Love & Whimsy

I started a new online workshop today. It's called Saturday Mornings 2, Love & Whimsy. It's taught by Junelle Jacobsen. She paints on wood blocks made from 2 x 4's. If you haven't taken a class by her you are so missing out!!! Her classes are fun and inspirational and full of whimsy. I absolutely love her style. Here are a couple of blocks I did for her first block class, Saturday Mornings.

The best thing about Junelle's classes are her sweet spirit. Not only does she inspire me as an artist but I find I just want to be a better person. I admire her and her walk with the Lord.
If you get a chance, visit her blog, here. Sign up for one of her workshops. You won't regret it!!!!

DLP February 7th Challenge

Hi there! Welcome! I am the guest artist for this weeks Documented Life Project 2015. I am thrilled that you stopped by to see what I have created for this weeks challenge.

 February Theme  

Layers You will Love 

Feb 7

Art challenge

When Not to Stop 

Journal prompt

 Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough  

When Sandi gave me the prompt for this week I thought this might be a good week to report myself missing. This isn't a journal prompt, it's an annoying 80's song. (Sorry Michael) But I decided to pull up my big girl bloomers and give it a shot.
The first thing I did was study everything Roben-Marie Smith has done since birth. She has to be the queen of layers, right? I re-watched all the workshops I had taken from her. I even practiced on my baby Dylusions Journal.

Practice in my baby Dylusions Journal

Now I was ready to start on the real thing in my Large Dylusions Journal. I started by collaging the page with old papers.Then went over that lightly with gesso. I used some dylusions spray inks and stencils, then added more gesso. I did some more collaging, added some stamps from Rae's new line of stamps Natural Elements, and some tried and true stamps from Roben-Marie's stamps Mixed Media Essentials #1 and some of my own hand carved ones. Added some acrylic paints, more stamping, some doodling with my Uniball Signo white gel pen and my Uniball Signo Black 207 gel pen.

I used red acrylic paint inside a hand made heart stencil. I went around the heart with a black oil pastel to make it pop.

I had found this quote about never getting enough love and never giving enough love. I knew when I saw it what I wanted to do with my page. 

On the left hand page I wrote out our journal prompt. But after I found my quote I had one change to make.

After that I added some finishing touches. I thought it needed more black on the page so I added some scallop borders. I also added a few more doodles and splattered some black and white paint all over. I have no idea exactly how many layers there are on this page. I just kept adding and adding until I liked it. 

 

I hope you enjoyed my pages for this weeks DLP challenge. I sure did enjoyed making them.

I would like to say a special thank you to Miranda Banks for helping me with my blog. It is still a baby but she took the time to help me give it a little boost. You can find Miranda's blog Clare Plantation here. Hers is awesome!!

And of course, a big thank you to the Art to the 5th gang for inviting me to be a guest artist!! You all are the best!!! Thanks for everything!!

loislane

Laughter is the best medicine

How would you like to meet some of my family? They are some of my favorite people!! And one thing we all have in common is we love to laugh. When we are together, we are laughing. That isn't always a good thing if we are in church!!

Here are some of my favorite pics of me and some of my family members being...ourselves!!

Here's me with my sisters and nieces for girls night out. We were practicing our selfie pose! Oh yeah, one little boy, that's my new nephew I am holding. Sooooo sweet!!!

This is my mom and dad. My mom didn't say much but she loved to laugh. My dad has since gone on to heaven. I miss his dry sense of humor.

My oldest brother being goofy on Christmas Eve. Good times!!

Me and my sister in law enjoying licking the beaters!!! 

Not a great picture but a great memory. Celebrating my other brother's birthday!!

My daughter's beautiful smile!!!

Me and my baby sister doing what we do best. No not eating!! Laughing!!!

Me and my baby boy at his graduation party at church.

Playing a game on Christmas Eve. Just about peed my pants on this one.

And one more. My favorite!! This is me, my husband and my two darling children!! Our Family Christmas photo.

Awkward!!!! We won the Awkward Family Photo Contest that year!!!

Hope you got a little chuckle at our expense. :)

loislane

Addicted

Yes, I am addicted to....Art supplies!! Every chance I get, every extra penny goes to my addiction. I can't help it. There is nothing like walking into a craft store/art supply store and going down every isle searching for that one item that you can't live without (and that you hopefully have enough money for).

I know I'm not alone. I know that many of you suffer from this same disease. I am sorry to say that there is no cure. But don't lose hope. We can stand together and support each other. We can send it out in happy mail!!! Let me know if you want my address!!
Have a happy day. Don't forget to create something beautiful.
Loislane

Catching up

And...to get you caught up, here are weeks 1, 2 and 3.

January theme: The blank page and how to face it.
Week 1: Art challenge: Book paper, Journal prompt: Be your own goalkeeper.

 Weeek 2: Art challenge: Gesso  Journal prompt: "The beginning is always today. " -Mary Shelley

 Week 3: Art Challenge: The color wheel. Journal prompt: "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way..." -Georgia O'Keeffe

Documented Life Week 4

I am participating in the Documented Life Project again this year. Last year was so much fun. This year is even more fun if that is possible. Every week I impatiently wait for Saturday to find out what the week's challenge will be. This year is a little different. There is a monthly theme, an art challenge and a journal prompt. This makes it a little more challenging and I have to get a little more creative, which is very good for me!!

Here is week 4. The theme for January is "The blank page and how to face it. The art challenge was writing and the journal prompt was Words with Friends. I really like how my page turned out. The background was done with inktense pencils and baby wipes. Then I drew my girl (doesn't she look so sad?) I then went around the outside of her with gesso to tone it down a little bit. Then I journaled with a Uniball signo white gel pen. I didn't want the writing to take over the page.
I struggled with the journaling. The subject was painful for me. But it was something I needed to do so when I was finished, it felt good. The best pages come from strong emotions. Don't you think?

It has taken me a year to get back here. I have thought a lot about it and would come here and stare at the page, not knowing what to say. 
I don't live that exciting of a life. I am married (29 years), I have two kids, a daughter, 21 years old and a son 18 years old. They are good "kids" and I love them with all my heart. I have a full time job at a large medical clinic working in the medical records department.
I was thrilled when I got this job. I was working in another department to begin with. Our clinic has about 20 doctors and I believe 4 nurse practitioners. So my job was to answer the phones. There were at one time as many as 6 of us girls on the phone lines and on some days our phones never stopped ringing. You took call, after call, after call. Now I work in the much quieter but very repetitive department of medical records. My job is to scan the patient's medical records into their electronic chart. There are days that I have trouble keeping my head from hitting the key board. You do the same thing over and over. I get so bored and this job is just not the most fulfilling of vocations.
But, I cannot forget what a God-send this job was when I was hired six years ago. I hadn't worked for 13 years, busy raising our two children. I was very blessed to get to stay at home with them when they were little. But money got tight and it seemed like the right time for me to go back to work. But man, was it an adjustment. 
My dream is to one day be able to quit my job and maybe work from home. I don't know if or when I will get to do that. But a girl's gotta start somewhere. So I started this blog in hopes that I could share my life and my artwork with you.

This first sketch I am sharing with you is of my husband. It is one of the first sketches I drew. I was more surprised than anyone at how it turned out.