November in my unPlanner Part 01

Hello all! 

I have had some fun in my unPlanner again with a new colour palette: blues, greys, whites, blacks. We have full-fledged winter temps and snows up here in Canada, and I feel that suits my journal. :)

To discover other unPlanner ideas and see the project challenges and themes, sign up for The Documented Life Project 2016- The unPlanner at the Art to the 5th Academy or see the blog HERE.

The first part I've done is make the divider, and below is a photo of it open. 

This was my project for my StencilGirl Creative Team post over at the StencilGirl blog. To see my step-out tutorial, check it out HERE.

I enjoy the depth of this piece, using blue-black and varying shade of grey. 

If I had to sum up one thing I've learned from art journaling this year, it would be this: create depth with varying shades of colour!

Photo below, page on left, is a page from the unPlanner kit. The photo after this one, you see the other side of that page completely covered with black paint. I will do the same here. Page on right is my prepared pages for the rest of the month, where I journal daily.

A process pic of decorating the pre-made pocket page. Of course, StencilGirl stencils were used. ;) The "ladder" at the top part is a club stencil by MaryBeth. See it HERE. The "snowman" is from a stencil with three varied sized ovals. See the stencil HERE. The other stencils used are THIS and THIS 6x6 stencil.

I circled the part below to show you which part of the large stencil I used. :) More photos to come in my next blog post when I have the pocket pages complete. That's my plan, anyway.

Photo below is one of the items in that pocket. I painted a tag white, then glued photos to it. 

I discovered a fun app called Prisma, and spent too many hours playing with it! It transforms photos into different styles of art with filters. My favourite filter is the Wave and Candy. I discovered it from Miranda, through her weekly project called the 18/52 Art Journal Project. 

Scroll to bottom of post to see two more photos of my unPlanner.

The second photo on the tag is of my son and his silver velour cape.

Here are some more photos I tweaked. :) I might include a few of these in my unPlanner as well.

Before, of our tree in our front yard:

After, using the Wave filter:

Candy filter

Before:

After, with the Wave filter again.

Before, our shortcut through the trees to the mailboxes.

After

Before, some of the roses in my garden:

Before, photo of the brayered backgrounds I used for my August unPlanner pages:

After:

This last one is giving me ideas of painting backgrounds! Need to try!

Spent a good half hour driving around in the country yesterday, taking photos of the beautiful scenery around us. 

This altered version reminds me of some famous painter...but I can't remember who!

Well, it was fun to share what is happening in my unPlanner! I'm looking forward to making the PACs and the fun List10 this month. Hope I inspired you to work in your unPlanner or other artjournals!

♥♥♥  Anna  ♥♥♥

October Musings and some unPlanner Pics

unPlanner pages for October

October weather is here in full swing, and that means I need to use those colours in my art journal! They are NOT my go-to colours, but since The Documented Life Project's October theme is a new palette, I thought I better. ;)

So here goes. 

Using the same brayering technique I discovered on the PaperArtsy Youtube Channel, I covered four pieces of cardstock with paint in oranges, yellows, reds and greens.

Note: see my own videos of this technique HERE.

I put aside those backgrounds and just started playing with my new club stencils from StencilGirl and the reverse grid stencils as well. And paint pens. To make dots. I make lots of dots at the moment.

To finish, I added the circles towards the bottom, as it needed grounding visually.

Grid Outline 4 by 4

Grid Outline 6 by 6

March 2013 Club Stencils 

May 2015 Club Stencils

Clustered Leaves

September 2016 Club Stencils (for the flowers in middle of the circles)

For Calligraphy letters with the Zig Clean Color brush markers, in the style of Random Olive. Want to learn how to write in this style? Do check out her Instagram, as she uploads mini tutorial videos that shows you how, and you can buy her printables so you can practice too. I found it very helpful!

I kept on adding more and more layers, just for fun. Until it looked more pleasing.

See the reinforcement edge with the flowers? This is where I started using the brayered backgrounds. It's nice and handy to have four backgrounds to work with as I create my unPlanner pages for October.

Still need to decorate my calendar.

I have made one PAC recently, and it's a September prompt, but I'm adding it to my October, as the challenge was to add an organic element. I had these leaves I gathered from our yard, and this leaf got all painty in October's colour scheme. :) I sewed the edges and the stem down on the card. 

The background is from an old art journal page in my junque journal. I cut out a portion for the background of my PAC. The dots reminded me of seed heads, so it goes with the leaf, right? :)

October Musings

We took a road trip to neighboring Saskatchewan for my nephew's wedding. Here are my two oldest, all purty. Love them!!

On the way home, I stepped into a gopher hole, spraining my ankle badly. I couldn't walk without crutches a few days. As part of the road trip, we explored the area where my hubby's mother was born, and since I couldn't explore with them, I had to stay in vehicle. Junia, my daughter picked this beautiful flower for me.

Hours and hours of driving on the Saskatchewan prairies.

Days later, we drove through Canada's Rocky Mountain range, and we missed a turn, landing in British Columbia. LOL. We stopped beside the Bow River, and I was able to take the time to play with the aperture on my phone camera. I'm pleased with how it turned out!

Another perspective.

Who says dead grasses and flowers have no beauty??

Eight days of road trip left us a little tired of each other, but what a time we had.

♥♥♥  Anna  ♥♥♥

Who would you be?

Love doodling with markers sometimes. Got this question out of my Q&A book that I received as a gift. 

I made myself vulnerable, now it's your turn. Would love to know who you would choose and why! :)

Please, pretty please, tell me. I would ♥heart♥ it!

Peony Favorites

I was reading one of my favorite blogs: Second Sister Sauviiloquy (how in the world do you pronounce that last word?!?!?), and she had me inspired! I enjoy taking pics of these beautiful creations, but taking care of them is another story. I'm no green thumb.

Unlikely Inspiration Found in Mailbox

My kids brought me the mail this morning. A gorgeous envelope from World Vision appeared before my eyes. I instantly conjured up visions of a digital scrapbooked layout. The girl and title struck me first. Notice the slightly distressed white letters. Look at the incredible beauty of the girl with her memorable eyes and colorful head scarf. Then I saw the sub-title. I LOVE how it is slightly tilted, layered and distressed. Next, behold, that grungy looking white frame! But the eye-candy didn't stop there! I turned the envelope over and was pleasantly surprised with the white negative space. I could list more things I like about it, but I'll stop there. My son needs to do his phonics, and it ain't happenin' with me on this computer! 

I had promised I would post about the big project I'm working on for my sister, but I chose to post this first. It'll come yet.

Wintery Wonderland

My twin photographed us this super snowy day at our local park. I wanted to send out Christmas Photo cards, but there wasn't really a day where the snow hung so heavily on the trees. (I wanted a family photo showcasing our winter wonderland.)
Have I mentioned how much I love http://www.houseof3.com/ products? That's where I got the damask brush on the left side of this pic.

I'm brainstorming ideas on how to design couch pillows using the damask brushes. I'm thinking embroidered cushions.....



This is the bottom of my skirt that I made for the Christmas holidays. I had the supplies in the beginning of December already, but didn't actually finish the thing until Christmas Eve. :) Crazy me, I know.