A few weekly spreads

Here's a glimpse of what my planner looks like since I've started it. I still love the format and love being able to customize each weekly spread.

Dividers!

I didn't like the cheesy plastic tabs I had been using so I made my own funky cool dividers. They are made of cardstock and are painted and stamped with acrylic paints. The tabs are circles punched out and sandwiched around the page. So far they are working great and are far better than anything I could have found in the store.

This is too cool!

I wanted a way to have watercolor pencils with me so I sewed a pocket onto that sturdy plastic page in the front of the planner. It was surprisingly easy to do too, I didn't even break the sewing machine needle! I can now fit 13 (I like that #) watercolor pencils and a waterbrush in here too. I tucked some of that grabby cabinet liner stuff behind the pencils to hold them in tight. It works great, I can even turn it upside down and shake it and they stay put. This keeps getting better and better! 

My New Creative Planner

I LOVE Franklin Planners and use mine everyday. It goes with me everywhere and holds everything. The only problem is the store bought calendar page layouts, they're never quite right and I'm forever searching for the perfect one. I have seen the Memory Dock Creative Planner pages but even that seemed to have limits on my creativity. It occurred to me the other day that I could just make my own pages, so this is the start to my creative planner. My goal is to have one place for my calendar, lists, ideas, on-the-go sketches and place to do something creative everyday. I have lots of ideas and so far this is really cool.
I'm in an orange mood with Halloween coming so my first 2 pages are smeared with orange acrylic paint. The back side of the journal page is the next week's calendar so that's why there is paint oozing onto the one side. Even with my press'n seal wrap the paint still found it's way to the back side.

Love, Honor & Cherish

This is a rather large wooden sign I made to hang over the bed in our room. It took a lot longer than I thought to make but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. That's a king size bed by the way, just so you get an idea of how large this thing is!

The other day someone in the Visual Chronicals yahoo group asked how to paint pages in a sketchbook without making them curl up. Linda Woods gave some great ideas, one of them being not painting all the way to the edges. I can't believe how simple that is and that it has never occurred to me, so I had to make a page about it.

These are some coneflowers that are growing everywhere around here these days. I just love them. This is just a quick drawing of them from memory.

Here is a page from my comp book. It was inspired by Violette
My pen was supposed to be waterproof, but it wasn't and the ink smeared. Grrrrr

Here are the latest creative things I have made- index card books! The small one is 3 x 5" and the larger one is 4 x 6". They are cute and useful- Form and function, I love it!! I'm in the process of making one with 2 rings and trying to figure out a better way to hold them closed. Right now I'm using elastic leftover from the cloth diapers I have made. hmmmmm...

I haven't posted any artwork in a while and these 2 cuties are the reason why I've been busy. I just LOVE this pic. When I'm not creating art I'm holding my camera trying to capture their cuteness.

These are my ATCs for the "I do, I do" swap this month. They were fun and challenging but didn't quite turn out as well as I expected. My favorite part is the background but you can't even see it on these pix.

My first ever ATCs. I made these for the Mom swap I was in this month.

Yet another page from our Colorado trip.

Another journal page from our trip to Colorado. Poor Jackson and his bloody noses...

A page from our trip to Colorado. It was so much fun to see my sister and her family- the kids are all HUGE!!

Illustration Friday for this week: "spring". This ink blot butterfly is a rescued spread from my composition book. I messed up a few pages but instead of ignoring them, I just cut out the ripped parts and the spread ended up looking like a butterfly! My pal Mitzi gave me the idea of using it for IL Friday, so here it is. Thanks Mitzi! :)  

Illustration Friday- "feet". These are my Frye belted harness boots, or Ass Kickers, as I like to call them. Got 'em for my birthday in December and love 'em, love 'em, love 'em!! They make my feet really happy! The drawing didn't scan well even after darkening it a bit, but you get the point.

Illustration Friday "tattoo". This is one of the designs I am considering for a tattoo. It's a celtic knot that symbolizes motherhood. Way cool, although if I really do it the rope of the knot will be wider so there is less negative space. 

Illustration Friday for today.The word is "insect".  

My first attempt at Illustration Friday. This week's word is "tea". This is one of my favorite mugs and it's in my hand a good portion of the day. 

Front of a card I made for my husband's birthday. I used Prismacolor watercolor pencils which I love, they are so creamy and smooth. 

The inside of a card I made for my husband's birthday (Friday). It turned out better than I even thought it would. I used Prismacolor watercolor pencils for the color. 

An ATC I received from a Valentine's Day card exchange. This one is from Nicolette, the teacher and organizer of the group. It's the first ATC I have ever received and I love it! I keep saying I'm going to make some and just haven't yet...

Journal spread with some junk mail I got. Kinda fun. Acrylic background and black pen. Now if I could only figure out how to file things on this blog and clean it up a bit... 

More goofing around with pens and watercolors. Hmmm maybe I should try purple hair for a change... 

Goofing around and testing waterproofness of some pens. I'm always searching for the "perfect" pen, or I should say "perfect pen this week" 

This is the stuff I like to use most when I work in my sketchbook.  

Journal page since losing our dog. So sad :( 

My first ever real "scrapbook" page! Woo hoo!! I have kept art journals and sketchbooks before but never ventured into the world of official scrapbooking. I always thought you had to do country bumpkin stuff or have doileys to be in that. Thanks to Cathy Zielske and Simple Scrapbooks magazine I'm hooked! 

Sympathy (obviously) card I just made. My Calligraphy is a bit rusty but overall I like the way it turned out.