The challenge over at Digital Whisper this week was "Guitar." I'm rather late, as I tend to muse on images and keep changing or adding to them over several days!
Image Credits: Marta van Eck, itKuPiLLi Imaginarium, Rucola Designs, Eena's Creations and Krysty Scrap Designs - all from www.mischiefcircus.com.
The challenge over at Digital Whisper this week was "Lavender" - a lovely invitation. And taking a look in the "Last Chance" section of mischiefcircus.com, what should I find but the "French Kiss" kit by Krysty Scrap Designs with some lovely lavender images (among others). This collage is mainly using images from "French Kiss" and also "Bottle of Ink" also by Krysty Scrap Designs and also in the "Last Chance" section (with a little help from the Graphics Fairy!).
This week's challenge over at Digital Whisper is "Frost" - appropriate for this time of year, though it's been beautiful here in Minnesota.
It's been a while since I've done any digital challenges, but with Christmas coming and some new Wintery and Christmassy kits, I'm getting into the holiday mood and itching to play!
Image Credits: Winter Tales United collection by itKuPiLLi Imaginarium (www.mischiefcircus.com)
The challenge over at Take a Word this week is "keys." Both of the old photos used are among the freebies offered at darleneoliviamcelroy.blogspot.com. One of the things that I love among so many of the creatives online is their amazing generosity - images, or papers, or collages, or tutorials. It's just an inspiration to visit their blogs.
Image Credits: Rucola Designs, Tumble Fish Studios, and Holliewood Studios (from mischiefcircus.com); Digital Whisper, darleneoliveamcelroy.blogspot.com, and alteredbits.com.
This week's theme over at Digital Whisper is "Marie Antoinette."
Marie used to take her ladies-in-waiting to a farm at Versailles and play at being milkmaids. I imagine that if gypsies came by she'd have just as much fun.
Image credits: Eena's Creations, Holliewood Studios, itKuPiLLi Imaginarium, Marta van Eck, Finecraft Designs, Tumble Fish Studios (all from mischiefcircus.com), and the Graphics Fairy.
The challenge over at Take a Word this week is "Sea Life" - one that holds lots of possibilities. The images of the Sea Horse and Sea Dragon from itKuPiLLi Imaginarium inspired this bohemian fantasy.
Image Credits: itKuPiLLi Imaginarium, Marta van Eck, Tumble Fish Studio, Jagged Touch Studio and Brimm (all from mischiefcircus.com)
The challenge this week over on Take a Word is "window." When I saw this paper from Rucola Designs with the fairy-tale mushrooms, I knew it was the beginnings of a window into a fairy-tale world.
Keep your eyes open. You never know where you will find wonder.
Image credits: Rucola Designs, Eena's Creations, Holliewood Studios (all from mischiefcircus.com), and the Graphics Fairy.
I've so enjoyed Bebe Butler's wonderful offering - The Painted Guru: Discover how art can heal the heart, inspire the soul, and soothe the mind. The conversations with a variety of artists about their journey, what creating art has meant to them, and the places where art brought healing or new possibilities into their own lives are so inspiring. So much of what they are talking about is what brought me to art journaling in the first place - a place to play, to explore, to create freely. But also a place to dig deeper, and find meaning, and work through things. A chance to express myself in a new way, in a more natural way for me. Through images when there are no words, or the interplay of words and images.
Flora Bowley was one of the first artists profiled, and I just love her work. I'd never heard of "intuitive painting" - which may be more a reflection of how out of touch I am! It's something that I love about art journaling, and I've loved learning and exploring and seeing what others are doing in that form. But to see it taken to this level artistically amazes me, and I could watch it all day. Even more, it makes me want to get out the paints and play!
Untold Stories
There's something about choosing some colors and just starting - maybe with a vague direction, maybe without even that - and just seeing where it leads that is so much fun. And so often it leads me places where I would never have thought to go.
The Painted Guru is a series of conversations, about 25-30 minutes each, with the artist, one each day. The artist's page also includes an introduction, a link to their website, and a free gift. There's a wide range of gifts - right now I'm painting with the amazing Art from the Heart retreat gifted by the amazing Amber Kuileimailani Bonnici. Here, too, I have come across classes like this for art journaling - but this is on a canvas, which makes it more special. And in a way, more scary as the stakes seem higher. But she is a gentle and friendly guide as she encourages me to dig deeper and take risks.
What it comes down to is - there is so much more out there! It's easy sometimes to stay in our own little rut of what we know. I love visions of the wider world of possibilities, and that's one of the things The Painted Guru provides. Another is the opportunity to hear from people doing wonderful creative things - whether they started out in art school or just started doing art because it's something they needed in their lives.
If you're feeling stuck, don't stay there! Open your eyes to inspiration - it's all around you.
This week's challenge over at Digital Whisper is "barefoot" - great summertime theme! There's something about summer that calls for exploring the world barefoot. The photo is of my niece walking the rocks along the shores of Lake Superior at Gooseberry Falls State Park - one of my favorite summertime things to do when I was her age. (OK, still is!)
Image Credits: Images by Pink Lotty, Nancy Baumiller- Crowabout Studio, and Jagged Touch Studio, all from mischiefcircus.com.
The challenge over at Digital Whisper this week is "Watercolor."
The watercolor is a little watercolor sketch I did at an art group when another artist, Cheryl Barr, offered the opportunity to try some of her watercolor paper. I've thought of going back and working some more on it, but I love the freshness of it. The scan actually brought out the colors a lot more, the original is much more delicate.
It reminds me of how much I loved walking along the beach in North Carolina, the freshness of it and the expansiveness of the ocean.
Image Credits: Rucola Designs, Finecrafted Designs, and Tumble Fish Studios (all from mischiefcircus.com); background from Lost and Taken and the Graphics Fairy.
Spent an evening playing with itKuPiLLi Imaginarium's Variete United Collection, which I hadn't had a chance to really play around with before. And, yes, it was while I was downloading some more digital images purchased from Mischief Circus – it's an addiction I can live with.
I spent a lot of time playing around with layer blending styles, with some really interesting results.
Eternal Beauty
This brought together so many things that I really do think are beautiful - wonderful art and architecture. A lot of classic beauty blended together in a really interesting way.
Beauty is Eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
Khalil Gibran
And now for something completely different:
Image Credits:
Both collages done with images from itKuPiLLi Imaginarium's Variete United from mischiefcircus.com.
Last week's challenge over at Digital Whisper was "Venus" - I haven't done it for a while, at least until recently (see below), and am rather behind the times - but I had some fun with this.
Venus Rising
The week before the challenge was "Sheet Music." I actually had this ready that week, but didn't get it posted.
Paris Love
Image Credits:
Venus Rising - Woman from Images-Shop.com Victorian Art Collection. All other images from Eena's Creations at mischief circus.com
Paris Love - Images from itKuPiLLi Imaginarium, Marta Van Eck, and Tumble Fish Studios, all from mischief circus.com
Image credits: Krysty Scrap Designs, Rucola Designs, itKuPiLLi Imaginarium (all from Mischief Circus); Art Freebies, and the Graphics Fairy. Quotation found on Pinterest.
