WholeLife Mastery

Halfway through the Dog Days of Summer

  The Dog Days of Summer are upon us and I'm doing everything I can to savor them, including making this spread in my journal. 

Kelly Kilmer's Snippets Class

    Left to right: Collaged Cover, back and three-hole pamphlet stitch spine, which we made with acrylic-painted and Versafine stamped canvas.  Kelly's on the road a lot this summer so check out her workshop schedule and take a class if she's near you. You won't be disappointed.  With her clear instruction, excellent techniques and generosity with both her knowledge and her stash, she's a consummate teacher.  That's why I'm a Kelly groupie!  If you can't make a class, check out her journals on sale at Etsy.  Also, support your local stamp store: we're losing too many places where the owner knows not only your name, but they also know the difference between a pigment ink and a dye ink, and they're willing to teach you how to use them creatively.  If you're ever near Ojai, stop by Artful Living and say hello to Barbara, the hostest with the mostest and a grand vision of a wonderful, artful community. 

A Best of Both Worlds Craft Class

        Most craft classes focus either on completing a project or on learning a technique.  During the Artistic Avenues' Accordian Book Technique class, Mary gave us the best of both worlds.  Each spread of the book is a technique with instructions included.  From left the techniques are Perfect Pearls' background, peeling paper, faux batik, faux tappa cloth and collaborative inspirations.   For upcoming classes in the Las Vegas area, check the Artistic Avenues' newsletter.

Time for a Gluebook Page a Day Challenge

My food clip file is overflowing so it's time to get gluing.  Here are the first three days of alphabet prompts from the Gluebooks Yahoo Group. 

Journal Conference 2008 Journal First Spread

I cut the title page from the cover of my conference bag.  My conference registration with the list of workshops is tucked inside with a pull made from a bracelet that says "Journal writing...do it daily".  The other page lists my conference intentions, which I set before leaving following Dave Fox's Pre-journaling prompts, my conference badge and a quotation: "Traveling gives us a chance to build our sense of community as well as our palates."  Yes, there will be a food spread in here somewhere! 

Postcard for a Friend of a Friend

The rubber stamps are from G-rated

Journal Conference Journal

No, that redundancy is not a typo.  Inspired by Kelly Kilmer's Taped Journal , I finally went on an artist date (go to page 10 of the excerpt or see page 18 of The Artist's Way) adventure to Kelly Paper, where I bought the 11 x 17 paper to make a journal for my conference notes and tidbits.  The photo is of the stamped masterboard that is the cover of the journal.  Journal Conference 2008 was THAT special and I didn't want to just file my notes away to be forgotten in a cabinet. I learned a lot and met some fascinating, authentic, and just plain nice people.  I'll post the journal pages as I get them done. 

Make Peace Where You Are

I almost didn't post this journal page because there's a big boo-boo in it.  I stamped one of the peace quotations from Stamp Camp Upside down.  Of course it was the last thing I stamped.  Too far gone!  Then the "Embrace Imperfection" stamp I'd ordered from Stamper's Anonymous arrived and I couldn't resist the synchronicity.

Mail Art envelope for Bloom ATC

Bloom Where You're Planted

Yesterday's Make It Mondays challenge was "to create a piece of artwork inspired by flowers".  Because our local recycler doesn't take pasteboard such as cereal and tissue boxes, I've got quite a stack of them and this challenge was a great opportunity to do something fun with one of them. The scan doesn't show the stamping well, but it's embossed metallic and shows up more clearly in person.  Next time I'll play with a brighter embossing powder color. If you want this one, it's yours!  First come, first served.