A Mountain View and a Bottle of Joy!

After transposing Ellen onto the beach in the quote journal...I was on a roll and did a few more digital art pieces for this shared art journal spread in Ellen's book.  

I took this picture from Ellen's Facebook page and transposed her and her husband Phil to a edge of a meadow overlooking the mountains.  I added a little free motion quilting

In the Pages program there is a tool called "instant alpha" where you can mostly remove the background of a picture....some are easier than others.

This allowed me to place them on top 

of the new scene below and overlay the quote.

This is a screen shot right from the document I worked on.

My printer was running out of ink...but it actually gave the picture an interesting texture...so I went with it.  I am pretty stingy with my ink...it's expensive!

I do like the loopy free motion quilting in the clouds.

For the bottle page I used this picture of Ellen and Phil at the Grand Canyon. I have always liked this image of the blue wine bottle from a magazine advertisement. I cut it out...including the label and scanned it. They I imported the jpg into "page layout" in my pages program. I cropped the picture of Ellen and Phil to place over the label....then I added the "Joy!"

 

Finally I printed it on card stock, cut it out again, and stitched it 

on the watercolored background.  

Voilà!  A Bottle of Joy!

Blackwork...

...or in my case "bluework."  It might be hard to tell but this is actually navy blue.

I had seen some interesting repetitive needlework patterns on Pinterest and I was intrigued.  I had never heard of blackwork...but once I started checking it out I was hooked.

I bought a sampler pattern and have pinned several patterns on my  needlework pinterest board.
Using a combination of the patterns...I put together my own little sampler....and have yet to frame it.

I have always been a cross stitch fan...and always will be...but you are constantly committed to the pattern.  What I like about blackwork is once you have the flow of a particular motif...you can just keep on repeating without having to look at the pattern. This makes it a good project when visiting with friends or watching TV. There will be more blackwork in my life...or versions of it.  

Can you spy the missing stitches below?  Since I haven't framed it yet....I can fix it.  Procrastination pays off now and then.

I did a small sampler in the Pinterst inspired journal....when I had Ellen's book.  

The Rest of the Quote Journals

Here are the last four pages I did in the various quote journals....and the pages Ellen and Lynn created.

I want to make note of the fact that this project lasted well over a year. We were all busy with our lives....so had each other's books for months. It has never been about getting a shared project done quickly....we stay flexible...and just do what works. However long it takes...in the end it's worth it and a joy to see the finished products.  

Thanks Ellen and Lynn!

At some point...we will tackle another shared art project....it's a good thing. 

I used a variety of torn tissue paper and matte medium to make the background.

The description of this quote journal project can be found here, and other posts can be found here and here.  

Cake!

This is a silly little pop up page I added to Lynn's quote book....

and yes, some things just require cake!

I thought it paired nicely with a slice the rainbow cake my sister LaVonn made for her son's birthday. You either have to have a lot of patience....or a lot of pans.  I think my sister has a combination of the two.

"The Sheldon Church Yard"

Paul and I took a trip to Charleston, South Carolina for our 30th wedding anniversary.  We stayed several nights in a lovely place on the beach...it was windy and cold but it was beautiful.

The sunrise from our screen porch.

After a relaxing time in Charleston we were making our way to Savannah to visit some dear friends and Paul caught a glimpse of a tiny sign with an arrow that said “Sheldon Church Yard.”  We immediately backed up and make the turn.

For years Paul had been listening to a song by Larry John Wilson called “The Sheldon Church Yard” and was never really sure it was real place.

It was a real place...and it was the absolute highlight of the whole trip for Paul.  It had been an Episcopal Church that burned during the Civil War and never rebuilt.  It has gown to be an enchanting, spiritual place....and it did not disappoint.  

There was something very special about it...the preserved arches and columns...the large trees dripping with spanish moss....almost eerie.

The song is about a guy in search of a new life who visits the Sheldon Church Yard. He encounters an old woman who gives him advise.

I made this little photo collage for his birthday a few years ago.

 It lives in Paul's room in Maine.

Paul's room doubles as a guest space...but it's a cozy place for him to listen to music and read.

The Quote Journals...Continued

I said this quote by Brian Andreas would reappear...and here it is
again on a page spread I did in the quote journal I started and ended with.

At the time I made the page below I saw this quote on Pinterest....
it was the perfect quote for me at the perfect time.

The little shapes on the right are snippets and scraps from greeting cards.

These little shapes on the left were made with washi tape and watercolor. I made sheets of alternating watercolor strips and washi tape...embellished them a bit with pens...and then cut them up.

Have you heard of Angelina fibers?  The are a very interesting product and I have only played around with them a little bit.  The fibers come in all colors and are kind of like tinsel...or Easter grass...sort of.

You can pull off a little chunk of fibers and iron it between two pieces of parchment paper and the fibers fuse together. If you use a lot of fibers you can actually make a sheet that's fabric like and cut out shapes.  But I like these loose, organic edged swatches. 

I want to play around with it a little more...I think it could be useful for needle felting....or art quilting. 

Below I stitched a little swatch of fibers into this art journal page from a while back. And to my delight...there is a "little joy" in the middle.