Is it worth it?

Ok, as you heard I got a bunch of art supplies at a yard sale and last night I spent over an hour reconstituting jars of Tempura paint.  Adding water and stirring (alot) I love a bargain and feel good about recycling but as I was doing this the thrill of having all these new paints wore off some and I began to wonder.  (Our time is worth a lot)  But I stopped when it really got tedious and now I am very happy to know I have all these wonderful paints ready for a project.  I also got a big roll of paper the same day (same purchase $25 filled my living room. wish I would have taken a picture before I put it all away)  I am going to do something huge on the paper with the tempura paints.    The picture shows the test doodle I did to see if the paints were ok and what they looked like.  I got two full shoe box size containers of paint.

Look what I've been doing

Having lots of fun in my journal.  I don't know if anyone else has done this but I have been able to find a lot of fun supplies through the local classified ads and Craigslist.  I got over 200 acrylic paints (the less expensive kind) with a stand to hold them all for $25.00.  I like using these.  I mix them with Golden glazing fluid or use them straight.  All the pages I am showing today are with "bargain" supplies.   One recent yard sale I got completely carried away.  I should have taken a picture of my front room.   It was stuffed full  with the stuff I bought at one yard sale (another $25.00 bargain)  It was a estate sale where the person was a retired graphic designer who had lived in Japan.  Some of the things I got in that load were 2 t-squares, a 4 ft metal ruler, 6 brand new packages of rice paper, Many different sets of colored pencils (most were made in Japan with lots of pigment) Lots of technical pens (Stadler, Micron, Rapidograph,) Authentic Japanese paint brushes, other high quality paint brushes, Boxes of rub on letters,  and much more.  I'm sure I am boring you so I will stop and show you some pages. 

Tissue paper fun

Here are some journal pages (before writing on them) that I created using a technique learned from ihanna and the 21 Secrets class.

Flower Doodle Bookmark

Here's a doodle bookmark I made to participate in a contest to win a fun doodle book called "Doodle Diary: Art journaling for girls"  (I hope that means big girls too)from the author Dawn Solol.  Check out her blog D'blogala it is lots of fun.

Don't you love presents?

Well, I got the best present from my daughter and son-in-law...they gave me the 21 Secret class!!  I have started looking at all the information but just getting back from Tennessee.  I will begin my first project soon.  In the mean time I thought I would post a few more pages.  The first flower picture was done when I first began my journal in 2008 and the other one in 2010.  I like the second one much better.  I can see my drawing skills have improved.  Not that I'm where I want to be but it is nice to see improvement

I can't wait either!!

This is going to be a great class. Awhile ago I mentioned that I was wanting to try painting on a larger scale but I was feeling nervous about it. Right after that I came across Connie Hozvicka at Dirty Footprints Studio
After watching a video she had on her website about being a fearless painter I went for it and it was so much fun. Now there is an opportunity to take a class from her and 20 other fantastic artists! All for only $59.00 that is a bargain. Click on the button below to see all the juicy details. Here is a link
to the details or click on the button below.
Some of the artists I am looking forward to learning from besides Connie are Sarah Whitmore (I did my first art journal page based on her Soul Journal prompts), Samantha Kira Harding (I have been learning a lot from here live video broadcasts) and Hanna Andersson (I'm very interested in the "layers of tissue" technique she will be teaching)

some journal pages

I first started my journaling in during the summer of 2008. The first pages I did were with the Soul Journal prompts. Quickly I learned that the journal I was using was way too big for me at that stage in my learning. I started using a 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" which was just right for me. I am still working in that same book. I am about half way through it. I love to look back at all the pages and see that I have made progress in my art. Here are a few of my favorite pages.