Photo Art Journal

 Art journals are a passion of mine.   Everything I see just lends itself to becoming an art journal.  I have a vast amount of photos that need to be put into albums.   Scrapbooking per se is not something I have indulged in to a large extent.  But I do love making journals and decided I needed to get started on all these containers of photos.  An art journal style photo album appealed to me.  So I started with photos of my three girls.

 I used recycled card board from postage stamps ordered on line.  I love that each sheet of stamps is supported with a cut piece of card board to provide stability and keep the stamps from being crushed in the mail.  I painted on these page and  then cut  pieces from scrap card stocks for the house.   Each page will contain a house and the photos of the girls will be mounted inside the house.  I have used recycled plastic bread ties for the doors and most of them will also have a chimney from these recycled ties.  I have tried to add words/quotes/phrases to the page that compliment the child's personality.   Some will have quotes of things said as a child, as this one does.  I added an edging all around with various washi tapes.   Rachel was 2yrs old in this photo.  She is our second daughter.  She was raised in church and had already heard many Bible stories by this age.   She came running to the house one day looking very worried.  I opened the door and she ran in saying, "Run, the devil is coming!"    It was a helicopter.   (One never knows where hell will appear!)

 Sharla is our first daughter.   She has always been one to beautify the home.   She was about 16yrs old in this photo.  I did a fussy cut on the flowers and added them to the roof of this house.    The quote on this page is:  "Home is where the heart is."  Pliny the Elder

I love the numbers on these recycled ties.   This "door" did not have any, but the "chimney" had some nice ones.   This is also a painted page.

 Another painted page here.   I added a corrigated trim around this window.  Most of the smaller photos will have a frame around them made from scraps.  This photo is Rachel pulling her little sister, Jerusha (known as Ru), and her cousin, Dorrie, in the wagon.  I painted the recycled ties green to coordinate with the window trim.  I used a Mary Englebreit quote for this page:  "Wherever you go, there you are!"   (The paper I used for the house was a scrap from Cosmo Cricket.....one of my favorites.)

 This is another painted page.  The house is all roses.   The photo is of Ru's 4th birthday.  Ru is our third daughter.   Rachel is reading her cards to her.  The quote says:  "I don't want to grow up.   I just want to be taller."   I'm not sure where I saw that, but it fit.  ")

I glued various pieces of scrap card stock to this page.  This is Rachel (about 9yrs old) with a stuffed house she received (birthday/Christmas?) that she lived with for several years!  LOL   She is definitely the animal lover in our family.  The quote on this page says:  "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."  George Orwell

 I also painted this page.......evidently one of my favorite backgrounds.  :)  This is Ru with her Sheltie, Boomer, relaxing in the recliner.  He really wasn't bad to be up on the furniture, but she had always held him when he was a puppy and he didn't realize he had grown so much!  LOL  The quote:  "If you want the best seat in the house, you'll have to move the dog."

 Ru in her cap and gown......Graduating Class of 1994.  She is the baby in the family and was the last of the three girls to graduate from our Bruner Home School.  We helped organize the first home school group in the Tulsa area.   We were fortunate to have the professor of law at one of the prominent universities here to help us with the by laws and the schooling laws of Oklahoma.  It has really grown by leaps and bounds since 1977!
      Thus ended 17 yrs of home schooling!   Mama got to retire!!!
     This is another page covered with pieces of scrap card stock.

 Another page with pieces of scrap card stock.  I love that I had the lined paper to write on at the top of the page.  Sharla was about 17-18 here, ready to go off to college and a job.  I had always read the Dr. Seuss books to her growing up.  This quote:  "Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."  Dr. Seuss

 This is a view of the pages closed and showing their decorative edges of washi tapes.   I think it is very pretty.

Poor little album was so heavy I couldn't get it to sit up straight.  This is a very simple album.  I have really felt pushed to get these albums done and I've not even scratched the surface, but I do want to be more creative with the next ones.  Hopefully I won't let myself feel pushed by the very fast passing of time.

Published in Take Ten Summer 2016 - Coming June 1

 I received the Summer 2016 issue of Take Ten today.   One of the cards that I had made for a previous challenge was picked to appear in the pages of this magazine.  I love this cover!   Isn't that a darling card they chose for the centerpiece?  I am always inspired by the many artists that get published in each issue.  It is amazing to me that there are so many artists with so many ideas and I have never any two remotely alike.  I love the challenge of trying to put together a card in 10 minutes.  I never throw anything away that I stamped or started for another project.   It may just be the thing needed to quickly put together a Take Ten card!

This was a very quick card to put together.  I used a line of paper from Scenic Route by Sarah Milne.  All of the sheets I have are double-sided.  Several have sentiments printed on them and I used one of those here.  I cut a panel from the printed card stock and layered it onto a card.  I adhered a ribbon across the lower half of the card.   Then I punched three circles from a coordinating card stock.  I used glue dots to attach a gold butterfly to each green circle.  I stamped the word "SOAR" onto the striped circle and attached them as shown on the upper half of the card.
        I am always thrilled to received a magazine from Stampington & Co!  I feel very privileged to be published in any of the magazines.  Thank you, Devon Warren and staff for putting this magazine together for us.

Another sign of Spring......

The Golden Finch is back.....but not in the numbers we have had here in the past.  There were times that the flocks would completely cover our front yard.   This year's flocks barely lined a portion of the driveway.   The thirsty little guys lined the watering pan I have sitting on a slab near our outside water faucet.

These little guys are really light up the yard when they land.  They were busy eating the bud covers that had fallen from our elm tree.  It really saddens me to see such small numbers.  I wonder what's happening to the Golden Finch population?   A topic I will be investigating.

This photo shows birds on both sides of the drive.  It is such a small showing compared to previous years.

This single little Finch was sitting above the watering pan waiting for a place to perch.   It was like watching musical chairs as one batch of birds would fly off from the pan and another four would immediately take their place at the watering hole.

Iris Springs Continues

As my bed of purple irises began to die out, my white irises, old-fashioned bronzes, and yellows began to bloom and really put on a colorful show.

In the background behind the white irises, my day lilies were shooting up buds on long stems.  These are dark yellow trumpets.......small but beautiful.

The white irises have a small showing of yellow beards sticking out from the centers and down onto the falls.

These old-fashioned bronzes were planted here by my mother-in-law over twenty years ago.   Some years they make no showing at all, but with all the rain they really came out for a great display.

This is another iris I inherited from a friend.  They really brighten up the corner of the yard where they are planted.   They always seem to be the last to bloom.  They usually take me by surprise!   I nearly forget them and then, voile! there they are!  It's almost as if a light has been turned on in that corner of the yard.  I have truly enjoyed this Iris Spring! 

Iris Spring

My irises went crazy this Spring!   Very little care goes into this marvelous bed of irises.  I inherited these lovely flowers from a friend who had become allergic to grass and leaves (almost anything outdoors) due to some medication she was on.   She had about 300 irises.  I didn't bring that many to my yard, but at least 100.  Over the years they have died out, or the hybrid ones have reverted back to white.   But the irises in this bed continue to  hold their colors.   It is such a great array of purples and violets.

The close-up here shows the various placements of the color in centers and the "falls" (the petals hanging down).   Two of my favorites:  1) lavendar centers with purple falls; 2) purple/white centers with white falls outlined in purple.

The irises above that have not unfurled are white with lavender outlines in the centers and on the falls.  Below is a close-up of one that has purple outlines and has unfurled.

Below is a photo of one of the lavendar ones as it begins to unfurl.