"With infinite imagination and unstoppable determination, the possibility of creating something new awaits you each day."

This page evolved from left over paint from another project. The flowers and the doodles followed. This time I experimented a little bit on calligraphy. I googled and tried my hand on stylized writing-:) In this page it is not clear, but this is something that I'm definitely going to practice.

Thank you for checking.
SusaN 

From The Art of Wild Abandonment Class

One of the online classes that I signed up last month was the combined class by Christy Tomlinson and Junelle Jacobson called The Art Of Wild Abandonment.

It has not been very long since I came across Junelle and her super cute, simple, fun filled blog, http://yesandamenblog.blogspot.com/  I fell in love with her sketches and art journal pages right away.

 

Junelle is such a talented teacher that she makes everything look really simple, that even a total beginner can enjoy her projects. She is a great motivator and all throughout inspires and encourages us to do all of her lovely art works.

 

I've not yet finished going through the entire class, but whatever I've completed I've immensely enjoyed working on them.

 

Here are some of the lovely pages created from this class:

 I love these flowers and enjoyed the process so much that I made two more of these -:)

 I've seen clothesline paintings and have always thought they were tough to create but no, they are so easy and cute-:)

Junelle is a 'sheep' girl. She loves and adores them and they are so much a part of her creativity. Thank you so much   Junelle, for sharing us your idea of creating these fluffy, cuddly beings.

I plan to do more of all these lovely pages. Will keep posting the rest of my work from this wonderful class. 

 

Thank you

Susan 

The 'I' in You...

This week's page is the result of a failed experiment. From there it evolved in layers. I was trying modeling paste for the first time but didn't like the result. Then I did layers of stamping and painting. Finally it evolved into a very meaningful page for me.

On this side is a quote by Emerson. It says: "All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
For me it did get better. My page eventually turned out to be more meaningful. I discovered the following message among the layers and collage I finally came up with.

 " You might be a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother or a grandmother But the YOU is a very Important and Valued person. Let us never forget that."

While we are busy performing the various roles assigned to us in life, we forget the 'I' or the 'YOU' in us. I made this page to remind myself of the 'I' in me. Maybe the 'I' is not perfect, still she is very much valued and precious.

Thank you for being here
SusaN

Learning a new art

Last week, I've been making these: Yes, I mean these, my very first handmade books, Yayyy!

I've been wanting to do this for so many months and signed up for this awesome bookbinding cum journaling class called the Full Tilt Boogie with the very talented Mary Ann Moss of  http://dispatchfromla.typepad.com/.

As I made this one for my own use I made some modifications in making the cover page. But I'm soo happy with the result. The two small books were made as practice books, one for me and one for my son-:). I then made the big one using watercolor paper and sketching paper. It has six signatures in total. It lacks perfection in many ways but of course you cannot expect perfection in handmade goods-:) I'm sure I'll improve as I create more and I plan to make many more of these. The covers are also my own watercolor experiments. The little blue and red colored cover is my son's art work and it's his sketchbook.

I've already started using my Big book. One of my finished pages and some yet to finish ones.

As for the Full Tilt Boogie class I've to cover so much more. This is only one of the methods and I'm yet to explore the rest.
If you're looking for a bookbinding class, I highly recommend Mary Ann's class. I've not gone through the entire lessons, there are tons and tons of videos for each week (it is a 4 week class)  but I've really liked the first week's videos; she explains the steps in a very simple and clear way and the best thing is that you can do the lessons at your own pace. Once you sign up, you can access it 24/7.

I enjoyed making my book so much and love it even with all its flaws.
Thank you for visiting.
SusaN

Memories

I'm trying to make a scrapbook album of my second son's first 12 months. These pictures were taken when he was one and two months.

For the background, I've again used some abstract painting that I'd done a while ago.

Last October we had gone to the Crayola Factory. Ashish and myself had so much fun there making crafts and coloring with the various crayola products. This page is about that trip and the background paper is my son's artistic work. I've also glued the ticket/stickers on the top of the page.


 

Thanks for coming and leaving a kind word or two. I appreciate it so much.
SusaN

Stay Focused...

This week I managed to keep a balance on everything that I did. Each day, instead of dabbling in many things I focused on what I enjoyed doing the most.

Do you try to stick to a single craft? I find it very difficult to do so. Oneday my mood is to paint, the next day it'll be to make some jewelry. Sometimes there are days when I don't feel like creating and some other days I'm just happy to be with my books.

So this week, each day I just focused on whatever I felt like doing and enjoyed the process. The results of course made me smile-:) 

Here is this week's journal page:  I think Spring is still continuing to be my inspiration :-)

Thank you for visiting.
SusaN

The Second Floor Challenge-2

For the second, Second Floor Challenge, I have combined my art works with scrap booking. If you want to know more about the challenge go here:  http://balzerdesigns.typepad.com/balzer_designs/2012/04/second-floor-challenge-2-use-something-new.html

Scrap booking has been a new found love for me.  I love to record and treasure my  loved ones'  special moments. But till now, I've been creating layouts using  pattern paper and all the other embellishments that came along with it. I've even made pages using scrap booking kits. I liked the pages but still I felt that they lacked something, that the pages were not entirely mine.

So this time I decided to make the pages more personal.For this, I  selected some of my own art that has been stored in my drawer since last August and started adding them as embellishments.Maybe I can make my pages look more stunning with store bought ephemera but the memories that come to me when I go through these pages now are invaluable and more satisfying than that.

Layout-1

The red border of this page has been painted and cut out from this Index card on which I had doodled last year.

Only after I cut the card I remembered to take a picture-:)

Other materials used:

punched butterflies

card stock

rub-on lettering

Layout-2

The above layout was created from this watercolor pencil sketch that I'd done a long time ago.

Other materials:

Rub-on lettering

One chipboard [which I'm not very happy with]

A background wash with neo-color-ii

Things that I learned from creating these layouts:

1. This is a great way to use my loose sheets of paintings and sketches-:)

2. It takes more time to plan a page as you do almost everything from scratch-:(

3. It's far less expensive than the kits with which you do scrap booking-:)

4. It's a more personal, meaningful and  satisfying experience-:) 

  I know I'm going to do more pages in this way.

Thank you for being here

SusaN 

To Keep a Balance...

Last month didn't go that well with my kids falling sick most of the time. I'd to be with them, was worried about my little one,I myself was tired and in my heart I never wanted to let go of my art. I managed to do a little bit of this and that each day. Soon I realized that it was time for me to keep a balance in all that I do.

I've this issue of overdoing stuff, if I really love what I'm doing. I've decided to overcome that. Basically, it's how much I spend my time in front of the computer. It disrupts a lot of my quality time with the kids and also my own productive time.

This page is to remind myself to balance and give enough time for my family and myself.

  

Thank you

SusaN

Creativity Queue Challenge Day-6

Today's challenge is one that I had to update. This year, I made a book for my 5 year old to keep all his art work and writings together.I'd tons of his drawings from last year, all lying here and there. So I made a book with notepapers and cardstock. Every week or so I'd planned to update this book but of course most of the time I was not able to keep up with it.
Once again Thank you so much for this challenge Tammy, that I made it a point to update last month's pictures to the book.

I love to see him painting. Sometimes we sit together and do art and this book is where I want to keep all those memories and drawings together.

Thank you for reading
SusaN

Creativity Queue Challenge Day-5

Hello everyone, Ok I just coudn't be here for Day-4. Weekends tend to be really hectic with the family.

But for today, the change that you see on my header is the challenge that I took up. This is something that I always wanted to do. I'm not proficient  with the computer. To give birth to my blog, and to update it has been a great challenge for me earlier. But I love to see this as a record of my creativity and also to interact with like-minded people. 

Yesterday night, I finally got to sit around and google a way to make my own header. I still would like to make some changes to it but at the moment my computer is acting a little unfriendly to me-:( 

I labelled each posts (on the right side of the page) too. But still am unable to connect each Tabs to the relevant posts. Can anyone help me with that, please?  When you click on the tab no posts will come under it but my Label links work.

Anyways, I'm so happy about my header, filled with the different art mediums that I've done and am currently doing.

 

Thank you for visiting

SusaN