Merry Christmas and Art Advent 2024: Days 21 through 24

 

 

  Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it.

Now for the final Art Advent 2024: Days 21 through 24.

Day 21: Peace. Peace symbol copied from the internet, fussy cut, then colored using felt tip markers.

Day 22: Presence.  Focal image from my stash. I framed it using washi tape. Sentiment: She made her presence known.

Day 23: Quiet mind.  Image from my stash is anything except a quiet mind.  Sentiment: To the quiet mind, all things are possible.  Quote by Meister Ehekhart.

Day 24: Word for 2025: Collage.  Collage began with a gifted bingo card.  I then adhered a heart I colored blue over a square of map from Manhattan (NYC).  I added bits of washi tape, two fleur de lies, and six blue dots.  Finally, I added the computer generated word Collage.

Thank you beyond belief for sticking with me through these 24 days of Art Advent 2024.  In case you missed any, Days 1 through 4 can be found here. Days 5 through 8 can be found here.  Days 9 through 12 can be found here. Days 13 through 16 can be found here. Days 17 through 20 can be found here.  Word for 2025 will be changed/added on January 1, 2025.  I look forward to joining Michelle of RaspberryBlueSky and Tamara of MaraKreativStudio and their Art Journal Advent Calendar again in 2025.

Art Advent, 2024: Days 17 through 20

 

I know many of you are wondering where I've been, especially since I had so many T Tuesday participants to visit.  Late Monday afternoon, early evening, I was gathering my mail when my neighbor two doors down waved as she got into her car.  I was surprised when she pulled into my driveway and asked if I wanted to go to the grocery store with her.  I thought why not.  It would be a way to get to know her a bit better, too.  I put my mail on the cat tower and took off with her.  As we started to make a right turn at the four way, a car coming from the other direction lost control and hit her car head on.  

Apparently I was knocked out and we were both taken to the hospital where we were both admitted.  I woke on Tuesday evening to learn what had happened.  Sheila was in critical condition, but is now in serious condition.  

I was given a CT scan to make sure I didn't have any permanent brain/head damage or swelling.  The hospital kept me until yesterday (Thursday) evening, when I was discharged as soon as the doctor gave the word and my foodie friend Sally picked me up.  Thankfully she took my Christmas cards and tip-ins to the post office that stays open all night. I was still in too much pain to publish or visit anyone yesterday evening, but I am (and will be) doing so today.

Once again I'm joining Michelle of RaspberryBlueSky and Tamara of MaraKreativStudio and their Art Journal Advent Calendar for 2024.  You will find their calendars on Instagram, but you will only find mine on my blog.

 Day17: Awareness.  Image from the internet that I colored from green to bright red using crayons.

Day 18: Comfort Zone.  This was not the image I planned to use, but I grabbed it and added it to Day 18 by mistake.  I had to try to make it look appropriate, so added the shiny heart, which I cropped too close to the edge of the page.

Day 19: Heavenly.  My idea of heavenly is a plate full of fresh veggies and a bowl of heavenly dip.  The heart sticker is from my stash.

Day 20: Remarkable.  I found this picturesque scene remarkable.  I added bits of washi tape for effect.

In case you missed any, Days 1 through 4 can be found here. Days 5 through 8 can be found here.  Days 9 through 12 can be found here. Days 13 through 16 can be found here.

Just four more days to go and Art Advent 2024 will be over.  I will still need to create a front and back cover and bind them together. 

Thanks for continuing with me on this 24 day advent adventure.  I appreciate your visit and encouraging comments.  I hope you like how I interpret some of the prompts. Which, if any, of these prompts were your favorite?

Art Advent 2024: Days 13 through 16

 

I am once again joining Michelle of RaspberryBlueSky and Tamara of MaraKreativStudio and their Art Journal Advent Calendar for 2024.  You will find theirs on Instagram, but you will only find mine on my blog.

Day 13: Confetti.  Image found in a magazine.

Day 14: Alive.  This prompt stumped me.  I had no idea how I was going to convey being alive.  It's a good thing I have a huge stash, so I went through a few of my travel magazines and found this image.  It certainly made me feel alive.  I added the butterfly, also from my stash.

 

Day 15: 2024 in 3 words.  I knew immediately what three words summed up this past year.  Yes, "Blogger hates me."  I used ransom type letters to write the words I found in various magazines.

 

Day 16: Be authentic.  I found these images in a travel magazine.  I adhered the focal image to the background image and attached a gem to one of the umbrellas.

 

In case you missed any, Days 1 through 4 can be found here. Days 5 through 8 can be found here.  Days 9 through 12 can be found here.

Thanks for joining me on this 24 day advent adventure.  I appreciate your visit and encouraging comments.  I hope you like how I interpret some of the prompts.

Art Advent 2024: Days 9 through 12

 

I am once again joining Michelle of RaspberryBlueSky and Tamara of MaraKreativStudio and their Art Journal Advent Calendar for 2024.

 

  Day 9: Dreamy.  Nathan Fillion can eat crackers in my bed any day.  He is definitely my idea of dreamy.  And having two of him is twice as nice.  Image found on internet.

 

Day 10: Letting go.  Mother kitty knows she can't hold onto her babies forever.  Image was a rubber stamp image I fussy cut and adhered to the page.

Day 11: Keep.   He's definitely a keeper.  He looks a lot like Squiggles.  Image was also a rubber stamp image I fussy cut and adhered to the page.

Day 12: Ups and downs.  I was a bit literal with the arrows as my idea of ups and downs.  Sorry, I cropped a bit too close to the top left arrow.  Arrows found on the internet that I fussy cut.

Days 1 through 4 can be found here. Days 5 through 8 can be found here.

Thanks for joining me on this 24 day advent adventure.  I appreciate your support.  I hope you like how I interpret some of the prompts.

Calendars update

 

 Today I have two calendar updates: one for Art Journal Journey and one for Art Advent 2024.

Since all the images were on the right side of my December, 2024 calendar, I decided to scan, rather than photograph this calendar page I decorated for Sharon's theme at Art Journal Journey.  You may know her theme is Snow.

I am also joining Michelle of RaspberryBlueSky and Tamara of MaraKreativStudio and their Art Journal Advent Calendar for 2024.  This is my fourth year joining, even though I am not on Instagram where they post.

Below are Days 5 through 8.

Day 5: Discover.  The first thing that came to mind was a Discover card that I copied from the internet and colored the "O" using yellow and red crayons.

Day 6: Magic Moment.  (Anytime I can show a cat in my art, that's a magic moment in my book.  Images taken from a cat food ad.)

Day 7: Silence. (Freshly fallen snow.  There's nothing better than the silence after the first snow of the year.  Gifted watercolor painting created by Dianne Bishop Carey.)

Day 8: The sweetness of doing nothing. (Focal image from a travel magazine.  Added butterfly from my stash.)

Days 1 through 4 can be found here.

Thanks for joining me on this 24 day advent adventure.  Thanks also for joining Bleubeard and me at Art Journal Journey where we celebrate the theme Snow.

 

Art Advent 2024: Days 1 through 4

Today I am joining Michelle of RaspberryBlueSky and Tamara of MaraKreativStudio and their Art Journal Advent Calendar for 2024.  They post to Instagram.  I do not.  That means the only place you will see my Advent Calendar pages will be on my blog.

Day 1: Start Today (Decorate my home for the holidays)

Day 2: Simplicity (The little black dress and string of pearls)

Day 3: Pursue your passion (Art and photography)

Day 4: Fearless (Mother, I am not afraid of that frog)

Thanks so much for joining me for this 24 day event.  I hope you like how I interpret the prompts.

The last of my Art Journal Advent, 2022

 

These are my final pages for Michelle's of RaspberryBlueSky and Tamara's of MaraKreativStudio Art Journal Advent, 2022.

I had started this when I shared Days 7 through 21.  The prompt was Freedom.  I had already created the background and the butterflies I stamped using my favorite butterfly stamp.  I was gifted with the die cut cage and the two die cut birds.  The birds were lost on the page, so I outlined them using a Sharpie fine line pen.  I computer generated the words I printed with my laser printer.

 Day 23's prompt was "All that I am."  I tried to think of all the things that someone might say to describe me.  At least, I HOPE people would say them.  Believe it or not, I am very shy until I get to know someone.  Then I will talk your head off!  BTW, I've been told I am "brutally honest" to a fault.

Day 24 is my word of the year.  My foodie friend Sally gave me the yearly Daytime calendar.  At the same time, she gave me a Planner.  She thought I should use both.  Instead  of documenting what happened that day, she thought I should be planning ahead.  After the mess I got myself into this year at Christmas (I never made a single Christmas card), I tend to agree that I need a plan and I need to plan.  I will NOT be sharing my planner on my blog, but I will be using it to plan future events.

Finally, this is the back cover of my Art Journal Advent for 2022.  Much of this is made from leftover backgrounds I used in the art journal.

Thanks for joining Bleubeard and me as we completed our Art Journal Advent, 2022.  We appreciate your visit and encouragement when I was rather behind at times.

 

Happy Christmas eve

 

I want to wish everyone who celebrates it, a lovely Christmas eve.

I'm joining Michelle of RaspberryBlueSky and Tamara of MaraKreativStudio and their Art Journal Advent Calendar.  I am in catch-up mode.  Instead of posting weekly, it seems I must now share the last of my advent prompts.  I hope this isn't photo overload.

I'm running late and haven't quite finished my art journal advent calendar.  I hope to finish tomorrow.  Let's start with Day 7, which is My Value.  Here is my annual donation to PBS Kansas. I believe that I get a lot of decent TV for the value.

Day 8's prompt was Unique.  Need I say more?  Maybe that I recycled an ornament on the shirt.  The background was some of my handmade paper.

For Day 9, I was to Follow my impulse.  This was NOT the spread I first envisioned, conceived, or planned.  It's one of those prompts that took on a mind of its own.  If you are a mixed media artist, I am sure you know what I mean.

I found this quote after I found the image and had added the two rows of circles.  This quote is attributed to Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th president.  It reads "Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground."

Day 10's prompt was YES! Ransom letters were mixed with a rub on and a sticker from my stash.

For Day 11, the prompt was "Greatest gift in 2022."  I could have gone with something like friendship, love, etc.  Instead, I chose something tangible: a new camera my friend Scott gave me for Thanksgiving.  The base was a piece of my handmade paper.  Stickers and an image from an older Nikon Coolpix completed the page.  And I even got some joyful concepts in at the same time. 

The Day 12 prompt was Simplify.  I enjoyed making these leaves that the butterfly stickers could sit on.  Although the leaves looked similar (color wise) on my work table, when scanned there was a noticeable difference in the two security envelopes I used.

Self Confidence was the prompt for Day 13.  For some reason, I was drawn to this image and felt it showed confidence.  Since it was an ad, I needed something to cover the ad,  Therefore, the corrugated cardboard became my embellishment of choice.  The background was two colors of fluid acrylics brushed on a sheet of copier paper.  I fussy cut the focal image and adhered it before I added the cardboard.

Day  14 had us building castles in the air.  I had no good image for this, so went to the internet, found a castle that I cropped, then cut the rather paltry clouds using a sheet of copier paper.  The background is the same as that of Day 13.  This is probably my least favorite spread and prompt.

On Day 15, I stole borrowed the idea for this spread from my friend Alison (Craftytrog).  She found bees and hedgehogs to be vulnerable and I chose sea creatures and birds.  Thanks for the idea, Alison.  I was really stumped until I saw what you created!

Day 16 had us being Unfiltered.  I thought it was time to let go of my frustration about this Christmas season.  In case you need a translation: Some days it sucks to be ME!

For Day 17, the prompt was Fearless.  That definitely isn't me, so I chose an image of a rock climber who DID look fearless.  The background is heavy extra thick scrapbook paper.

For Day 18, The prompt was What can I let go? Although there are a lot of things I could mention, I only chose two.  I thought the background of healthy veggies I found was perfect for this spread.

This John Denver song kept running through my head when I saw Day 19's Home(land) prompt.

As I was putting some postage stamps away, I saw this one of a country barn with a road leading to it.  It was the perfect addition.

For Day 20, we were to create Magical Moments.  I used collage fodder to create this page with the Dream Big rocket.

Balance was the prompt for Day 21. I found the ballerina on the internet and fussy cut her image.

I fussy cut the hand from my stash for her to stand and balance on.

I have started Day 22, but it isn't finished.  I will share the final three and my back cover on Monday.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end of this very long post.  I am grateful you stayed to see the prompts from Day 7 through 22. 

Art Journal Advent Calendar 2022

 

For the second year in a row, I'm joining Michelle of RaspberryBlueSky and Tamara of MaraKreativStudio and their Art Journal Advent Calendar.  I had hoped to use the same journal I did last year, but I only counted seven pages, which meant only14 journal entries.

This is the cover of my 2022 Art Journal Advent Calendar.    I obviously cropped the right side and the bottom a bit too much.  And of course, I had to mess up and call Michelle's studio Raspberry Sky Blue rather than Raspberry Blue Sky.

For Day 1, the prompt was Enthusiasm.   I'm always enthused when I vote.  It looks like this father and son are enthused over the fish they caught.  There are definitely faces in this journal page, so I am joining Nicole's Friday Face Off tonight.

On Day 2, we were to share the view outside our window.  If only my view was that beautiful and snowy.  It may not look like snow,

but I added some clear Stickles that unfortunately reflect the color of the stamped trees.  It may be a stretch, but I am also joining Jo from Let's Art Journal at Art Journal Journey with her theme Snowy Winter. 

The prompt on Day 3 was Connection.  This may not be what Michelle had in mind, but it is what came to my mind when I saw the prompt.

On Day 4, I started to feel better about this journal.  The prompt was What has 2022 meant to me?  When I printed it out, I wrote 2002 instead of 2022.  I thought when I corrected it, it fit in perfectly with the answer to the question.  You probably can't read it, but I wrote: In 2022 I discovered collage fodder.  I'm fairly certain others came up with things like happiness, self-awareness, lasting friendships, etc.  However, I went a different route.  The collage fodder route, in fact.

Day 5's prompt was Nature.  This was another journal entry I really liked. I included some gifted embellishments, a fussy cut bird, three butterfly stickers, a State Parks map from Arkansas, and one of my wonky leaves.

For my final first installment, Day 6's prompt was Over the moon excited.  I found a picture of a sculpture that was standing on its head.  I cut around it and added a circle I'm calling a moon.  I added some black and copper gel pen marks, along with some white stars, and it was complete.

 

Thanks for joining Bleubeard and me as we started the Art Journal Advent Calendar for 2022, and are joining Nicole's Friday Face Off and Jo's Snowy Winter theme at Art Journal Journey.

 

Just an FYI, I will have limited computer time for the next three days.  I will not be around a computer most of the time, so I will be by as time permits.