Birthday Bracelet - Pink Saturday

I bought myself a birthday present - a handmade pearl bracelet. The artist is from Washington D.C. and made it to look like cherry blossoms. I splurged, but it is beautiful.

I am linking up with Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday. Autumn is in full swing here in Michigan. Not a lot of pinks around - reds, oranges, yellows and greens. So if you are feeling the need for a little pink today, skip over to Beverly's Blog and enjoy the pinks!

http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Great Dinner

My daughter and I cooked this up tonight from a recipe I got here:  The Larson Lingo. It was super easy to prepare and really delicious. We used boneless chicken breasts rather than the frozen, bagged type and added an extra can of chopped green chilies. Other than that, we did it the same way. This is definitely going to be one of my favorites from here on out.

Photos and recipe from The Larson Lingo. Check out her blog for some wonderful recipes!

Secret Garden Altered Book Page - "Dickon"

This is the latest page in my altered book.  I really enjoyed making this one.

This is a page about Dickon from The Secret Garden. Below, I have shown some of the steps to make this layout. In the first step, I gessoed the page and added some ink and some torn paper.

Next I added more gesso over the entire page.

I painted the lower half of the pages with a mushroom acrylic glaze and scraped a blue glaze over the top of the pages.

I went over the page with various shades of green acrylic paints and glazes.

Next, I stamped various images and used a couple of stencils to add paint and spray ink.

I then stamped and then hand painted some flowers along the bottom of the pages.

I cut out a tree and glued it to the page and added oil pastels to the tree trunk to make it seem to be hand painted on the page. I added Dickon, the cut out leaves, the bird, the animals and the quote from the book and used a charcoal pencil to shade the elements. I also overstamped with a few stamps and stamped "Dickon" on the page.

I am linking up with Art Journal Every Day at Balzer Designs. If you are in the mood for some wonderful art journaling inspiration, visit Julie's blog - you won't be disappointed.

http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/art-j.html

Trick or Treat in Wonderland

I just finished a spread for an altered book round robin that I am participating in. It's theme is Vintage Halloween. I came across a Halloween version of Alice in Wonderland and that was my inspiration for this piece. Here is the finished product.

Below are some of the steps I went through to create this. First I taped the center of the page with book repair tape, as it had a very thick section of book pages that had been cut out. The remainder was sort of prohibitive toward working on the pages, so the book repair tape was very helpful.  I then added some ephemera onto both pages to add texture and gessoed the pages again.

Then I scraped various colors of acrylic paint onto the page.

 I rubber stamped some images, including a crackle or aging stamp and added drops of walnut ink.

I felt the page was lighter than the look I wanted, so I covered the entire page with brown acrylic paint and then wiped off a lot of it with baby wipes, ala Paula Phillips at  Journal Artista. I love the look of her art and use a lot of her techniques that I learned from watching her free you-tube videos. I am so thankful for all the artists out there that freely share what they have learned.

I then added some drops of black acrylic paint along the sides of one page, closed the book and re-opened the book. You can't see it very well, but it left a cool texture as the pages pulled apart.

I dripped some acrylic paint and some ink down the pages. I then added the images, the bunting and the ribbon, along with some more yellow paint circles to tone down some of the black spots. I also re-stamped some of the images that had been obscured by the brown paint.

My final step was to do some shading to make each element pop, ink the edges of the page, doodle jack-o-lantern faces on two of the black spots & sign and date it. I just got the book off in the mail to then next recipient and I was pretty happy with the final product. I hope the book owner likes it! : )

ENTER IF YOU DARE!

I am linking up with Art Journal Every Day at Balzer Designs. If you are in the mood for some wonderful art journaling inspiration, visit Julie's blog - you won't be disappointed.

http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/

Spread Your Wings and Fly

This is a art journal piece that I just finished. I can't say that I am really happy with it. I kept working on it trying to improve it, and I have decided that it is done.

 Spread Your Wings and Fly

 It actually started out as a mock-up for a round robin I was doing, but I didn't really like how it turned out so I ended up doing something completely different for that one. But here it is - and maybe I'll have a fabulous idea at some point to make it better. But for now, it stays like this.

I am going to link up with Julie at Balzer Designs: Art Journal Every Day: September. You can visit her and see lots of wonderful art journal pages. Her own pages are just phenomenal! Great inspiration!

I am also going to link up with Beverly over at How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday! She always has such wonderful bloggers posting every imaginable type of pink. Go visit - I know you will love it!

New Altered Book, Art Journal Page - Pink Saturday

I did an art page that was actually a mock-up for my round robin altered book exchange. This one I actually did while we were on our sail boat. It was interesting to see what you can accomplish with a few supplies in a very small space. It actually was a lot of fun. I will be linking up with Beverly over at How Sweet the Sound again for Pink Saturday. Please take a few minutes and visit her and see all the other wonderful pink posts for today.

I will also be sharing this page over at Art Journal Every Day which is hosted by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer over at Balzer Designs. This keeps me going and working on my journals, if not every day, at least regularly. There are lots of links for art journaling for the month of August that will impress and inspire you. I love her quirky style and honest posts. You will definitely be blessed by visiting her blog. I'm here to tell you, it is really awesome.

Sail Boat

Original artwork by Efemeraink

Boat, originally uploaded by Efemeraink.

Altered art canvas from flickr

An Altered Book Page for Pink Saturday

I'm just going to do a short post for Pink Saturday. I've been really busy and I'm running out of summer! But I want to take a minute to join Beverly over at How Sweet the Sound for another Pink Saturday. This is a two-page spread I did as part of an altered book Round Robin I am participating in. The theme was "Spread Your Wings and Fly".

Come Fly Away With Me

Pages and sign in tag

Take a few minutes to visit Beverly's blog and join in the Pink Saturday fun!

Going Somewhere

I Heart Photos Entry - theme is Props. Photo by Jessica Leng

An Organized Madness Photography

http://iheartfaces.com

Mackinac Pinks

We made a trip to Mackinac Island for a day and while there I took a few photos of pinks that I saw along the way. I will be linking up with Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday, so take a few minutes to drop over and visit some wonderful pinkie bloggers!

Our first stop was at the coffee shop, The Beanery, where my daughter's friend works.  I must say she made a wonderful mocha for me! One of the best I've had!

Then we rented bikes and rode around the island. I just love, love doing that. The island does not allow cars, so it is a most beautiful and relaxing ride. You just have to avoid the occasional horse droppings!

And the last thing before we left was to drool over the fudge!

Last week, I highlighted one of my favorite blogs, but never had time to go visiting for Pink Saturday, so I will try again. If you'd love to see a wonderful, art-filled, inspirational blog, stop over to visit Pat at The Artful Diva.  She is great to share techniques and tutorials that I have learned so much from.

The Artful Diva

So, everyone, Think Pink! And head over to Beverly's to enjoy more pink finery! Happy Pink Saturday!

http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Red, White and Blue and Pink

This week I am linking up with Beverly over at How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday.  June in Michigan is very beautiful and I have a few "pinks" to share from our summer garden along with some 4th of July red, white and blues. Here is a wonderful peony and its sister below.

Pink Peony from my garden

More pink peonies

Also our rhododendrons have been beautiful this year.

Rhododendron from my back yard

More rhododendrons from my back yard

Petunias on my front porch

Isn't God the most wonderful artist. He paints such gorgeous blooms for us every year at this time and it is something that we often take for granted. This year I am going to try to be more intentional about appreciating the beauty around me and giving thanks to God for it. Notice the little bee in the last rhododendron picture.

And for the 4th of July weekend, I am sharing some red, white and blues.

Altered Book Background Page In Progress

New York cheesecake with fresh strawberries made by my oldest daughter

Round Island Light just off Mackinac Island

My two beautiful daughters on Panacea as we sailed away from Mackinac Island

Be sure to visit Beverly and her Pink Saturday party. It's lots of fun. Also, take a minute to visit Pat at The Artful Diva and enjoy looking at the art and techniques on her blog. Her's is one of my favorite places to visit on Pink Saturday! I always learn so much from visiting her blog!

The Artful Diva

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

And finally, have a wonderful 4th of July holiday celebrating the freedom God has blessed us with in this country!