FAMILY IS FOREVER

I love family.  I love my real family. I love my way-extended real family that I rarely get to see. I love my online family. I love my art family.  We form bonds with our real families as children and those bonds last a lifetime.  Bonds are formed through the years with friends and acquaintences, and some of these last a lifetime as well.  And believe it or not, you can form these kind of lasting relationships with people you meet and get to know online. I can only hope that those relationships last a lifetime as well.  We adopt some folks into the family as the years go along through close friendships and relationships.   These interpersonal relationships help to form who we are are adults and provide so much emotional support, and always when we need it.  And of course, you can't have those close relationships without a few waves once in a while, but over the course of time, little wounds are healed and that unconditional love always prevails.

How wonderful it is to know aunts, uncles, cousins, distant cousins and way-distant cousins.  There's that connection that binds us all together through common ancestors and relationships.  My familial roots run long and deep in the United States, and of those roots I am very proud.  And of course, being a 5th generation Texan, I know there is no better place than this place I call home.

So the last couple of days I have been thinking a lot about family.  My maternal side of the family is having their 96th annual reunion this summer and it is something I always look forward to.  I think I have only missed 1-2 in my 60 + (cough) years on this planet.  I was fortunate enough to know my maternal great grandmother for 18 years of my life.  She and my gr. grandfather came to Oklahoma in a covered wagon, and I learned a lot about life from her and all of her children.  Sadly, I never knew my gr. grandfather. He passed long before I was born, but all 6 of their children lived long and very productive and successful lives.  Seeing all my great aunts and uncles and cousins from all over the country was always a thrill and those times hold a very special place in my heart. This side of the family heralded fantastic longevity so we all benefited from the wisdom they tried so hard to teach us. We weren't always listening, but those stories, legends and antics remain with me today, and for that I am grateful.

So to honor family of all genres, I created this journal page.  The background is a fantastic napkin I received in happy mail from my friend Andie Mayr in Bischberg, Germany.  It was huge and reminded me of a patchwork quilt, so I knew I had to use it.  And this whole spread just kind of evolved around that napkin.  The napkin was cut to size and adhered to the page with Dina Wakely's Soft Gel Medium.


Years ago, my sister made a wonderful gift to me of this same poem that she hand lettered in beautiful calligraphy and adorned it with fun embellishments. It hangs in my bedroom all the time and is treasured by me on so many levels.  So I thought immediately of this poem and got busy creating my page.

The lettering was placed on 1/2" strips of watercolor paper and colored with Copic Marker in Maize. Lettering was done with a black Signo Uniball pen.

I hand painted the tree with Diane Reaveley's Blendable Acrylics in Black Marble, Cut Grass, Lime and Melted Chocolate, with just a touch of Lemon Zest.  I used some craft acrylic in medium grey and nutmeg brown for the highlights.

I used all these colors in the top of the trees to signify all the family, new, aging and in-between.  The fallen leaves obviously represent those that have crossed over but still guide us from the heavens.


I hope you like what I created.  Document your family memories in a creative or expressive way. It will warm your heart.


Ciao familia!

I'm keeping it artful!
~~ Betty

ARTFUL JOURNEYS - WEEK #9

I am writing this today, after somewhat of an emotional day spent remembering my Mother. She would have been 90 years old today. I dug out a bunch of old pictures of her from when I was a child, and when she was a young woman.  My mother was a kind, caring woman who always had a ready and contagious laugh, and was willing to always jump in to anything to have some fun.  Mother was a registered nurse and I fondly remember her starched "whites", with her hair up in that french twist she was famous for, and her cap starched and always adjusted "just so."  By the time I got to junior high school, Mother was into the craft industry in a big way and was both an Artex and Tri-Chem dealer. She was always creative, and could make a party for us kids on the spur of the moment, make costumes, teach us how to make decorations out of nothing, and she always, always was doing something for someone else.  Mother traveled with me on many, many trips all over the country, and I flew her to whereever I was on so many occasions I can't remember them all. We always had fun together. She was "game" for nearly anything. We loved our late night "pretty coffee" times out of my special Nippon teacup collection cups, taking care to select just that one special cup for the night. I miss her very much, but her spirit is with me each and every day, guiding me still with her firm, but gentle hand.  Thank you, Mother.  Keep smiling down on me and being my guardian angel.

Our prompt this week is to use your favorite quote.  I have a whole book of favorite quotes and sayings, and the one I used in tonight's spread is one of those.  This entire spread is dedicated to the memory of my mother.

Prepared in my large Dylusions journal, I spread Turquoise Dylusions Blendable Acrylic on with a cosmetic sponge, and it took surprisingly very little paint.  I then added the edge in London Blue, just making a sort-of wavy edge all the way around.  I used a circle stencil and put a little water on both sponges and placed here and there.  There was enough paint left in both the Turquoise & London Blue sponges (even using the paint quite sparingly) that I was able to create 3 other backgrounds with what was "left over" in both sponges .... and a bunch of paint on some mop up paper as well.


The edges were finished off with a black china marker and smudged with my fingers. This was tricky tonight. My hands are so dry from having the heat blaring for the last few days that I had to rub my face to get some kind of oil onto my finger tips. LOL.  I then used a black Staz On ink pad and stamped my Deep Red Water Droplets stamp indiscriminately around the page.

I cut a 4" circle, colored it with Holiday Blue Copic marker and hand lettered the quote with a .05 black Micron pen ... "Mother, you left us beautiful memories. Your love is still our guide. Although we cannot see you, you're always by our side." ~~ author unknown.  

The little rose bouquet was hand drawn with a .05 Micron pen and colored with copic marker and white sakura glaze pen.






The lettering on the adjacent page is my mother's name, her birth and death date.

I really didn't want to put anything else on the page or to clutter it up. Sometimes the most powerful expressions are the simplest.  I'm happy with it, and really, in the end, that's all that matters.  I think mother would have loved it.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Here are some other things I have been working on this week in an artistic vein. Sadly I have had a lot of administrative duties online and grown-up responsibilities to tend to this past week and didn't get much art time.  There's a new week coming, so I am hopeful!

I am trying to develop a little series of "dollies" to use in my journaling, art projects and to send in happy mail and art swaps to my creative friends.  These are still in the development stage, but thought I would share them with you anyway.

And some mail projects going out.......

Leave me some blog love in the comments section below. Go ahead, and make my day!  Go out and make it a great week, and stay artful!
~~ Betty

Artful Journeys - Week # 7 Mardi Gras

LAISSEZ LES BON TEMPS ROULETTE!  

We're going to let the good times roll (translation) for upcoming Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) and in celebration of Carnivale.  Nothing is off limits, everything goes, be wild, be gaudy and have fun. That's what Mardi Gras is all about!

I have been to many Mardi Gras celebrations throughout the south during my lifetime, and of course the most raucous celebration here in the states I think happens in good ole 'Nawlins.  That would be New Or-leens to you folks living north of the Red River and the Mason-Dixon line. LOL.  I have a sizeable collection of beads, and many coveted King beads that I will neither admit nor deny to participating in debauchery to obtain.  What happens in "Nawlins" stays in "Nawlins."  And of course, that was a long, long time ago in my much younger (and wilder) days.  We don't talk about that now.

For this week's prompt at Artful Journeys, I prepared two very different things.  The first, a spread in my large Dylusions journal using assorted techniques and materials.  I scraped on a background of craft acrylic in Spring Green, Parakeet and Caterpillar.  Then I applied a thin coat of a heavy metallic gold acrylic paint that is super glittery.   While wet, I used my Soft Swirls background stamp by Stampin' Up to imprint some of the design into the paint.  Some of the paint lifted, but that's okay.  I knew I wasn't creating something to be "perfect" anyway.

I knew I wanted to somehow emulate the sensory overload that you go on when you attend a Mardi Gras celebration.  Especially in New Orleans.  Music is everywhere. Lights. Costumes. Confetti. Beads. Glitter. Wafting smells of food drifting out of restaurants and bistros into the streets.  Bazillions of people of every imaginable description, in every conceivable state of sobriety or intoxication.   To me, the entire city comes alive during Mardi Gras.



So I drew a kind of "explosion" spewing forth from the center, representing of course, the French Quarter, where all the fun happens and branching out all over the city and into the 'burbs.  I painted the bottom of this explosion with Purple Monster and Parakeet craft paint, several thin coats to get a deeper sense of the color.  Then I highlighted with a gold Signo Uniball pen.  Bits of "confetti" and music are represented by doodles, again with a black Signo Uniball pen and the confetti filled in with assorted acrylic paints.

I lettered "Laissez les bon temps roulette" (Let the good times roll) with Signo Uniball pens in black and white.

And here is the finished page.  The glittery parts really shine, and of course play havoc when trying to photograph under less-than-ideal circumstances in my kitchen, and at night.  I hope you enjoy it and that it brings a smile to you!

My second thing I made sits opposite the above page in my Dylusions journal on a similarly colored background, with Laissez les bon temps roulette, Mardi Gras & Fat Tuesday  written all around the edge of the page with black Signo Uniball pen.

I created a Mardi Gras mask!  I cut a mask template that I found online (here).  I don't have the exact link since I saved it years ago.  I dug out my big ole bag of decorative feathers and began applying them all over the mask I cut from some cardboard packaging I had saved (imagine that!!). 

 I added some flat jewel stones around the eyes and in the center.  I trimmed up the feathers at the nose area and slightly around the edges.  Always fun to find another creative outlet "just because".  I have many styles and types of Mardi Gras masks over the years, and I have to say working with these feathers is my least favorite. They are fussy. They fly everywhere. They are hard to get to stick down without jacking them up.  But it is another medium, and another thing to play with.  Can't beat that. We just move on to the next thing and will look back and laugh later.

So however you celebrate Mardi Gras, do it in style and with gusto.  You don't have to be of any particular religious persuasion to go out and have some fun.

Stay artful!
~Betty