Almost over?

Purple, Purple, Purple.......I was excited when I had my first daughter because that meant I could dress her in every shade of purple that I could find.  I even taught myself to sew and made her first dress.  I was so proud of myself.  I learned a few things with this little dress....never use velcro 'buttons' on clothing for babies, don't make your elastic to tight around the arms and one can never have to many ruffles even for a baby.

In my garden I LOVE seeing purple.  It makes me happy and calm.  It reminds me of when my girls were young and I had pots of pansies on my deck.  The day after I planted all my pansies all the blooms were gone.  It seemed so strange to me at the time.  I would find out later that while my girls were outside playing they got hungry so they ate all the blooms.  So here is to my garden this year, beautiful purple.

So if you haven't guessed over at Kristin's blog this week we are talking about Purple.  It is hard for me to realize that next week is our last week, where we will be showing off the color Orange.

As this is my first ever art journal I want to just keep things as simple as possible and pretty basic.  More for my photos sake than anything.  Painted straight purple for the base with a design on the right where I added a favorite picture of my son when he was about 2.  He captures my attention even now 16 years later.  I added a bit of bling with a rindstone and iridescent confetti.

A parting shot, remember the Clematis a friend helped me transplant last year?  I thought for sure that I had lost it but all the old growth just died.  It is back and it makes me so happy.  I need to find a way to protect it a bit more from the winter elements.  Any ideas?

So what is making you happy this summer?

Here is to the color RED this week at Kristin's blog!  It is hard for me to realize that there is only a couple of more weeks left.  This has been a well needed distraction, thank you Kristin for making this happen.

For me the color red has always been a happy color.  When I think of red I think of my beautiful red headed girls, they bring me much joy.......everything that is red is in their personalities, even as adults.  Red creates warmth, passion and energy.  It can be seen every where if you allow yourself to open your eyes to its beauty. 

It is the color God uses to get my attention and to take my breathe away.  My youngest and I were out for a drive a couple of weeks ago and we went around a corner, we were caught in awe of the beauty. 

Then in my garden this week I found this red lily.  I always seem to forget that they around because there are so few of them.  I think I need to find a place in my front garden for a clump of them because they just make me smile.

So onto my journal page for this week.  Different spots of red that mean alot to me; a red ribbon rose that came from one of my daughter's outfits(she is now 24) and a heart that came on a card that a special friend sent to me.  I painted both pages with red paint first, using a white piece of cardstock as protection of the edges.  I used a piece of the cardstock on the right page as an accent.  The heart from the card is on the left with wings I cut out in thick plastic and accented with white paint.  On the bottom is a back of a self adhesive doily.  I can't see getting rid of them especially when you can use them in mixed media.

A close up of the heart.  Have a great week and look for red, see what you can find!! 

Starting to feel caught up

Really I can't believe how tired I've been.  I decided yesterday that I would get back to my regular bedtime of 10pm instead of staying up until after 11:30pm playing.  It turned out to be the best thing!  I actually woke up this morning feeling normal even though I really could have rolled over and gone back to sleep.

Over at Kristin's Blog this week we are taking a look at the color Brown.  I have always LOVED Brown!  It is the color of my eyes and of my very special friend I have had for over 40 years.  So it was natural to me that I would choose my friend, along with a couple of pages from an old Winnie the Pooh book, found at a thrift store for .99cents.  I then by added a pop of Pooh bear yellow, as I like to call it.

The background was painted a light tan, stamped over with a word stamp and a diamond stamp I picked up last year in the $1 bin at Michael's craft store.  The brown circles are from a tp tube dipped into paint then stamped on the page.  I tried the same thing with a light orange paint but ended up not liking it so I covered it up with Liquitex ink in Yellow Orange.  This ink is wonderful because it is transparent but still gives a bold color.  I liked it so much that I used it in the white spaces on the pages and added circles on the book pages. 

Resting and Creating

This week has been all about resting, creating and less blogging.  The days are longer and I find myself not sleeping well, loads of tossing and turning.  When you don't sleep well at night it is a struggle to stay awake durning the day and so I tend to find myself taking naps mid afternoon.  It makes me less irritable, which I am sure my family likes.

On the creating front I am busy with Soul Restoration 2 and am feeling a bit behind.  This session is about creating the life you want to live and putting it to a life journal.  This way you can refer to it when you need to be reminded of what your goals are.  It is full of hard but rewarding questions to answer.  The artwork we are going is slowly coming together for me.  It really does make me completely happy.

This week on Kristin's blog, it is all about the color Yellow, which happens to be my least favorite color.  I wouldn't say I never use it but it does take me out of my comfort zone.  This time though it came easy when I went to create my art journal page.

A favorite photo of my youngest daughter when she was just over three years old.  On the left page is a flower she made me just around the same age, it has been on my inspiration board for 13 years!  I'm happy that it has found a permanent home here.  The inside of the flower is filled with green split peas painted black, then sealed with Mod Podge.  On the leaves of the flowers you will find what the color yellow means, followed by things to remember about the color Yellow at the bottom.  Our challenge was to use metallic somewhere, so it is added to the background along with a couple of Martha Stewart punched butterflies.

If my day goes the way I want it today I will be back with more artwork tomorrow.  Have a wonderful weekend whatever you are up to!! 

What a fun filled busy week!  Hardly time to breathe much less post to my blog.  I was able to get a few fun things completed so I will be sharing them this week, promise.

Last week with The Summer of Color was the color Pink, not to much a favorite of it but did make it work for these pages.  I chose things from my garden and looked up the feelings that pink is suppose to mean.  I am pleased with it and surprisingly it makes me happy.

My Daughter, Son in law(who came in on Friday) and my Grandson left this morning so it is a laid back day.  I'm ready to settle into my summer and start a project or two.  Today is the 4th of July here in the states so we might be going for a drive across town to watch the fireworks above the city.  Whatever you do today, enjoy yourself!!