Color My World- Stencils, Fibers, Paints

Yesterday, I was reminded how much I like color- bright, vibrant colors. A group of us helped a friend sew curtains and drapes for her historic home. The downstairs bedroom's warm marigold yellow and terra-cotta made me feel alive and full of energy- the colors of Mexico and India.

Earlier in the week, I completed a stenciled journal page too large to fit on my scanner. I appears in two parts here. I read another way to write haiku- one word, two words, a sentence, two words, one word.

sing, dawn joy, music comes on early morning breeze, different birdsong, listen

Sunday, I felted with Darlene and Sue and love the fiber colors.

Our Tuesday sketch group went to Monticello Antique Market. It poured down rain outside, but inside the watercolors caught my eye.

How is your world colored?

Chinese Garden Springtime

Spring arrives at the Chinese Garden with sunshine and blooming flowers. It's one of my favorite places that our Tuesday sketch group visits. This week, we enjoyed the camellias
peonies

flowering trees

and the bonsai

Stenciled Portfolio Fun to Make

Mary Ann challenged us to make portfolios in her Stencilry class this week. This is the best online class that I've take. Her videos, resources, ideas are wonderful. Plus, it is fun to see how and where she creates her art. I feel like I'm in sunny LA with her videos. Here in the NW we have to spray paint in between the rain showers. Below are the covers-
Here is the inside-

Now, I'm off to make background pages.

How to Make a Visual Calendar

A couple readers asked how I make my visual calendars. The first two visual calendars I kept were created collaboratively with other artists. The 2007 calendar used a monthly format.

The 2008 calendar used a weekly format.

I prefer the monthly calendar in an engagement book format. I find a calendar template or use an existing calendar for the year. The pages measure 8x10 inches. I use Photo Shop to split and re size the calendar to fit the pages. This takes a little time but the daily boxes become big enough to add art, collage, draw or write in them.

Crop the calendar first to split it into two sections and move to new 8x10 pages. Next, use edit, transform, scale to re size the calendar to the page size. I leave extra room on the inside page edges to allow for binding into a book. You can erase the month name and put in your own text with a favorite font.

I put my artwork on the pages between each month and coordinate it to the season. If the scans do not fit, I re size them to fit the 8x10 page.

The covers are made and the whole calendar is taken to Kinko's to get it coil bound for about $5.

I use the same technique to make the calendars for my travel journals. It's fun to add collage elements before leaving home to get a jump start on creating a trip calendar. Adding text in the language of the country you plan to visit adds to the adventure.

With summer vacations coming up, it's not too late to make a travel calendar.

My Top Ten Reasons to Keep a Visual Calendar

Readers who follow my blog know I like to create visual calendars of my daily life and travel adventures.

My Top Ten Reasons to Keep a Visual Calendar:
1. To create a mini-journal
2. To keep times with family & friends alive
3. To highlight creative activities
4. To remember places visited
5. To document books read
6. To inspire new work
7. To record artist dates
8. To review priorities
9. To chronicle daily life
10.To see a week or month at-a-glance

Start creating your own visual calendars. Please share your ideas and comments.

New Stencil Online Classs with Mary Ann Moss

Years ago I took a journal workshop from Randi and we spray painted our pages using stencils. Here's one of my pages.
Mary Ann Moss at Dispatch from LA is offering an online stencil class. I really like the layers she gets with her spray painted stencils in her journals and signed up for her class. You can still register and join the fun. It starts this Friday.

Line Quality in Drawing Creates Interest

Yesterday, I took Jane Gallen's drawing class at Multnomah Arts Center and discovered the importance of line qulaity to create emphasis, drama and interest in images drawn.

The class is full and Jane let me sit in yesterday. I'm first on the waiting list and hope someone drops out so I can continue to take the class.