All Hallow's Eve

Or Samhain in my native land. It's a celebration of the change of things. The end of the living year, and the start of the resting year. This old tradition has spawned many events held sacred by many cultures. To me, it's a time to reflect on the year past, and to have a brief glimpse toward the future.

This period causes a time of introspection for me. I find that I slow down now and look at the everyday bits of life. I see ephemera, the flotsam of daily living, in a new light. I realize that we sell the seconds, minutes and hours of our lives to the temporary, greedy, needy monster of progress. I stop to think what value I am getting in exchange for the breaths I take, the people I lift up, those that pull me down. It's stunning.

It's not negative, in essence - it's just the give and take of nature. I want to look for the enlightenment in little things through the day. I sift through the receipts, consider the packaging of services rendered, cheer in the small victories with friends.

How do I make those important details stick? I use a very particular net. A sieve actually - observe, collect, record. That is what I want you to focus on this week. As you plow through your day, what detritus is created? What is worth spending your time on and what should you let pass you by? This is your challenge this week. Document the detritus that lies in your wake at the end of the day.

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Just how do you spend your 86,400 seconds of each day? What progress can you report that is lasting in exchange of a day in your life? Pin it down. Write about it. Commit to what you learn and like or want to change. Come, walk with me. We will grow in the season of hibernation.

Create an art journal page about this challenge. Come back here and link it up. You have all week to consider a day in your life. What will you exchange it for?

~ky

Last week's winner is Leah! Congratulations Leah - I will get your prize in the mail to you soon. Keep playing!!

Doodlebugs

I remember as a child being confused about one object having 2 or more distinct names. Like doodlebugs and ant-lions, or Siamese fighting fish and beta etc. Now we have a new 2-name thing in the art world (yes, I know there are tons of doubles out there, but just roll with me!).

ZENTANGLES/ZENDOODLES

This week's challenge is two-fold to celebrate the multiplicity of word meanings. First, create an art journal page based on a dream you've had. In this example, the Moon is watching over my sleeping fairie. When I was little, and life wasn't what a child's life should be, I always knew the moon would be there. How did I know? I had a moon shadow of course! I still dream of cool nights and a comforting moon.

Secondly, use Zendoodles in your piece. Here, the moon is made from zendoodle components. Don't know how to zendoodle? Need some fresh patterns to excite you? Check out this site - Flickr Freehand Doodle patterns. There are lots of other sites, too. Like Zentangles.com , Zentangles on flickr, even Italian artists have a site!

Did I mention the prize? Yes Prize!! Up for grabs this week is a Univenture 1/2 inch binder! Trust me. You really should play along!

Last week's winner was Kimber! Kimber's page must have impressed Random.org as much as it impressed me! I love her funky skeletons! Send me your address, Kimber!

Note to past winners - I apologize for the delay in getting prizes out. We did a major reorganization of the studio, so I finally have access to my prize goodies. They will all go out this week: Sheri, Darcy, Julie and Ketsia! Thank you for your patience. I will add a little extra something in the packages!

Now - get off the computer and go create!!

~ky

Spoooky!

Yes, that has immediate mental images. We all have different definitions of what spooky is to each of us. I love spooky. I love autumn. I love the changes - temperatures, leaf colors, starting favorite sports seasons, even the shift in our home menus.

This week, I would love for you to challenge yourself to capture something about this season. You can make it Hallowe'en - y, autumnal, or anything else unique to this season. Consider a past season and use that memory, use an aggregate concept based on the colors or feelings of the season. Does this season remind you of how much you prefer a different season? That's fair game too!

Last week's winner is Ketsia! She has a beautiful page of what was lost, yet what the future held at the same time. Love it! Get me your address - scrapacat at yahoo dot com, or on Twitter, etc.

Ok - same thing this week peeps! Get busy, you have until Saturday, Oct 23rd at 11:59 p.m. Central to upload your project. Most of all, ENJOY the process!

Ta for now,
~ky

Temporarily Insane

Actually - we had a busy, long, arduous weekend.I will be sleeping most of today (Monday). I promise, I will have a new challenge for you tonight, and our new winner!

I'm still behind in mailing out prizes, and I appreciate your patience. I PROMISE those will go out in Tuesday's mail. I love that all of you are playing along. YOU make this fun for me!

Hugs!
~ky

Squish 'em!

Once again you all have created amazing and bold pieces of art! Loved all the creative ways you explored using chipboard, blue and copper. Blew me away!

Here we are again, with the beginning of a new week. And a new challenge!

It's October. A month ripe with aware of this, celebrate that, and Hallowe'en. So many things!

But there's one that's bigger. One thing that affects us all. It's international cancer awareness month. Most people recognize this as Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Are you old enough to need regular screenings? Have you taken care of it? Or are you like me, putting it off because it's uncomfortable or inconvenient? In "honor" of our reluctance, we will take a challenge. We will explore our feelings about these misgivings in avoiding what we know we should do. Here is my sample for this week:

Now, this is NOT finished. But it has the elements. Use pink or blue - pink for women's breast cancer, blue for men's. Use a shade of the color that has been hard for you to use. I find bright pink is hard for me to match up, so I pulled that shade out. The second element in the challenge - use something that represents what would be lost to cancer if early screenings weren't done to catch it early

For me, the loss would be that important home life that typically follows the woman's lead in the household. So, I used sewing icons - stitching, buttons, and feminine grace. I chose an image that is reminiscent of waiting for the mammogram, and the wonderful sentiment decorating the background (says, "Get 'em Squished").

If you were using blue, you might incorporate icons of fishing, a man's job, sporting ephemera, tools, vehicles.

Think of it as honoring more than one person - acknowledging how that loss would affect a family, a community, a nation as more and more people succumb.

We enjoyed the Chicago Marathon this weekend. There was a lot of pink. There wasn't much blue. I think men's cancer diagnoses are poorly represented, so I will do another page to face this one in blue.

Please tell, in your project description, what your focus was, what your symbols mean, anything you'd like to add. I encourage you to write about it on your page so you can look back on it. I will be writing about how I dread getting my mammogram. And about how I will "fight like a girl" even though I don't love pink.

This week's winner is Darcy!! Darcy - send me your mailing info at scrapacat at yahoo dot com so I can get your prize out to you.

Don't forget to link up your project here, using the inlinkz below!

Ta for now! ~ky

Feeling Chipper?

Congratulations to everyone playing these challenges! I am loving the work I'm seeing. I love hearing that these weekly prompts are enriching your art journaling experiences. That is fantastic!!

Congratulations also to Julie! Julie is our winner this week! Yes, it was a random draw, but she also did a terrific job with the transfer technique and her daily calendar! Julie - get your information to me so I can put your prize in the mail!

Just fantastic work! 

The other day, we were watching Paula create a beautiful art journal page. She used a lovely blue with that yummy copper glaze from Golden. I made the remark that we would be using that color combination this week. Yes! You may use any shade of blue, and any method that gets copper on your page.

The other requirement is the use of chipboard. I'm going to be very flexible with this requirement - you may use chipboard, heavy cardboard (like cereal box weight), book board, or corrugated cardboard. Here's my sample:

This is a close up of the text portion of the page. I've used a base of acrylic paints, and daubed copper glaze over the top. Then I layered mulberry paper, distressed tags and a stitched flap with a Tim Holtz sentiment. 

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This close-up shows the texture on the chipboard. I achieved this texture by pouncing my gesso-filled brush over the cardstock. I let it dry, then used my Artista GlimGlam over the gesso. The key and word are rub-ons. Tip - if you use rub-ons over acrylic paint, seal it with a thin layer of white glue, modge-podge or similar product.

So there you have it. To sum it up, this week's challenge is to use chipboard or similar weight product, along with blue and copper as the predominant colors for your journal page. You may use other colors, but blue and copper should dominate the page.

There you have it. I hope you enjoy playing with chipboard. It's a wonderful dimensional element with your page that doesn't add a lot of bulk. Post your project by 11:59 on October 9th to be considered in the drawing for this week's prize!

Ta for now! ~ky