Encouragement Branch Journal Entry

I have been a little stressed out the passed few days. So, this weekend I decided I was going to only make things that I wanted to make in my craft room.  I have been making a lot of stuff for my wedding, but I really needed a break from that. 

Here is what I came up with. 

I had planned to make a cherry tree spread, but it never really comes up how I wanted it to. I started off making my branch this time. I was not too happy with the way the butterflies came out, specially the ones at the bottom. So I just had to do something to make them a little better. 

I used glitter glue to enhance them and I was much happier with the results. What can I say, I love glitter, hehe. 

I wanted to make sure the background colors for the branch itself was lighter than the rest of the colors. I wanted to almost look like the branch was lit up. The water-soluble oils are nice to cover a large area, so I used them on all of the background colors. 

For the branch itself I used the black from my faber-castell pencils, which I love. They give me a lot more of control over the details than the oil pastels. Maybe there is a way to achieve the same with the oil pastels, but I have not figured it out yet. 

The small flowers are from +Tori Langellier . It was part of the scrapbooking supplies she gave me when I stared out. 

I used acrylic pink pearl from Martha Steward to color them, since most of them had other colors. 

I also used gold Rub'nBuff on the honeycomb stencil at the corners, to make them stand out from the rest. 

This is the final result. 

I also added some encouraging words to the branch to lift my spirits. I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you for visiting!

Para Mi Mamá (For My Mom)

Tengo la dicha de que mi mamá es mi mejor amiga. Ella trajo magia a mi niñez dándole alas a mi imaginación. Me regaló la belleza del arte, de la historia, literatura y religión. Me hizo ver cuanta poesía la humanidad puede ofrecer a este mundo. 

Siempre me dijo: "Quiero darte todo lo bello de la vida, porque lo no bello llega solo". 

Este es el regalo que mi mamá me dio. Día tras día, espero poder regresarle un poco de esa dicha. Por eso le dedique esta pagina de mi diario en el Día de las Madres. 

I am lucky to have my mom as my best friend. She always brought magic and imagination to my childhood. She gave me the gift of art, history, literature and religion. She showed me how much poetry humanity is capable of. 

She always told me, "I want to show you the beauty in life, because hardship in life has a way of showing up on its own". 

Seeing the beauty in life is a gift from my mom. Everyday, I hope to return the gesture by giving her a bit of happiness back. That is why I wanted to make this spread on my Art Journal for Mother's Day. 

Porque mi mamá adora las flores le dibuje las rosas. También escogí dos fotos de nosotras que me gustan mucho. La rima la escribió ella, me la decía desde que era chiquitica.  

Mom loves roses, so I drew them for her. I used also two of my favorite pictures of the both of us. The rhyme on the left page mom wrote for me when I was little. She used to tell it to me since I was a baby. 

I started out by spraying the pages with Lindy's sprays. The roses were painted with a mix of water color pencils and Lindy's. I used modeling paste with multiple stencils all of the both pages and even around the pictures. I wanted to make sure that there was enough texture. I added the butterflies because mom and I both love them as well. 

Mamá, 

Espero que te guste. Feliz Dia de las Madres!

I hope you all enjoyed it as well. 

Thank you for visiting. 

Mini Bird Cages

Well, I was taking a small break from making flowers. They seem to take over my whole desk when I work on them. That is all over now. I wanted to try to make something inspired by my upcoming wedding. Michaels had small birdcages for sale and I picked up a few to try something out.

I didn't want birds in the cages, because that always makes me sad. I thought flowers and butterflies would give it the Spring look I was hoping for.

Here is what I made.

The birdcages were originally silver, but that was not one of the colors of my wedding. I wanted to make sure the cage was gold. I started with some alcohol ink, however, it proved to be tough to try to cover the whole thing with the ink. I am sure there is an easier way to go about it. I decided to use gold acrylic paint instead, a much faster method. It can make it a little hard to cover, but it is supposed to look vintage, and the tone variations worked to my advantage. 

With the flowers only at the base, the whole thing looked like it was missing something. A few flowers on the outside solved that problem. 

I made sure that the inside had flowers on the side as well. Also, I added a few butterflies on the inside.

Here are the punches and dies I used for the butterflies. By spraying them with Lindy's the color of the butterflies were not flat, and the glimmer just brings them out. 

I also covered the butterflies with crackle accents. It gives the whole thing some texture. 

Here is the top view for the flowers. I glue them to the cage using my glue gun to avoid shifting about when handled. 

All of the flowers were hand made. Some were from flower punches, but I also used Spellbinders Dies.   These are my favorite when I make roses. 

I used Lindy's sprays for the colors. It gives the flowers a nice glimmer. The only problem is it takes a while to dry, because I like them better when they air dry. When in a bind, I used my heat gun, but for the most part I would spray a bunch the day before and put them away until they were ready. 

Here is the side view. I hope it would look chic and girly. It does to me! I might even use them as table decorations at the wedding. My mom really liked it. Justin said it was cute, but reminded me he is a guy and flowers are not really his thing (hehe). 

I hope you all enjoyed it and thank you for visiting!

The Riddle Journal Page

The first time I heard the song The Riddle from Five for Fighting, it made me think about my fiance and his dad right away. They are both so lucky to have each other and be so close. I know what a great influence his dad has been to him and to his character. I know how proud his dad is to have him as a son. It is hard not to notice these things when you see them together, or even when they are just talking about each other to some one else.

I chose two of my very favorite pictures of the two of them for this new journal page. I had an idea of how I wanted to it to go, but a lot of the things were just part of the moment.

I picked these two pictures because it's hard not to draw parallels when you see them side by side. This is the first time I do a spread, so I had to make sure that both pages tied together well. 

The picture on the back is from when Justin was little with his dad, the one on the front I took myself on a trip to Jacksonville before I moved to Illinois. 

I am not exactly great at drawing, I can't do anything from just my mind. I need to have a reference. I wanted something on this page that was a drawing, because that is, after all, the point of an Art Journal. I found the silhouette of a father and son. I particularly liked this one, because the kid is leaning on the dad, kind of gave me the feeling that there was a lot of trust there. That's what I wanted to convey. I needed some red to tie the red shirt from the picture to the opposite page, so I decided to color the father's jacket in red. I used my Faber Castell watercolor pencils to color them in. 

I sprayed the whole background with Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays. These colors always freak me out a little bit, because while I love the blue is not something I was used to working with. I have been forcing myself to be more adventurous when it comes to colors. 

I used these stencils to give the page some textures. I had originally wanted to only use the clocks one, but I didn't want to make it so uniformed. 

I used the Faber Castell gel sticks to add accents and the black bold tip pen from Creative Memories to do all the writing. 

I wanted to add a halo effect to the two figures and the Faber Castell white gel stick was wonderful for this. I scrubbed it on the paper and just blended it with my fingers. It creates a nice light background to the darker figures. 

Finally, I wrote down my favorite verses from the song that was the inspiration, The Riddle. 

To me, the  answer to the Riddle is the love they have for each other, father and son. That's why it makes me think about Justin and his dad. I hope they like it. 

Thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoyed it!

Pastel Lilies

I used to live in a town and work and go to school in another. Sometimes I would get home so late that all I had time to do was shower and go to bed. I remember one day I got home and Justin's mom had left some flowers from her garden for me to cheer me up. I thought it was such a sweet gesture and the flowers were so pretty. I had to take a picture to remember that day.

When I got my Faber Castell pastels, I wanted to try them on something I loved. I picked the picture of the lilies that Sharon got me. 

This is my first pastel drawing:

This is the original picture:

I thought there was too much space on the top of the page, so I added an extra lily to balance it out. I really need to work on the leaves and the glass. It came out kind of opaque. Justin liked it, but he liked the details that I can achieve with pencils better. 

This was my first time trying soft pastels. It is difficult to get the small details because I am so used to pencils. I did love the way they mixed though. I think it's a medium I will like to explore further. 

I am not sure I like the way the paper worked for the pastels though. The texture from the paper was not what I was looking for on this particular piece. 

I enjoyed very much trying to replicate Sharon's lilies, and I hope she knows how much they meant to me that day, when I was so tired to get home and see them. I hope you enjoyed them too.

Thank you for visiting!

Yo se un himno gigante y extraño, Rimas I - Journal Entry

When I was a teenager, I used to have two books by my bed at all times, Rimas y Leyendas by Gustavo Adolfo Becquer and the Three Musketeers. The poems from Becquer, were very close to my heart.

When I started this journal entry. I wasn't sure where it was going. I pretty much just wanted to practice using my stencils. I also wanted to create something with my Lindy's stamp sprays. I had a few ideas on how I wanted things to go, but I kept changing it in the middle of it.

I started off with a Gesso-ed page. I used two stencils from crafter's workshop and modeling paste. I wasn't sure what color to make the background, I tried a few of Lindy's sprays. First, I went with Autumn Maple Crimson, but covered it mostly with Dark Chocolate Truffle. The little "flowers" were made with glitter glue. 

After everything was set on the page, I just had to find this poem and write it on it. It is not my favorite poem from Becquer. It is very short, very beautiful, and almost a promise to whats to come from the rest of the poems. I thought it would be fitting to an art journal. 

The poem, is the first of Becquer's Rimas (rhymes). 

This is the closest translation into English I could find. Of course, it does not give it full credit. The poem is so simple but so beautifully woven in its original language that its translation pales in comparison. 

"I know a hymn, gigantic and strange

Which to the spirit's night proclaims the dawn;

These pages are from this hymn's notes 

as they spread among the shadows by the air

How gladly would I write it down, if I could

Subdue the plain, rebellious speech of man,

with words which would be sighs and smiles,

colors and notes all at once. 

Vain is the struggle, for there is no form

which may enshrine it. Scarcely, oh Beautiful one!

If I could whisper it to you in private, while holding your hands."

I hope you enjoy it. 

Thank you for visiting! 

Live your Dreams Journal Entry

Sometimes I get too caught up on how stressful life is. So, I wanted my second Art Journal entry to be a source of inspiration. I wanted it to remind me to believe in myself, to fight for what I want and most of all, to realize how many blessings I have already in my life. 

With this project I wanted to try out my Faber-Castell watercolor pencils. I was surprised how bright they can be. I am still experimenting, but they blend beautifully. I used acrylic paint on the white flowers and on the title because acrylic goes well over other paint without mixing, or I could draw on it if I needed to. 

The girl's colors blended a lot better than most of the flowers, but I really enjoyed making this page. 

I had Gesso-ed the page to give it a little bit more strength since I had used watercolor on the other side of the page. That gave the whole thing some texture as well. 

The original idea was to use both pages and do a "spread", but once I got the girl on the page, I decided to use only one page for this composition. The beautiful thing about an art journal is that is completely mine, and everything goes. 

I am pretty happy on how the page looks. I hope you enjoyed it as well.

Thank you for visiting!