Links in Time

Snapped this image at the Latin American Museum of Art in Long Beach.

My friend, Jacki, taught me to take photos of small details in the main image.  And so I did.

and then I played with it.  I did a levels and saturation adjustment, added a layer of Kim's "Subtly Yours" on color burn at 83%, then a layer of Kim's "Cool Grunge" on difference at 100%.  Finally did a brightness/contrast adjustment.

It reminds me of those towers of champagne glasses spilling out champagne like a waterfall, the ones they have on cruises and at elegant hotel events.

Be sure to check out all the wonderful entries for this week's Texture Tuesday.

Going for 100 Faces

I love faces so much and have been playing around with them for some time.  I've taken several online classes….Jane Davenport, Sharon Tomlinson, Dina Wakley and Julie Fei_Fan Balzer.  I've decided the only way I'll get really good at it is to take Dina's challenge to do 100 faces.
So here are a few more

Right now I'm enjoying playing with backgrounds in my journal and drawing over them with a Stabilo All pencil.  I won't bore you with the really "bad" ones.  As Dina says, "If you draw a face and it's not good, just turn the page and do another one - you are the boss of your art!" Rest assured I have turned a few pages.  That's the nice thing about working in a journal.  It's there for practice.  I can show it or not.   Now if I can just get control of these spray inks.  I seem to get them everywhere but where I want them…mainly my hands.   

~ calm ~

Garden Girl

I've had this piece of garden art for almost 20 years.  
She is beginning to crumble, as am I.

I would really like to find something similar or in this vein. I've been to all kinds of websites and garden shops, but everything just looks junky or cutesy.  Every year I continue to look with no luck.  Ahhh, I guess there is not a substitute, so
she'll just keep crumbling.

For Texture Tuesday, I added Kim's "Leaf" texture and a layer mask which I played with until I got something I liked.  And then a brush for the postmark.  I like how Kim's texture shows the leaf in the upper left corner and the script over my garden pot.

~ Calm ~

Three Hearts

Art journal play is the best form of therapy I can think of.  When I am playing in my journal or even when I'm creating something in Photoshop, I am truly in the moment.  It's a wonderful form of meditation.  I admire the way dogs, and all animals for that matter, live in the "now".  They seem to be perennially happy.  They just takes what comes.  I could use a lesson from my dogs.  I can just hear them saying to me "Don't sweat the small stuff….or any stuff!"

~ calm ~

Are You One of Those?

Before I get to "Are you One of Those"….

  I decided to play with a sketch I did in my journal.  It wasn't really intended but I always thought she resembled Drew Barrymore.

I first changed the image to black and white and worked with some filters and text….a quote from Ms. B of course.

I did a different take by keeping the color and adding filters and a fun vector.

…and finally for Texture Tuesday.  I used two copies of Kim's Antiques Texture over sepia.

Okay, on to my topic for today.

I see them everyday walking through a parking lot or across the street transfixed on their smartphones.  The other night hubby and I were at a restaurant waiting for a table, standing in the lobby with many others.  Almost everyone of them was on his smartphone. A couple sat on a bench each playing with his/her phone.  Didn't they come together???

So here's what I have to say for that….

I totally cracked up when I saw this!

~ calm ~

Night Blooming Cactus

 A few years ago we removed the grass in our front and back yards.  The front looked like this before the removal

and this after the removal.

Hubby spent the better part of the next two years planting with drought tolerant plants, both California 

native types and succulents.  It now looks like this.

   I'm so glad he did this.
We are in a severe drought in California.  If we have to ration water, there will be many very brown lawns around here. 
The blooms on the cactus below are so large and gorgeous.  You do have to go out at  night to see them  though.  I caught this one very early in the morning just before it closed.

I processed two versions - one cropped to a 
square and textured with Kim Klassen's Prague texture.  I then edited it in Photoshop and Topaz Restyle and Topaz Adjust.  This one is my entry for Kim's Texture Tuesday.  

The image below was processed in Photoshop using Kim Klassen's Cool  Grunge texture.  You can see 

the buds above the bloom.  They probably opened the next night or two.  Such a treat. 

Making Faces

#5 in this series…..I did a spread which I'm going to post in a journal group.  First acrylic paint, some stencils and then the face drawn over the background.  I decided to journal right over her, and I may add journaling to the left side.

  

Let's Face It…..

I think the one below is in a twit because I cut her hair too short!

~ Namaste~ 

Back to Faces

Yes, I'm back to faces.  Since this one is in my journal, I prepped the page with gesso and a wash of acrylics…..added a little doodling and a stencil.  I drew "Pretty Woman" with a Stabilo MarksAll pencil.  

In the coming days I will be doing more faces.  

Someday soon, I'll get back to my photography and PS edits.  I seem to flit back and forth and obsess over one or the other for a period of time.  

Bless you all who are following me….you never know what you will find on here.

Oh and look what I got in the mail from Linda at Just Another Volunteer.  Thank you, Linda!!

Do visit her blog.  She is involved in the ICAD project, and this is one of her works. ICAD stands for Index Card a Day.   For more info on this visit Tammy at Daisy Yellow blog.  I believe she is hosting it.  It's not too late to join in the fun.

~ Namaste ~

Weeks 16, 18 and 20

I keep trying to catch up and let's face it, things just take me a while.  I realize this is a journal, but I have to please myself.  Seems some pages sit on my workspace far too long,  but it's because I haven't found the sweet spot yet.  I know I could just post something, but I'm sure you all feel as I do…..I don't care if it's not perfect…. I do care if it doesn't please me!

Week 16 involved adding a piece of cardboard from a food box.  

I just really wanted to use this Meyer Lemon Cookie Thins box because I l-o-v-e them so much.  They are dangerous for me.  But I didn't have a spread I felt I wanted to put it on.  I had drawn the face, so I added it as a tip-in to this page that had a dictionary page glued to it.  Since the previous spread below was very colorful and reminded me of crows, I thought I could just sketch some crows.  Ha!  I need a bit more practice.  The page looked boring with not a lot of visual interest so I decided to add my cat stamp as a border, thus fulfilling week 20's theme of using a rubber stamp in an unusual way.  I don't know how unusual this border is, but I loved the cats with the birds.

Now doesn't this look a little like an abstract crow?  Anyway…..this is the other side of the tip-in with an inspirational quote (requested for week 18).  It's a bit hard to read but says "Art is music frozen in time" followed by "Music creates order out of chaos", a quote by Yehudi Menuhin.  I've always liked this quote.