Her Hands

Her Hands by Maggie Pittman Her hands held me gently from the day I took my first breath. Her hands helped to guide me as I took my first step.

 Her hands held me close when the tears would start to fall.

Her hands were quick to show me that she would take care of it all.

 Her hands were there to brush my hair, or straighten a wayward bow.

Here hands were often there to comfort the hurts that didn't always show. 

 Her hands helped hold the stars in place, and encouraged me to reach.

Her hands would clap and cheer and praise when I captured them at length.

 Her hands would also push me, though not down or in harms way.

Her hands would punctuate the words, just do what I say.

 Her hands sometimes had to discipline, to help bend this young tree.

Her hands would shape and mold me into all she knew I could be.

Her hands are now twisting with age and years of work. Her hands now need my gentle touch to rub away the hurt.

Her hands are more beautiful than anything can be. Her hands are the reason I am me. 
These are actually my hands, but this poem has given me the idea to trace my mother's hands,  because she won't always be here.

Spring is Here in Florida

Spring just popped in to Florida within the past few days. Everything is covered in pollen. I know because I can't go outside. I can't breathe, my eyes itch, I'm congested. Ugh. And my red car is yellow. But . . . spring is certainly a welcome sight.

These are some azaleas blooming in the yard. Actually I took this photo a week ago and we still have blooms. Tons of them.

Anyway, I am getting further behind with my art journal prompts, this particular prompt was You Are an Artist. The description was - show what you are really good at. So. I love me some bright, wonderful, bold, beautiful,  in-your-face-awesome color! Here's another 5" x 7" scrap of leftover color. Dylusions Ink Sprays. Gotta get 'em all! Every color, and multiple bottles of some colors. (Bubblegum pink, lemon zest, fresh lime.) I used lots of water and played with the color till I came up with this.

Then I added my favorite - flowers. Hahaha! If you click on the color photo and enlarge it, then you can click back and forth between the two and you will be able to see how the flowers came to life. For the first time ever, the photos pretty much line up perfectly. If the flip thing works :).
Prompt #9 - √. Now on to 10, 11, and 12.

Making Backgrounds

Today I wanted to take a break from tangling and just start some backgrounds. I had some new product I wanted to try out, so that's what I did. What you see above is a spread in my art journal. The background is complete and ready for me to start adding either journaling, ephemera, pictures, or tangles. That would be a decision for another day. Today was all about playing with colors and trying this new ink spray.

Here is what I used. The pages in this Dylusions Creative Journal are 8" x 5". I love the larger size Dylusions Journal. This smaller version I am a bit disappointed in. It doesn't hold up to wet media as well as its larger version.

For color, I tried these new (to me) Heidi Swapp Color Shine sprays. I remember Heidi from my old scrapbook days. Based on the name alone, I bought these three bottles of color.

Here is my process. Open your journal up to a clean spread. I like to place a couple sheets of computer paper/scrap paper under the flaps to protect my work surface from ink. Any time I work with inks or sprays, I cover my work surface with a craft sheet from Ranger. It's a surface that wipes clean every time, no matter what product you use. I have also at times just covered my table with butcher paper. That works well, too.

For color I used amethyst, teal, and pink. I spritzed the colors onto dry paper and let it sit and dry for a moment. I notice my amethyst looks blotchy in the top left hand corner. I had some problems with the spray coming out of the bottle in a big blob at first. Lesson learned. Practice on scrap first. The other two bottles worked great!

Next I used these cool masks from Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. I placed the mask down on one corner and spritzed color over it. 

When I lifted the mask, this is what I had. Of course there was ink on the face of the mask. I don't like to waste product, so I flipped the mask over and placed it down on the adjacent page, pressed down so the ink would adhere to the page, and lifted the mask away.

This is how it turned out. Spritzing over the mask above, gives softer focus. Flipping the mask over and pressing the ink straight onto the page in the shape of the flower gives more texture.

I did the same thing here with a star mask . . .

. . . then flipped the mask over and pressed it down onto the middle of the left page. This is what my two pages looked like at that point.

To finish it out, I used a couple stamps and placed some random images. This is what I ended up with today. 
I have to say again I was disappointed with this particular journal. The colors bled right through to the back side of the pages, rendering those pages useless for light colors - without a coating of gesso. 
The inks are not what I am used to, but I think I like them. They are more subtle than the Dylusions Ink Sprays. What they lack in brightness, they make up for with loads of glitz and glamour. Shiney and fantastic! 
Now I plan on going back in with my microns and copics and tangling some awesomeness onto these two pages. I'll show those to you soon!