C is for Coffee, Cookies and CRAFTING!

Ohh...had a blast last night with my BFF AIMEE at the Creative Inkling class! (AIMEE--SERIOUSLY - why do we not take fabulous pictures of ourselves when we are together?!? sheesh. ) The crop was at the House of Coffee coffee Shop in Peddler's Village - the project was a minibook made of cardboard coffee cup sleeves....how clever is that? And the embossing powder was COFFEE SCENTED! oh for cute!

And oh my stinkin' HECK the new Bind-it-All is PINK and I finally have one after coveting it for oh-forEVER! (NIKI AND EMILY - GET YOURSELVES OUT HERE TO CRAFT WITH ME! It is fabulous!)

{Loved the color of that chalkboard in the coffee shop...forgot to ask Dave the Barista if he knew what brand that paint is....would love to do a wall in the kitchen....hmmmm....}

Artfest Envy

Ever since discovering Teesha Moore's art journals back in 2006, I have wanted to go to ARTFEST. I have discovered so many creative artists through links from Teesha Moore's site and from reading about the teachers each year. And then came ARTFIBERFEST, which I also came to dream about....and now? In the works is JOURNALFEST. Oh how I want to go! (This is the part where I usually start talking about auctioning off a few body parts to finance the trip!)

ARTFEST was April 1-5 this year. And now some of the attendees and teachers are blogging about it....which I so appreciate and can't wait for each year. How much do I want to take THIS CLASS? How is it that I don't know any CARTOONISTS? I really want to hang with this Theo Ellsworth guy. How much would I love this class?!?! Check out Pam Garrison's class example. Seems the instructions were to "doodle blindly" with markers on a page. Then, find images in the doodles and outline and color them in. So I see Pam Garrison's and I immediately try my version (again--I don't know the full instructions, I just started with swirly shapes. Some drawn in deliberate fits and starts, others without looking.) And then I outlined some forms and used my colored pencils to fill in.

SERIOUSLY! How fun is THAT? A flamingo and a peacock and various swirly feathered friends. I cannot draw. I doodle and I color - but I can't draw. Apparently, my DOODLES can!

I can't stop...I am filling in all the blank pages of my art journals with these scribbles!

SNOW DAY=ART DAY.

Or so I WISH! Seriously...I wish I were snowed in for a WEEK so I could play with my inks and paints and papers! (Sadly, today is only a two-hour delay...but I am not BUDGING until our roads are cleared.)

After drooling over her work in Somerset's Artful Blogging, I couldn't resist, and I treated myself to the DINA WAKLY ART JOURNALING 102 class.

And every spare minute has been about this:

Loading up my art journal pages with layers of textured gesso, acrylic paint and spray-on ink.

...And altering photos: (this is simply a B&W print, scratched with sandpaper. I need to get some photocopies (not inkjets!) to try some gel transfers and painted portraits. Oh me. oh my.