The art journal word prompt this week is bliss. The first thing that came to mind was ignorance is bliss, but I think “Innocence is Bliss” would be kinder and more accurate for children. So, that is the underlying theme, but the photo painting is hopefully making you think of a cool breeze warmed with sunshine on a fresh spring day.

I’ve done a scrapbook layout with other photos taken on this day. It was taken on the first day of spring in 2009 at a graveyard. The building is sort of an old gatehouse made with rough stonework and it has an amazing red wood door. You can see the door from the road on the way to my husband’s work. It was calling my name every time I drove by…so one day I took the girls on a photo shoot. I told them it was castle ruins. It just added to the magic of spring.

I decided to take my husband’s recent advice to a friend and “not pull a Gilligan.” I asked him what in the world he meant and his answer made me laugh out loud. He said Gilligan and team never tried the same thing twice. If a boat didn’t work then the next time they’d try a plane. That they had a bunch of great ideas, but they never stuck with any idea long enough to perfect it.

So, I decided to keep working on my digital painting technique, using my own photography as the canvas.

This time I started with a wonderful freebie glass plate negative. I used a few variations actually, stamping them in different shades of cream/tan/brown.

I drew an outline around the girls, tree, door and some bricks in a brown color. Then I clipped the picture to a glass plate negative, merged the two layers and used it as my “paint”. I made a new layer under that layer and “painted” the majority of my “painting” using a bunch of free brushes from the BitBox site (thanks to someone in the Caravan forum for posting about them.) And, added the distressed scrolls from BitBox on a layer above the “painting.”

Then I used Kim DeSmet’s bright grunge papers as paint over the photo layer. I painted highlights with a yellow paper and used a pink paper for a nice color cast and slight texture. This helped it look more like a painting and less like a photo.

I used the cloning tool with the original photo as reference to paint in shadows on the dresses. And Kim’s pink paper helped make their faces more painterly.

Finally I started adding some bling and dimension with elements from New Life Dreams and Jofia Devoe. In the end I decided to stylize it just a tad more by making my “drawing” and text have a bit of bling, using Microferk’s glitter styles.

Here is the original photo for reference.

The Art Journal Caravan verb this week was “simplify” and you were supposed to journal about yourself. While this doesn’t look like it is about me, in a round about way it is. My mom and stepdad square dance. I’m thrilled that they have such an active social life. A few years ago they tried to recruit us to join and learn. It was sweet…but so not anything remotely of interest to us.

Anyway, one evening Neal was otherwise occupied and, I decided on the spur of the moment to take the girls by a dance. I just love that recreational center, it is a huge room with gorgeous old wood floors and “church-style” benches all the way around the room. So quaint. In fact, we had our rehearsal dinner there. It was simple and laid back. We had red checkered table cloths and catered barbecue. My MIL picked sunflowers that morning and put them in old tin pails. It was completely understated and we loved it.

This was the first time I’d been there for a dance. It was really sweet watching all the couples have a ball dancing. And even sweeter letting Granny show off her grand-babies.

In this photo Danielle is joining her Granny for a line dance. She had recently seen the Hannah Montana movie, so she totally thought it was COOL! She wants her granny to make her a big fat skirt so she can go dancing again. I love it that *she* thinks it is cool!

And, I want to make it a point to take her back…it is just always after bedtime…such an effort to get there…but such simple pleasure once you are there.

Here is the photo I used to “paint” with:

Here is a photo of the girls dancing on a break:

For the journal page I scanned in a page from a very old songbook. Next I used my Wacom pen to trace an outline of the ladies in the photograph. I tried to be slightly more precise on my main subjects and purposely jagged on the background dancers. I then brushed with a slightly translucent wet black brush roughly behind the people in the collage. That layer was clipped to an off-white painterly brush stroke by Dianne Rigdon. It helped tone down the music in that part of the collage, I was going for a “wash” effect. Then I “painted” with slightly translucent wet black again on another layer, this time staying inside the lines of the people. I wanted the colors from the photograph to show through so I clipped that layer to the photograph. I love how the reflections of the dancers show on the wood floor.

The alphabet is a music sheet alpha by Blythe Evans. “Simple” is blended as a linear burn and on “Pleasures” I deleted the base layer of music to let a pink paper show through with the blending options.

I hope this is a reminder to me to force myself to do stuff even when I really don’t *feel* like it!

A friend of mine commissioned me to create a wall hanging for her husband’s office. I know he will not be on my blog, or Facebook, so I am giving you a sneak preview. The adorable photos of their family have been removed.

Shutterfly is having a great special on wrapped canvas prints. This will be a 16 x 20. My client didn’t even have to pay shipping because of their Valentines day special!

It is probably a little late for me to get another one done. But, be thinking of Fathers Day, it is just around the corner!

Thanks “Just Shoot Me Girl”….that is my husband’s nickname for you. He came up with it when he met you years ago and I’m sure you know why! LOL! This really doesn’t do it justice because your adorable family makes the layout!

Credits: Tracy Ann, Nicole Seitler, Blythe Evans, Mira Designs, Paislee Press, Vicki Stegall, Microferk Designs, Obsidian Dawn

As I sit here watching the second huge snowstorm of the season quickly melt away I remembered a layout I have not posted. While my blog was out of commission I responded to a One-Kit-Call by designer Heather Manning. For those of you that are foreign to the digiscrap world, that means I got her kit for free in return for posting my layouts around the digiscrap communities.

It is such a cute little kit that almost makes you go, “brrrr”. OK, maybe I’m just cold.

I shot these photos of my SIL’s family when we were in New Mexico during Christmas Break in ‘08. The snow made the photo extraction of the lift shot a breeze!

Credits: Heather Manning (papers, elements), Katie Pertiet (frames), Diane Rigdon (alphabet)

One of the prompts this week was to use the word “mend”. Rather than use the quote provided this week, I went with a bible verse.

I was thinking about the hard work you do in relationships. Tearing down barriers to communication, and mending hurt feelings, etc.

This is the design I did in Photoshop using mostly graphics from Tracy Ann. The notebook paper leaf is from Tangie Baxter’s Art Journal Caravan steamer trunk. I figured if I ever wanted to journal on this I’d write on that cute notebook leaf. I believe the bird house is from NLD and I filled the heart with some ephemera from Tangie’s trunk. If anyone needs to know about the other items I’ll have to go hunting because my computer crashed before I got to the step of recording the kit names.

And here is the art journal page after the hybrid touches. I used the Copic colored Multiliners, Liquid Pearls for dimension, Spica glitter pens, Copic markers/Prismacolor pencils for shading, and Tim Holtz red distress ink for the edges.

OK, I thought I was over it but I realize now I’m still fuming. This may be the first negative experience I’ll share on my blog. But, it is related to photography. One of the things my husband and I discussed when we started doing Christmas cards is that we wanted to do a family portrait every year. Back when I was employed I splurged a little and took the kids to the “same day” portrait studios (I know a “real” splurge is a professional photographer). But, this year I decided to be economical and go back to basics. WalMart, JCPenny, Sears. So, WalMart it was.

I tried most of a morning to call to make an appointment, no answer. So, per voice mail instructions I finally gave up and went to “Picture Me” to book the appointment. There were not any prices online. Not to worry, this newly budget oriented mom knew she was going to WalMart. And all I wanted was one photo for the Christmas Card.

We get there, super nice gal. I told her what I wanted. She did what her job performance/evaluation required. They “have” to shoot photos of each member of the family with a variety of cheesy backgrounds. I told her, just make sure you take the one I want first or else my little one will not be in the mood. We humored her for the rest of the poses.

Then the wait. She is putting the photos in awful backgrounds and templates. I say, you don’t need to do that, I will do that myself. My 4 year old can see and smell McDonalds and is completely past her limit. She keeps editing. She tells me if she does not create all the layouts/cards she’ll get written up. Meanwhile I try to figure out what package to get. Hmmm, they are all over $140. What happened to the bargains I remember getting at these economical “studios”? To tell you the truth, I don’t remember all the prices because I have tried really hard to put them out of my memory. I think they wanted $150 for the photo CD by itself. It was going to be over $200 to get the CD with the cheapest package.

I wanted to remind them they are WalMart. Well, I just tried to look at the prices online again and now it all seems so much clearer. It is NOT WalMart, they have brought “Picture Me” into their store. I have a friend who went to Sears. It seems they charge the same thing. So, now I know, you might as well go to the “mid-tier” same day studio because there is no such thing as an economic way to go anymore. I truly expected to get out of there spending $75 to $100 at the most for a single pose.

So here are, “the rest of the photos”. I didn’t need them, but they did make a cute layout. And, the upside….you get a signed release to do anything you want with the photos!

These layouts were created with a collaboration kit by Catherine Designs and Bisontine.

Tangie Baxter at ScrapbookGraphics.com is hosting an art journal online “class.” So far there are close to 300 people taking the class. Some people are doing a traditional art journal w/ paints, pens, collage, etc. Others are doing it all digitally. And still others are doing a hybrid approach. My first project was hybrid. I will probably do some of both, especially since I can do digital so much more quickly.

Here is the digital “canvas” I created:

And here is the completed journal page. I colored it with Copic markers and Multiliners. (Having the “lights” set helped tremendously for blending the shading on out.) Then I used Copic Spica glitter pens for highlights. Tim Holtz Walnut distress ink is used around the edges as are his yellow Liquid Pearls on the quote block. And the feet were heat embossed with a shiny metallic blue. A photo would have done it better justice than this scan because there are lots of glittery and shiny accents.

I also chose this 8.5 x 5.5 size because if I do illustrations it will use much less marker ink and take a lot less time. I have an old day planner notebook that I plan to keep them in. I’ll just do hole punches across the top. It was printed on a nice heavy Bristol smooth vellum card stock which holds up really well but actually soaks up too much Copic ink (not ideal for blending.) I’ll need to experiment to find something just as heavy but will work better with the Copic markers.

I got my first Scrap for Hire job via Facebook last month from a close friend who had been seeing me post layouts. I’ve been doing video tributes for my funeral home clients but I’d also like to do some custom “photo artwork” and “family tree projects.” So I was thrilled when Edwin asked if I could do a Christmas gift for his wife Tracy!

They have two boys, so it was fun doing a rockin’ boy layout since we have girls. I used I *Heart* Mommy by Shawna Clingerman at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

Kiki Halbert revamped her “Snowberry” kit, now “Snowberry Punched Up”. As you can see it is adorable for photos of children playing in the snow!

I played with the blending modes on the sunset play photo so that her beautiful paper would show through. I love how it enhanced my sunset photo!

On Christmas Eve Oklahoma was hit with the first blizzard in 20 years. Since we never get blizzards….did we listen to their warning to not go anywhere that evening? No, it was safe on the way to the Grandparents. We purposefully shortened our stay…but it snowed at least 4 inches in the two hours we were there. Then we drove home in the thick of it. Scariest experience of my life!

Other Credits: The Christmas tree word art is from Bisontine.

My Wordpress blog got a virus last July and I spent two months working with my then hosting provider to resolve the situation. They finally washed their hands of the situation and said I needed to get help from the Wordpress forum. Well that did not go anywhere either. So, my blog sat stagnant for the fourth quarter of 2009 while I mustered the energy to rebuild.

From September through December I was working on a contract basis doing strategic marketing for GoAnyware which left me with very little spare time. They are giving me a break in January and I expect it to pick back up in February. So, I decided January would be the month to rebuild my blog (post by post and picture by picture…ugh) and launch my website. I’ll also go ahead and backdate some posts with work I shared on Facebook during my technical difficulties.

I used a great little application called “Artisteer” to create my Wordpress theme. It was very easy. I’d highly recommend it.

I also decided to try using Joomla for my main site. Call me brave or call me naive. It has been a bit more challenging so if you go to my main domain (please don’t) then you will see a mess right now. I’ll be getting back to that next. I might even get started this afternoon!

I’m thrilled to be able to get back to blogging in 2010….Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our house to yours…these are just mailing today!

The kit is a collaboration between Catherine Designs and Bisontine.