. My great-niece just gave me a pretty one for my birthday. I just bought one on clearance at Pier 1.

So what is the problem, you ask? I don't ever seem to write in them. I have journals with watercolor paper, lined pages, blank pages, pages made from maps and cool ephemera. I love to look at them, and I love knowing I have them in case inspiration strikes. But I couldn't seem to make a mark.

I guess I felt I'd be ruining the beauty of the journal somehow, which I know is dumb, especially because I actually drool over examples of others' filled journals. Even my great-niece has a totally cool journal she writes and doodles in and add mementos. She even stitched herself a fabric cover for it. I bought her Dawn DeVries Sokol's Doodle Diary to keep her inspired.
And she did just that.

Meanwhile, I would buy Stampington's Art Journaling magazine. I would stare for hours on end at cool blogs, especially work by Pam Garrison and Pam Carriker. I even advanced to tearing out magazine pages and pieces of magazine pages that inspired me. In fact, I have baggies of paper bits just waiting for a place to call home.

Finally, I decided the new year and new month are a very good reason to start a journal. That, and the fact that I had been itching to paint, draw, make collages, doodle, draw zentangles, do Zettiology-like art, and what better place to do everything, than in a journal. When I mentally commited, I was so excited, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday and started right in preparing pages.

I am using a plain, 9" x 12" *ish* journal by Canson with watercolor paper pages. I collaged several pages with my paper stash. I was further inspired by a "supply swap" I had just done with Jade Adams, and could hardly wait to use the goodies she sent. I also have a ton of new rubber stamps from Unity and their kit-of-the-month club, as well as Unity Stamps by Suzi Blu, all of which I want to play with.

After I collaged a few pages, I realized I hadn't left myself any room for the "dreaded" writing down of thoughts. Intentional? Maybe. Or maybe just inexperience. So I painted the back side of the pages with watercolors, and ended up making color-theme spreads, each with a blank page for my thoughts.....if I happen to have any.

Weekend Busy-ness: Due vs Do, Deux Jours, Not Enough, Mon Dieu!

Here are a few of the artist trading cards (ATCs) or some call them ACEOs: Art Cards, Editions and Originals that I made for two swaps in the Marie Antoinette Mail Art group. I am just loving this new group I was recently lucky enough to be juried into. I made a dozen all original, all handmade (no digital skills for me) cards Saturday. These are off in the mail Monday, and then I need to get to work painting 17 4" square book pages for the group's fat book page swap. I sketched some ideas last night. Not sure if I want to go with hand-drawn, hand-painted pages or my usual collage with embellishment.

I really feel like I've been busy all weekend, yet I've accomplished little else except to make a list of all the art and writing projects I have due or want to do.

I saw the absolute most darling paper mache ever here on Pam Garrison's blog, so I've been dying to try to make something like these. I also have the doll heads and fat canvasses, so I want to make a dolly canvas like Lisa Kaus here or Beth Quinn here. I have a great sprinkler head just waiting for me to make a robot like this. And I have a new blank watercolor journal so I can journal like Pam does here. I also want to draw girls like Suzi Blu so I joined her Ning group to take a class.

I packed up some Earthenwood beads like these for a trade with Lorelei for this bracelet from her Etsy. She is so talented! I have several things from her shop. I also upended my own Etsy shop. Take a peek. And I am drooling over my recent Etsy purchases of this darling birdie from Michigan, swimmer-person from the U.K. and Steampunk canvas from the oh-so-talented DeBriNa in Cali.

Today I squeezed in a little time to properly dress and coif my new, unnamed Blythe, which I blogged about here. One of my Blythe dolls is going to Aunt Maggie for a face-up.

And over the weekend I tried to work a bit on the first five pages of a manuscript that is due by July 3 for a writing workshop, where I can not only have it evaluated by an author or editor, but I can pitch it to an agent, and I can enter it in a contest. That would be the Midwest Writers Workshop; can't wait! If only weekends were made of five days, and work, deux.