Cutting up my credit card

Thanks to Beverly at the http://artjournaling.ning.com/ I am back to art jounaling on a regular basis.  I told myself after Kelly Kilmer’s class that I should be working on my own prompts. That choosing my own was the best way to work on finding “My Style.”  But after the slump I have been in, I decided to get my mojo back any way I could and if it takes someone else’s prompts to do it, so be it.  Some of the prompts strike a cord right away, some take a bit longer.

March 2nd Prompt: Credit cards

This prompt came at a very opportune time.  Chase Bank, who took over after WAMU went belly up, had just sent me a replacement card for the WAMU card. So I had one to cut up for this prompt.

March 3rd & 4th:  Blue and Doodles, respectively. Not much to say about this one, except the background is watercolors instead of my usual acrylic paints. The flowers are colored with watercolor pencils and/or Intense pencils.

March 5th & 6th: Past and Present.

Yes that little girl is me as a child. Since my mom passed, I’ve been going through old photo albums and I found this kid picture of me I wanted to use. Today was the perfect time to try a new method of image transfer.

I used an ink jet transfer method to get the image onto the journal page. after testing, I think I prefer the toner based method more. The water based Ink jet image is easier to mess up. 

The Here and Now side was done with a stenciled image of me that I created a few months ago after taking Mary Ann Moss’ Stencilery class. I’ll probably use it a few more times because I like how it looks. :)

 

I’d love to hear what you do to get out of a creative funk.

Rev’ing up the engine

 

This is the journal challenge prompt for March 1st at Art Journaling Ning site.  The page is based on a photo taken by my dad on one of his many fishing trips. I scanned the photo and enlarged it from it’s original 3.5’ x 5’ size. I tore the edges of the photo and I glued it down to the page. Then used acrylic paint, markers and rubber stamps to finish it off.

Don’t you just love the out of whack perspective on the tracks?  LOL.

Handmade Journal

Today is the start of the March Art Journal Challenge at http://artjournaling.ning.com/ Yesterday, I realized I didn’t have a journal to work in. So what to do? I looked around at Micheal’s for a journal  with watercolor paper but they only carry journals with sketch paper. I like to scrub my pages and I’m always afraid that the sketch paper will tear.

I really didn’t want to drive to Davis to the Borders bookstore to buy a moleskin so next best thing?  Buy a pad of watercolor paper and make one. The last journal I made had only one signature and I wanted to make one with enough pages for 30 days of journaling so I needed 15 pages or between 3 and 5 signatures. I opted for 5 five signatures of 3 pages each.

My book cover was made from illustration board and painted Pink with Brown polka dots.  But I made a newbie mistake when creating the holes for the stitching. One, I was in a hurry and I didn’t let it dry thoroughly. and two, I used a awl instead of a Japanese screw punch to make the holes in the cover. So as I was punching the holes, the edge split. I think the eyelets will keep it in place. If not, oh well, lesson learned. But I like the way it looks.

Another thing I would do differently is use thicker thread.  I used quilting thread so I think it will hold up but I would look nicer with thicker thread.

I found this really wonderful illustration of the Coptic stitch on Youtube. I recommend it highly.

 

Here it is! By the way, the brown dots are scrapbook paper glued on the pink cover.

I love it. Can’t wait to start using it.

I’m Back in the Groove

I set some art goals for the New Year and what happens? I stop creating art regularly. Why? Well, a myriad of reasons, one of which is that my mother passed away last month (not unexpectedly) and I’ve been depressed over it. I’ve wanted to work on some art project but haven’t been able to really motivate myself.  My studio has remained dark and lonely.  It hasn’t helped that it’s been raining almost daily for weeks. 

I finally forced myself out there today and finished two pages. The first is a quickie to get me drawing faces again:

 

The second was inspired by a John Mayer song titled “Who Say’s I Can’t?”

 

What do you do to get out of an art funk?

Coming in 2010

“He will come into
the world roaring
and will promptly take
over our hearts and minds.”

 

 

The above is a sonogram of my first grandchild which, we just learned, will be a beautiful little boy!  Yay!!

One World One Heart winner

Alas the 2010 One World One Heart Event has come to an end.  Can you believe it, this years even had 1105 participants? It was so much fun blog hopping around to meet the participants.  Unfortunately due to some unforeseen circumstances I didn’t get a chance to visit every one this year.  Luckily the blog/participant list will remain posted for a while over at Lisa’s blog: A Whimsical Bohemian I’m going to try and visit a few more before the list is taken down.  Oh and before I forget, my thanks to Lisa for hosting the event again this year.

Anyway, here is the name of the first winner:

Kathy from http://www.calkatthejewelryjunkie.blogspot.com

The second winner is:

Jingle from http://justjingle.blogspot.com/

Kathy will get to choose which prize she wants and Jingle will get the other prize.

Congratulations ladies and thanks for visiting and entering.

I’m ready for my close up Mr. DeVille

Other than the OWOH zentangle journal, I haven’t been inspired to create art in almost two months. Sad I know. I have to get my butt out to the studio soon.  However, ever since I went to New Mexico for Christmas I have been very inspired to make New Mexican food. NM food is different from Mexican food, it’s much hotter. When we were in NM we picked up 10 lbs of hot, chopped green chili. Hot green chili is not something we can get in California. California doesn’t have the climate or the taste for growing the hot variety that New Mexico is known for.  As you may have gathered from an earlier blog post of mine (click here to read), I, or rather we, have an obsession with all things chili.

But alas, this post is not about chili.  In our house you can’t eat chili without making flour tortillas or “torts”.  And in our house, these wonderful little round discs are a source of love, comfort and joy. Not only do we make them as bread to go with our New Mexican food (like normal folks), we make them when we are feeling in need of comfort food. (Like weird folks.) The whole family makes them.

Here is my recipe for the Breshears Family Torts. If you aren’t interested in how to make torts, you must at least scroll to the end of the post for a really cute pic.

Start by preheating a cast iron griddle (or any type of griddle you have) using a medium to high heat. Approximately 7 out 10 on the dial.

2 cups unbleached flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp.  salt
1/3 cup BUTTER FLAVORED Crisco
2/3 cup warm water

Note: For this recipe you must use BUTTER FLAVORED Crisco. It makes a big difference in the taste.

Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the BUTTER FLAVORED Crisco. (Are you annoyed yet by my use of all caps for BUTTER FLAVORED Crisco?). Use a fork to cut in the shortening.  Next add warm water a little at a time until your dough is soft and not sticky. Knead the dough for a few minutes but do not overwork.

Separate the dough to make 8 even sized balls. Dust each ball with a little flour and, using a rolling pin, roll out the dough so that it forms a round disc.

But don’t worry if the torts don’t come out perfectly round. It’s hard to do so without using a stencil. Ask my family, in the twenty plus years that I have been making them, they rarely come out round. Sometimes they look like alien shapes.  So imagine my surprise when, as I was rolling one out to photograph, I heard it say “I’m ready for my close up Mr. DeVille.” Isn’t it pretty? No? I guess it’s just me.

 

Roll them out so that they are approximately 1/8” thick. A little thicker is good too.

Place your tortilla on the hot griddle. Cook for 1-2 minutes per side. Use a spatula to flip to the other side. When they are done it should have lots of nice brown speckles. as shown below.  Keep an eye on them because they burn quickly when you aren’t used to making them.

By the way, cooking torts does not distort torts into alien shapes. The one shown here is different than the almost perfect one above and more like my usual odd shape. 

Place them in a towel for serving immediately or in aluminum foil to keep them warm for later. You can also use a tortilla warmer.

They are ready to be served! Enjoy!

And last but not least, no discussion of torts is complete without this picture:

 

This is my guy and my girl keeping me company while I made torts back in Aug 1989. They used to steal bit of dough to make eye patches and mustaches. It was so funny. I hope she doesn’t kill me for showing it to you all.

Thanks for reading.

2010 ONE WORLD ONE HEART Giveaway

 

Hello, 

Welcome to my blog and welcome to the 4th annual global One World One Heart Blog event sponsored by the wonderful Lisa Swifka's of A Whimsical Bohemian.  So glad you have stopped by to say hello. This is only my 2nd year participating and the first year was a real blast.  I met so many new and wonderful people last year that I wanted to participate again. I hope that if we don’t already know each other that we will soon get to know each other well.  After all, you can never have enough friends.

If you want to find out more about this years event  (and participate because, well, the more the merrier) please visit Lisa’s site by clicking here or the One World One Heart image above.

On to the giveaways. This year I have two items to give away:

The first is an original, unframed 9 x 12 painting on canvas board.  The background is scrapbook paper.  The girl is painted with colored pencils and acrylics.  The flower is a 3-D silk flower.  

 

The second giveaway is a handmade Zentangle doodle journal.  The cover was painted then the magic carpet doodle was added. The signature pages are made of smooth white paper that will accept the crisp fine lines of the Sakura Micron pen.  The giveaway will include the pen and doodle legend. The doodle legend was created from some of my past doodle drawings.

I will choose two winners in a random drawing from all of those who left a comment.  You must leave a comment to be eligible to win. You must include a link back to your blog or leave an email address so you can be contacted should you win. Please note only bloggers are allowed to leave a comment as this is a blog event.

This year's event ends February 15th and I will be announcing the winners on that day.  The first name chosen will be able to choose which prize they want.  The second name chosen will get the other giveaway.

The winners must contact me with their mailing address within a week or a new names will be chosen. 

PS: If you commented and are listed as a follower you will have a second entry in the drawing as a thank you. Following is not required to enter.

The post will be closed as of 5:00pm PST for new entries. The Winners will be announced before 8:00PM PST

The word for 2010 - Optimism

What we feared last year came true.  My Guy was laid off from work just before we were going to leave for Christmas vacation.  As a friend said ‘How heartless are people who can lay off workers just before Christmas and then go home to their family and enjoy their holiday?’  I could never understand that either. 

Luckily, we had already paid for the airline tickets and all of the Christmas presents we wanted to buy for the family we were going to visit. My Guy and I decided before we left that we were going to forget what happened and enjoy ourselves as we’d planned.  So off we went and we had a wonderful time.  

However, since coming home, it’s been a little tougher to get back to living with some energy.  I’ve been uninspired and a little depressed. However, as I say in my journal page, I don’t want to live like that any more.  I need to stay hopeful and positive for the both of us. 

So the word of this year is Optimism.

Setting Goals for the New Year

Happy New Year everyone

I hope you had as much fun experience bringing in the new year last night as we did.  My Guy and I started with a great homemade New Mexican food dinner complete with posole, tortillas and red chile. Yum.  After a few failed attempts to wish the family a happy new year (no one home), we settled in for a few rounds with a new Wii game.  It helped me realize out just how uncoordinated I am. 

After a couple of hours of Wii, we made Martinis and watched the last Batman movie on DVD.  I wasn’t the first time we’d seen it, we originally saw the movie at the theater. But it’s my favorite Batman movie and I am still in awe of what a magnificent actor Heath Ledger was.  He was AWESOME in that movie. 

We tried watching New Years Rocking Eve at midnight and, I must say, I really love Dick Clark. I grew up watching him and his American Bandstand. He is an inspiration. However, there comes a time for everyone when you should retire and let someone else take the reins. Dick, I think it’s that time.

So I’ve been thinking about goals for the new year. Our family will be having some trials this year making life and art challenging. My goals for this year will have to take those trials into consideration.

Art Goals

1. Create more using the supplies on hand rather than buying new.
2. Create more art with recycled materials.
3. Practice drawing more often. I have a few sources I am going to use.  One is the book and workbook for Drawing on the Right side of the brain. The other source for drawing help is at Drawspace.com
4. Collaborate more often
5. Submit our mother and daughter journal for publication.
6. Start writing morning pages again.

Work Goals

1. Finish VQL
2. Update Website monthly
3. Restart Block of the month.
4. Finish and move into new office

Personal Goals

1. Be thrifty
2. Eat out less
3. Volunteer at Domestic Abuse help center
4. Watch less TV
5. Eat healthy and exercise more.
6. Win the HGTV Dream Home

OK I think I better stop before I feel overwhelmed.