Wow - January has been a whirlwind. I'm so busy I don't know what to do with myself. I'm loving my online classes, but note to self, don't take 3 at once while holding down a full time job and trying to be creative too. I am happy with the projects I have completed. I really want to do more of the digital art journal pages - and possibly get them printed and bound. That would be nice.
Loving my new calendar (no it isn't on my phone - and yes, I am a technology teacher - I'm old school when it comes to calendars - I like to write in them - it's ok REALLY!!) It has a month at a glance, and then a week at a glance on it's own page facing an empty notepage - love it! Trying to cut down on stickies - love those too, but they can get lost too easily. Also really love my new gratitude journal, One Line a Day: A Five Year Memory Book. It is a book I heard about from Ali Edwards and purchased from Amazon. I try to write 3 or more things I am grateful for about that day (and sometimes in general) each night before bed. It is proving to be a very nice evening ritual.
Personal life has been super busy. Back to work after Christmas Break, birthdays in Houston, DH applying for new job and trying to get myself organized for other upcoming events in the next two months. Looking forward to sharing some new things very soon. Work is ok - never ending need to fix computer stuff - but doing better managing my time and making sure to not bring work home with me. One day at a time :)
Things seem to be movin' along. I finally set up the facebook sister page to this blog, but I'm still having trouble adding the facebook button to this page. LOL If you knows how, or have some advice, please let me know. I think I have a student who can help me with it tomorrow - at least I hope he can. (yes, I know I'm the computer teacher, but really, I can't know EVERYTHING, can I???)
Good Night - Sleep Tight
Check back soon - you will be pleasantly surprised!!!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Digital Art Journaling Pages
Yes - I said digital! Where? JessicaSprague.com :)
Fun? Yes!
Less mess? Yes!!
Easier? Well, I wouldn't say that - but there are definitely some positives to both approaches. I have three of my pages to show today. I've been trying to sketch out what I want the page to look like before creating it instead of letting it just freely form before my eyes. The reason? I have lots of digital supplies, but I don't really know what I have and I have to keep going back and forth through my folders to find something that speaks to me at the moment. I REALLY need to get that organized. I like the feeling of making the art journal by hand because I feel like my stash is a little more readily available to me because I can see it and touch it? Know what I mean?
The first prompt was Heart - I chose to use my One Little Word for the year as my inspiration which I thought was perfect since I want to spend more time expressing myself artistically and creatively - it is My Heart's Passion!
The prompt for this page was TREASURE - I thought this should be easy to come up with, but I really couldn't decide what to do here. I did find this quote (labeled unknown - hope it is) which really repeated the sentiments of the first page. But I think for most of us the things we treasure are held close to our hearts - don't you think?
This page prompt was HOME - and I had this vision of the four letters with the heart inside the O - you know how you see people use a heart instead of an O when they write words, except I made sure both are here on the page. In this case HOME for me isn't my house, although these are the colors you would find here. For me, it is my husband - he is "home" to me. (love you!) I added our name and our anniversary year at the top on the cute border strip I had almost forgotten that I downloaded from a designer at JS named named Nisa Fiin - her line is called Splendid Fiins and the set is called Border Bits: Brilliant.
Notice the hearts on each picture - I think I want to keep that theme throughout these journal pages.
I used tons of supplies from various artists both at Jessica's site, and also some from other classes, like the brush class I took from Rhonna Farrer when she was still with House of 3. The artist who collaborated with Jessica to develop this class is Nancy Rowe Janitz. I just love the elements, backgrounds and brushes that she created for this class. I can't wait to make more of these pages. I think they will get easier for me as I keep practicing. Heart's passion - I'm liking it!!!
Fun? Yes!
Less mess? Yes!!
Easier? Well, I wouldn't say that - but there are definitely some positives to both approaches. I have three of my pages to show today. I've been trying to sketch out what I want the page to look like before creating it instead of letting it just freely form before my eyes. The reason? I have lots of digital supplies, but I don't really know what I have and I have to keep going back and forth through my folders to find something that speaks to me at the moment. I REALLY need to get that organized. I like the feeling of making the art journal by hand because I feel like my stash is a little more readily available to me because I can see it and touch it? Know what I mean?
This page prompt was HOME - and I had this vision of the four letters with the heart inside the O - you know how you see people use a heart instead of an O when they write words, except I made sure both are here on the page. In this case HOME for me isn't my house, although these are the colors you would find here. For me, it is my husband - he is "home" to me. (love you!) I added our name and our anniversary year at the top on the cute border strip I had almost forgotten that I downloaded from a designer at JS named named Nisa Fiin - her line is called Splendid Fiins and the set is called Border Bits: Brilliant.
Notice the hearts on each picture - I think I want to keep that theme throughout these journal pages.
I used tons of supplies from various artists both at Jessica's site, and also some from other classes, like the brush class I took from Rhonna Farrer when she was still with House of 3. The artist who collaborated with Jessica to develop this class is Nancy Rowe Janitz. I just love the elements, backgrounds and brushes that she created for this class. I can't wait to make more of these pages. I think they will get easier for me as I keep practicing. Heart's passion - I'm liking it!!!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Changes are coming...
Yes - I'm finally getting around to it. I'm working on the blog. Right now, the background is different and the width, but the banner will hopefully be finished and online before the weekend is over. I finally have a picture and some personal info on the profile after a year. Can you believe....well, those of you who know me know that I sometimes need to have a little extra motivation to get new habits going. And right now, I have huge motivation, but more about that to come.
For now, the best thing I can share is this. You just have to go see my friend Shay's blog post here with her oh-so-cute Lawn Fawn cards. Shay always amazes me at the ideas she comes up with for card designs. She is so clever, and these cards are so great! Please take a look and let her know what you think!
As for me, gotta hit the sack. These late nights are getting the better of me. Gonna be a busy busy weekend!
Bye for now!
Julie
For now, the best thing I can share is this. You just have to go see my friend Shay's blog post here with her oh-so-cute Lawn Fawn cards. Shay always amazes me at the ideas she comes up with for card designs. She is so clever, and these cards are so great! Please take a look and let her know what you think!
As for me, gotta hit the sack. These late nights are getting the better of me. Gonna be a busy busy weekend!
Bye for now!
Julie
Sunday, January 1, 2012
It's 2012!!!
Wow - I can't believe it is a new year! I love the first day of the year. This year I started the day getting some things done before I go back to school tomorrow. Hopefully that will get me off on the right foot :) Then, I also worked on some things for the blog - these are still in the works but will be coming very soon. I have spent the last few days thinking about my word of the year and about what things I want to do to make my year the best it can be. I'm really excited about my new word: JOY! Last year my word was FLOURISH and boy, did my year really flourish. My skills, my creativity, and more. Davis brought up another word - VIVID - and I really like it too. I think I will let that one linger a bit as well - maybe I'll have both words guide me through the year. More to come on that later.
In the meantime, I have a few photos to share. I made some Christmas decor items for the ladies I work with. These were created on craft wood pieces, and I added card and scrapbooking supplies to decorate, a little paint and thickers, and a whole lot of love. I think they turned out pretty good. Hope you like them too!
I like the little Memory Box deer and cardinal, and the snow effect a la Tim Holtz.
This one is pretty simple - I kept this one for my collection.
I love how cute this guy is - I added some shimmer paint to the snowman, glitter on the hat and the asterisk for the "o" in snow. I think I saw that once from Kristina Werner and thought it was cute.
Another cute snowman -more shimmer paint here and this time I added buttons and crushed velvet ribbon for a scarf and black gemstones for the eyes - got the asterisk on snow again :)
More shimmer on this snowman. I like that I didn't cut out the mouth on this. It is so subtle - the mouth is still there and looks almost like he's just coming to life - love that! LOVE the red glitter cardinal sticker resting on his arm and I added Picket Fence stickles rubbed over the snowflakes on the background paper. This one really makes me happy!
Well, I hope all of you really enjoyed your holiday. Check back soon for more updates. Davis took a photo of me this weekend that I plan to use as my new profile picture. Yay!!!
Julie
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