Summer of COLOR- Week One!

Last Summer, many of my favorite blogs participated in The Summer of Color- created and hosted by Kristin of Twinkle Twinkle.  There were so many beautiful pieces inspired by this event that I really, really wanted to be part of it.  But last Summer was a really bad one for me with lots health problems and such-and I just knew I couldn't add one more thing to my plate.  However, this Summer I am ready and set to go!  The first challenge was Rainbow Sherbert and I decided to take inspiration from this for a spread for The Sisterhood of Traveling Sketchbooks.  We are running really behind and I've decided to try to do my last entries while I'm waiting for the books to come my way.  Anyway, rambling aside; here is my entry-

I'll be adding the quote: " If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies." but I need to wait til I get the book because the page sizes vary from from one book to the next.

So, Happy Monday all- do try to get over to Twinkle Twinkle to see what everyone else came up with for the challenge!

TTFN

Stephanie

29 Faces- Days 13 & 14

It's really funny how things work out sometimes.....I've been putting together these sketchbooks to get into the mail but I just wasn't quite happy with the way my November pages looked- they just seemed unfinished somehow.  Anyway, I need to come up with 2 faces to get caught up with the 29 Facers and voila!  I was able to finish my pages for Lori's book...

 here it is all put together...

close up of the pocket I made for a postcard writeup for Lori

 and the postcard

So that's it for me for today.  I'll be back with more work on my painting- for today, I just wanted to keep it short but sweet as they say!

Have a great Valentine's Day!

x

Stephanie

Paint Party Friday- the 13th!

Eeeeee- it's Paint Party Friday time and Friday the 13th- 

who knows what will happen on a day like this?  I'll be waiting to see....

In the meantime, I finished my December pages for the traveling sketchbooks!

I wanted to keep it simple and not especially traditional, so I did a 

dove inspired by Picasso and surrounded by swirls a la Klimt... 

and layers of patterns punctuated with lines from Christmas carols. 

 You might have noticed that I am totally obsessed with making pop ups right now!

and my signature page, again in non-traditional colors......

I had a lot of fun with this, and NOW, I'm all caught up- or mostly- 

there's still a little tweaking I want to do on my November page.....

In the meantime, while I'm waiting to see which of the Sistas these books are going to, I'll be visiting PPF- won't you come too?  There's so much beautiful art to see, and fabulous people to meet....

Happy PAint PArty Friday!

x- Stephanie

Catch up time.....

Last week, I wrote about my current pages for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketchbooks and then on Saturday, I had two more journals arrive!  Luckily, I knew they were coming so I had time to get an idea of what I'm doing in them.  

First I had to finish Jaime's journal- so here it is:

 this is the main spread with the words to a Day of the Dead poem written in

 and then the signature page.....with part of the poem again.  I've copied the poem in it's entirety at the bottom of this post for anyone who would care to read the whole thing!

 This is definitely one of those pieces that looks better in real life, but hopefully ya'll can get the gist here ;)  I used lots of shimmery metallics which I just can't seem to capture with my camera!

And then on to November:

I've been wanting to start participating in Haiku my Heart so I centered this page around a haiku I wrote.  Last Fall, I was teaching my students how to draw leaves and I noticed how much they look like stars- at least they do to me! 

 again with the metallics not photographing well- it's also really overcast today which helps nothing!

finished with one of my little joie de vivre figures.....

I'm linking this with the "Just Journals" Blog Party....FUN!

So I want to finish this one and the December book by Friday to get them all in the mail- the sketchbooks are more than halfway through with their travels, and I can't wait to see the end!

Here's the poem I used in Jaime's journal:

Message in Colors

Lit candles. Faces. Memories
and an entrance that's a rainbow: protection for the place
of rest and meditation.
Necklaces. Cempasuchitl, pre-Hispanic links, songs,
paper medals, flames talking to the wind
the diverse language departed.
It is the prime time of the celebration
or death's thread, threaded
through time's needle.
It is the decomposition of matter, transformed into art.
It is the final curtain awaken from death in Ocotepec.
Yes. An eternal dream of uncorrupt flowers and of
gibberish.
It is death's lament, fading away
and it is also the respect made a tribute.
Who could have imagined so much beauty on a tomb?
Mole. Glass of water. Copal. Salt. Prayers.
Firecrackers. Fruits. Bread. Music.
Corridos. Bolas. Romantic songs.
History, praised. Creativity, expressed
in its most raw form...
And it is the color purple, elegies in white, blue, pink.
It is a blow from grace so heightened as artificial fire
that reveals the soul's presence in the darkness.
Something like the flowering of martyrdon in flames.
An arrangement for the end or the posthumous splendor.
In Morelos everything is possible
gloom battles with life and its victor,
it is once again for a little which, happiness, live tradition
which overcomes reality.
It was before these ornate gravesites, when I knew
that in Ocotepec, as in my heart,
those that have departed return every year to remind us of
their love.
And that only LOVE can save us.

Julie Sopetran
(Spanish poet, 2000)

I just LOVE the words she used!
Happy creating friends!
Stephanie

Paint Party Friday- YAY I Made it!

This past week, I've been working on getting reorganized and trying to create a schedule for myself where I can get everything done on my list and still have some art to share in time for Paint Party Friday, a place I have truly missed being part of!  And here I am!

Yesterday, when I shared my palette for Palette and Paint Thursday, I mentioned that I'd been working on my Traveling Sketchbook again.  And so, here it is:
I wanted to use Autumn inspired colors since it's for the month of  November and I'm focusing on Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead for my theme.  This is the background I painted in:

These are scraps of paper leftover from my art classes and I just painted free form swirls and stuff.  I'd planned on cutting them into pockets to hold the 13 (to represent each of the Sistas) sugar skulls.  But, now I like them so much, I don't want to cut them up.....so we'll see what I end up doing with them......

Here's my winged skeleton- I'm planning to cut him out and glue him down in pop up format with the sugared-sistah-skulls poking up and around him.  IF I can get it to match my vision, it should look super cool.......

Now, I'm off to start painting the skulls......I'll you all later at Paint Party Friday!

Update:
Here is what the skeleton looks like cut out and folded before I glue him into place.  I want to get all the skulls done and planned out before I do anything final!

 Obviously, it will be a LOT neater when I'm done.....now I'm off to read more PPF posts.....

Happy New Year to YOU!

I've definitely been gone, but hopefully not forgotten!  The computer I had been sharing with my daughter (since my own computer died last Spring) finally crashed and while I've been using my hubby's think pad for reading blogs, I have really slacked off on the actual writing of my own blog!

This last week I've been thinking and thinking- trying to come up with some good resolutions for this bright new year  And as always, I had something of a hard time narrowing it down; BUT I did come up with a few.... 

1. Keep the Quit- many of you know that I quit smoking for the umpteenth time last August; my goal here is to stick with it!
2. Be Grateful- remember the gratitude journal I made a while back?  I need to get back to daily entries.
3. Stay Positive- this is not always an easy thing for me, but I'm gonna work on it!  
4. Be a Better Juggler- parenting, wifing, arting, teaching, blogging- these are just a few of the things that I love in my life and I need to do find a better way to balance them all...get those balls back in the air if you will!

To be honest, 2011 was the hardest year I've had in a long time.  There were a lot of health issues that led to financial issues both of which have had me in and out of a funk for a while now.  But there were also a lot of good things that happened last year!  And while I am grateful to begin a fresh year; I do want to take a moment to think about some of the 
blessings that 2011 has brought my way;
 Being able to combine teaching with being an artist- I love the freedom of my little classes- and having time to paint is such a wonderful feeling!

 Our new little kitten- Mojo has been such a wonderful, funny addition to our family.....

 

   helping start the Sisterhood of Traveling Sketchbooks- I have loved this physical connection with my bloggy, artist friends!

And then of course, there are the blessings that have only gotten better over the years.....

 my sweet (mostly) husband Bill- I can't believe we're about to have our 20th anniversary in a few weeks!

and

my "babies" on Christmas morning, sleepy, but beautiful!

I'll end my rambling of resolutions and gratitude here.....I hope you all had a blessed 2011 and an even better beginning to 2012!

Love and Hugs,

Stephanie

Weekly Challenge at Inspiration Avenue: "Fear"

The theme this week at Inspiration Avenue is "Fear" and truth be told, I'm scared of a LOT of things....but I wanted to keep this basic and throw a little whimsey in there.  So I decided not to do spiders or the dark (yep, I'm a little scared of the dark) or any of the other things I'm afraid of and play with my fear of birds.  Mostly I LOVE birds, at least the ones at my feeder.  The ones I don't like are the ones that attack you sometimes; like hawks or falcons.  SO, that's what I played with- here's my take on "Fear"

Also, I wanted to start something for the October journal of the Traveling Sketchbooks; even tho I don't have the journal with me, I feel like working on it, so I'm doing it tip in style!  I'm not done with her yet, but I feel like I'm headed in the right direction for my October entry with the Sistahs....
I'm also linking with Paint Party Friday - check them and Inspiration Avenue out if you get a chance; there's always tons of beautiful art at both places to admire!  There where I'll be hanging out the next few days!  
Happy Friday!
Stephanie 

Inspiration Avenue Weekly Challenge_ "Autumn's Splendor"

I finished my September page for Brandy's journal just in time to use for this week's challenge at Inspiration Avenue.  The theme was "Autumn's Splendor".   I ended up using a quote by e. e. cummings instead of Robert Frost and added a few more details into the leaves and mask.

Be sure to stop by Inspiration Avenue on Sunday to see what everyone else submitted- there's always a gorgeous variety of art to see!
Cheers,
Stephanie

Paint Party Friday- Week 27

I got Brandy's beautiful sketchbook this week; just in time to start something for Paint Party Friday!  I was so inspired by my friend Jaime's leaf prints a couple weeks ago, I knew I wanted to do something similar for my background so yesterday, I had a great time painting and printing!  Then I sketched in a mask (not sure why I wanted to do a mask, but the muse insisted, and who am I to ignore her?)  So, this is what I have so far...To finish it; I'm going to add a little more veining and Robert Frost's poem "Nothing Gold can stay..."

At first I was worried that it would be too "Halloweeny" but I decided to paint it anyway and see where it from there- I knew if I had to, I could save it for my October pages, but I'm really happy with it as a September piece.  What do you think?  Should I keep it for September or save it for October?
Be sure to stop by Paint Party Friday- that's where I'll be all weekend, enjoying a gorgeous variety of artists and their art!
Stephanie

Paint Party Friday- August 19, 2011

Yay, I'm back on a roll; haven't missed a PPF since getting back from vacation!  It's really good for me to have weekly challenges like PPF and Inspiration Avenue- I'm one of those people who NEED deadlines!  So here's my WIP for this week's challenge at IA- the theme was "Icy" and I'm calling it "Beginning to Thaw"....

 I'm hoping to get the impression of ice crystals in her eyelashes, but don't know if I can pull it off or if it would be one thing to much and mess it up!
Update: .I ended up not doing anything else to this- I can't decide if it's finished or not, so I'm going to leave it for a few days until I decide.  And I didn't say before that the inspiration behind this was my quitting smoking and how the process feels- "Preparing to Thaw" represents the good things that come after the hard part.

And  here's what I ended up doing to finish my August page for my Creative Sistah; Priti Lisa:

Thanks for all the suggestions; and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Now that sketchbooks have had several months of travel; they're getting even  more and more beautiful I am so loving this project and thanks again for ya'lls input!  Be sure to check out Inspiration Avenue and  Paint Party Friday to see what everyone else has been working on this week, it's always an incredibly inspiring trip!
Have a great day,
Stephanie

More on my August page for the sistahs.....

For this week's Paint Party Friday, I'm sharing a little more of my August journal page for the Traveling Sketchbooks.  I'm almost done but now, I need some input....
I found a quote I want to incorporate into the design:
"Whilst August yet wears her golden crown,
ripening fields lush- bright with promise;
Summer waxes long, then wanes, quietly passing
Her fading green glory onto rioutous Autumn
Michelle L. Thieme~ August's Crown

I'm definitely using the quote somewhere in here- but, this is where I need help!  I originally had planned on writing it in the solid areas- but, now, I like then the way they are....then I thought I could glue some ribbon in and tie a scroll onto the page with the quote or make an envelope be part of the page?
Which would you do?
I seriously need help here!

 Oh and, once again, I'm double dipping- this is my entry for this week's challenge at Inspiration Avenue!  Be sure to stop by both Paint Party Friday and IA- there is always so much great stuff to see!
Happy Friday,
Stephanie

Paint Party Friday- August 5th & Weekly Challenge at Inspiration Avenue

Better late than never!  It's been a crazy week around here; with the birthday art party on Monday and then school starting on Tuesday....I feel like I've been running to catch up all week!  But here I am for Paint Party Friday, a little out of breath, but here nevertheless!
I just started working on my August page for Lisa's sketchbook- er box.  I'll take pictures of he box later, because it is VERY worth sharing, a work of art in itself!
I must admit, that August is not my favorite month- even with my son's birth being in there.....I don't like being hot, and in Georgia, August is HOT!  Though not nearly as bad as the folks in the midwest have had it!
Anyway, I decided to do a fragmented page with a sun goddess, landscape and some painted lettering.
The landscape portion is all I have done now (and it may not be done yet, I haven't decided!) But here it is:

I'm also using it for my Inspiration Avenue submission since the challenge this week was "trees".

Be sure to check out both links- tons of cool art to admire!
Toodles,
Stephanie

Paint Party Friday: July 15, 2011

Yay- it's Paint Party Friday and I'm finally able to participate again!  Between vacation and lots of doctor's appointments, I haven't had a chance to be part of the party for several weeks now- I've really missed it!
I've been working on Andrea of Falling Ladies sketchbook this week and I based my design on several themes.  I wanted to do something that acknowledged Independence Day without being too cliche- so I decided to use stars.  Also, Andrea is famous for her wonderful paintings of falling ladies and I wanted to do something that was a nod to her, and her style.  SO after playing around with various words and quotes and sketches, I came across the words "Cloudy with a Chance of Stars"...and everything fell into place after that- or so I thought!

this is the background of my central spread- and I never had a problem with it....

however

my plan had been to do a painting of two women flying with umbrella scanning agross the page with a fold out of the canvas....and I was happy with the painting; just not with the background AND the painting together- they clashed and fought!

 the colors just refused to work together!

but

I also had the Inspiration Avenue challenge to contend with- the theme was Picasso and I do like this painting with the background!

 I'm not finished installing it- I'm planning to glue it in as a pop up- which I think will be really cool!

but what about the first painting?

since I'm never one for throwing things away, I've already cut up the painting and am planning to use it for my other two pages along with my description of what I did and why.

more on that later :)

Be sure to stop by Paint Party Friday- there are always so many wonderful artists to visit!

Happy Paint Party Friday!

Stephanie

Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketch Books- May

Hopefully, this will end up being my Paint Party Friday post, but with Blogger being down for so long, their weekly check in isn't up yet.....
Anyway, this week I started working on the first traveling sketchbook I've received- Jennifer Pride's.  This one was a struggle for me, I'm not sure why, but it was!  It went from being one thing to another and finally, I gave up sketching and just started painting with gesso, water color and acrylics.  I was trying to do a take on Botticelli's dancing ladies in La Primavera but I kept having trouble with the spirals and how to have the design transition for me- this is a real learning process for me, which funnily enough, allowed me to just play and be loose.

I'm loving the white ladies especially because I was able to stay loose instead of over worrying the proportions

This is also my entry for this week's challenge at Inspiration Avenue- where the theme is Signs and Symbols which I mixed into my background imagery.

I wanted to have a suggestion of a Maypole.....lots of words and color

I painted the figures with gesso and once the whole spread had been painted, I spritzed it all with water....sometimes I like that effect in water color paintings, but not so much here (remember a learning experience:))  anyway, I will be going back over the white- just a little 'cause I really like the way the watercolor bled through the gesso.

Oh and in case anyone's wondering, here's what I got done on my rose this week- just a little more detail:

That's about it for me this week, we've been wrapping up the end of the school year, and things have been crazy hectic in my family!

Have a great weekend!
Stephanie
Be sure to stop by my Etsy shop to check out my BOGO sale!

Paint Party Friday- April 29.

I know a lot of you have already heard me talking about the Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketchbooks, and that is what I worked on this week.  Because......this is IT!  They're starting their travels TODAY!
SO, I had a lot of bits and bobs to finish and do touch ups on....
Like; my sign in page- here it is finished:

And a spread dividing the sign in from the "personal info" page:

The personal page was supposed to be reflective of our favorite color represent a sense of who we are:

  I've been hearing a lot about projects people are doing with 21 Secrets (I'm REALLY tempted to sign up....:)) anyway, one technique that really resounded with me was to cover your journal page with writing before you add anything else.  Being the kind of person who usually chooses the hardest way to do things, I decided to do my writing with white souffle gel pens.  It was a little like writing with invisible ink- but the results were SO cool when I did my watercolor wash over the writing- like a watercolor resist! With my words, I was basically rambling on in a rather ADHD sort of fashion about color and colors I like.....
I painted over this with a rambling of turquoise, lime, blue and purple and then once that was dry, I went over it with blue-black; using liquid watercolors.

 I trimmed out a print of my (now infamous) self portrait and played off of a quote from my favorite movie; Ever After"- something Danielle said about choosing a favorite book; "I'd sooner choose a favorite star in the heavens!"  since I love this movie AND books I thought it was kind of neat to include a bit of it in my spread.

random-naming of colors

 Then on the back of the personal spread, I wrote a journal entry basically saying the same thing I've said here, so I didn't take a picture of it.  By the time most of you read this, my little "baby" will have started her journey- first stop is the UK!
The other thing I worked on this week was finishing my angel for the Angel Faces auction.  I'm really happy with how it turned out!  I'll be posting more about the auction today or tomorrow and it starts Sunday for anyone whose interested in obtaining some artwork for an amazing cause!.

Be sure to go see what everyone else was up to this week at Paint Party Friday-  I know I'll be spending the day visiting!
Happy PPF- I can't believe, I'm early for once!
Stephanie

Paint Party Friday- April 8th!

Eeeeee!  It's Paint Party Friday again, and I'm SO jazzed!  I've had a blast meeting people each week and discovering some really amazing (new to me) art!  For this week, I've been working on my Sketchbook for the Sisterhood of the Traveling Sketchbooks- my new and first round robin.  I felt really behind in beginning because I had a really hard time finding the right book to use.  Who would have thought it'd be so hard?  But, we have very specific requirements to meet, so it had to; have 60+ pages (we each get 4 to work with) and had to accept multi media.  The first one I got was wonderful for mixed media with really heavy duty watercolor paper- but, alas, it only had 50 pages.....the second I got online from Dick Blick and they promised that it was great for mixed media, well the paper was about the thickness of printer paper, so, no go.  On my third try, I FINALLY found a book at Sam Flaxx that actually met both requirements, so on Monday, I was ready to go!!!
Luckily during my trials of finding a book to work with, my brain was going overdrive with ideas for the cover, sign in and "all about me" pages.  You guys saw the beginning of the "me" spread with my self portrait last week.

For the cover, I turned to one of my favorite sources of inspiration; Gustav Klimt

And while I'm not quite done with the sign in pages, I have enough to show.  I love interactive art, I'll probably do at least couple of pop ups in the sister's books as they come to me.  In the meantime, my sign in page consists of 12 squares that flip up for the ladies to write their names, where they live and which month they did a spread for.

So that's my Paint Party Friday entry for the week- now I'm off to PARRTTAY!  Hope to see you there :D

Stephanie