Life Book Weeks Nine and Ten

Hello my crafty friends, I combined two projects because they didn’t take any time to finish.

Week Nine – Five Minute Flowers with Martha Lever

“Martha is a whizz with watercolours,” according to Tamara Laporte and she really is! She showed us how to create flower in a pot very easily.

I just started working with watercolors and the way she taught us to paint the flowers was the easiest way I’ve ever tried!

They really took five minutes to make and so let’s ge to it!

Once again I worked on a 11×14 watercolor pad using only four watercolors from Qor Modern Watercolors.  These colors are fantastic!  They are very rich and smooth because of the special binder called Aquazol.  They make everything look like you’re an expert. I separated each pot to look like tiles and added some arrow stamps on each corner.  I also dripped some of the colors to give them some texture.

These are Tulips, if you can believe it!  I just dropped some paint on the paper in the form of tulips then went back with my caligraphy pen and outlined the flowers and the stems.

I really meant to make blue bells in this pot, but the pen (ha ha) just made petals that looked like orchids, so I went with that.

These Irisis came out looking good, don’t you think?

And finally the roses which I love!

I made each pot different in shape to give the project a bit of contrast.

Week 10 – With Prise for the Present with Mary Beth Shaw

Mary Beth is the owner of the amazing Stencil Girl Products, so you know she has unlimited resources.

The first thing we did was to collage some vintage papers and highlight some words that we liked.  When I went to my old books looking for paper to pull out I found this amazing saying “What Will You Do With This Day That’s So New?” so I made it my focal point.

After we highlighted the words we liked, we wrote them on tissue paper for use in a later step, then we covered everything up.  As you can see I used acrylic paints, and stencils, lots of stencils!  I like that I’m finally learning not to be so heavy handed with the paint so some of my collage can be seen through it.

Mary Beth chose a word that was highlighted in her piece and then using alpha stencils, she used the different letters in different positions.

In this closeup, you can see some of the words I chose written on the tissue paper and glued on to the watercolor paper and my focal point quote.

I then used my alpha stencils using black ink and wrote the same quote all over the piece, but kept the some of the words I wanted to highlight in answer to the quote.

This was supposed to be a journaling page so there is a block on the left bottom side where I journaled and then covered up with gesso and more stencils.  I think it’s a fabulous idea to do that.  You can show your work, but your inner thoughts are hidden from everyone’s eyes.

So to answer the question:  What will You Do With This Day That’s So New? My answer is:

Have gratitude, have fun, play, love, have faith, laugh, kiss, and live.  The number seven is for the seven days of the week.

Thanks for coming over.  Hope to see you back very soon!

Carmen

 

Life Book 2016 Week Eight

Finding Center With Mandalas (Doilies)

With Faith Evans-Sills

 

Welcome to another week of Life Book 2016 projects.  Faith Evans-Sills‘ project this week is all about layering different elements using stencils and silk screen with spray paints, acrylic paint, and molding paste.  She does some beautiful work – you have to go check her out!

First thing I do when I start a project is research the subject matter using Google.  My friend Google has prevented me from straying too far to the left when it has to do with spirituality.

Since I had an idea that Mandalas had something to do with Eastern Philosophy, I didn’t want to take any chances. This is what I found Wikipedia regarding mandalas.

• “Mandala is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Indian religions, representing the universe.^[1] In common use, mandala has become a generic term for any diagram, chart or geometric pattern that represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically; a microcosm of the universe.
• The basic form of most mandalas is a square with four gates containing a circle with a center point. Each gate is in the general shape of a T. Mandalas often exhibit radial balance.^[4]
• The term appears in the Rigveda as the name of the sections of the work, but is also used in other religions and philosophies, particularly Buddhism.
• In various spiritual traditions, mandalas may be employed for focusing attention of practitioners and adepts, as a spiritual guidance tool, for establishing a sacred space, and as an aid to meditation and tranceinduction.”

Yes, friends, it’s “a ritual symbol, but also a generic term for any diagram, chart or geometric pattern.”  I’m a Christian and it goes against my religious beliefs to draw one as a form of meditation or a way to get close to the Universe.  But, that is my opinion, and people are free to make choices, right?

Ok, that said, I opted to use a Martha Stewart doily stencil instead, as the focal point.  I first started by collaging various pieces of paper I cut out of magazines, scrapbooking paper, musical paper, etc., then I went to town with my stencils and spray paint.

I had a whole box of spray paint I won some time ago on Mark Montano’s YouTube channel and it came in very handy.  They are all glitter spray, so I chose some that wouldn’t overpower the background and covered some up with gesso, then I took the doily stencil and used several colors to fill it in.

This is the project after I finished filling in the doily, but I thought there was something missing, so I went back and added more silk screens using molding paste and a few

rub-ons.

I think the addition of the butterflies, birds, and gold paste added so much texture to the piece, I’m so in love with it!  Except that while trying to fix the word Namaste, I ended up misspelling it!

A few close ups here:

The doily in it’s full glory 🙂

The top with a silk screen and a stencil on top of gold spray paint.

Bottom right.  A stencil with blue spray after I gessoed the corner.

Upper right with a butterfly rub-on.

Lower left with anoter silk screen of a flower with Heidi Swapp pink paste.

There you have week eight.  I hope you enjoyed looking at my very busy project.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for your commments!

Carmen

 

 

 

 

Life Book Week Seven

The Art of Black and White with Donna Downey

This was a bonus lesson from Donna.  She said it was a challenge for her not to use any other colors, but she did great in her example.

I cheated a little because I remembered I had painted some sunflowers in black and white and never finished so I took that painting and refined it a bit.

I just added the shadows and made the right side where the light was shining lighter than the left.

I still think there is something else I needto do to this painting because it doesn’t look finished.  Maybe add splashes of white and black paint all over.

What do you think?

A closeup of the sunflowers

The Teal Bridge:  Build Your Dream and Affirmation Board  Bonus Lesson With Tamara Laport

This lesson was my favorite so far because it made me step out of my “comfort zone” and try new things.

First of all I used my own picture and did a transfer technique to the watercolor paper, and I made my own skin color using only four primary acrylic colors – blue, yellow, red, and white.  I learned this from a free class on the Craftsy blog.  You can get many free classes on a variety of subjects.  I have also taken several jeweley, greeting card, and mixed media lessons when they go on sale.

But, I digress! I wrote out some words I wanted to use for the Affirmation Board as if I was actually carying them out, then I used my computer to print out the words.  Here is the finished project using this picture of me!

Yes, I know, I look so young and fresh!  That’s because I did not add all the wrinkles and shadows!  But, that’s OK.  I know it’s me and I’m very happy with it!

Here are a few more details.  When I was cutting papers for my collage, I saw this quote and had to use it.  It says “Find the Beauty Within, Love with your whole heart.”

I used a variety of stencils, watercolor crayons, acrylics, scrabpook paper, and gesso for the background.  This shows the dolily stencil I used for the first time.  I cut out the flowers and the butterflies from papers I had in my stash – I think they were from a Donna Salazar paper stack – perfect!  I arranged the flowers and glued them around the top of my face.

This is a stencil I used with Faber Castell gold dimensionals.  The flowers on the left and bottom I stenciled through some paper flowers from Heidi Swapp.

On the upper right hand side, I collaged a peacock and didn’t cover it up as much as I usually do my papers.  I also took a piece of the paper flowers and added it to the edge.  I used red acrylic paint through another stencil to match the red on other parts of the painting.

.

On the left hand side I used one of Tim Holtz stencils and magenta acrylic paint to add texture.

The stencil I used for the hearts on top of “Family is Everything” is also Heidi Swapp.

And here is a closeup of the face.  The paper I used to cut out the butterfly  on the upper left hand only had half of it, so I used it in the corner.

This lesson inspired me to make a photo transfer of my mother on her wedding day.  Mom’s picture came out too dark so it didn’t show her left side.  She was also leaning on my dad, so the body was a little wonky.

She was very artistic and craftsy also.  She used to make flowers out of bread dough and make earrings, pendants, and home decor with them.  She loved canaries and always had them in the house singing away, and yellow roses, so I added all those elements to the painiting.

My sister, as well as some of my close friends and relatives said it was a close resemblance, so I’m happy with that.  I will make my sister another painting using a different picture because I have all the family photos.  She needs one of her own.

That is it, my friends!  The next lesson is all about Mandalas and I will share again here some time this week.

Thanks for coming over and leaving me a comment.  I read all the comments and they make me very happy to answer them.

Have a wonderful week!

Carmen

Life Book Week Six Your Quirky Amazing Life

Hello my artsy peeps!  Here I am again with another exciting post, LOL!

Week Six was taught by the amazing Tamara Laport

We were to think and write down about all the things we are grateful for and how we would depict our family.  Since this week was about quirky bird, I first thought about what the different personalities make up my amazing family, then I sketched them.

Here’s the sketch:

My daughter is a Yoga instructor and is always meditating, my son loves the drums and was in a rock band, now he works at a music store.  My husband  was hard to sketch, but I thought a toucan would be a good representation, and I’m the chick with the umbrella.

 

Here we are!  I also added my grandsons whom I adore!

I created this project on a 11×14 watercolor paper and used watercolor pencils, crayons, markers, acrylic paints, molding paste, stencils and love!

As I mentioned before, my daughter is a Yoga instructor.  I made her a Yoga outfit and the glitter all around her is her aura.  She’s such a loving, giving, and caring person!  She’s meditating and going “Ohmmmmmm” LOL

The Rock Star!

My son has been playing drums since he was grade school and later was part of a group.  Now he’s in his 40’s and he’s feeling the results of again!  His elbows hurt, he can’t hear very well, etc.

I tried to make him as flambouyant as possible, but not over the top.  I gave him a KISS face.  I added an ant so there would be five characters.  He’s holding a tiny heart and a leaf.

Next up is my husband.  Originally he was going to be a Toucan, but after adding his feathers, I don’t know what he is, ha ha.  He does have a heart of gold!  He is very giving, loving, and caring also!

My oldest grandson has been hiding behind people lately; I don’t know why, but he is the one in the family who also loves music and has the sweetest voice you’ve ever heard!

My youngest grandson is a jock!  He loves playing baseball and wants to be able to play professionally one day.  My husband has been encouraging him to do well in school and perhaps he can get a scholaship to go to College.  He’s already been admitted to Humboldt College in California.  We’re so proud!

Last, but not least, the chick representing me!

I put glasses on her because I like to read, and the umbrella is for when I go out in the ministry on a sunny day.   I’m one of Jehovah’s Witnesses and do volunteer work teaching the Bible and helping people get to know it better.  I added Zentangles to the umbrella, which I also draw to relax.  I also added doodles all over the pages and a few quirky stamps.

And that’s the project for this week, friends!

Thanks for coming by and I hope you leave me a comment.  I love comments!!

Carmen

Live With Promise

I had some spare time this weekend (I don’t know how that happened!) so I watched a free video on Youtube “Fawn Whispers” with Tamara Laporte while waiting for Monday to roll around so I could start on another Life Book 2016 lesson.  It is going to be all about quirky birds! I watched the first two videos while snuggling on my couch.  The weather turned ugly today; cold, windy, rain, and probably snow!

As I was saying, I followed along as she created her project because I wanted to go through her process.  The face came out a little different than hers.  The video is in fast speed, so I had to stop it and do my thing, then start again.  All in all I really liked how my piece came out.

I used 11×14 watercolor paper again for this one.  Collaged it with some tissue paper I found on clearance at Michael’s and lightly used my Caran De Arche watercolor crayons. I also used acrylic paint, and watercolor pencils. I’m usually very heavy handed when it comes to paint, but since I used watercolor crayons the paper showed through and I like it!

I’m always looking for the opportunity to use all of my crafty finds that I’ve picked up on sale and I was able to use the Faber Castelle Texture Gems in gold and white for the heart and the crowns.  Some may call it hoarding, but I call it preparing for the future!  LOL

I also used a Tim Holtz stencil to give the crown and her dress and cape some texture.

I first used the gems for the crown on the girl and decided to add some dots to the fawn’s crown as well as the heart.

I found my stencil with this quote and used a black molding paste so it would stand out.

The tiny butterflies are from the same stencil.  You can see the tissue paper that I used for the background.  I finished it off with throwing some white dots all over it.

Here is the stencil I used to add the flowers and leaves with a black ink.

I also added doodles with a white marker and a white gel pen and acrylic paint through another stencils in other places throught this piece and a script stamp.

My husband liked it a lot too, but he said that I need to make darker skinned gilrs too.  Yes, dear, that’s my next project.

Thanks for visiting and have a warm, cozy, day crafting!

Carmen

 

Life Book Week Five – A Vessel Full of Tenderness

This week’s lesson was with Pauline Agnew who followed the theme of the fearless fun. She showed us how to create a beautiful vase of flowers using as our collage papers a map of the area we were born.

I was born in Mexico in the state of Tlaxcala – a Nahuatl name –  pronounced (Spanish  [tla(k)sˈkala] ), in the city of Calpulalpan (cal pull al pan).   Don’t you just love it!  It’s almost like a tongue twister.

I googled the city and state, but it’s such a small community it was difficult to find just the right map.  So I opted to print the map of Mexico and the state of Tlaxcala.

The state of Tlaxcala is located in East Central Mexico, just east of Mexico City.

 

Google found “Cómo llegar a Tlaxcala.”  How to get to Tlaxcala.

Looking at the state, the city is in the lower left corner.  There is a big highway nearby and I think this is the one my uncle, Salvador Galindo, who was an engineer, was involved in building back in the late 1940’s .  My uncle hired my dad to be the accountant and to be responsible for paying the workers.  Wherever the highway went, we went.

According to Wikepedia, Tlaxcala is one of sixty municipalities in the state of Mexico.  My mother didn’t like the city because it was so small.  She told me that there was a big Agave farm nearby where they extracted the juice from the center of the plant, called Pulque, with an elongated gourd used as a tube.  She told me a friend talked her into trying a sip, but she became sick to ther stomach because all she thought about was that the sap was sucked out with a tube and there must have saliva in it.  Ugh!!  Well, later she found out the reason why she got sick and that is because she was pregnant with me and everything she was eating made her want to puke!

I also found out that Tlaxcala was one of the places Hernan Cortez passed through on his way to Tenochtitlan, the capital of old Mexico.  The inhabitants of that area, the Totonecas, were fierze enemies of the Aztecs and joined Cortez in the fight against them in his conquest.

Now on to my project!

First thing I did was cover my 11×14 watercolor paper with different brush strokes of acrylic paint, keeping in mind that it was going to be a bouquet of flowers on a vase.

I then collaged pieces of my maps and covered the paper with more strokes and several more layers of paint later, this emerge, but I wasn’t done yet.  I did manage to leave a piece of the map with the name of my birthplace showing on the vase.  I used some primary colors and a bit of gold.

Then after several more strokes and stencils, I finished my creation.  It is not as abstract as it was meant to be, but I did enjoy the process!

Here is a close up of the bouquet and the vase,

and the leaves

…and one more close up of the middle of the flowers,

I’m calling this project done!

Thanks for visiting and I appreciate your comments,

Carmen

 

Life Book Week Four And Dina Wakley

Fearless Art With Annie Hamman

This lesson was a lot of fun since I allowed my inner child to come out and play and make a mess on my art.  It really took me out of my comfort zone, but I was able to let it go and I didn’t spend too much time trying to make it perfect.

Annie had the collaboration of her four year old daughter, Tallulah.  Actually, Tallulah has been collaborating in her mother’s work since she was a year old when she would go into Annie’s workshop and try to mess around.  After several attempts at getting her to stop “bothering” her, she decided to allow her daughter to play along with her and as a result there’s been sensational pieces of art created by both of them.

I first took a face from a fashion magazine and made my sketch.  I chose this one because the features were very detailed, although I left the glasses off.

Then I stared adding the acrylic paints and worked on it for a while.  This is the first few layers.  I used a few stencils and added lots of color to her hair.  This piece of art went through several changes as you will see because my “inner child” wanted to change things and I allowed her.

Then, the inner child came out to play.  She wanted feathers in her hair and apparently she didn’t like the hair so she put in different strokes even over my pretty flower stencil.

So I went back and added another big flower on her hair.  My inner child came back and used more stencils and more paint, and then I decided that was enough out of her.

I went back and just changed the stencils and hair and worked on her forehead a bit and gave her new eyebrows and eyes with eyelashes even!  I also used a stamp and a white jelly roll pen to give her a few gray hairs and added details to the flowers and leaves. I left the collaged butterflies on her neck and on the top. I’m really happy with her and I hope to play like this once more.

That is it for this lesson and I’m so looking forward to next week.  So many people have signed up for Life Book 2016 that it’s hard to keep up on our secret Facebook page.  I love all the different interpretations and the art work is amazing.  There have been some beautiful, beautiful, pieces shared that intimidate me, but I have to keep thinking about the word I chose for this year “Beautiful.”  Everything I create is beautiful!

Art Journal Color Courage with Dina Wakley and Amy Jones

I’ve been meaning to post some of the backgrounds I’ve been creating after watching Dina Wakley and Amy Jones in the Interweave Store through the Cloth, Paper, Scissors. Shop.

I bought her book,  Art Journal Courage, through Amazon and I was hooked!  There is nothing like seeing the artist at work that’s why I decided to buy the videos.

She is truly fearless when it comes to playing in her journal.  I bought her bird stamps while they were on sale at the JoAnn’s online store.  Now I can’t wait to use them on the backgrounds I created.

This background was mostly created with ink sprays and stencils.  She has a great line of stencils, but I made my own and used some I had on hand.

These were also created with spray inks, but she introduced acrylic paints too.  To me it looked very busy, but I have to go back and finish watching the video so I can see how she fixed it.

 These were created on deli paper.  It’s amazing to me that I didn’t have to use my Gelli Plate, but I’m sure in one of her classes she’ll take it out to use it!

 

And Finally, the piece de resistance (spoken  with a French accent).   These were my favorite pieces because the colors are just so vibrant!  I used the sprays on the bottom and the stencils on top.

 

Now, to watch the rest of the videos and see how I can use my new sketchy bird stamps.  Thank you all for stopping by today and I look forward to your comments.

 Until next time, play, play play!~

Carmen

Life Book 2016 – Week Three

Week Three with Melody Ross

Your Sacred Box of Wisdom

Melody Ross and her sister have helped a lot of women all over the world to find a supportive sisterhood by means of symposiums through the Brave Girls University.  Please check out Melody’s blog – The Brave Girls Club.

This week’s lesson with Melody Ross was about getting in touch with all the wisdom we have accumulated in our life just by living, being, and doing.

The exercise was very deep in that we would write down the wisdom in our life and how we came to that wisdom by our experiences, whether good or bad, and what we learned from them.

I chose instead to create a project with a box full of books where I have found wisdom.  Books like The Bible, the Book of Life, and books written by other influential people.  I appreciate all forms of wisdom and I celebrate by sharing some of the words with you that I find have helped me grow and heal my life.

This time I made a girl with a different hairdo than what I usually create.  I started out with an 11×14 watercolor page and after coloring the page and the girl,  I then created the background by collaging with a napkin that had the same colors.

I first drew her with a big smile, but I couldn’t get her teeth right.  She looked like a hillbily, so I opted to give her some smile marks around her mouth.

In order to do this project, I did some research on the word Wisdom.

“Wisdom is the ability to think and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight.”

You can see I titled some of the books – Life, Expriences, Holy Bible, and one of Maya Angelou’s biobraphical books – The Heart of a Woman.  I couldn’t include all the books and all the authors who have inspired me so much in my life.  I would have loved to have included some of the inspiring quotes I love, but I would need many, many more pages.

The box is also collaged with a napkin and outlined with a marker.

I did, however, include a couple of quotes from the Bible.  On the top is from the Book of Proverbs, “Widsdom is the most important thing, so acquire wisdom.  And with all you acquire, acquire understanding.”  (Proverbs 4:7)

The title of my page Wisdom is from an image I found on Google.  Here you can see a closeup of some the words that have to do with acquired wisdom.

The second quote is also from the Book of Proverbs:  “Happy is the man (or woman) who finds wisdom.  And the man who acquires discernment.”  (Proverbs 3:13)

Before I close, I want to share some quotes about Wisdom I found while doing my research.

Enjoy!

“The desire to reach for the stars is ambitious. The desire to reach hearts is wise.”
― Maya Angelou

“It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.”
― Maurice Switzer

“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.”
― Mother Teresa

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
― Eleanor Roosevelt, This is My Story

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
― Aristotle

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.”
― Socrates

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”

― Isaac Asimov

“Turn your wounds into wisdom.”
― Oprah Winfrey

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”
― Albert Einstein

“The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.”
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
― Confucius

“Knowing others is intelligence;
knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength;
mastering yourself is true power.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching

“Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens”
― Jimi Hendrix

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
― Rumi

“Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge, fitter to bruise than polish.”
― Anne Bradstreet

“We must live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

“Sometimes it’s not enough to know what things mean, sometimes you have to know what things don’t mean.”
― Bob Dylan

“Lost Time is never found again.”
― Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack

Until next time, my friends, think and act wisely.

Carmen

And It Begins: Life Book 2016

Hello again, crafty friends!

I put together my projects for Life Book 2015, but there were so many pages, I had to make two albums.

I made the covers out of hard white mat board and covered them with the designer paper.  I didn’t want to make holes in my pages, so instead, I made some corners where the pages would be inserted, and glued them to the 11×17 paper I found at JoAnns.

This is when I found out I couldn’t put any more pages in the album even though I used three inch rings.

As you can see, I made a lot of art last year!

Life Book 2016 – Week One

Now, I start on Life Book 2016.  I’ve been working on my projects as fast as I  can so I don’t fall behind.  This year I want to conscientiously make all the projects because I’m still learning and I’m finding what I like.  I don’t want to get into a rot, so I feel that if I try all the different classes, I can learn new styles and more techniques.

The Warm Up

Tamara Laport, the genius behind Life Book has been conducting this series since 2012.  This will be my second year, and I enjoy going to my craft room and playing with all my crafty stuff.  I’ve also been able to take out different tools, paints, and stencils I haven’t used before.

Tam, is a very gentle, gracious, and giving person.  You can tell by her lessons and the details in each that se really enjoys teaching others what she knows.

The first week she did a warm up lesson about our word for the year.  I am struggling with overworking my art and so I figured that imperfection is better than getting frustrated.

A closeup of the lotus:

I used a variety of stamps to make it imperfect.

I stamped the word beautiful and the lotus with a Unity Stamp kit.

These two are also part of the kit.

Main Lesson, Happy Traveler.

I chose a lamb and an eagle to be my traveling companions.  I gave the eagle a little bit of attitude!

A closeup of my little lamb.  Yes, she’s blue, but she’s happy.

A closeup of the eagle leaning on the tree.

A closeup of the the traveler’s face.  Notice the doodling I did on her hair to add some dimension.

I also did some doodling on the bottom left corner with a white marker and other doodles with the black one.

And used a stencil on her cape and on the upper right hand corner.

Tam added a pouch to her traveling companing, but I didn’t add one to mine because I fuzzed too much over my lamb and I just wanted to finish.

I’ve been working today on Week two, and will post the homework tomorrow.

Until then, happy crafting!

Carmen

Life Book Lessons 50 and 51

Week 50 –  Celebration and Play with Effy Wild

Sunlight and Roses

This was such a lovely project, but I did not want to take the time to draw every flower and draw doodles all over because I’m running out of time. Effy Wild, really took her time to create her project and I loved it.

Instead, I got one of my flower stamps and using distress markers I made a frame for my journaling.  I like the soft colors in this one.

This is a close up of the top of the page…

…and a little bit more close up.

I also used Sakura jelly roll metalic pens and outlined the flowers with my Sharpie pen.

Week 51 – Celebration Gratitude and Learning

with Jeanne Oliver – The Big Picture

 Jean Oliver shared a video about her gratitude exercises with us and a PDF to remind us about the little things we want to see clearly, especially at this very busy time of the year.

Tam also included a painterly face project and we got to write all the things we were grateful and that made us happy.

She had us take a selfie and then copy it to our paper and see what would come out.  Ha, the only things that look like me is my eyebrows and my short hair.

I really like the face, especially the color.  The neck is kind of weird and I was wearing a t-shirt, so the bottom is not too fancy.  Here’s a close up.

And instead of a lot of embellishments I just wrote the title of the painting on the front of the t-shirt.

I have a lot to be thankful for and I could just keep writing on the back of the page.

I have one more lesson in Life Book 2015, and then I will be binding all the projects I did during the year.

I will post that next.

Thanks for stopping by,

Make some art today!

Carmen