Art Calendar Journal - August

May August be a month full of pleasant moments!

 

 

The flower petals and leaves are made from those little savings cards sent out by Kohl's Department Store.

 

 

A little more detail.

 

I'm really happy that some extra effort with journaling changed July from ho hum to fun to look at. 

 

 

Now I'm off to do what I can to fill my August days with bits of pleasant moments. 

 

I hope your days are full of pleasant moments as well.

xxx

Annie



Altered Dictionary - T

The Alpha Challenge letter this fortnight is

T

 

My word is telephone

 

 

 

I was going to enlarge a rubber stamp of a telephone, but I started looking at Internet images and suddenly was remembering the wall phone that GrandMaMa had.  We kids thought that was the most fun telephone to talk on.  For many years we had to stand on a little step stool to reach the mouth piece.  And after you dialed a number, I loved the clicking sound the dial made on it's way back to the beginning.

 

So, the page is simple but the memory is big.

xxx

Annie

Altered Dictionary - Y

The letter is Y

And the twist is to use the color yellow.

 

Now, the twists always scare me because my altering style is not like most others where the entire page(s) get painted, and I worry that I won't want them taking place in my dictionary.  So I look for ways to work around them.  So far it's all working out smoothly.

 

I chose the word yardstick (because of the need for yellow).  This one was a creamy color so I took out a color pencil and gave it a yellow tint.  (Looking a bit more orange than yellow)  So I was sure to highlight the word in a lighter yellow.

 

I've been altering a few other words along the way.....

I went to the beginning of the book to choose a word.

Abbreviate.  I stamped a list of abbreviated words.

 

 

I then turned the page and chose the word abode.  I have seen so many cute houses being created and thought this a good time to try one myself.  I DO NOT draw, so I surprised myself with this little 'abode'!

 

 



I then went again to the very next page and chose the word abreast.

 

 

At a time when I was playing with face stamps, I went in search of a word to use this "features" stamp.

 

 

Then there came forefinger.

 

And then I found this awesome bicycle rider on The Graphics Fairy blog and it just HAD to be in my dictionary.  Bicycle already had an illustration and the word rider didn't have a good space for the image, so I went to wheel.  Which also already had an illustration, but what I did not know and learned there was that a bicycle was often called a wheel. 

 





 

And that's how my dictionary alters.

xxx

Annie

 



Sissy Art...

...is not art created by sissies.  It's art created with Sissy...a large rubber stamp.  And I'm loving the challenge of working  with her!

 

I've mentioned previously that I first saw the use of this stamp on Renee's blog, Bolton House .  Renee also helped me to find my own Sissy stamp.  Once she arrived, we decided to trade Sissy Art.  Specifically envelopes.  Totally intimidating for me!  But quite an enjoyable challenge too.  This is the 10" X 13" envelope I created for Renee.

 

 

But sadly, Renee has not received her envelope.  Sissy was either kidnapped or just plain lost her way.  I tried so hard to make a swap-worthy envelope, so I hope it is somewhere being enjoyed.

I couldn't wait to start again on another envelope.  Before sending off Renee's envelope, I photocopied it for something to stuff into an envelope to Carol.  I wrote my note to Carol right on the photocopy around the design.  This triggered an idea for another Sissy envelope.  So this 9"X12" Sissy envelope went to Carol. 

 

 

I'll never know if anyone between myself in California and Carol in Wisconsin read the letter, but most humans have an irresistible nosey curious nature about them, so I hope it was enjoyed across the land. 

It was awfully fun creating both those envelopes.  I feel a need to make more!

XXX
Annie

July Journaling

I am happy to report that a bit of extra effort in creative journaling is giving this lack-luster layout design some life. 

 

It even makes my uneventful life almost "look" fun.  LOL

 

Happy July days to all!

Annie

Art Calendar Journal - July

July

has arrived here with a sweltering bang of heat!  Two more days of 100+ temps before we get some relief.  The worse part is the rare added humidity.  I don't like to wish my life away, but I DO wish the next two days go by quickly!

 



I said I was done with traditional themes for these calendars, but I already bought the stars paper and just wanted to use it and be done with it.  A while back Carol drew some birds for me to make postcards with (which I still have not done yet).  I decided to give one a try for my July calendar in hopes of adding some whimsy to the spread.  July doesn't turn out to be one of my favorite month creations, but I'm not totally disappointed, so I will journal it and move on.



On the other hand, I quite enjoyed working on June.  June had an over abundance of high temps.  Some I didn't even note, but wish I had now.  We don't usually get so many 100+ days.  Obviously I thought the 8th was going to be one of those really unusual hot days.  Oh, little did I know...!

 

Wishing everyone a safe, sparkly and happy 4th of July!

 

Annie



Altered Dictionary - B

It's a new fortnight and the

Alpha Challenge has assigned us the letter B  

I wasn't much inspired by any odd words this time.  I've chosen Bucksaw as my entry for the challenge.

 

 

This "junior" dictionary is already so full of illustrations that adding more to some pages just makes clutter.  I added some color to help my altering show out more. 

My intention for this book is to alter at least one word on every page.  So I challenged myself to choose a word to alter on the first B page.  I chose Babel.  And I proceeded to learn about The Tower of Babel, which I had not known about before. 

 

I found quite a variety of images of this tower, but this one seemed the most common.  The variety of images was fascinating to look through.

 

Back in the letter F when I illustrated the word Flourish...

 

 

 

my attempt to only lightly ink my stamp was a flop.  I was so disappointed that the ink bled through the page SO badly.  Once I calmed down over it a few weeks later, I began to read the words on the next page to see what possibly I could do with this mess to use it as part of this altering process.

WHAT LUCK!

part of the definition for the word Fluke is "a failure".  And it couldn't have landed in a better spot.

 

And that's how my dictionary alters to date.

 

xxx

Annie



Altered Dictionary - U

This time around for the Alpha Challenge the letter assigned to us for word illustration is U

 

I've selected the word Ulster. 

A great benefit of this project is learning words I've not ever known before.

 

 

 



 Never before have I ever read practically every word in any dictionary...who does that?!  But when this project reaches it's end, that's exactly what I will have done!  Who woulda guessed. 

 

xoxo

Annie



Sissy and Missy...

...are very large face stamps.  And not so easy for me to be crafty with.  A couple of posts back I mentioned that I love Renee's creativity with Sissy.  Renee's creations are on large envelopes but I'm not sure of the exact size.  I wanted the face to appear quite large, so I used 6" X 9" envelopes (and because I have lots of them).  A meager beginning, but a beginning none the less.

 

 

 

I got greedy and thought I had to have both sides of the face.

 

 

 

I don't know why now.  I hope to find a good reason soon.  Not that it really matters.

I need to work on how to work things out at the top of her head.  Renee solves that problem with 3-D accessorizing.  But I want things flat for mailing, so I'll have to muse on this for awhile. 

 

My first stamping, of course, went awry and was crooked on the envelope, blah blah blah.  Rather than toss the envelope, I cut out the face, colored it and added it to my blog/flickr friends journal that I add art to here and there. 

 

Maybe the solution for the top of the head is to keep it at the top of the page or envelope.  Hmmm

And of course I had to add a "face" to my altered dictionary.

 

 

These large face stamps that I've been addicted to lately have me intrigued and stumped at the same time.  I hope that's only temporary.

 

Off in search of more play time!

xxx

Annie 

Art Calendar Journal - June

June

has made a warm entrance into California's San Joaquin Valley.  Warm weather makes me happy!

 

When I picture the "bad boys of summer", those nerdy boys are NOT the ones that come to mind. 

 

 

 



But they're "bad" in their own little way, I bet.  I wanted to help them out with a bit of adventure here.

 

May is complete!  Carol and a couple of others have filled my month with so many wonderfully good mail days!  Although fun mail is about the most fun part of my day, I had to force myself to find a few other pleasantries to write about.  Just to break it up some.

 

 

Happy month of June to you!

Annie