February Art Journal

The day before we left for Oregon, I managed to finish the art journal pages for February. I have to admit, I find mixed media work a bit daunting. I’m never sure quite how any of it will end up and since I’m working in a spiral journal, it is what it is—no ripping out and starting over. 

I did start out with a general idea of what I wanted to do, but it did end up somewhat differently than I planned. Even the quote changed as I worked on the pages. I started out with a water wash on the pages and then used a set of Inktense Pencils Sarah gave me for Christmas. It worked best to take the color from the tips of the pencils with a brush and then apply the color to the pages. I had two shades of red/pink and blended them together.

The dotted stencil was a piece of cardstock in which I’d die cut a circle border to test a die from Simon Says. I used a dabber and some Tim Holtz Distress ink in pink.

The hearts were also the negative cut from Simon Says dies which I filled with several layers of Gesso and then painted over them with some metallic paints that I’ve had forever. The LOVE stencil were stencils I picked up for a dollar or so at A.C. Moore’s after watching the first video of  the “Use Your Words” class Rinda linked me up to, and the tiny stickers are from a set by Making Memories that have long been in my stash.

I did some doodling around the edges of the hearts and hand drew the stems and leaves. You can see the metallic paints better in this photo.

When Mary and I were in Buffalo I purchased enough vellum envelopes for each month’s summary.

I used stamps from Papertrey Ink’s “Love Lives Here” for the houses, and the small hearts scattered on the two pages. The arrow stamp is from Studio Calico and I swiped one of the Papertrey tea dye pads around the edges of the papers.

Here’s the recap for February:

February started out with a trip to Buffalo for a card making class and lunch at Pano’s to celebrate Mary’s birthday. The first week was devoted to getting materials ready, setting up, and overseeing Church Leadership Development Day which went off well despite the heaviest snow of the season.

We met with Cheryl to start planning our overseas trip this spring, had a lively book group centered on Creating a Mind by Ray Kurtzweil, played duplicate at the Lenio’s, attended concert at the Eastman Theater, and a very powerful play, “Next to Normal” at Geva. We had meals with Dick & Eileen, Bill & Beryl, and Jill & Tom,

We didn’t do as much entertaining since we went on The Plan, an elimination diet, early in the month. It takes a lot of time and is slow-going, but overall we’ve majorly changed our eating habits. Both of us have lost a few pounds, and I’m finally seeing some improvement with a Eustachian tube dysfunction that’s caused some considerable discomfort for the last six months. I think we’re committed to staying on The Plan except when we eat out. 

I received quite an honor this month. One of my photos from a Camera Rochester competition was shown at Image City. Much to my surprise, it was chose as one of five “Gallery Picks.” This is the third time I’ve exhibited there through Camera Rochester, but I never expected to be singled out by the Image City staff.

I did a lot of reading for our upcoming trip and finished “Happier at Home,” but am still not finding the time I want for reading. I did complete LOAD–29 layouts this month as well as fourteen cards. 

I’m not as happy with this month’s pages as I was with last month’s pages, but I’m glad to be playing with some of my art supplies that have lanquished for quite a few years.