Joy is..........Having The Best Year Ahead

Hope everyone had a great Xmas. I did. I got a Kuerig Coffee Maker and I have been in a caffiene stupor ever since. It is the best!! I am having a most magnificient end to 2011. I am very happy and am looking forward to 2012. This is why:


This will be the year that I get out of debt, drive a new car, take trips, help my son and family, and a whole ton of other things that I will attract to me in 2012.

I have two good friends that are LOA followers and are go getters in that dept. One friend just told me last night that she attracted the exact amount of money she needed to pay off a couple of credit cards, and she received it in a check yesterday. Woot!

The other friend, I have spoke of often, had a great 2011 and is continuing into 2012 head on! These two ladies are amazing. I can't wait to hear what happens to them next. I have been reading and practicing the LOA head on since the 12th of December, so stick around and see what I will be yelling about the stuff that will be mine very soon.

On the arty side, I created this Inky Monster by dripping ink on the page and blowing it around with a can of air. I added the eyes and little sharp teeth to make him look like a Real Inky Monster.


I like him. He needs a name, though. What do ya think?

I am on my way out to the Nissan Dealership to test drive the new car I will be driving later on this year, that the Universe will provide. This one:


Isn't it cute?? Mine all mine!!!

I will leave you with this:



Happy New Year, my friends.

Writing on the Wall

I love this pic. It is the back inside cover of Journal # 4!! Wheeee!

Just call me off the wall!

;-)

Joy Is..............New Stuff's

Hi folks,

Another week has strolled on by and tomorrow is Christmas Day. I think I hear a very loud whooshing sound blowing past me trying to get to the end of the year to take 2011 into history! Whew!

Yesterday, I posted a Writing on the Wall for my friend Cheryl, but now it is linked to her last weeks WOTW. So please go here to see Cheryl's WOTW post for today.

Kelly Kilmer had a Journal Sale a couple of weeks ago, and I really have a hard time not purchasing her journals, so of course I got one, but I was good and only bought one. But this one was THE one to grab as it has 12 Kelly collaged pages in it! Oh yea, baby! Woot!!


This is the front cover.


And this is a shot of 2 collaged pages inside. Simply beautiful.

I know I have been talking some lately about completing Journal # 3. Well it was complete as of Friday. Here is a great pic of it standing up to show off it's completedness:


And now it is on the shelf with sibling's 1 & 2.

I began immediately working in # 4 so the blank white pages would not intimidate me. Here is a pic of the inside front cover, that you saw in my WOTW post:


And a shot of the first page, that I have already changed, but I am now too lazy to take another pic:


I added the BEST definition for Art Journaling on this page, I have ever found, thanks to Tammy at Daisy Yellow
I am going to get this memorized and use it. So my own definition; "You know what Scrapbooking is, right? Well, Art Journaling is Scrapbooking on drugs." will be a thing of the past!! Tammy has a great blog and ton's of ideas, and her Art Journaling 101 class is free. I simply love her stuff's. Please go there and check out her blog.

So with that, I will say Merry Christmas to you, and which will be quiet for me as we are staying home and I am making Spaghetti, and baking up all of the frozen cookie dough in the freezer that I have bought this year from the kids that needed the $ for school. I think I have 3 tubs, Yikes!!

So while we eat spaghetti and cookies tomorrow and you do whatever you do on this holiday, remember to be good to yourselves and each other and the next time you hear from me, will be with a New Years post of what I will be looking forward to in 2012!!

Stay Tuned...........

Writing on the Wall

Here is this week's, Writing on the Wall for Friend Cheryl


A new journal which is # 4. This is the inside front cover, on the wall, of course! And a sneak peek of the first page.



It is officially broken in. 96 100% cotton fiber pages, 9 1/2" X 6 1/2" on it's way to a very arty life. Woot!

Joy Is.........The Writing on the Wall

Good Morning to all of my good friends!

I am starting this post off with my Writing on the Wall contribution for Cheryl



Everything has a purpose in life, and when you are slapped in the face, you need to sit up and take notice.

I have a friend Dale Anne Potter who is in short, AMAZING! She began really paying applying the Law of Atttraction, (LOA) in the spring of this year. She has since manifested soooo many great things, it is unreal, actually. I found Dale in the chat room's from going to Ustreams and watching arty folk like Paula Phillips and a few others. So I began to follow Dale on her blog and Twitter and really started paying attention to what she was doing. Almost every week or so she would be gifted with something else, that the LOA gave her and she would tell us on Twitter. Some of you that know me well, know I have been "trying" to practice the LOA for years, since I became aquainted with it in 1989. I have not been very successful in all of these years because of life but I would like to think I have a few brain cells left, LOL. So you don't have to tell me twice or slap me in the face. I have seen the writing on the wall.

So last weekend, I really got down to it and began by, first writing a $$ amount down that I want on or before my birthday in April. I then went from there to writing down, what I call, "My Ideal Life". In short, it is a narration of what I want, beggining with a house, etc. Since I have given it to the Universe, I know this will happen, and with Dale's help, I will win. I have made a POSITIVE change in my life; that to be happy, with NO drama. Ya'all know how I feel about that. LOL. It is actually already happening. I was up at 2:15 this morning as one of the room mates is flying to Michigan this morning for Xmas and Hubs was taking him to the San Francisco airport and needed my car. So I got my coffee and headed here to my laptop where I live, LOL, and looged into Blogger and saw that my friend Aileen had posted the winner to a give away she did for little Xmas Trees she made, and lo and behold, there was my name as the winner!!! Woot! It's working, folks. Follow along and see what happens to me in 2012. And make sure you check out my fabulous friend Dale. I'm telling ya folks, she is simply amazing! Then follow her and watch the magic!

I have also been shopping lately. Here are my new baby's:



Yes, I am a pen freak! These are the little Pilot Lattes and the Uniball Signo .38 all color gel pens! Sweet!

And my other fab friend Cheryl, sent me this new Blue Retro Smashbook, after I told her I had bought the Yellow one and wasn't the happpiest with the papers inside, so we traded for Xmas. YAY!


Cool, huh?

And with all of these new arty things, I had to have this to carry it all around in:


Totally cool bag I got at Hobby Lobby for $19.99, but I had a 40% off, so approximately 10 Bux!! Cool!

OK, I know that this a very long post, but I had to share my happiness with everyone.
Yep, Xmas is now officially 1 week away and the plan at this house is to stay home, kick back and eat spaghetti and garlic bread! Well, that's the plan anyway. We will see what the Universe and/or Santa delivers.

Be Positive, my friends.

Tootles....

Joy Is.........Trying to Remember What I Learned Last Week

I told you last week that my friend Cheryl is doing a Writing on the Wall post each week here. Well this is another wall shot that is the inside back cover of my art journal. I will try to link it up with her Linky dealy bobber thingie when I finish this and see if I remember how to do it.

This week I traveled around Northern California quite a bit. I was in San Francisco on Monday, and Sacramento on Wednesday. But the best was when I would come home and find cool stuff in the mail I had bought last weekend, like these great Automatic Drawings from Less Herger here. Here is "Out My Ears",


This one is called, "Mind Infiltrated".


I drew this sketch from Less' Inspiration from those drawings, last week:


Then I bought some cool rubber stamps from Journal Girl


They are made from red rubber and came on a sheet and I cut them all out and used them so I could see how they stamped. Love them cause the lines are fat, see?


I am still working my way to the end of this journal, so I worked on this page by making a back ground and striping the paper off of a piece of cardboard and exposing the corrugate, then painted it black and stamped with it for journaling lines. Kinda cool.

The Saturday after Thanksgivingremember I told you that I went to a Indie Craft Fair. Well I bought this very cool sticker, from a couple that create their own drawings and are very talented;


And then today, my friend Eva came over for a while and we made some ATC's that I didn't take pictures of, of course, and we took them to the local art store and traded our's for a couple that was there and that I will show you next week. Remind me. But I found this cool tape while there, which is Kraft Paper Tape that was used in the back yonder days for taping boxes for shipping. LOL. The cool thing about it is that you can draw, sketch, paint or whatever on it and wet it and stick it in your journal. Cool.


So I am going to draw and write stuff, lick it, yuk, maybe not, and stick it places, like in my journal or maybe on walls.

Guess what? 3 more weeks of 2011 or another way of looking at it, 21 days left!

Gotta go! Have a creative week!

Joy is............Linking to Friends

Wow! Two posts for me today. No, I do not have a fever, hee!

My bestie, Cheryl, that lives in Washington has started a new blog thingie call Writing on the Wall that includes a link thingie to hook my blog to hers with a theme about writing on the wall.

So it just so happens that my # 3 Art Journal has two wall shots in it, so I will use that for this!


This is the inside cover of my current Art Journal.

You know, the one I am suppose to be working on to finish by the end of 2011!!

I have to go to San Francisco tomorrow for work. Maybe I will take my camera and take some pics of some cool City Graffiti while there.

Now check out Cheryl's blog, here, and have a look see.

Joy is........Doodling

Hey folks,

Another week down, and I have been super busy, but that is what I am used to.
This week I decided that since I am on quite a few Conference Calls every week for work and when I am, if I am not speaking, I doodle, and on everything that is laying near me. So I have decided to carry my small cigar box sketchbook I made, with me for this purpose, so I can try to keep those doodles in one place.

This is some doodles I have been working on for a couple of years:


The loose paper is covering an address on the left page. My favorite doodle is faces, as you will see.







I also like to doodle zentangles. I need to practice them more so I don't have to really think of something different. They should come more easy to me.


Since I am a huge Teesha Moore fan, I love to doodle her folk alot like here:



Anyway, if I make sure I have this liitle book with me when I work I can keep my conference call doodles in one place. I have actually thrown away a ton cause I would just draw them on post it notes or on the margin of the notebook I was carrying with me at the time.

I went on a major spending spree this weekend. And only a small part was for Xmas, but I have to get stuff, perscriptions, supplements, etc when I have the $$ and only one check a month allows me to do that.

With only 4 weeks of 2011 left, I am on a rush to get my 3rd journal completed that I told you about in the last post. Yep, and didn't do one thing in it this week except a couple of doodles!! Yikes!! I am looking around and see that the new year means a cleaning, organizing of the studio kind again. Hmmm seems like I did that last January also. Yikes!

Have a great week.

Joy is.......Working to Finish Journal # 3

Hey folks, hope everyone had a great Gobble Day. We went to the Casino and I came home with more than I took, so I was happy.

I have been having trouble with my ankle. Started on Monday, like a sprain, but I didn't sprain it, and now I am wearing a brace and gimping around!! Grrr!

I dedicated a journal page to it here:


It will get better soon, I know.

I have been working like a mad women in my 3rd Journal, so it will be completed by years' end. Here are a few peeks:


On these pages is where I have been practicing some doodling. I love to doodle and make marks.


Here is what I have been doing with nanojoumo this year. Just writing the date, the phrase and something about it. Good enough for me this time around.


I spent a Saturday afternoon recently with my art friend Eva and we played with Black Gesso, Color Wash and stencils learning how to do Ghosting. It was so fun to watch the color wash come up through the gesso through the stencils. I really love this technique that I learned from Paula Phillips http://www.journalartistaart.com/.


This one is with Copic Markers, Stencils, one packing tape transfer, etc. Cool spread.


This is another cool spread with multiple layers of paint, ink and paper. I scratched paint and ink with a scratcher tool to make some cool effects.


For this spread, I found 2 images from a Free People Clothing catalog. I love their paper catalogs for the model images. I took the title from my Sticker Nation 2 book.


This spread was the first time I had tried using Light Molding Paste for texture. I really like the way it feels, and you can really see it, but this is not finished yet.

A few of you know that I follow the LOA, Law of Attraction. I do as best as I can with all of the negativity that I have to deal with in my day job. My current car is a 2005 Nissan Sentra. I drive it for my job. Today it has 154,000 miles on it and even though I expect another 75,000 miles from it, I worry that it will quit and I will be in trouble. So with that said, I need a new car and because I like Nissan's Sentra's (we have owned 3 with great results), I have decided that my next car will be a Nissan Cube, because it has the same engine as a Sentra, but it is much cuter. And it is like a hatch back which means no trunk, which means Hubs will be happy that I won't be able to junk up the trunk with all of my work stuff. I have put this photo on my desktop so I can see it all of the time and know it will be in my driveway very soon, paid off completely by the way. I have no room for car payments in my life at this time.



So another week goes by, creeping closer to the end of 2011. Psst, 5 weeks left!! Have a great rest of your weekend and hope next week is kind to you.

Joy Is......Happy Mail

I was gone every day last week conducting a class in Vallejo, which was exhausting. So I dragged myself home yesterday afternoon and I had a great surprise when I walked in and saw a box on the diningroom table. So after I emptied my suitcase and put everything away and started laundry, I checked out the box and almost fell over when I saw who it was from! Paula Phillips! I was so excited I ripped it open all wonky but that was okay. I took these pics after I got my breath back!


This book is so cool to me. Both Paula and I are in Safety. Paula in a Box Factory and me of course in Public Transportation, so she sent me this cool log book for work related accidents. Wow!


This is an assortment of papers and some cool napkins! Love the one with the bird but the coffee cup one is the best! I love to glue napkins in my journal for backgrounds. And the white cardstock on the right is some punch out small file folders and tabs and she sent two bottles from Lindy Stamp Gang. One is a Moon Shadow Mist called Mystic Malachite and the other is a Starburst Stains called Black Orchid Silver! One is a spray and the other is in a dauber bottle. These you add hot water to and make them, since they come dry! They really shimmer!!


More cool papers.


And Stencils!!! Although I guess I only took this picture of 2 of them, she actually sent me 3 Crafter's Workshop stencils. Woot!


This rubber stamp Paula said is to be cut apart to make textured back ground stamps. But I don't think I could lay a pair of scissors to it. And I may have misunderstood her also, but I don't care. Isn't it great?


This is a old fan fold out ink guide for inking the text on the boxes they are making? (I am guessing). I can see me using these for pages in Junk Journals with someone looking through the holes!


This stamp I am sure could only be found in Canada, eh? LOL!


Last weekend for Veteran's Day, Interweave http://www.interweavestore.com/Mixed-Media/DVDs-Videos/Layered-and-Textured-Backgrounds-DVD.html?SessionThemeID=21 was selling all of their DVD's for $11.11 for 12 hours. That is when I said, OK now is the time to get a copy of Paula's Video. And that was also here when I got home.

Go over to Paula's Ustream channel, http://www.ustream.tv/channel/journalartista and watch the recording of what she created tonight. Wow!! This girl is a genius and I am so proud to call her one of my bestest friends.
And go here to see Paula's latest article in the newest Art Journaling Magazine, Pages
http://www.clothpaperscissors.com/blogs/pages/archive/2011/11/18/pages-premiere-issue.aspx

So that wraps up another week.

Next week is Thanksgiving, so the next time you hear from me I will be too full of all of the trimmings plus a little Turkey!

Have a safe Holiday!

Joy is.......Art Journaling a Bunch

I found a definition on someone's blog for Art Jounaling. I cannot claim it as my own. I am in the process of changing it around to make it my own, but here it is the way I found it:


Almost perfect, but again, it is not mine, so I am borrowing it for now.

I have been busy busy the last week creating art journal spreads. For some reason, I always kick it into high gear at this time of the year. Here they are in no particular order:




I have a bestest friend named Dale Anne Potter here http://daleannepotter.com/blog/ who is an avid EVERYTHING Creator. This lady is an amazing artist and quilter. She is a profound follower of the LOA, Law of Attraction, and she is a great inspiration. She sent me this quilted postcard:

Please check out Dale's Blog for everyday inspiration. And pssst, she is selling these fabulous quilted postcards right now.

I have been trying to keep up with Nanojoumo http://www.dblogala.com/nanojoumo over at Dawn's site:


I have only been making a few notes, everyday. But at least it is something. I do like the way Dawn is doing small phrases instead of just one word this year. Cool.

I did actually get to do a small amount of shopping yesterday. Ya know those 50% off coupons burn holes in my pocket! Hee! So I went to Aaron Brother's Art and Frame joint and almost had a heart attack when I found these:


I have been looking for these Inktense Blocks since I saw Paula use them on her DVD. Woot! And since I had that 50% off coupon I was justified into buying these. *wink*

And then I walked around the end of the aisle and saw this, and again almost had heart failure:


And this was already marked down 50%!! Woot! Been wanting one to work on, and now I had one cheap. Woo Hoo!

I know this is a long post but I have one more picture to share:


This is my new snack. OMG! There should be a law on how good something this small can taste and I can have a couple a day. Yay!!

My friend Eva came over yesterday afternoon for a while and taught me how to make a paper box that folds down into a card. Cool. It will come in handy to hold small Xmas gifts this year.

So that is all of the news and food going on with me. I am leaving today to spend the week in Vallejo to teach a Government Bus Trainer Instructor Course to 20 folks who on Monday will be a feared to speak in Public but on Friday, they will be trying to beat each other to be the first to speak in front of us. Hee! It is so fulfilling to watch folks come out of their shell and come alive right in front of your eyes. Wow! It is an amazing experience.

Have a great week and remember there are only 7 weeks left of 2011, if you are interested.