Anything Goes Theme for Art Journal Journey

 Happy Thursday everyone, it is a cold rainy day today. We did get out of the house this morning for our 6 month blood work, and then we stopped by our friends that visit us often here at the lake.

  I have been concentrating on my fibers-spinning every day for a few weeks now-I am seeing some improvements being made-finally.

 I have been wanting to make a page for Valerie's theme this month and since Spring is arriving this month, I decided to do a Spring page for her Anything Goes theme.

    I grabbed a watercolor sheet from my watercolor spiral book, my own  made botanical inks, and looked in my stamp drawers and chose three.

  I inked the stamps with a black ink pad, once dry I grabbed the box of my botanical inks and my glass dip pen.

   I am pleased with the results The botanical inks I used were matcha, blackberry, blackberry with vinegar, blackberry with baking soda, hibiscus, hibiscus with turmeric and soda ash, avocado, orange mandarin, black walnut. For the stone pavers I used black calligraphy ink from Japan All with the glass dip pen-more precise for me than a paint brush

Note: photos will enlarge just click on them

  Once dry I glued down inside my German cookbook-now art journal book

I love the colors of these botanical inks

Thank you so much for visiting

Art Practice-Botanical Inks

   I wanted to share my latest art practice, and I am quite pleased with this one-used all botanical inks for this piece in my art journal.

  I started out wanting to see the orange peel ink after a couple days that it was made, and then added black walnut ink-which as soon as it hit the page-oops I should have watered it down a bit as it is a rich dark brown right out of the ink bottle. I grabbed a few other inks-added a fine salt for textures while still wet.

Below is after I added the salt to the top of the orange peel ink and also to the top of the black walnut ink.  I sorta see a mountain scene now-so I divided my blackberry ink into 3 small bottles. first one left alone, second one added baking soda, and third one a little vinegar.

   The one with baking soda gave me that pretty blue below the black walnut ink, so I thought if I added a little more baking soda it might give me a deeper blue-Wrong-went grey. I used the now light grey for highlights in the water-and lightly used it for the sky. Decided this needed a red sun-but now I have decided this is the red blood moon-smiles-from the avocado ink. Perfect for Erika's theme Red for AJJ

After looking at this the next day,  I did not like the lighter grey "mist" I had brushed over this piece especially over the orange peel ink.

   Sooo, I added in more of that orange ink-liking it much better, and grabbed the iron gall ink and glass dip pen to add in a few bushes-felt it needed a little something to tie it together.

Close up of the textures created from the fine salt -- once dry I brushed it off-although a little stuck to the ink which ended up ok

In the past I have always loved the "earthiness" from botanical dyeing on cottons or wool. Now I am really enjoying this journey with botanical inks, also used like watercolor paints for their earthy color hues.

Since I have a blood red moon will share on AJJ

  Next up will be my post of my ink making today-pleased with the two I made and I have a green now-smiles.

An Ink Journal Page for AJJ

 I wanted to make another journal page for Erika's theme Red for Art Journal Journey-link in my side bar.

I am really enjoying working with my inks, both my own botanical inks and Winsor Newton's watercolor inks. The journal page is all inks.

My inspiration page on top -I changed the violet flowers to red

I really love the richness of inks

Happy Friday and weekend.

Rain's Art and Dinner Date & Also linking up with Art Journal Journey

 We have endured a very very cold week so far, down in the low teens most nights, today first time in awhile we made it to the low 30's F during the day. A little warm up coming our way for a couple days-with sunshine I am hoping.

  I thought I would link up with Rain's Art and Dinner Date this week-find link in my side column to participate.

  Today I decided to make a gluten free pineapple upside down cake in my Grandma's 10 inch cast iron pan.  Have not made one in quite awhile-turned out really delicious. When I flipped this cake over on to a handmade pottery large plate-it came right out of the pan perfectly.

This was so moist and delicious. For gluten free cakes I use a quality gluten free cake mix-makes it less stressful for me that it will bake up right. This one was a Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Yellow cake mix. Instead of the water I used the pineapple juice, and I also added a teaspoon of pineapple extract to the batter, and used olive oil instead of butter.   For the bottom I used melted butter and a blend of brown sugar and coconut sugar. Then I added a can of drained crushed pineapple. I prefer this pineapple over the large rings-nicer to cut the slices this way, and we do not like those red cherries. smiles

For my art

  I have been working with my own botanical inks and watercolor inks and paints a few days a week-to get more art practice in.

  This painting, I used the red ink for the roof and flag thinking I would also link up with AJJ for the theme red-but I am not sure if this qualifies as a journal page or not? Update: Erika says I can link up my page so will do that-thank you. Find link in my side bar for Art Journal Journey

 The page on top is from a magazine and used for inspiration. I had a line out of place on the log house so turned it into a flag. The red is one of the Winsor Newton watercolor inks. I was trying to write KC Chiefs but I had a hard time writing over the ink for some reason-I did manage to get just KC on the flag.

The log cabin is all done in different inks-iron gall, black walnut, and Winsor Newton inks

The background is all watercolor paints except for the bush-tree branches are black walnut ink

Sorry as I was taking these photos I was losing day light the colors are a bit muted. Another fun little painting for me to practice  and learn using the inks and paints

Happy Thursday!

Snowy Winter for Art Journal Journey

   When I saw the new theme by Jo-Snowy Winter- for Art Journal Journey, I knew I wanted to make a page in my German cookbook mixed media journal.

   Going through my stash of saved papers I didn't have much in winter scenes. I recently had gone through my too stuffed tin of saved items and junked over half of it. It is now more organized and I can find things.

  I did find a pretty calendar page of a snowy scene-perfect for the background, and I designed a collage. Going through items to use this turned a little sentimental with good memories

Photos will enlarge for better viewing-just click on them

  The calligraphy Kathy was written by CJ. The first year we had moved to the lake house I had mentioned that I was going to really miss feeding and watching all the deer.   Around Christmas time CJ had sent me many reindeer strung together with strings and this was on the envelope. I saved it as her calligraphy is so pretty.  I grabbed my reindeer stamp to add to the collage. I have her reindeer in a "safe place" but not sure where that is at the moment-smiles

   We will never stop missing our Nikita (our wolf family member) so I added the wine label, I found this cancelled cardinal stamp, and the little gingerbread sticker was on the back of  CJ's envelope to seal it

In my saved stash I found this tag that one of my slow mail friends sent to me. It reminded me of when I was a child-all dressed up in warm winter outer garments.     Inside CJ's envelope was this note-so thoughtful and now a perfect place for it in my journal

Collage Fodder for Art Journal Journey

   I had an idea for this page to remember the fun weekend we had with friends. I like the way it came together.  I am sharing this collage fodder journal page for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's theme collage fodder, food and drink or both for this month's theme at Art Journal Journey

  Last weekend was opening hunting season for deer. When we were living at our woods home we held deer camp with lots of friends and lots and lots of good foods-so fun.  We had forgotten about that til I went with our friends for wine tasting events, as the first winery had live music and invited all the hunter's wives to come out for the day.

   I found a perfect magazine page with a deer so used that for the background. Grabbed the wine and friends stamps, a label from one of the wineries we liked the best plus the top of a wine tasting sheet, a little cut out with a leaf, also a scrap of dark brown eco printed paper, and then I grabbed the snowflake stamp and silver metallic ink (I forgot that ink takes forever to dry)  We were in the 20's and very low 30's all last weekend and the day they left this area got allot of snow. We just got a few flurries here at the lake

  I am still using the old German cookbook for my mixed media journal pages

T Stands for Tuesday A This and That Catch Up (long)

   Tuesday is T Day over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's. Find link in my sidebar. We gather to share with each other along with a photo of a drink reference.

  It was busy days for me last week. I drove in three mornings to the woods house to continue packing up Larry's scope repair shop. A friend that lives near there meets me to help-we do pay her for her time. Got allot accomplished. The second day I decided since bitter temperatures were coming in I better check on the thermostat in the house. Good thing I did as the wall thermostat went out. So the next morning early I picked up a new one along with batteries and met another friend that changed it up for me. He would not take any money but he did say "I will be visiting you December to pick up my Christmas goody package though"  That had me smiling. 

  I like to bake and cook etc and since I don't really have anyone to gift with goodies anymore I started making cookies and candy etc to gift this friend and a few of his friends for Christmas. They always enjoy the peanut brittle especially.

  When I got home I needed to clean house as our Wisconsin friends were coming down on Friday to visit us and check out wineries.  Marie always bakes Larry a "real" cheesecake (he gets a keto one from me haha)  As always we had a good visit. We've been friends for around 30 years or so now.  I drank more wine over the weekend with them then I do in 6 months or more. 😀 There are two wineries in Stover Missouri that I have shared in the past-wow they have both really grown. They also went to one on their way down to us and they didn't care for that one at all.

  Here is just some of the bottles we drank-I am wanting to save the labels on these. These are my ticket into T

Our favorite winery this trip was Dale Hollow in Stover, Missouri. on their site is this video

   The last time we visited was two years ago and it was very chaotic at the time. Covid was still around, so everyone was masked, they had an outdoors band at that time and people were coming into the small building to buy bottles of wine to enjoy. So the place was very hectic. I had bought a bottle there and really loved it. My friends had bought a case but their experience was that it was too crazy busy. 

   I really wanted to go again this weekend because I just really liked the wine there.  Wow what a difference 2 years has made. They built a beautiful large building to showcase their wines, have tastings, and/or sit and enjoy wine with friends. They had expanded their vineyards too-Very professional winery. They have won ribbons on some of their wines too. My friends said wow what a difference from last year and they loved the wine more this trip.

  The day before they go back home, we almost always make a steak and shrimp dinner for all of us.  We went into a small supermarket-the same company that bought up the small store nearest me to check out the meat options. Neither one of us took the time to take photos but oh my gosh what a delicious meal She spotted two huge tomahawk steaks.  Larry and I have never been big meat eaters, but it is a treat for us when they come down. Marie and I are both good in the kitchen but I said I have noooo clue how to grill these so this is up to you how to prepare the steaks.  She said she just learned about doing a reverse sear on these-you bake them to a certain temperature and then grill them on a hot grill pan to the desired temperature. They were perfect-Larry and I want just before well done and they eat theirs on the rare side.  I can't even describe how good these were. Marie "nailed it" on the steaks.   I picked up a small bag of mini potatoes and I had frozen green beans in the freezer to complete the meal.

  Then we had the cheesecake 

 Here is a photo from online I found-I have never heard of these steaks before I really wish we would have gotten a photo of ours, as they were bigger than this photo. We each bought one for two people.  I saved the trimmings and bones to make beef broth for later.

As the weather people promised we went to bitter cold with low 20's f Friday evening-that will continue for the next couple of weeks.

   Before our friends arrived I had been working on a page for my journal for AJJ's theme of collage fodder with hostess Bleubeard and Elizabeth. I finished it today (Sunday morning) Hoping this is considered a collage fodder page

clicking on photos will enlarge for better viewing.

  I decided to make a two page spread in my German cookbook mixed media journal and titled these pages November

I used a dried wet wipe that I use when I am painting for the background, added a practice sashiko piece I stitched on one of my hand dyed fabric scraps, stamped trees, stamps, birch bark-one of my last pieces, an eco printed piece I did on paper, November words from the farmer's almanac, and a little leaf in handmade paper from Mia 

   I have a friend that told me once, to know when to stop-and not over do. I decided to use from Crayola a brown watercolor crayon and go over the two tree stampings, a little bit over the bison stamp, and Mia's leaf. I then decided to go over the page that was showing (on the top of journal) and forgot that cookbook pages are Not watercolor papers-lol  I think it did work out ok in the end I also added the green ribbon that came from a liqueur bottle 

   

This page shows the cut out script from the Farmer's Almanac, stamped trees, eco print on paper, the birch bark, little leaf in paper, and I had saved a stack of these utility bills when we lived in Illinois-they used cool stamps on postcards This page I had covered it first with a scrapbook type paper then the cloth I used when painting.

This page has a cut out bear foot print and a cut out leaf from magazines, the stamped tree, a stamp, the sashiko on my hand dyed fabric and the paint cloth.

  A few views here at the lake house.

Sunday morning geese

We love winter squash and this area in Missouri the summers are too hot to find good ones-our friends brought us down these from a market Little things are just special aren't they?

Happy T and new week

Happy Thursday--A Catch Up and Watercolor Practice & Fish for AJJ

    Note: my AJJ entry for Fish is below

Yesterday morning very early our Wisconsin friends headed home. It is around an 8 hour drive for them.

    It was a good time for us, Rob visits with his wife a couple times a year, but we hadn't seen Rich since the last deer camp at the woods house. I really miss the fun and abundance of foods during deer camp. For us it was our Thanksgiving sharing friendship and good eats with friends.

   I didn't get any photos as I did everything in the kitchen while the guys fished. One day I made us reuben sandwiches that are always a big hit. I made  a creamy mustard potato salad to go with. Marie sent along one of her homemade cheesecakes for Larry-his favorite. The guys asked what to bring and I said a fresh watermelon and fruit would be wonderful, what ever snacks and drinks for you, and I only make breakfast and one main meal a day.

  Rich went over board-he always does-and brought lots and lots of fresh fruits, strawberries-cherries-plums-nectarines, pineapple-cantalope-large watermelon-Wow haha. I enjoyed the fruit as the two grocery stores nearest us have very poor fresh fruits-even the small wal mart has horrible fresh strawberries etc-so that was a real treat. They also brought cheeses, bags of deli sliced meats, huge box of bakery sweets and fresh baked bread-Larry loves those sweets-I don't keep them around because he can't resist-sigh.  and next week is our 6 month visit with blood tests. that will be interesting

  The next day I battered up crappie and catfish for a fish fry-I did allot of fish-everyone loved it-the new batter recipe I use now every one loves that tries it I had so much left over that I searched online if I could freeze it and one can. So I just need to heat up some in the oven. This is the recipe for the batter.    For the flour I use Bobs red mill 1-1 gluten free flour, for the corn flour I use his gluten free corn flour, and for the beer I use gluten free beer or seltzer water. I used seltzer water this time and the batter was perfect. The seltzer water is a better choice over club soda if you are watching salt intake.

  We have had more rain and storms, but thankfully a really bad storm last night missed us-so thankful as that one came with damages.

  Next week we jump into the 90's  we have really been enjoying the cool mornings this past week-drinking our coffee and watching the birds that come up on the deck.

  While doing laundry this morning decided to play with my watercolors and also the green watercolor ink from Winsor and Newton, and my own black walnut ink. 

 Fish is the theme for Art Journal Journey this month.

  This piece is for sure a practice piece-not totally happy with it, so have not added it to my journal yet. I didn't get the movement in the tree limbs I was going for, those fish are so so haha

  I used the fish stamp for inspiration and also this hand stamped scene for inspiration-which was in a stamping magazine.

 some of these fish look like little sharks instead of carp-lol oh well I did have fun using inks along with the watercolors

Looking at this piece now as a photo-I always seem to see my paintings better in a photo- not sure why that is--but I think I may go in and extend the leave branches on the tree limbs-that may help 

What do ya think?? much better I am thinking Question though-is this too balanced?

  I took Christine's suggestion of darkening the water. That was a good idea. I added some darker blues, but since the tree and grasses were already painted, hard to fix those areas-but a little better for the fish  

Friday morning I decided to add my watercolor piece to my journal. I do love my tree branches and leaves and the plants in the water, which I used green watercolor ink and my own black walnut ink.  I also used the black walnut ink for the fish and highlights in the tree trunk too.   Will share over on AJJ for Mia's theme fish 

Art Journal Journey Birds

 Hi Everyone, I wanted to make one more journal page for AJJ's theme this month of birds.

   I did a watercolor practice of an oriole, that I wasn't totally impressed with, but I was thinking it would blend in nicely with a collage. I also used India black ink.

  In my paper stash I found a calendar page I had saved-perfect-cut that to size for my journal book, added my watercolor oriole, and I wanted a third bird, so looking in my stash found a page that had lots of images that looked like stamps-found the turkey. I liked the colors of the turkey for this page and it was the third element

Black India ink watered down for different shades

You may notice on the top of the background page to the right of bluebird, I covered up the hole for the calendar  with a piece of that beige area-but added it going a different way the rest of that background

From the bottom scrap of paper that was left over, I cut off the piece of the side that is under the oriole painting-give it a little texture and interest

If you are celebrating - enjoy the Holiday weekend, the rain and storms here will finally stop on Friday and turn quite hot-perfect for all of those crazy boaters that will arrive haha

If you are looking for Food Wednesdays please see the previous post for the link thank you for visiting