20 15 Catch - Water Color, Wood Blocks & Journals -Installment One

Here's the first watercolor/journal installment: I planned on doing weaving next, but I found this already started and saved as a draft - so it's jumping ahead.

Spring found me taking a Junelle Jacobson class that also featured Valerie Weller (rooster and cats) This post will feature wood blocks and fun sketches from class with Junelle Jacobson and my practice sketches from a DVD class with Jane LaFazio.

Trying for whimsy thanks to Junelle's encouragement.

Junelle pushing me further out of my comfort zone!

Valerie Weller taught us the easy way to draw cats.

Trying a sketch of Lefty and one of my favorite quotes!
"Pretending to be normal day after day is exhausting!"

The next few pictures are practice sketches from a dvd class with Jane LaFazio. What I love about Jane is that she teaches you to use real items to paint from, not pictures and to really look at the item you're painting.  She teaches you to paint in a journal and to paint everyday items and to paint every day! Later I will be posting the pictures from my online classes and I've learned that daily practice does pay off.

I still love sketching ladies - as my mom called them,
I've always called them the girls!

From my sketchbook, to cut out in wood, to the yard!  Love my birds, but still need to add a wing. A friend gave me some old corrugated metal and they will have cute wings by next Spring.

Looking forward to another Junelle Jacobson class and Jane LaFazio watercolor class coming soon!

Silly Little Birdhouses

Kathryn and Aiden painting birdhouses summer 2014

I have had more fun with these little $1 birdhouses from Jo-ann's.  I picked them up during the summer and have been playing with them ever since.  I have two on our mantle, my great-grandson and his mom both painted some when they were here during the summer and I played with a couple today.

I always seem to have some in the works - one phase or another.  I took the time to gesso all of them so they would be ready when the urge struck.





The best part of these is that you can't mess up  If you do, you redo and they only cost a $1.  And there's always a paint over and start over!  That's the part I love.  It's sort of like the wood blocks that Junelle Jacobson has taught me to paint in her various classes.  She has a new "Saturday Morning" class starting soon and we will be working with blocks again.

My first paper piecing flowers on wood blocks.
Again, thanks Junelle!

But, as usual, I've jumped topics - I'm all about the birdhouses right now.  So I did two this weekend. Thanks to Junelle I now play in gesso and Mod Podge like I'm a three year old. So I put on my apron and got out the papers, glue and paint and had a blast.

My first house was all torn papers.  I used some fab Tim Holtz papers with some birds on it.  Also, had some papers with French writing and had to add that too.  Ended up pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

When Archivers was going out of business I bought some interesting sheets of paper, so did my next house with a map of the Paris bus system or so it says, I think.  In other words, they could say that and I wouldn't know, but I like the paper.  End result, if I have a French bird fly into my studio he will like this house!

Starting a block class with Junelle soon, so watch for some cute painted blocks!

Looking Back - Mom's Memory Book!

Lid from box of new Christmas balls - now wonderful
decorations for next year!  See why I save?

I have decided that this is the year of cleaning out, using up and moving forward lighter.  If you know me at all, you know that I'm a keeper of all things.  As a previous antique store owner and a collector I tend to place a value on everything that crosses in front of me!  As a mixed media artist, everything I see can be used in something, sometime, some way.

With the passing of our parents I gained even more things to hold on to (some of you would use the word hoard) I use hold on to and treasure!  Except, that I'm feeling overwhelmed by stuff!  I didn't know it could happen, but it has and this must be the year of use it, sell it, give it away or with a very deep sigh throw it away!  Eek, you may or may not know how that makes me feel, but it's scary!  Not the use it, not the sell it, not the give it away, but the THROW IT AWAY!

We had a couple of nice, warm and sunny (for January) days and so I dug into my garage.  One side is for the car, but the other side planned for a outside studio has become a storage bin.  I have some woodworking ideas, some fiber cleaning to do and so I began my clean up the chaos here.

My mom and dad had a trunk that as a child I loved to look through.  Dad stored it in the back of a closet and occasionally he would pull it out,  open it up and let me look at the goodies.  Well, when Dad passed and Mom moved to Texas with us along came the trunk.  Finally, I went through it and found that most of those childhood memories didn't really amount to much, but there were a few items hidden away that are treasures.

I found both of their 8th grade graduation certificates and the condition is remarkable, I'm only showing one as they're both identical except for the names.  I think I will be able to remove some of the wrinkles and use them for a journal cover??

The cover with her name in gold!

I found my mom's high school memory book - and I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves. I hope to scan some of the pages, so I can print and use them in future journals and some I will just use as they are.  I will add some of the Valentines  and other cards to art pieces, but I just wanted to share some of these pieces here in my blog.  I loved reading some of the notes mom's friend had written to her and notes she had made along with the things she had placed in her book.  It's getting to know mom in a totally different way.  I wish we had gone through the book together and although I know I have heard many of the stories, there were many more for her to tell!

I love the art work!

This is one of those pop up, die cut cards!
Still perfect and so intricate!

Valentines

Another pop up card!

Look at all the gift tags - those haven't changed much
through the years!

This napkin is like new and it was for her
surprise 16th birthday!  Never knew she
had one!  

Loved that she wrote that they ate candy during Study Hall -
well nothing changed - she ate candy up to her last day!

What a stylish valentine!

She noted on this that the party guests confused her and her sister! They were just two years apart in age.  The menu was always listed in her notes and that never changed - She always told me what they had to eat at every event she ever attended! 

These last cards were actually postcards!  Personal notes were
on the back and could have been mailed, but appeared to
be just given to her.

I didn't keep a book like this when I was in High School and have really never been a "scrapbooker."  I have thousands of pictures, fortunately for heirs they're mostly digital now, but I don't know that I have anything that will tell the story of my early life like this has for my mom.  Oh, just remembered my mom kept my baby book and a school scrapbook for me too!  It just goes through grade school and does have some fun valentines in it. Well, that's another blog for another time!

Hope you enjoyed my walk down memory lane and now I will decide how to use these items.  I see some journals and art in these pages.  Some I will scan so I can print and use more than once and others, well, we'll just have to wait and see!