Bella Carta

Shine, like the moon come out from behind the clouds

My art journal project for this week over at Kyra's blog Gesso Dragon.   Our challenge was to use chipboard AND any shade of blue with copper.  Now those of you that know me know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE copper, its probably my favorite metal and those of you that don't know me that well now know this :-) !  But blue .... I'm not a "blue" type of girl.  But I found a nice shade of cerulean in my watercolors and some lovely lime.  I decided to have some fun with my watercolors and doodling, so this is what I came up with.

 
The sentiment is a stamp from Unity Stamp Co., the sun is made with a piece of homemade chipboard - I used a piece of cereal board with some decorative paper over it. I journaled on it and then spritzed it with Smooth spritz in Gold and Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Jack O Lantern. 

 
I colored some of the margin areas with copper mica paint from Judikins - its very coppery in real life. 

 

 

inchin' along into fall ~ Season of Thanks

I miss fall, true the weather is great here in Florida all winter long but I miss seeing the trees change color from green into tones of orange and red.

My inchies for this week's art journaling challenge on Gesso Dragon was to create a page using at least three inchies, so I went with simplicity.  The paper is made with judikins mica glass paints in rose gold, ruby, and copper or maybe it was old gold.   I love these paints, they are easy to use for many different effects, you can check out my post from CHA 2009 where I got to see Judi herself demo these.  I then heat embossed over top in fall themed stamps (these are retired Stampin' Up!)

 

Season of Thanks

Season of Blessings

Season of Love

Airplanes in the night sky ....

This is third week in Ky's art journal challenge on her blog:  the gesso dragon. This week's challenge:

Pick a song and journal about those feelings, or that event, or whatever it is that made you feel the need to select that song. Use whatever media you need to make us feel what you feel about that song. Include the title or something appropriate in your page so we know what song you chose. Have fun with it!

I was inspired by last week's Perseid Meteor shower (still going on but not quite as visible), and the song "Airplanes" by B.O.B featuring Hayley Williams .  Last week Thursday, the show in the sky was spectacular (at least for about the first hour, after that it got cloudy).  And not only were there shooting stars about once every minute, but three planets were quite visible in the night sky - Mars, Venus and Saturn as the brightest stars.  The meteor shower is complements of the icy dust fragments shed from the comet Swift-Tuttle as it passes near the sun. The tiny particles, sizzle in the earth's atmosphere,  leaving trails that are quite visible can last for seconds. 

The lyrics:
Can we pretend that airplanes
In the night sky
Are like shooting stars
I could really use a wish right now (wish right now, wish right now)
Can we pretend that airplanes
In the night sky
Are like shooting stars
I could really use a wish right now (wish right now, wish right now)

Yeah
I could use a dream or a genie or a wish
To go back to a place much simpler than this
Cause after all the partyin’ and smashin’ and crashin’
And all the glitz and the glam and the fashion
And all the pandemonium and all the madness
There comes a time where you fade to the blackness
And when you’re staring at that phone in your lap
And you hoping but them people never call you back
But that’s just how the story unfolds
You get another hand soon after you fold
And when your plans unravel
And they sayin’ what would you wish for
If you had one chance
So airplane airplane sorry I’m late
I’m on my way so don’t close that gate
If I don’t make that then I’ll switch my flight
And I’ll be right back at it by the end of the night

Somebody take me back to the days
Before this was a job, before I got paid
Before it ever mattered what I had in my bank
Yeah back when I was tryin’ to get a tip at subway
And back when I was rappin’ for the hell of it
But now a days we rappin’ to stay relevant
I’m guessin that if we can make some wishes outta airplanes
Then maybe yo maybe I’ll go back to the days
Before the politics that we call the rap game
And back when ain’t nobody listened to my mix tape
And back before I tried to cover up my slang
But this is for Decatur, what’s up Bobby Ray
So can I get a wish to end the politics
And get back to the music that started this sh-t
So here I stand and then again I say
I’m hopin’ we can make some wishes outta airplanes

The details: 
Sky was created through a variety of Tim Holtz Distress ink pads (from top to bottom:  Dusty Concord, Chipped Sapphire, Broken China, Sea Glass, Peeled Paint)
Stars:  aluminum foil, there are a few dark grey half back pearls thrown in there too.
Shooting star trail - silver metallic rub stuff
Stamped music - distressed music background stamp from Unity Stamp Co. 

 

two birds jumped into gesso

Second challenge in Ky's art journal challenge - using Gesso to create texture.

I went with it straightforward .... watercolor is on the bottom, then gesso is painted on the page.  I shut the book, then re-opened the pages and this branch like pattern had formed.  I rubbed my tim holtz distress ink pads (Mustuard seed, orange marmalade and victorian velvet) over top to bring that texture up a little more. 

The bird is stamped .... I would have/should have moved them around a bit more, but that's okay.  And then I added some doodling (goal #1 in my art journal project) to the page.

jumping in ........ into an art journal

What's an art journal you ask?  Well, I wasn't sure myself but saw Ky's new blog for art journal challenges and thought I'd like to try this for myself.  

Here's what she has to say:

What's an art journal? It's anything in a book form that you use to create art. It can be a ring-bound sketch book, a composition book you've altered, a book you've hand bound and used recycled cardboard for pages, a novel you've converted...just about anything that resembles a journal! I prefer to see a story told in the pages, and sometimes that requires writing, but that's just a personal preference. You can choose the materials and techniques that suit you!

The first challenge:

Create a journal page based on someone's interview (yes, you can do a page about yourself!) to commemorate Connie's jubilant embrace of all things journally! When you have your page done, take a picture, upload it, blog (use the photo description area if you're on Flickr etc.) about this challenge and link your specific blogpost back here.

So, I took the plunge.  I used a 6 x 9 watercolor book - and broke out my watercolors.  I haven't watercolored in ages .... so I went with something simple - like a sun, the blue sky and the green grass.   Let's face it, as much as I admired scrapbookers, I'm never going to scrapbook - but paint, alter, tear, stamp etc?  That might be up my alley.   And what better way to figure it out than to jump in?

Rather than doing an interview with myself, I decided to focus on a few of my goals for this year:   a goal of mine is to doodle more, or at least try break out of the lines every now and then - so I doodled a bit.  Another goal is to ride my bike more (it gets lonely in the garage!).   Other than that ...... I did the cover in orange (I needed a better cover than the one that comes with the sketchbook) - I'm still decorating that.  But I love the color orange -  it represents the brightness of wisdom, driving out the darkness of ignorance (but I digress and I'll show the cover off sometime soon).  And I love the little cat face in the bottom left.

This is my first page :-) be gentle with me!

For you art journal fans ....... how to you combat curling pages? or do you just ignore them?