Photo blogging challenge - December 2013 "Festive"

Festive .... festive, festive, festive .... what is festive?...   yeah, i was kind of humming and ha'ing on this challenge ... what to photograph to show festive ....

I could do trees, decorations .... pretty packages tied up with pretty strings and bows ... maybe even a fat man in a red suit ...

.... yeah ....

so I went with ..... Bitches!!!!

yes, i said it .... Bitches with a capital B .... let me explain .... years ago, a group of 8 women met at a large paper crafting group ... we enjoyed each others company so much that we broke away from the large group and became a small group of good friends.  We decided to give our group a little brand and decided on the oh so appropriate and happy "Paper Dolls" ... we even made paper dolls of ourselves  and took them with us on photo shoots and exotic locals ...
Then one night .... during a pj party crafting overnighter, we got into lemon meringue martinis .... in a very heavy way .... all i remember is a whole lot of laughter, many many delicious lemon martinis and the "Bitches" was born ....

 Our annual Christmas crafting event ... yeah ... nothing says festive like moustache shaped sugar cookies frosted in pink! (and note the festive christmas necklace)

 and what would our Christmas event be without Feuerzangenbowle!  Izzy is soaking the zucker hut in rum ...  (and check out that festive top!)

and then the cone is lit .... and what is that rum soaked sugar zucker hut melting into you ask???  well a good three bottles of merlot that has be simmering in spices ... yum!

 Every year, one of the bitch's husbands (he is a chef) makes our lunch ... open faced turkey sandwiches, with french onion soup, and a couple of amazing salads ... don't those sandwiches look festive!!!

Amazingly, one of the girls bought us all glasses that say "Merry Christmas Bitches" ... much laughter ensued .... 

and that is my festive contribution to this months Challenge.  Make sure you stop by PJ's blog a'lilhoohaa to check out all of the Festive posts by other bloggers ... 

Wishing you all a very Happy New Year ...

Peace love and paper

Jo

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you peace, love and joy!
Jo

wishing you Joy!

... and peace .... love and laughter .... light and being .... and all of the beauty each moment of the day offers ....

I kind of had those thoughts running through my brain when i met up with a friend to make picket houses ... you know ... you just have the wood cut in the shape of a picket ... in this case we were working with 2 x 4 pickets ...

So i was wanting to make some vintage styles winter white houses to go with 2 houses i made last year ... but sometimes,  the company of a good friend, and a lot of laughter, changes your art mid course ...

 this is my "joy" .... plain wood with layers of vintage hymnal paper, gesso, acrylic paint and patterned paper.  The words were originally cut out of Christmas scrapbooking paper, but that all changed witht he addition of paint ...the hand was painted about 4 times ... then i decided on white ... this shares the table with a very old quilted table runner i made about 15 years ago ..

detail ... some floral patterned paper still shows through ... there are many flowers in joy!

I think my favourite part is the eyes ... the all seeing house .... looking for joy and it is right there ... it just has to see it ...

the second house ..."the daily dance" ... sometimes this is what my days feel like ... I have a bright pink key to wind myself up (really .... just strong coffee does the trick) and i am walking on fragile little pearls all day ...

the pair ... not even close to what i had in my mind but i am so glad they turned out as they did!

and back to my original thought .... "wishing you joy and peace .... love and laughter .... light and being .... and all of the beauty each moment of the day offers ...."

thanks for stopping in, and have a very merry Christmas!
Jo

November photo blogging challenge ... People ...

argggg ... PJ's challenge for November left me thinking of hundreds of options ... but i choose something a little different ... the challenge is people ... but what makes people???  we are all just bits and parts glommed on to a soul ... so, i went with one of the bits ... the hands ... after all, the hands carry out so many of the actions that make us people who we are ... they love, they play, cook, build, type ...

So enjoy, my weird little interpretation of the challenge of photographing people ...

ps, these shots were not posed or set up ... just quick snaps of life as it happened...
thanks so much for stopping by to visit!

and make sure you take some time to check out some stellar photography over at PJ's blog a'lil hoohaa ... check out the links of those joining in ... some great shots to see!

October 30 - Fall ...

fall this year has been amazing ... October passed by with mostly clear blue sunny skies, warm temperatures and hey, i'm still running around in my birkenstocks ... no need for boots ... yet!

The streets and lawns are littered with beauty ...

I head off to the Playground of the Gods on the side of Burnaby Mountain ... it's always a fabulous place to walk and enjoy the views ... this day, it was so crowded with photographers it was crazy ... 

Fall also brings out the crazies in us as we try to get a decent shot of Honey in her Halloween costume ... this year, she was pouting big time so this is the best i got ...

and don't you just love the abundance of the season ... ornamental pumpkins and gourds ... squash of every kind ... 

summer roses start to fade ...

I love the colours of the season ... hope you are enjoying your fall ...

Trying something new and hooking up with a photoblog challenge at a 'lilhoohaa

page a day 19 - 22

four more little pages, lots of playing and experimenting ... I have really been enjoying this non constrictive process of creating little pages ...
number 19
layers and layers of ink ... the background is distress stains and the leaves were stamped on and painted with dylusions ink .... then lots of water was applied to run and mix the colours.  nothing was meant to stay in the lines ...i just wanted a mix of colours that looked like fall ...

number 20 

oh i made a lovely background but when it was dont i thought that the colour palette looked flat ... so i covered most of it with black paint, and i used a diaper wipe to wash a lot of the black out, so it looks almost dark grey in areas  irl ... with texture as the coat is not even ... I am not a fan of the letters ...but it is all a learning process ...

number 21

I love the background on this one, i laid down some gesso and then used my trusty old alcohol inks ... yes, they can be used on water colour paper as long as you lay down a good layer of gesso.

The flowers were made from old book pages and painted with acrylic paint and gelatos.

number 22

This is one of my favourites ... an accidental page .... i started with my distress stain background, and put down some more colour with dylusions inks and stencils.  I tore a piece of paper from a gelli plate i had made and attached it ... then i just kind of tore more strips from more plates and tossed in a few book pages and it morphed into this wonky little city scape ... just a happy little accident!

thanks so much for stopping by to take a peek, i am really enjoying this learning process ...
peace love and paper,
jo

a page a day 11 - 18

... so some of my friends have reminded me that i haven't posted in a while ... eeeks, they are so right, once again I am a wee bit behind in my blogging .... I kind of have a love/hate relationship with my blog right now ... i really want to resume regular blogging, but then again ... i really just wanna play!

So that challenge i was working on ... a page a day for 30 days ... well, it's still in progress ... i was right on track until day 25 when i just kindof came to a screeching halt ... just a lot of other things to do that got in my way ...

So here we go ... I have tons of fun doing these pages to date, and have learned a lot

page 11 

I tried a bit of "magazine art" on this page ... i had a few technical issues ... the magazine paper wrinkled and was difficult to paint over .... i also tried using a few rub-ons .... i now have a way to use up all of those rubons i have been hoarding for years ...

Page 12

lots and lots of layers on this page ... mainly blotching bigger layers using larger stencils ... i think i like using smaller scaled stencils better ... old book pages and again some rubons ... i am loving using "claudine helmuth" paints by Ranger ... fab translucency!

Page 13
a cutesy little page using stamps.  the background is primarily Distress Stains ... the mushrooms are painted with dylusions ink sprays.

page 14
practicing painting ... a story about a little birdie ... in this case my bird is cut from a gelli print.  I am wishing i had a better font ... must practice my writing skills...

Page 15 ... I am learning that i really like simple backgrounds ... is this so bad, or do all journal pages need complicated multi layered backgrounds?  I am also finding that my two favourite colours to use on a page are black and white ... what a surprise!  but i love the way they pop on a coloured page.

page 16

what i love about dylusions sprays is that they run beautifully ... i used sprays over a distress stained background ... i also used my water based white sharie pen ... i bled out the white ink on the yellow flowers and loved the results.

page 17

used some book pages on this one ... and used gel medium transfer on the small newsprint areas ... i had fun with this one ...

 page 18
distress stain background covered lightly with gesso ... then used distress paints and ran them ... this was one of my favourite pages ...again loving the use of white and black on a colourful page.

 I am learning lots with these little pages ... you can learn a lot from the internet, especially youtube, but there is nothing like practicing and experimenting to really learn what you like to use, and what you like to do!!!

thanks so much for stopping by!
jo

a page a day 9 & 10

The circle theme continues ...

 day 9 ... I do have in my mind this story ... i actually have several ... that i really should commit to paper and pen ... it is a fanciful tale about 7 sister and 7 moons ... so that was in my mind when i did this page ... i kept the whole circle thing going using both large and small circles, that were made with paint and in .... i love the way it turned out ... i am starting to enjoy this process!!!

 Day 10 ... I found this fab clip art of tea cups on pinterest and i knew i had to use it in a page ... i started with a highly patterned background that i was not to fond of ... so i dripped paints down the length of it and left it to dry ... i was kind of stuck until dinner when i grabbed a napkin and knew i had to use it ... i had previously seen my friend Kathy use on a journal page ... so down it went ... i used a torn layer of white to cover and mute some of the paint and then i cut out the flowers and applied them.... and the queen? well she just demanded that she be included, and who I am to argue!

Thanks again so  much for joining my as i exercise my creative muscles and try this new to me art form!
peace love and paper!
jo

a page a day 7 & 8

I love circles ... and rings .... the simplicity, the organic shape, the completeness and wholeness ...

Day 7

 The 7th was a saturday and although i had time to play ... i just was not in a real creative way ... i loved the technique i used on the flowers, which was basically finger painting with two colours ... i just did not like the dried paint.  It just dried a lot darker that i thought it would ... i does have some glimmer painted onto the the upper left side of each flower, but i cant get it to show up on a photo ... failure??? no, I am learning and trying something everyday ... i am not an artist but i like to play at being one, and i consider this all personal growth ... even if it is simple finger painting and fanciful thoughts ...

Day 8  okay, ask anyone who knows me very well, and they will tell you that i absolutely adore Jane Austen, and I am a rabid Alice fan ... I dedicate this page to Alice ... in all her glory!

 The background is distress stain and paint.  I used a prima doily stencil with white paint for a touch of girly ... the flowers are made from various gelli prints i have made, and the eyes were not hand drawn by me, the were cut from an ad in Vogue ... I wanted the the flowers to have "faces" but that was too much.  This one took much longer than most of the others i have completed but it was sunday ... and a lazy relaxing sunday at that!!!

Thank you again, for stopping by and watching my progress ... I encourage you all to pick up a pencil and paper and do something every day ... just doodle and see what comes of it!

peace love and paper!
jo

a page a day 5 & 6

Starting off with a lot of realism
Day 5

 I started the background of this page in a class, quite sometime ago ... it uses distress stains and paints as well as some ink ... I added a bit more ink and paint to this page ... lately i have been experiencing brief states of confusion ... and this background just spoke to me of that confusion ... that lack of stability of thought ... i am crossing my fingers that this is just a meno thing and that it passes.  I am loving stamping on my journal pages.

Day 6

I knew i wanted to use 3 squares, I just didn't know how ... sometimes you just have to close your eyes and let it all happen organically ... this is what my mind saw and this is one of my favourite pages so far.  The colours and happy and it is very simple, but i love it!

Thank you again, for following along ... I am enjoying this challenge of doing something everyday!
Peace, love and paper,
jo

a page a day ... 3 & 4

okay, so you remember how i told you my camera was acting up?? well ... it died ... yes, complete and total motor failure ... (who would have thunk!)  ... so .... I am way behind in the journal page a day challenge ... the pages are done, just getting caught up on the photography, so i hope to post 2 pages a day till I am all caught up!

Day 3.

I started this one at a friend's house.  I knew i wanted to trace my hand but had no idea what to do with that until another friend suggested trying zentangles ... so her i am trying something totally new! The background was sone with distress stains and the painted on colour is done with ink ... this was interesting to try ... next time i want to map out a design first and use a thinner pen.

Day 4.

 The state of my heart is sometimes cloudy ... i am just poking a bit of fun at myself here.  The background is distress stains and paints ... the heart and clouds are "painted" with gelatos onto vintage book pages. I did some background stamping with paint ... i love the effect of paint on stamps.

just some close up detail ... i love using a soft colour palette.

Thanks so much for stopping by and watching me trying to grow!
peace love and paper!
jo