Be the Color in Someone's Grey Day: Week 26 of DLP

The Documented Life Project

Week 26 

I used my handy dandy Sakura watercolor brush loaded with full strength Dylusions ink for this week's spread. I have the Zesty Lemon (see the yellow day strips?) and the Calypso Teal (the week header) in these great brushes, but will add six more once they get here from www.dickblick.com. Can't wait. Use them everywhere! I just love the Dylusions colors, so having them available as a brush is great. (I don't use sprays as much as brushes and pencils, as they're not as versatile.)

The right hand side is the tip-in, as shown in my previous post. See the LIFT tab there? I added that just now, so that when you page through my art journal, you can see there's something to see underneath this rose. :)

I chose to go all yellow with the day strips this time, instead of alternating different colors like I have in the previous weeks. I like how versatile my design is. I can vary it enough that I don't get bored. :)

This is how it looks with the tip-in open. Three pages. I chose to add a bit of teal and pink to my journaling so that everything matches.

Those pink doodles on the right hand side are so awfully crooked. LOL It's driving me a little bit bonkers, looking at it. I better just not look, huh? Not changing it now!

Be the color in someone's grey day. 

I'm off to supper with my family, so will have to finish post later. See ya!

Four and a half hours later...

Hi, I'm back. :)

I doodled these flowers on watercolor paper, watercolored them in, cut out and glued onto this previously gelli-printed music sheet. (It's the other side of the rose page.) Added more details with Sharpie, Twinkling H2O's. couple more yellows with varying kinds of watercolor pencils, added white details with Uniball Signo gel pen.
Doodled stems and circly things, and added more watercolor in different areas. It was really a project I kept on going back to, adding this and that. :)

I love how the music notes on the bottom right are peaking out from the background paint. :) I chose to go with a layout with lots of white space. White space gives your eyes room to rest, and also makes the flowers really be the center of the scene.

This week's header is filled with a tangle called using my Dylusions ink filled Sakura watercolor brush in Calypso Teal.

I don't the name of the tangle, but it's a cross between
FLUTTER TILE
FIFE
FLOURISH
NETTING
PUF
and
BALES
:)
I just used a simple label sticker for the title. Handy and quick. :)

Some of the pink paint bled through to the page on the left. Oh well. Adds character, right?

The title in hot pink was written with a Montana acrylic paint pen Gleaming Pink.

The background is a Gelli-print on vintage music paper. I think I was just cleaning off the plate, or from multiple printings. Only a bit of the paint was left over. I figure that makes for a nice subtle background. :)
Well, that's it Lovelies!
I'm looking forward to creating next week's pages. How about you?

Have a great evening.
Anna

Rose. Rose Red.

The Documented Life Project's Week 26 Challenge - Add a bible verse that inspires you - or a line from your favorite book.

I love my flower. It's all loose and free looking. Who says you have to stay within the lines? I wrote my words overtop the music notes, which I must say, looks too chaotic. You have to look close to actually be able to read the words. It's hard to write over gesso. I used a black Signo 270 pen.

This rose page is the top part of my tip-in (the flap) that I attached to the right edge of the two-page spread. I will share the other side and the whole week spread when the week is over. :)

 Is it okay to do a challenge twice? Well, I did. I shared my other one on Instagram. This just came pouring out of me! The drawing took maybe 5 minutes. The adding of colors and little details a little longer. 

1. I drew the flower first, quickly and without much thought, then added color to the flower and stem with watercolor pencils. 

2. Over top the drawing and watercolor pencil, I painted clear gesso to cover the vintage music paper, giving it more strength. (I used clear because I didn't want the drawing covered.)The gesso made the watercolors blend. I applied the gesso very messily, not really caring if color went outside the lines. 

3. I added more pink with gel watercolor crayons, three different pinks and a red with Montana acrylic pens, and Dylusions ink spray dipped with brush, 

4. In the lighter areas, I applied Pearl Ex mixed with acrylic glaze for some shine. 

5. With a finger, I blended white gesso around the rose so that it would stand out a bit more. 

6. Then I splattered Dylusions ink all over the page.

For the words, I chose a paragraph from an extremely profound book called The Mystery of Marriage by Mike Mason. I am taking forever to read the book, as every line is filled with so much meaning. It's not a skimmable book!

Happy creating!

Anna

Funky tree. Please tell me if it looks like like a tree morphing into a lizard...

Seriously, does it look too weird? Does it remind of you a serpent? A lizard? Greek goddess' Madusa's favorite resting spot, perhaps? I guess it is okay if it does look like any of those, as I did mention a different reality...

I just love circles. I cannot get enough of them. Even the tree had to end up with them. It looked so PLAIN without them!

Challenge 13 of the DLP: Ask someone else to draw on your page - finish it.

Yes, I am doing the challenges totally out of order. Only doing the ones I feel inspired to do, or I might force myself to try one if I'm lacking creative mojo.

Background is a crazy gelli-print I did yesterday with purples, pinks, oranges, and yellows. Used a variety of circle stencils, a chevron, and string thrown on for added texture.

1. I cut out the tree my daughter drew. Yes, had her permission! She draws a lot of them, so she willingly relinquished one for my project. :)

2. Glued tree to Gelli-print with matte medium.

3. Colored in shaded spots with brown pencil crayon.

4. Took my water brush filled with Dylusions ink (Lemon Zest) and painted around the edges of the tree to add dimension.

5. With a Copic Blender pen, I made the yellow Dylusions ink blend a bit more into the background.

6. With a graphite pencil...

Oh!

Okay. I'm back. Got distracted with David Garrett's fantastic soulful violin in the background.

6. With a graphite pencil I outlined the tree for even more dimension.

Man, he's good! Listening to his Beethoven's violin concerto Op 6 with Gabor Takacs-Nagy.

7. Now I started drawing orange circles with my Montana acrylic pen in Shock Orange, Shock Yellow and Shock Yellow-Light, adding dots and dabs as well. Outlined in most areas too.

8. Wrote my quote with a black oil-based Sharpie paint pen.

And that's it! :)

Happy creating!

Anna

Week 24: The Documented Life Project

June 8-14th, 2014 is one of my favorite weeks of this year. My kids were involved in our city's 100th year celebration, namely, in a community play. Very exciting.

And I want to boast about my spread: I love how this all turned out. The details, the colors, the content. 

I made a tip-in, shown on the right side in photo above. It was hard to get a good photo with proper lighting and accurate coloring today for some reason! This week's challenge was to fill your flap with hearts, so did that. A tower of hearts, let's say.

The flap opens to reveal the last half of the week .

Photo above is the back side of the flap: a scrapbook page! Felt so good working with photos again. :) I met a lady on Instagram who just could not stick to one type of scrapbooky art format, so she combined them all: art journals, traditional scrapbook pages, smashbooks and pocket scrapbooks. So, that's what I've got a bit going on here. :)

For placement of photos and elements, I used an idea sketch by PageMaps that matched the photo sizes and number of photos. If you are a scrapbooker and really struggle with where to place photos and embellish, I strongly recommend trying a map. There are hundreds to choose from. There are other companies that use maps too. Check it out! It totally revolutionized the design of my scrapbook layouts!

Will talk about the details of my pages, and will start with my week at a glance layout.

For this week's header, I filled in the background with Tim Holtz distress inks, using a baby wipe for blending. Then added doodling with a Sharpie and a few colors of Montana acrylic paint markers. Then, something I haven't done in a while, scrapbook paper! I was working on this page at my friend's scrapbook store when I spied this paper that just went absolutely perfect with my color scheme. Cute patterns of clouds and trees. :)

For the day strips of watercolor, I just used a few colors from a cheap brand of a watercolor pan set.

Now, just to warn you, the next set of photos you might find reduntant, but I could not just settle on which ones to include. I just love my flowers and doodles and colors here...

For the flowers, I used a punch set by Martha Stewart. One punch was the larger hydrangea flower, and the second punch was a set of three smaller ones. Decorated with my Montana acrylic pens, waterbrush filled with Dylusions ink and sharpie markers.

punched flowers out of old book paper (which was the DLP's challenge last week)...

neons mixed with retro pastel colors...

random dots make it so playful...

the second page: 

more flowers
some I punched out of Gelli-prints
others out of old book pages

some font play going on

The 13th was a rainy day, so added a cute little cloud with raindrops.

The little orange bird washi tape was a cheap set of three I found at Walmart. Thought it went well with the feel of this layout. This washi tape fastens the tip-in on the inside, so when you open and close it, everything will stay snug and intact. It bends well, but so decorative at the same time. Washi-tape, that is. :)

Now, for the scrapbook layout on the inside flap:

As seen in the photo of my photo grid, I could have placed another square photo beside the top middle, but I chose to go with a decorated square paper since I didn't have another photo to place there. Could have left it blank totally, but that didn't look quite right when I looked at my layout from a distance.

I used a simple index card for some of the embellishing, adding some journaling and doodles, cut out a piece from some patterned paper, punched more flowers out of Gelli-prints and old book paper, added doodles and dots, and last but not least, some watercoloring.

The background is an old Gelli-print I had laying around. Glued the whole thing to the flap with matte medium. 

Another little square of index card, doodles and flowers tucked in among the square photos which I printed off at www.prinkl.com

And now for the top of the flap: last week's challenge was to include text paper and this week's is to cover your flap with hearts. I did both here.

I think I bent one of the punches, trying to punch out some flowers of a triple layer of paper in the top left part of the page. LOL I was somewhat successful with the flowers, I like how you can see through to the other pages. :) 

I pinned this quote some time ago to my Words board on Pinterest, and since I am reading Mother Teresa's story right now to the kids in my homeschool, I figured it was timely and appropriate! The frame is from the same patterned paper set I got from the scrapbook store. It's Prima brand, but can't remember the name of the line. 

The bright yellow swirls were made using a cute set of Target watercolor gel crayons. You color with them, then wet them, creating a vivid design. LOVE! They are in the kids' section at Target! Only $4.50, or something like that!

Hot neon, two blues, white, and an orange Montana acrylic paint marker for the doodles.

 Stampin' Up punch of three different sized hearts. Use this punch A LOT! Very versatile! Again, I punched book paper, and doodled the edges. 

Really love the washi tape edges of this project! Art to the 5th ladies, you are brilliant! :)

The background is another Gelli-print I found that matched my colors so perfectly. You should see my stack of prints! Kinda embarrassing actually. LOL!

Well, finally the end of a very long post! Had such a great time creating these pages. Worked on it really early in the morning, some in the afternoon, some in the evening, and long into the night sometimes...work of love, it is!

Like Ms. Teresa said, 

Spread love wherever you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier. 

Anna

P.S. Do check out her biography. You won't be disappointed, as she's a very inspiring lady. This is the book I'm reading to my family:

Teresa of Calcutta: Serving the Poorest of the Poor

Free FotoFusion Template No. 25

I'm back with another free FotoFusion template for all you Lumapix FotoFusion users. (After at least a year break!) I have no idea if these work in the new version. I still have the old one, and I'm not willing to upgrade. It only has a few improvements, and I am really familiar with the old one. :) Let me know if my templates work in V5, any of you, okay? Thanks!

This template is fully customizable. It has room for five vertical photos, room for journaling on the middle left, and you can add a patterned background or change to a solid color.

If you don't like the flowers, you could always trade in gears or doilies or something like that, and the leaves for buttons. :) The flowers and leaves are fully customizable, so you can change the colors or even drop in patterned paper, including the middles. When you load the template in FotoFusion, you may not be able to see the flower middles, but they are there if you hover your mouse over the middle. :)

The title and journaling spots are also editable. You can move each letter close together, make them larger, change the colors, change the fonts, change the outline, etc.

I created a quick layout with the template. It only took about 15 minutes to make. The only thing I changed was the fonts for the subtitles. :) Kits used is by Creashens. It's a really old kit, so not sure if it is still available/

Download here

Would love to see the layouts you make with my templates! :)

♥♥♥  Anna   ♥♥♥

Week 23 of DLP Summary

Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by. :)

The right side of this two page layout is the tip-in, as described on the Art to the 5th blog and DLP project. :) A tip-in is a flap you attach to the edge and opens to reveal more pages. 

Underneath will reveal the facing page of my weekly pages (the 4th of June to the 7th). I printed three of my Instagram photos using Prinkl.  I didn't get a photo showing the whole page. Below is some of it as well as the Week 23 challenge on the opposite side of this page. 

So, when you open the flap, this is what is underneath. :) I am really explaining it in a confusing way, but I guess that's how my brain works. Teehee! Basically, when you open the flap, you have a three-page spread. :) In photo above, the right side is the third page. Week 23 Challenge was to write down one thing you are grateful for each day. Fun and important challenge. 

Photo below is a close-up of the middle page.

My sister and I finally planted my garden yesterday. Made a little chart of what is where. Very very pleased that I have a garden! Also planted Hops yesterday. So excited about those. Hoping they will creep to the top of the garage. Our house faces the east wall of our very white garage. {fingers crossed} 

On the opposite side of the little flap you LIFT, is the ICAD 2014 prompts. If you want to see my first three ICADs, go here. Still need to do four of them. I like to do them in batches, though it is meant to decorate one index card per day...:)

A close-up of my Week 23, (First week of June) header. Some fun zentangling of exploding hearts and bright neon pink to make it all crazy looking. :) 

Well, week 23 is done, on to the next week! Next week's challenge is to use book text. That's an easy one, as I do that all the time.  

Happy documenting but do not forget to make meaningful memories with your loved ones.

♥♥♥ Anna ♥♥♥

Week 22 of my DLP

♥ The Documented Life Project -  Week 22 ♥

 A flap this time. See more details of it further down this post. :)

Week 22's header is decorated with my daughter's favorite tangle: Rain by Linda Farmer. I am signed up to a daily tangle subscription on her site, www.tanglepatterns.com. It is wonderful!

May is planting time, and everywhere I look, I see beautiful flowers. I added some photos this time. I plan to do more of that in the future. I printed them using Prnkl. What you do is upload them to the website, create a poster, download as a PDF, and print them off your computer. Easy peasy. And it's free! They do also print photos for a cost. 

For the front part of the flap, I wrote a dialog of my boys' conversation. My boys play Minecraft when I do art. I love to write down what they say sometimes. It will be so cool to read this ten years from now!

This is the other side of the flap. Included some photos. I used to scrapbook a lot more than I do now. Put in a little bit of it here. :) The pink pattern was made using acrylic paint and a stencil.

Well, that's another week of details here on my blog. Hope you enjoyed. See you next time?

♥Anna♥