Lyrics travelling journal

Liz made a beautiful journal to travel the world,

 collecting lyrics and art from countries near and far.

This is the page I made for Liz

 it is based on the song 'Great Spirit' by Medicine for the People.

I played with bright silk dyes and inks and textures and tried to make a beautiful page and also to capture a little of the beautiful energy of the song. Adding in an Owl Spirit as I have such a connection with owls.

Liz signed up to an art journal round robin with 16 other artists all dedicated to a smooth and regular exchange but sadly that is not how it worked out. From the start we had troubles with the lady who started the swap pulling out, the others rallied around and we got ourselves organised to continue and then we had quite a few journals go missing over the course of our swap so four lovely ladies including Liz will not be getting their beautiful handmade with so much love and energy art journals back. We have all done lose pages for them though and even replaced pages already done in the lost journals. 

It is a sad thing to lose your journal and I really do hope that where ever they are someone sends them home one day. I have also lost on of my journals in another swap the International Art Journal Swap  begun in 2010 and there are many lovely women still waiting on their journals from that swap besides me as well. 

Facebook Page and Art Dolls

Lots of exciting things have been happening at River Girl Art

A gathering of Goddess Art Dolls 

have helped me celebrate the launch 

of my new Facebook Page

Please pop over and have a look.

I have started the River Girl Art page to try and reach a wider audience and have been busy posting lots of pictures over there of my work.

Someone said it was like a private art gallery.

I am hoping to increase the sales of my art so I am busy making lots of stock to do handmade markets and I am also selling my art online. This ia all a huge learning curve and a dream I have long held.

These Goddess Art Dolls are made from pure wool felt, vibrant cotton embroidery thread, silk dyes and various charms, glass and semi precious beads. They are all unique and have their own names and associations and come with a beautiful card to share their 'story' 

They are $45 Please look at the Goddess Art Doll album  to see which ones are still available and PM me over there if you would like to have one of your own.   

To celebrate 100 likes in the first week 

I did a little art doll give away

My boys and I printed all the names, cut them apart

 and put them into a hat

and my lovely assistants Mr13 holding the hat

and Mr9 picking the winner

selected the winner and Lavender the Goddess Art Doll

Congratulations Michelle.

It was so much fun we might have to do another give away at the next milestone. 

Today we walked to the post office and sent 

Lavender and Aqua to their new homes.

Bright New Art Journals

I have been really enjoying book making lately

and have made some lovely art journals to sell.

I learned a new skill~

copic binding

and love they way look bound this way.

I used a variety of different papers,

repurposed ones - vintage book pages, vintage atlas pages,

 sheet music and an old children's illustrated dictionary,

and lots of new paper as well

printmaking paper , water colour paper, 

black and white sketch paper and

 different coloured printer paper.

Some have found there way to new homes already

where I hope they will encourage their new owners to 

make art and play in the pages.

~~Recycled breakfast cereal box~~ Art Journal

I have 2 beautiful sons 

and one of them is a teenager 

and a cereal-a-holic

With their help I have a constant supply 

of cardboard boxes awaiting a new life.

I made this quirky art journal 

and I kept all the flaps in tact to attach extra bits 

and just to add an interactive aspect,

I gessoed and painted both sides

 of the boxes

 before I cut them to size and assembled them.

And then I started to play

I have had a bit of a bird theme in my work lately

and an on going tree theme.

I took this journal travelling

and kept  adding bits and pieces while away.

Goddess Journals

I have been making little journals

repurposing old book pages,

pamphlets, maps and

and all sorts of beautiful things to inspire others.

 They are all slightly different with a variety of techniques used

in beautiful colours.

I have  used inks, dyes, stamps,

stencils, gesso , inktense watercolor pencils and acrylic paints.

and my imagination

 leaving plenty of open space for journaling

including some of my original art

(these are from a day playing with a printing press)

 

because these little Goddess journals 

were made with love and intention

for some of my friends.

BoD update 1

I have been really enjoying the process of working in my BoD

Book of Days with Effy Wild

Unfortunately I dont have a good internet plan living here by my river so I dont get to watch most of the video's, however I do get to follow along with the group on facebook and I just sort of go with the process now.

These are pages I have played on ready to journal with,

and I often start a diary in the new year but I do tend to let it slip pretty easily

I am finding combining my art journal with my diary = Bod is working really well for me.

Painted Pages

 I have been working through some personal issues and when I need to think I like to play, so I got out a stack of colorful supplies and some old book pages I had removed to make atlered books and I spent a lovely few hours.

 I played with acrylic paints and inks, silk dyes distress inks and alcohol inks.

I didn't have to think about anything, I just kept going until I was finished.

 Using stencils, stamps, punchinella and bubble wrap and some free journaling.

After all of that I was ready to commit to moving far away from my beloved river, and moving my family into a whole new advemture.

I have also been keeping up my BoD

it has been great therapy and a great tool keeping me on track

 

documenting my comings and goings and downloading out of my busy busy head.

 

I wanted to keep this little Facebook post as well so it found its way into my BoD.

Sacred Moments

I have been working in Vera's

 "Sacred Moments"

Traveling Art Journal

This theme was a bit challenging for me

because I tend to find the sacred in every moment,

 as we have just passed summer solstice

here in Australia,

I chose that sacred moment,

of breaking dawn

on the longest day.

The writing on the left of this page

 is a quote from

"Life as a Verb"

by Patti Digh.

and reads

"We inhabit ourselves without  valuing ourselves

unable to see that here, and now, 

this very moment is sacred, 

once its gone- its value is incontestable"

by Joyce Carol Oates.

Vera has made a unique journal,

she has a crotchet spine

and the pages are all sorts of thing,

paper bags, recycled envelopes,

 tarot cards, and even cardboard packaging. 

It is a fun and funky journal.

Happy New Year

 It is the start of a new year

 and there are so many juicy offerings 

of wonderful free classes online.

I have taken up quite a few of these offers

 and I hope I have not over committed.

I am doing the 365 Project and so are my boys.

It is photographic documentary of your year and my boys have both got cameras now so I am hoping we will all improve our photography skills and the boys will enjoy being part of an online community. I'm not super confident we will all post every day but we will do it as much as we can.

I am also taking  the Strathmore Online Workshops

There are 3 workshops on offer

 and the first one is with the fabulous 

Traci Bautista Doodles Unleashed

It is a 4 week course and I am so excited about this one,

There are 2 other work shops as well

Water color sketching with Cathy Johnson in March

and 

Force Drawing with Michael Mattesi in May

 These images on this page 

are from another course I am doing

at wild precious life with Effy Wild

2012 Book of Days

It is a year long art journaling course,

and I am already inspired.

So far we have altered  our books and 

are searching for our one word for 2012

I have narrowed my choices down to 

AWARE  / AWARENESS

or

CLARITY

I have also decided to play along with Jan Fox

and her 52 Playdates

with weekly prompts for arting.

I don't plan on doing all of these 

but sometimes

 its nice

 to have inspiration delivered right into your inbox!

I am also slowly working my way 

through all the fabulous lessons

in 30 days with Gulfsprite

I love these lessons

 and I love Christy's teaching style and artistic style,

she is so inspirational.

I have recently joined a wonderful ning platform

Flutterbye

with the fabulous and so very generous 

AMy McDonald

So many free groups and lessons,

videos and tutorials .

I am also participating in 2 round robin art journal swaps,

 although I only have 2 more art journals 

to work in for the International  Art Journal Swap.

Oh and Artist Trading Cards's

I will have to be joining in on various ATC swaps 

as I am loving my growing collection of these,

If anyone wants to do a swap with me for ATCs

 please leave me a comment and we can do a trade.

So that should keep me

 artistically motivated throughout the year.

I am going to need my word  

and my book of days to keep me focused.

Bright Blessings for the new year to you.