Technique for this "trash" collage

This journal has a lot of ephemera I took from my everyday life "trash" and used the pieces to collage about my life.

This one has an old English rose name tag I found in the garden close to where the rose plant used to be. It has long since died. Fortunes from lunch at work. A favorite snack package. My favorite green tea with pomegranate and a caramel chocolate bar wrapper. I also added a quote I liked.

These kinds of collages are fun to do once a week while you collect things. I have lots of materials still saved to use in the future.

Give this one a try and see if you like it.

2011 Word of Intent ~ Aspire

Hi all,

I chose ASPIRE as my word of intent this year.

ASPIRE ~ to have an earnest desire or ambition, as for something high and good. to long for; seek after. to reach or rise upward.

I am hoping to do a long distance hike this year. What that looks like I do not fully know yet. It may mean a weekend, 3 to 4 days, or a full week. I have been reading AT (Appalachian Trail) journals on trailjournals.com. They are very inspiring. The hiking is one thing I aspire to.

A few other things I aspire to are: in the process of all this hiking, to loose weight (25 lbs so far, woohoo!!) and get my cardio ability strengthen; to be a kinder, more patient person; to find ways to do good in my little corner of the world; to stretch myself in my art; to move from wanting to hold an art retreat . . . to doing it :-)!

So there is my word and all it means to me . . .


The art journal page is from a traveling journal I participated in with the theme LOVE

New Partnership Journal - 2011

This is the cover of my partnership journal this year. I am partnering with Kim in PA. We worked on an art journal rr about a year ago. Her journal was kidnapped by of the participants. I had worked in it and it really pissed me off that she didn't get it back. I got mine back and loved her work so I contacted her about a month ago to see if she just wanted to go back and forth with a journal this year. Thankfully she was game.   So mine is on it's way to her next week and we'll have fun creating this year in each other's journals and in our own too.

My 2010 Art Journal

I am almost finished with my art journal for 2010. I could say it is done but there are some things I'd like to tweak on some of the pages. Some journaling I still want to add. But for the most part the art is done. I found this book when in Texas in February. The book is called Florence Broadhurst: Her Secret & Extraordinary Lives

She was an interior designer and designed her own wallpaper and fabric. The cover of the book is made of fabric she designed. Almost every other page in the book is an image of her designs. So many of my pages incorporated those designs into them.

I also have been doing a lot of blog hopping and found pages that inspired me. So some of my art is inspired by Teesha Moore, those that created in the traveling journals in my yahoo group Blissfully Art Journaling: Kim Owens, Elizabeth Golden are two I know have influenced my art in this journal. I have also watched a few UTube videos and taken the online course with Willowing & Friends.

I have been trying many new techniques. A lot of them are collage and layering. The title to this post is a link to a slideshow on photobucket of many of the pages. It takes time to scan, so I hope to get them all scanned soon. I will probably post the slideshow to the blog when it is finished.

I am doing a partnership journal this upcoming year with an artist I met online about a year ago. So that is one journal I will be committed to. I want to work in one I purchased last year. I joined the free online art journaling courses offered by http://www.strathmoreartiststudio.com so I will be completing that one. I have some family tree things I would like to put together. My DH is into ancestory.com and has found lots of history on his parents families. I would like to take the info and create a book for him. He has received lots of pictures from both sides of his family. I have been using some in my art. The old vintage pictures are so much fun to use and mean so much more when they are your own family.

I also “aspire” to be a better person to myself and others. I will write more about my word of intent in my next post.

Altered Composition Book

UPDATE!!!
I sent this picture to Brave Girls to see if they would use it on one of their Daily Truth emails and . . . THEY DID yesterday!!  I am sooo excited!
Can you tell?
http://www.bravegirlsclub.com/

I decided to altered the cover on a few of my composition books for Christmas presents. I may add some quotes through out the book too.

This one is going into the lottery at AFTCM yahoo group.

It is snowing so beautifully today. Christmas music is playing in the background. Smells of cooking in the kitchen. Love this time of year, when I can stay home enjoy the snow.

Have a peacful, safe day. Create some art!

2011 Christmas Cards

Finished my Christmas cards for this year. Now I have to get them in the mail asap.
They were a lot of fun. Lot's of sparkle that doesn't really show up in the pictures.
I made another version but blogger won't let me upload it. Don't feel like fighting with the computer tonight, so I'll just leave it as is.
Have a good week everyone!

November Art Journal Page

I have been trying all kinds of new techniques. Lots of pages started this month. Finished this one last week. Will post the rest probably next month. Hiking has become my second passion. But I think it will have to share equally in time with my art. I love it and have to get out everyday, which is hard now that it is deer season in Ohio. So I am off to hit some hills this morning, then have to say bye for a bit to my son who is going home to North Dakota. That is always hard for both of us.

Pictures of my first face painting & words of affirmation

I have joined the free classes online & Willowing & Friends. Tam is a great teacher. I have wanted to try faces for a while now, so I jumped in and did one in my art journal altered book I am doing all this year. The paper was a challenge with all the layers she has us doing. So it's not quite what I wanted but not too bad. We were to write words of affirmation on the other page. Something that we need to say to ourself more often. So that is why I choose these words. I think as women we need to do this more. I am putting myself first now in the need for time to exercise. That is why I do not blog as much, or comment as much in my groups. If I spend that time sitting on the computer then I do not have the time to exercise. So here is my finished product if blogger cooperates and lets me upload them.

Digital Scrapbook of our Canadian Rockies Trip

I finally finished my digital scrapbook. Here's what the pages look like digitally. I am having a high resolution print made of each page too.
You can try Studio J at http://www.debschaefer.myctmh.com/

Picture of the river float in Canada

This was a gentle float down the bow river. The river is very low already, because it has gotten cold really early this year. The glaciers are not melting which is what feeds most of the rivers in this area.

I've been scammed!!

Got home yesterday afternoon, to emails from everyone. Are you OK, I think you have been scammed . . .

Yes I have. My email address book is empty. But I have still have access to it. Changed the PW, so I don't know if I should stop using it or not.

I'm waiting for yahoo to get back to me. This has happened to many of my online friends and friends at work. It's ridiculous!! Is someone actually paying these people . . . they must get something to keep doing it. I can't imagine anyone really thinking this email was from me. It was pretty good as far as including I am in Canada. Except I am home and safe!! But the grammar and really would anyone email people if they needed help.

They used my signature too, so I am changing it too. I'm just really pissed!!!!!!!!!!

I'm going to go work on my travel journal and just enjoy the rest of my day!

Home from Canadian Rockies trip

We had a great time. Met great people from all over. Bill & Sherrie were a blast to hang out with. I added our album for you to view above. (the title is a link to photobucket) I took over 400 pictures so this is just a sampling.
The views were beautiful. The food delicious. Everyone was so friendly. We were like one big happy family by the end. Our tour guide, Andrew, and coach driver, Graham, were the best.

I have a travel journal started and have to add some mementos and pictures.

Back to Creating and it feels good . . .

It feels good to get back into my art room and create again.

It's been a hard month. Our family lost a dear young man beginning of the month. My youngest son joined the AF with him and both my sons have been life long friends with him. Tragically he was killed while home on leave in a car accident.

So we have begun to move forward, but will miss him a lot.
I had a few projects I needed to get done and sent out. This one is in my partner's journal. It's a tribute to the end of summer.

Enjoy what is left of it . . .

Here are some pictures of a regular vinyl binder I covered with scrapbook papers and mod podge. I painted the inside back cover before adding some mail art type collage material. I use the binder to showcase my ATC collection. I don't make these much anymore. I may join a swap or two this winter on the yahoo group I belong too. I have ATC's from all over the world. It was my introduction into mail art and swapping. I have participated in altered book & art journal round robins, partnership art journals, swapped art tags and much more. I think I get alot of inspiration when I am involved in swapping. Deadlines encourage my muse somehow.

ABC's of the Seashore Art Journal

I got half of the book scanned today and made a photo album of it on photobucket.


So click here and it should take you there: ABC's of the Seashore

I made it out of a black & white composition book. I tore a lot of pages out to make room for the bulkyness (is that a word) of the collages I did for each letter. I left a few pages in between groups of letter pages to add some of my personal pictures and memorabilia. I have been working off and on for about a year on this project. It took off this spring and has kept my attention until I finished it a few days ago.

Thanks for looking!

Pics from my monthly art journal

I am doing an art journal this year with everyday things from life. It is a lot of fun using images you aquire all day, every day. I collage and then journal around the collage or just let the images tell the story of my life at that moment in time.

I just finished this one. It was started in June. This happen a lot, I get the collage glued down then add finishing touches and journaling later. I want to write more on my nuts pictures but have to go get another sharpie black extra fine pen. This was a jelly pen and didn't work too well, so I stopped.

I am adding more pictures to my photobucket album above called MY ART so you can see some of the other pages in this journal.

Thanks for looking  . . .

New art posted

I just finished my pages for my partnership journal with Victoria and added them and a few other art journal pages from my everyday art journal.

I have been staying up late working on my art journals and scrapbooks for upcoming baby & a graduation party for my nephew. So I am keeping busy.

I changed the look of my blog a little

Well work is a little slow tonight . . . so I 've been playing with the new blog templates. I think I like this one, but once I start playing you never know where I might end up.
I also was able to create my signature that I have been struggling with over the past year. That's right I have been blogging for over a year. I had no idea until I looked back to my first post that it had already been one year.

Hope you like the new look . . .

I plan to post some new artwork in the next few days.
til then . . .

if i was . . .

if i was a month i'd be june

if i was a day of the week i'd be saturday

if i was a time of day i'd be ten in the morning

if i was a sea animal i'd be a dolphin

if i was a direction i'd be west

if i was a piece of furniture i'd be a chaise

if i was a liquid i'd be a margarita

if i was a gemstone i'd be an opal

if i was a tree i'd be a willow

if i was a tool i'd be a paint brush

if i was a flower i'd be an english rose

if i was a kind of weather i'd be a warm spring day

if i was a musical instrument i'd be a guitar

if i was a color i'd be aqua

if i was an emotion i'd be joy

if i was a fruit i'd be a pineapple

if i was a food i'd be a tuscan pasta dish

if i was a material i'd be denium

if i was a scent i'd be bergamot citrus

if i was a flavor i'd be chocolate

if i was a sound i'd be a praise song

if i was an element i'd be water

if i was a mammal i'd be a horse

if i was a phase of the moon i would be full

if i was a berry i'd be a bumbleberry

if i was a bird i'd be an eagle

if i was a book i'd be island of the blue dolphins

if i was a place i'd be a beach

I decided to do an art journal page using this self made poem . . . and added the picture today 6.30.10

Private Events or Celebrations Idea

Celebrate lives, friendships and happenings with an Art Journaling & Mixed-Media party, tailored to meet your special occasion.

Here are some ideas we can explore during an event, sometimes more then one depending on the details.

*Get introduced to the wonders of Art Journaling
*Learn how to bind your journal of watercolor paper
*Learn the art of Altered Books
*Learn transfer techniques
*Find out what ATC (Artists Trading Cards) is all about.

*22 Page Layout from one CTMH $12.95 paper pack. (not included in the price of event)

2 and 1/2 hours – $25 per person

Please Email me @ debis7860@yahoo.com for more info and to save a date