Aww Hell

Okay, so like, I'm really, really behind on the Soul Journal now! I got so exited about that, I neglected my swaps! I think I broke some kinda rule or something! Rest assured I am caught up and ready to rumble! Thanks for all your nice comments the last two weeks!

I only have a coupla things to post art-wise, but believe me after this weekend I'll have lots!

Here's a skinny page I did for a swap on the art techniques group on yahoo; the theme is summer. One of those commitments I made back in June I think. I made 25 of them - ack! It was good practice, however, because I joined a techniques fat book swap and need to do 120 pages for that one! Sheesh! What was I thinking?

The poem on there is one my gramma (waving! hey gramma!) sang to me when I was a kid - hell, when I was an adult, too. My gramma was always singing some silly song. Too bad she's not here to sing them to me anymore - I'm glad I listened although some of them were horribly racist and I can't sing them these days. Even in the privacy of my own home, that stuff embarrasses me now - amazing that we didn't think a thing of it back in the day! When I think nothing's changed really, I can remember stuff like that and say, well it has changed a bit. But as usual, I digress...

Then I made this lil ATC for another swap on atcsforall.com. For some reason my friends are calling me pickle (or dickle when I'm being feisty). So to honor my new nick, here's a card.

It was suggested to me that she looks preggers, and perhaps if she wasn't such a boozy slut, she'd know who the father pickle was - I'm not sure how this all came through in an ATC! All I have to say is - "don't hate, man!." Pickles need love too and maybe she's just ummm chubby. I know in my case an unfortunate clothing choice can make people ask "when's your baby due?" although as I get older that happens less and less! Good thing, too, that sure embarrasses a person - not me, because hey I know I'm a chubette. It's all good.

Thanks to all my fellow Soul Journalers for leaving nice comments - I read all of them even though I was busy at work and all and no time to respond. I treasure every comment I receive! So here I go, back to the art grind, if you can call it that!

Wow - Christian the Lion!

Okay - uggh. I HATE crying. This was so worth it. Nuff said. Stupid YouTube won't let me autopost to my blog so I'm just linking. I promise you'll like this.

Christian the Lion

Just watch it, okay? And bring Kleenex!

Soul Journal - Days 8-9

Whew! I am so far behind! Not my fault this time, though. BossMan sent me to Nebraska for a few days - I did have fun although it was a completely different world. And wow - FARM WIVES! They are the BOMB. These people eat the biggest lunch I've ever seen - and mashed potatoes and bread at every meal! Talk about heaven on earth. I am in love. But as usual, I digress...

Day 8 we had to paint our taped pages - I don't like mine AT ALL. I saw some other soul journal sisters' pages and I am horribly jealous. But I'm just going to go with the flow and hope we cover up this mess quickly because this ugliness is ruining the whole thing! Grumble.

Now on our magazine pages, again, painting on top and rubbing off and I like the way this one turned out. I used a baby blue which worked out well to soften the purple. Then I took my trusty Sharpie and drew dotted lines, broken lines, messy boxes and words on the pictures. I like the way it turned out! So that makes up for my ugly tape page.

Well kids, that's all for now - I need to prep some pages and get a whole mess of photo profile cards ready to send tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Till next time, Cheeka.

Soul Journal - Day 7

Wow - I'm like 3 days behind - but not for long! I think I can catch up by tomorrow! But life catches up with me and dang I need to get my photo profiles cards OUT and I have a few swaps to catch up so I can breathe and the rest are due in October. Skinny book pages due in 10 days and I HAVEN'T STARTED YET. I need to quit making plans on the weekends! Grrr. I'm making candles with my friend Misti on Saturday and then I'm going to make her some risotto because I am practicing to get on Hell's Kitchen. And if I've learned nothing from the previous seasons, I've learned that Gordon really likes risotto. It's like cinnamon toast to him. To me, I don't understand why they sell cinnamon sugar to sprinkle on toast - can't everyone make that? I mean, c'mon - if you can't make cinnamon toast you might as well just get the eff outta the kitchen cuz you don't know jack and you never will. It's hopeless, give up now before you poison someone or worse. Okay, where was I going with this???

Oh yeah! Soul Journal, day 7. Honestly, I have been dragging my feet because this involves journaling (I don't know why I'm surprised, isn't this just getting gluey fingers and paint in my hair - I thought that's what this was all about!). Anyway, the journal prompt is "I forgot to tell you..." and I'm all like, I don't forget to tell nobody nothin - seriously, people are always saying "okay, tell me how you really feel." I just don't believe in hiding stuff - and hey, if you stick an ugly baby picture in my face, I will tell you that baby is ugly. Like my friend showed me a picture of her granddaughter and I said "dang, where'd she get that nose? It's taking up the whole picture! I sure hope she is really smart, because she sure is - oh crap, sorry." But really, that schnoz was humungus! Seriously! And she tried to tell me it was the camera angle - please.

Anyway, after thinking on it a bit, i did think of someone I don't remember to talk to enough - God. So hence more foot dragging, because I really suck in this area. I'm quick to shout "Oh Lord, help me, please" but do I remember to say thank you? Or, I'm sorry I missed our prayer time, I know you were waiting? Nope, I figure, well God knows everything, so what's the point. He knows all the hairs on my head, and how many there are without counting and all. So I had to do it. Here's a few excerpts of my journaling before I cover it all up with tape! I'm only putting the first line of each paragraph because well, this is private stuff, y'all. Quit being so dang nosy!

Lord:

I forgot to tell you I love you.
I forgot to tell you I'm sorry.
I forgot to tell you I'm grateful.
I forgot to tell you a lot of times I'm scared.
I forgot to tell you that I'll try to be better.
I forgot to tell you I'll listen more.

But there's a whole bunch more but you'll just have to guess cuz I'm going to blur it all out in the photo! Hey and the cool thing is, we were sposed to journal with a ball point pen - like who has those anymore? I left mine in the drawer with my QUILL, okay? But somehow I found a purple ball point pen! That made me VERY HAPPY. Check it out!




So anyway, then we had to find all the tape in the house that was not transparent. As I mentioned in a previous post. I have a lot of adhesives. Lots of tapes, too. Most of which are transparent! But I did have some black duck tape (yes, hussies, that's how it's spelled on the package, duck) and some metal repair tape which ROCKS. Check out my book now - betcha can't read a thing!

Yeah, me neither. Then we had to sand it. Okay, I am such a girl! All I have for sanding are manicure blocks. Whatever works, right?

So the journaling part made me cry a little, which makes me mad because I do not cry. I'm tough! And mean! And scary! Well I was scary when I had my mean glasses but I had to get new ones and evidently they don't have mean ones in bifocals. Sigh. So I had to go back to looking friendly. Anyway! I got that done and I'll tell you a bit about day 8 now - I had to put gesso on it then wipe it off. It's drying right now!

Till next time - Cheeka!

ps - any weird layout choices are Blogger's, not mine! Just so you know!

Soul Journal - Day 6

Okay so like I'm a day behind now - it's all good! I am enjoying the journey and that's the best part, right? Screw the destination! I'll get there at some point. Anyway! Day 6 was to gesso over page 4 if we hadn't already (nope, hadn't done that) and then put the wash of a dark color on. I chose purple - of course! No blah old brown for me! I did buy some walnut ink at Urban today so I'm all set for when ever I need some. One thing I loathe (obviously - you've seen my studio and it's only gotten worse since last time I shared) is not having something when I need it. I mean, the adhesives alone take up a whole drawer. I have plain glue sticks, embellishment glue sticks, repositionable glue sticks (they effin rock, too) and super tacky glue and YES paste (which is awesome, especially for gluebooks and bigger collages) and spray adhesive and ummm fabric adhesive and liquid nails and well the reason that drawer is so full is I put all the other boring stuff in there too, like extra foam brushes (sorry Mother Earth, I won't buy anymore of those evil things - I WILL wash my brushes) and toothpicks and spackle and caulk - hey those are legitimate art supplies! and oh tapes - magnet tape and scotch tape and metal repair tape (rocks - makes me SING to think about it!) and real duck tape and well that's all I can remember right now. But you get the picture. Okay, I'm straying from the topic at hand - back to the art journal.

Then we were to cut the 24 pictures out that I discussed last post, and cut the image into an inch square. I was going to steal a tip from ruby claire at ruby.clair.x and outline my pix with a black sharpie, but I forgot! I heart sharpies! This picture looks a little whack because the gel medium is still wet and is bouncing the flash.






So next is to journal on the next two pages without any gesso or nothin on them, with a ball point pen - I'd better do as Sarah sez and use a ball point - I'd hate for that to be important in the next step and I SCREWED UP. And small letters - I think she's onto me - grumble. Dang. So I'm off to hunt for a ball point pen so I can journal to the prompt: I forgot to tell you... Honestly I don't know what I'll come up with for that - it sounds hokey and dumb - ugggh. Kinda like sharing with a large group which I have to do a lot but don't like to do! Blah. I'll get through it and probably find out it's like mowing at church - something I dread but enjoy when I'm finally doing it.




Okay - till next time! Cheeka

Soul Journal - Day 5

So I've DONE NOTHING today - here's our task. First, put some gesso on page 4, then put a wash over the page, something kinda dark. Then grab some magazines and cut out the following images:

1. A smile
2. Something beautiful
3. a chair
4. something red
5. something blue
6. something comfortable
7. something exotic
8. a leaf
9. a color you love
10. a pattern
11. a flower
12. a bird
13. something you want
14. something you own
15. the letter R
16 something that smells good
17. something that tastes good
18. A circle
19. the letter A
20. An eye that’s the same color as yours
21. a hand
22. the letter T
23. a butterfly
24. a number

Then she says, put them aside and I'll tell ya what to do tomorrow. Arrrgh! Then Ms. Confucious says: "Part of not knowing what the end result will be is learning to enjoy the journey." Grrrr. Well I know what I'll be doing instead of lunch tomorrow - clipping magazines! Maybe I'll go gesso before bed. I'm also working on 8 profile cards! I think I owe 5 or 6 and this is getting pretty big so I figured I'd get ahead. Then the devil INTERNET caught me up in looking at other blogs. I can feel smug about it as I was only going on my sister soul journaler's blogs. Not wasting time at all...grin.

Till next time - Cheeka!

Soul Journal - Days 3-4

Wow this is not only fun, but a total learning experience. First, I thought I'd share the front cover of a diary I kept in junior high and high school. Doing my Soul Journal brought back some memories - and this is soooooo cool! It says (among other things) that "Only cool people may read this, and they are:" with a list of my cool friends' names. I've come a bit further these days but not much, I'm thinking. For one reason I STILL USE THE WORD COOL! 33 years later, and I can't stop saying it! What's up with that?


The next step was not only to find a picture of a knight or protector of some kind, but:

"I want you to think about what you need to protect and nourish your creative spirit. Think about the things that sustain you. What’s needed to shield you from outside criticism and your inner critic?Today we will be constructing our own Soul Armor!I want you to think of strength and protection. Think about what you turn to when you are “under siege”. What does your creative spirit NEED more of? How do we keep all those critical voices from crippling us in our crusade?"

So here's what I did to express all that...

I will say this - for some tough guys, it was hard to find a knight who didn't look completely GAY. Seriously! What's up with that fluff on his hat and the horse's hat? This was the best I could do. Now y'all know I am totally down with the gay boys, and a lot of them are extremely tough, but the knights I was finding honestly looked kinda nellie. I did NOT feel protected. But the big horse with his big horse eye - how freaky is that? - looked very protective. So there you have it. I'm not quite done coloring in his horse coat, and I put a lil silver leaf pen on the knight, but not too much because I was afraid he'd turn into a big shiny mess. Just to gay it up some more, I put silver glitter glue on the horse's hooves. I just couldn't help myself! Sorry, big protector horse.

Till next time, Cheeka.