Collage Play

Being the A.D.D. crafter that I am, I have recently taken up a new crafting direction - Art Journaling! It is a take off of what I have been doing most of my life, which is collage. As you know I have discovered some wonderful Art Journal artists and have read their blogs, books, and zines and got inspired! I found a collage group through the blog Something Two Crow About. The talented Nancy has put together a Collage Play group and posts a page of images to use in a weekly collage. Group members use at least three images and post them in the flickr pool. They are awesome. I have participated in the 3rd and 4th week and love the image prompts and am fascinated with what the talented members create!



I find myself carrying my new moleskin book (with the heavier pages - much better than the regular page weight notebook that I was doodling in, where markers would bleed through) to carpool line and music lessons. Such an enjoyable way to pass time when I am out. I even made this little moleskin 'cozy' that holds the book and has a section for pens, pencils and the awesome water soluble crayons I have been using.

This is such a motivating thing for me, I must say. And I am forever looking for crafts that I can take with me. The artist inside is bursting to get out. Artist?Crafter? Whatever.

I Miss You, Eddie

You were my first child. I had never had a dog before, only cats. When I was having trouble getting pregnant and needing something or someone to mother - you came in to my life. I went to the home where you were born and you had your face in the food bowl. Once I picked you up that day I never put you down. We had no leash, no food bowl, nothing to prepare to bring a puppy home but you were the one. We chose each other. I never put you down that day.

Throughout the years you were always at my side. The day I took my first human son home you jumped on the bed next to the carrier and calmly welcomed him. You laid on the corner of his playmate like a guard. You welcome the other child and other dogs into the house but was always the king. You were the man.


You were our road trip guy. You claimed my lap on our many trips to Sanibel and loved to stick your head out of the window and feel the air when I let you. You knew how to open and close the window, unfortunately using the lock on occasion. The day you locked our family out of the car at the gas station will go down in history!

I miss you, my baby boy. Miss you terribly. I will love you forever.

Eddie - My Baby

Please keep my baby pup, Eddie, in you prayers if you are so inclined. My 'first child' who is on in dog years at 14 is very sick and fighting for his life.

He is such a great dog and we are devestated that he isn't well. My kids know he is sick and at the hospital and are keeping their fingers crossed with little discussion at this point. His doggy brother, Gary, is sadly sitting by the front door window waiting for his nap buddy. :(

We welcome with joy

Lars



We have a new addition to our family. Lars is an African Pygmy Hedgehog that our son named after his favorite drummer, Lars Ulrich of Metallica. (Our young guy is quite a drummer and a big Metallica fan. We don't know where that came from, but that is another discussion.)

How very cute is this little guy?! I don't think this is the clearest photo, but we are new to photographing hedgehogs. Our snake, Clam, passed away earlier in the summer and my boys have been wanting a new pet. We delayed bringing a new creature into the home because of our summer travels. Lars came in lieu of a trip to Universal Studios and Disney. (Sold out hotels were a good clue to impending crowds, paired with summer Florida heat and afternoon showers...I was more than happy to forgo the trip and visit the pet store!

Hedgehogs seem to make good pets. I researched them online a bit after my husband took him to the store to 'just look'. He fell in love and that was the beginning. They live in moderate sized cages, aren't smelly or profoundly dirty and don't eat anything is a dead animal. We are proud hedgehog owners now!

Journaling for Dummies

Okay, I'm not a dummy.

As I often mention I am a bit obsesses with art craft books, magazines, and zines (and blogs). After discovering Teesha Moore's Art and Life zines and pouring through them, and subsequently reading her blog and how she creates such eye candy, I decided to take a shot at journaling with a more artistic approach.

I have always started(and stopped) diaries and journals since I was a kid. I have sketched in them, too. I have cut and collaged as long as I have been able to hold scissors. I have started in a small, inappropriate sketchbook that is more of a flimsy, spiral bound blank book that I have had for a few years. I have sketches in them dating back 7 years (but I don't have a lot of pages filled yet).

I also picked up a few books on journaling (how could I not! I will share them with you another day). I got out my supplies and followed the suggestions of those journal artists that I admire, which also includes Traci Bautista, who ia a collage and mixed media artist with an often fabulous color palette! They suggest making backgrounds first, then adding layers of color, stamping, etc...Some collage perhaps. Then journaling. While I am not quite ready to write out the details of my days, I did let my mind wander with the background and collages that came to be and put my thoughts with them.

I don't know how people scan their journal pages. Frankly, as you can see from my website, I don't know how people make their websites so visually amazing. Something to think about learning in the future (after the bar mitzvah and the move.)