The Finale

It is the last day of July, and the last day of Art Journal Journey's stamp/postage/postal theme. For those of you following the story of Lizzie and Wally, this is it. This chapter in the story is done!

For those of you not following, this is just a romantic kind of page. Everything is painted except for the stamped quote.

No more letters needed!

I am linking this to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to Eva and Kristen for hosting.

And since it is the last day of July (sad face because the summer is flying by too fast), I thought it would include a little picture wrap up of my month.

And I am including NO photos of the food this month (so some of you, you know who you are, won't get all annoyed at me again), because there was a lot. But surprisingly I didn't gain 10 pounds...I actually lost 1. I'll take it since there was a lot of high calorie yummies.
So that's it for today. See you next month!
Hope you all enjoy your weekend. And thanks for visiting today.

My Little Summer Journal, Some Pages

Some of the little pages I've been making for my summer memory journal. They aren't always neat or pretty  They are small and made quickly. Its the only way to keep up with it AND have time for other art projects.

I've doodled and colored and played with my rubber stamps. I've also used up some items that I've salvaged from other things. Like that tag in the above page that came on a bottle of coffee syrup I bought.

And I've made pages from magazine pages and used images from magazine pages.

I've been cutting out of this one magazine for a long time but I still keep finding things I like in it.

And I've used some of those papers in my stash.

The only bad thing is this cover won't be big enough to hold my whole summer, so it has become a book just for July. Luckily I had another cover laying around I can use for August.
Will be fun to make another cover!
And here's some of my latest reads for the summer.

It was a lovely day to lounge on the porch with a big glass of ice tea the other day.  I guess that's what summer is all about.
I hope you find a little time to lounge with a good book (or sketchpad and drawing utensil) today!
Thanks for visiting.

Travel in Style to Foreign Lands

So today my journal page is a collage of stamps and travel papers. I am linking this up to Art Journal Journey (thanks Susi and Valerie for hosting), and after this there is only 1 more page in the story.

Will it be a happy ending? Or not so happy?

The reveal (ha-ha) is Friday. (I've got to make it a little suspenseful, eh?)

So today's page has lots of stamped images. This is Wally's page. He has finally decided it is time to go home. I wonder if he is going to check up on Lizzie? 

It has been so much fun playing with my postage stamp stamps and postmarks. I will say this story was a  great summer project and I would never have done it if it weren't for Art Journal Journey's theme. Thanks again Susi and Valerie!

So I am keeping this short. I am very excited, even in this heat, I am off for an art day with a friend.

Looking forward to a little  play time.

Hope your day includes (or included) something you are looking forward to also.

Thanks for visiting.

Traveling

So another journal page that I am linking to Art Journal Journey. Thanks to Susi and Valerie for hosting.

Today I am continuing the Lizzie and Wally story which will wrap up on Friday, I promise! 

So now Lizzie is on her way home, making a fun cruise of it in the process. Can you blame her?  Wouldn't it be fun just to be able to take off on a whim and spend the winter away? 

 I used paints and stamps and a black Sharpie to make the background. I stamped some images, and aged them a bit, and added them to the page.

And since I have finished making the Lizzie and Wally pages, and since it was a kind of quiet weekend, I've been making a few cards. I haven't made cards in forever, and my stash is dwindling. 

Always good to have a little card stash for those occasions you need them.

Or when someone like my daughter or husband say they need a card for something, which is often the case.

Here's a couple of them for today.

So not sure what I am up to today. I have a car that desperately needs a cleaning since yesterday the dog took off and went romping through the swamp across the street from the house. I went to coerce her home, and of course she was COVERED in mud, which got all over in the inside of the car, and it cleans up better when dry...

Little bugger.

But anyhow, that is all for me. Have a fantastic day, and stay cool!

(We're back into the heat here.)

Time to Go Home

Happy Monday everyone. Can't believe this is the last week of July, already! But of course, summer always flies right by, doesn't it?

My weekend was very  quiet. Well, not exactly that quiet I guess, my living room ceiling finally got finished! Or like 95% finished.  We just have a window to trim out and the attic door to put back up. And I have a little touch up painting. We had some ice dam/leak damage this past winter and my daughter's boyfriend had been working on it (around his work schedule.)

I love how it came out, and even thought it took longer than the couple of weeks I expected, it was worth the wait.

Here's a little peek. We have a barn door that closes off our bedroom from down in the living room and we covered that to match the ceiling. 

So today I have another in the last few pages in the Lizzie and Wally story. 

I am really happy with this page. I used a Gelli print (made on printed paper) and attached it to some white water color paper for the background. I dug out lots of things from my stash to embellish this page. I was kind of naughty too, because I covered over the air mail stamp, or at least quite a bit of it. And I love Lizzie here. I used a die cut of a lady and then I made her cute little dress out of one of my used wipe up paper towels. Yes, the ones that usually get thrown into the trash. Love the texture it gives.

I am linking this page to Art Journal Journey, hosted this month by Valerie and Susi.
So quite a bit going on this week round here- starting today with some more tests at the doctors.  Nothing wrong with me, just checking if  could be a potential kidney donor to my husband. Hmmmm. We shall see.
Hope your day and week are wonderful and I really appreciate you stopping by my blog.

Winter And Spring

OK, I promise you that this story is going to end, but I have a few pages left to go. 

Sometimes it is just so easy to get rolling and make pages. But I think I have just enough to weave a tale with a bit of suspense-and hopefully it isn't too long a tale.

So today, first the winter page. 

I used this sticky felt trim I had on the left side of the page which made it feel more wintery. Then I painted the fire, added the stamped cameo and also some plastic snowflakes. Then I added the postage stamps and gave the whole page a glittery spray.
Kind of an icy snowy feel.
And then, luckily, after winter comes spring.

Linking this post to Art Journal Journey. This month's theme is postage and mail and stamps. Thanks to Valerie and Susi for hosting.

So we're in for a not such a  great weather weekend, at least according to the weatherperson on tv. Seems like we've had a lot of unsettled weather lately. The flowers are loving it, but not sure about the rest of us. Especially on the weekend when everyone is home.
So hope your weather is beautiful and your weekend is starting off in a really good way!
Thanks for visiting.

More About Lizzie and Wally

OK, my posts have been pretty much only about Lizzie and Wally lately, and I have another to show you today.

I am linking these up to Paint Party Friday. Thanks to Eva and Kristen for hosting.

I am also linking up to Art Journal Journey. Thanks to Valerie and Susi for hosting.

So here's the story so far- my quick synopsis for those of you who aren't familiar with it.

Wally and Lizzie are a couple, but then Wally decides to go on a world-wide painting journey while Lizzie decides to stay behind. Anyhow, after time passes Lizzie decides to go find  Wally, and when she doesn't find him, she  starts traveling herself. So this page is Lizzie's mailbox at home with all of the letter's from Wally she hasn't received.

This has been a pretty quiet week for me. I met with a few friends, went out to dinner with my husband, and did a bit if baking. Not that I needed the calories, but I needed to bring dessert to a friend's for dinner and that inspired me to make something yummy.

These are eclairs filled with raspberry mousse. 

My friend is lucky enough to have this little cabin on a nearby lake. Before we ate those eclairs we sat on the dock and soaked our feet in the water while we sipped our glasses of wine. I would have loved to go swimming but it was just too chilly. But it was a wonderful way to spend a summer evening.

Not much else new with me.  Anything wildly exciting new with you?

Thanks for visiting and stopping by the blog.

What Are You Up To?

I hope I am not getting boring. Here's my next Lizzie/Wally story page which I am linking to Art Journal Journey and their postal/mail/postage theme.
Thanks to Susi and Valerie for hosting this month.

Today's page was made with an owl background that was in my pile of pre-made backgrounds.
Not only am I having fun making the pages of my little story, but it is fun to challenge myself to make the pages just different enough so they don't really repeat. Well, there's been a few similar pages, but mostly not. And I need to be sure there's a little different feel between Wally's male pages and Lizzie's female pages.
So there's about a week left to the month and I have a few more pages to show you, but I will wrap it up by the end of the month.
Kind of sad as the artist to think I will finish this story.
But I guess I can always move onto the next chapter between these 2 if the desire remains once we are finished with this little tale.
Not much else to say here.
Thanks (once again) for stopping by.

Africa

Here's the next page in my story of Lizzie and Wally and my next piece linked up to Art Journal Journey and their postal/mail/postage  theme. You can link up to yesterday's post with the earlier part of the story here if you are curious: New story and recap.

I made this page with a some spray inks, a postage stamp cube and some animal stamps from various makers. Then I used a little bit of craft paint to make the grass on the bottom of the page..

Not much else to say today. Its a quiet week for me.

Thanks for visiting today.

New Page and a Story Recap

So I've really gotten into my Lizzie and Wally story and have had a blast making the pages.  So much fun in fact that I have gone back and spruced up my first few pages (gave them a little more mixed media feel) and have decided that when I am done I am going to bind them all into a separate little book.

I also want to thank everyone who has gotten into the story and have left me such nice comments.

Since some people missed the early pages of this story,  today I will give you  a little recap in order so far and then show you the next page in the story.

These are the pages so far. Now the next page.

After not finding Wally at the Eiffel Tower, where she obviously thought she would see him, Lizzie decides to tour Europe.  Is she searching for Wally in hopes of finding him, or just doing a grand tour? 

I used  Gelli printed background and then stenciled these vehicles in black. I haven't bought many stencils recently since I have a stack but I just loved this one. Then I painted the names of the cities and outlined them in a black Stabilo pencil and a red Sharpie. 

And the exciting thing was I found this old roll of paper tape I had that is postage stamps! It is always dun to find something you forgot you had but when it works on a project you are involved in, it is even a better find.

I stamped Lizzie's face (B Line Designs), colored and fussy cut her out, and added this die cut wings.

I am linking this page like all the others here have been to Art Journal Journey, which is being hosted by Valerie and Susi this month. The theme is mail, the post and postage stamps.

That's all for me today.

Thanks for stopping by and hope everyone is having a great day so far.

Just a Few Pages

 Happy Monday everyone. I suppose for some of you Monday means the start of a tough week at work so it may not be happy, but it is the start of another week, and hopefully it will be a good week for everyone.

So today just a few views from my little summer journal I am making.

The top page used a bunch of pieces out of my stash, including the tag that came on my suitcase, a photocopied of an old postage stamp (you might remember when the US post office sold sheets with a stamp for all 50 states-I copied them for cutting out and using in journaling).

 I bought the VT (Vermont) oval sticker in the general store last week when I was in Vermont. I added a couple of wooden images in my stash and few other items too.

 These little plastic spoons were ones I used in a taste test in my baking class last week, and I also added one of my name stickers.

 I doodled and cut out these items. The go with the page below-they are on the back of the page.

Not much else new here with me today. We are still having some humid weather and more chance of thunderstorms. Yesterday we had some pretty severe ones all late afternoon and evening. Good thing I have a low key day planned with hopefully lots of studio play time. No better way to spend a hot and probably stormy day.

Thanks for stopping by!