No Crows in the Asparagus

 Spring is a wonderful time of the year... in fact one of my very favorite of the entire year...  I love all the pretty colors of the season and the FLOWERS... well if you know anything about me... you know I LOVE FLOWERS of all kinds.. . In fact as I am writing this I am looking out my office window and see about 15 azaleas bushes... but the one closest to the window is going to have be cut back... as it is starting to cover the window... it is all white... and next to it the prettiest fuchsia and then a pale pink and deeper pink... and a lilac and a few more whites... so very pretty...   Spring is also a time of when our gardens all are starting to produce heavy amounts of produce... that we totally enjoy....   Asparagus is one... there is a family story about asparagus too... we lived in NJ bringing up our children for 3o years...  (or so)  and we kept on trying to sell the house and move... we wanted out of NJ so bad...  we lived in the section that was very pretty.. up in the north western section of NJ... but still we just wanted to move out .... but every year when spring came we wished we had asparagus.. but we didn't plant them, because we were going to MOVE...  of course we finally did... and when we bought the farm we said we would plant asparagus here... and we finally DID... and so we are loving them...  we have been totally spoiled by the amount we get each year... they are delicious and so very good... soups, sautees, raw, pestos, dips, you name it... we have had asparagus in it...  we love them anyway at all...  so when this tag of TIM's was spring oriented, I thought I had better do the asparagus theme... vs the bird...  I love birds and will do one with a bird after tomorrow... as I will be getting my new Branch die cut then... YEAH!!!  Along with my Distress Markers... YEAH YEAH YEAH...  I can hardly wait to use them...  

 If you haven't checked out Tim's site recently he is doing a tag on the first of every month... so why not join in on the fun... learn something new and enjoy...  
This month it is all about embossing, stamping, and using layers of inks and die cuts...  and boy did I have fun...  

This tag is also to help us keep CROWS our of the garden this year... last year they attacked out watermelons...  and that was not a good thing at all.. 

So this is the warning... 

Live the life you've imagined... and stay out of our garden...  that is the message to the crows...  otherwise.. there will be a change in your life...  Thanks...    Hopefully they will understand the intent there... we are doing a lot of things to help keep them out... but they don't seem to care... they are hungry too...  but they ruin the whole patch in one day... taking a bite out of every one of the things... not eating until full... just plundering the entire patch of what ever it is they desire...  

Well... grab some toys... and start to play with making a tag... check out Tim's site and join in... see you later... and thanks for stopping by for a visit... hope you have time to check out my new kits for sale... it is a fun way to learn and with the price of gas ... a good way to save too...  Lets not forget to keep the stores in business... and stop in there to buy our supplies... learn in the comfort of your home for the entire year... in your space...

Have a super nice day...
Love, Light and Peace...  Bonnie 

Little Ducky in the spring TIME

Dried Daffodils on the page

 

Hi … so sorry that I haven’t been around this week… I thought I would be able to post something… but it has been a very full schedule around here for over a week now.. and I think I am back… at least for a while… As you might know… we have an organic, BIODYNAMIC farm and we plant by a calendar… and when it tells us it is okay to plant… and things are looking good … WE PLANT!!!   This has been one of those weeks… where we have been planting like there is no tomorrow…

Today was a fruit day… so we planted tomatoes, okra, peppers, cantaloupe, watermelon, amaranth, all kinds of good things…  over 7000 seeds were planted just today and watered and good thoughts sent to each one of these little tiny seeds… hoping that they grow and become full sized plants and give us lots to eat. 

6x6 Impression Obsession stamp 

Other than that, I have been very busy playing with new toys… experimenting with new inks and things from Ranger, Impression Obsession… and other great companies…  I love it all… and love all the new things…

Green paper has leaf stencil and butterfly stencil ... Ducks are IO

 

I also have been working very diligently on my Art Journal… and have found a renewed LOVE with it…  I have kept art journals for  over 50 years… but from time to time have not done them, lost them… put the aside… all kinds of reasons… but this one is going to be MINE to keep.. I love the growth I can see in it… and I love some of the techniques that I have done in here too…

The last post you saw the cover… and now here is one of the pages that I just did today… 

A good friend, APRIL, sent me some Duckies from Impression Obsession… that I had asked for… Thanks again APRIL…  I love these little darlings… so cute…  Anyway.. April sent me 16 of them… so I thought I had better use a few… to get started on using them… LOL… I think that they are so cute… 

So I colored them with my Tombow markers… and then cut them out… and then I started to have fun picking out papers that I have now a huge stash of…  they are papers that I have created using my 6x6 stamps from Impression

Stencils, Stamps, and daffodil

 

Obsession, stencils from all kinds of places…  stamps, embossing folders, glazes, embossing powders, misters with glimmers of all kinds.. and you name it… I have a huge pile of papers that I have created and had fun making… do you know what I mean??? 

So it also done a few 6x6 backgrounds… and wanted to really use those… and I had a pretty bouquet of daffodils that needed to be used or thrown away… and I couldn’t throw these pretties away.. so I used them…

Faerie dancing on this little duckies back 

Here is where the FREEDOM comes into play... I have a faerie dancing on this ducks back... A friend sent me a card today and so I cut the faerie out and put it on the back... thanks Cheryl for being part of my ART JOURNAL.. . I love her.   I am free to do that... and to create as I want to...  so much fun...  As you can see the back grounds on these pages are pretty FREE too... lots of action, and different things going on here... I love it... 

Embossing, collage and stenciling... love it all.. 

 

I added a flip panel to extend the little girls… or friends… as friends are so very important in our lives… but the main reason is that my theme for today in this art journal is FREEDOM…. Freedom to create as we need and want to… freedom to do as we want to as an artist… freedom to use everything and anything that we want to…  so that is why the little group girls ended up on this page…. FREEDOM to use what we want to… LOVE IT

Words are so very powerful and when spoken or written they really make a statement if we listen to them….  So FREEDOM has been my word today… 

Hope that you have had a FREE day…  a day where you have been able to create and do as you wish… to create what you wanted to, how you wanted to, and of course where you do your art thing.  

Thanks for taking some of that time to stop by for a visit… and say hello…  I have challenges starting on Sunday… but should be back with some more Art Journal pages too… hopefully the internet will allow me to upload some pictures…  we have been having some rain storms and I was unable to get these pictures up on Friday when I started to write this… but hopefully I can sneak them up now…   Have a great day…

Love, Light and Peace…Bonnie 

Doing a little journaling and making a statement

A Cover for my ART JOURNAL!!! Finally

I have to be really honest and tell you that when I was going all of the TIM tags I skipped over this one… as I didn’t really like the background with alcohol… but now that I am really into the alcohol… inks that is… (LOL )  I thought it would be fun… so I tried it… and I have to say that I loved it…  I love the effect that it gives…  I also have to tell you that I now have quite a stash of plaid papers… which I generally don’t use in my work… but I do love this… 

Really LOVE IT… 

Okay.. so I started off making my plaid paper… PLAID… with all capital letters… it was really easy and I loved some of the color mixtures I was able to get… you will see more as time passes on… 

This I have to say was my favorite… as I love the citrus and the pool and with the black… wow… popped plus..  LOVE IT… I am singing happy... in fact doing the happy dance…. 

Okay.. so I now have this nice stash of plaid papers and have to find a place to put them… if I put them AWAY… I will never use them… so I have to find a good place for them… not like my fun foam that I can not find at all in this whole studio…  what a mystery… a huge stack of it too… oh well.. life does go on without fun foam… 

Then I decided that I needed a background for this plaid… I still didn’t know what I was going to put this on… finally I realized that my Art Journal didn’t have a cover and it really needed one… so I tore a piece of paper to fit that… and then went to town on that with mini mister and perfect pearls… (Sunday Stamper  challenge… use amister… of some kind…  I did… I usedquite a few on this piece…)  and used my craft work sheet and sprayed and rubbed the paper into the inks and glimmers… Oh it was so pretty…  I then used some of my new stencils and choose the harlequin one with a thick mixture of color wash and perfect pearls… nice and thick… and made the harlequins jump… and then used my NEW liquid pearls… which I love the new bright colors of these… have you seen them… yikes they are wonderfully bright and ALIVE!!!  

I also made a very thick ink using my color wash and some perfect pearls for the edges of the background paper… and used my blending tool to go around the edges with the color… it is really very very dark and rich in real life..  I love the color… 

I outlined some of the diamonds… and then put dots of black diamond and peacock in the center of some too…

I had to put it all aside to allow it to dry… bummer… I love working right on thru… oh well… I can work on the tag section a little now… I used my archival black and stamped the bird cage from one of Tim’s stamps… and then used the crackle from a Christmas stamp set of his… love this crackle … I put that aside to dry and created my bird’s nest with another stamp… and then added the little girl waiting in the nest with the bird… (from my new stamp set from Dylusions…  A new line by Dyan… love these birds.. they are my favorite birds…  I love the crows…. Year round… not just a fall bird you know…  they were screaming in my front yard this morning… asking Mr. Sun to come out and play… but he didn’t… I keep on getting off the subject… but I am back I think… okay… I touched the Liquid Pearls and they are dry… so I glued the back ground onto my journal… and then the tag section… now for the embellishments…  the fun part to me… (actually it is all fun…  )  

I got some hemp twine and wrapped that around the book and tied in a knot…  then added a hanger with the ARTFUL   Philosophy Tag on it…  put a bird on the line… and added the nest over it all…  a bird and flower at the top… and a little corner on it and I was done… I have to say that I LOVE THIS… it is so perfect for my Art Journal… as it is ME… 

Okay… this is also for a few other Challenges that I haven’t mentioned…  Simon Says Stamp and Showchallenge this week is ANY THING GOES… 

And on Grungy Monday… Linda thanks again for pushing me to do this technique… I love it…  and will put it into my technique book… a really nice one at that… We had to use a technique that Tim used in 2009 on the 3rd tag of the season... 

So there you have my three challenges for the week that I do… all in one project… I have a lot of things that require me away from my blog as much as I like to be… but I will be posting some things that I have made during the past couple of weeks… so please come on back for another visit… thanks so much for stopping in today… and hope that you have a wonderful day in all ways…

Love, Light and Peace….Bonnie 

Faerie Time

This project has been on my to do list for a long long time... and I was bound and determined to get this one done this season... Faeries are an all time favorite of mine year round... but I always think of them in the spring time...  coming out to help with the plantings and getting things ready for the up and coming spring planting of the farm..   we do plant Biodynamically and also Organically...  so it is a full expansion of all kinds of knowledge... including the faeries...  

So this is my Faerie Box and Book... and it covers a few Challenges too... 

This week on Sunday Stamper, Hels asked that we use Diamonds... so I used a lot of them in my Faerie book... and also on the box lid...  

For Simon Says Stamp and Show... use bottles... so I have used some Idea-ology vials...  and used them for some special kinds of Faerie dusts...  one for Flying... one for Dreams... and one for sprinkle... (you know... just to sprinkle kind of Faerie dust...  )  

Anyway... so here is the rest of  the project... I have only put up a few pictures... as each one takes over 14 minutes today.. sorry... the internet is very slow on dial up.... 

On the top of the box, I used a small old frame and put a picture from a Graphic 45 tag... the one with the faerie and the frog... an all time favorite...  

And of course one of things that we are going to add more of this year to the farm... grow houses...  I put lace all around the frame... just to give it a nice touch for the faeries...  

 

We had a lot of trouble last year with these large crows that came in and took over the watermelon patches... and so this year we are asking the faeries to help.. and to take the crows out to eat somewhere else...   so you can see the crows all around the box... these stamps are a new toy for me... I bought Dyan Reaveley stamps... and love them... try them... they are thru RANGER... where else... love these crows... some with words... some plain... but all FUN CROWS.. as I do love crows... even though they ate all our watermelon... 
 

When you open the box you will see the birds on the inside too... blue birds and also a little faerie riding a crow too...  And the book is in the box... along with the bottles...  

You will see a close up of both... so just hold on... LOL..  

Here are the bottles... nestled in with a flower... faeries love flowers of all kinds... that is for sure... 

On the side another large crow with a faerie riding on it's back...  and a purple "DIAMOND" butterfly... 

This is inside the box...  

The cover of the book... and yes a faerie is large in the back... this book was a childs board book... and it was a book about angels... so the large girl has wings... (she was an angel)  is that cool or what...   anyway... the dragonfly is done with Shrink plastic from Ranger... love that stuff too... I just got a melt pot and am going to start to play with that... I am a little scared to use it... I get burns really easy and am going to have to drape my body with a heavy cloth... LOL... I don't need that again... that is for sure... also have to wait for a nice day... as I want the doors open to the studio to vent out the plastics too... right???  If you have any tips, for me... please do leave them for me in the comments... I really appreciate it...

Any way... Here is one of the pages... they all have DIAMONDS on them, Hels... each page is loaded... as you can see...  Faeries love pretty things... and natural things too...  Diamonds are natural... right???  They come out of the ground... (sure do wish they grew in our soils... LOL... )  

So there you have the Faerie box and book... I will try and get more pages and the whole thing up on my Art Between the pages Blog...  getting the pictures up is the time consuming part of it... 

Thanks for taking a look see... hope to see you back tomorrow... 
Love, Light and Peace.... Bonnie