Thursday, December 9, 2010

Joyful & Sweet Photos

Beauty, truth, friendship, love, creation

Beauty, truth, friendship, love, creation – these are the great values of life. We can't prove them, or explain them, yet they are the most stable things in our lives.

- Jesse Herman Holmes

What girls are made of

Courage, determination, pride...that's what girls are made of.

- Author Unknown

Believe your heart

When the future hinges on the next words that are said, don't let logic interfere, believe your heart instead.

- Philip Robison

Let your heart inspire

In art the hand can never execute anything higher than the heart can inspire.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Love, Gloria and Carrie

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Project Monday

Hello lovely people!  Thanks so much for stopping by today : )

Our Project Mondays are a little late this week.  With the holiday parties, plays, gift making, spending time with loved ones, and kids getting sick, we are going to kindly ask for your patience this December.  Every week we still plan to share our photo prompt, projects, and inspirational photos but they may be a little late.....and now, without furthur adue, I am super excited to share my Project Monday with you this wonderful afternoon!!!

I have decided that for the month of December, my Project Mondays are going to be and art journal with one page for each day leading up to December 31st.....my version of Ali Edward's December Daily.  Take a look at what I have so far.....

My December Art Journal

December 1st - Ice Skating with Melanie and Self Portriat.

Decmeber 1st

December 1st - Pocket

December 2nd - Regular art stuff, dinner with Ryan, and a trip to Michaels with Ryan to get more art stuff (a rare and special treat).....I love December already!

December 3rd - December Night as Balboa Park.

December 2nd & 3rd

December 4th - My first family photoshoot with Gloria for one of her friends <3

December 4th

December 5th - La Jolla with Ryan and the doggies for their Christmas Celebration.

December 5th

As you can see I only have up to December 5th even though it's the 8th already.  This is why.  I use to print my photos at home, and now I have them printed at my favorite shop down the street from my house (my printer and I are not getting along).....it's a little difficult for me to get to the shop every day, so I have been taking my photos, saving trinkets, jotting down notes, and doing loose page designs each day until I get my photos developed.  It seems to be working OK so far, and I still plan to have either 6 or 7 pages to share each week for my Project Monday.  So, we'll see where my progress is next week.

For my art journal I knew I wanted to use this chipboard cover as my base, and sweet, sweet Gloria was totally awesome and knitted the yarn cover for me (green is my favorite color...thank you Gloria!!!).  I think I'm in love.  Sigh.  It feels so cozy.  Andyways, for the rest here is the formula I came up with.....I am using watercolor on each page over the patterened paper (And I bought my first watercolors specifically for this project.).  All the journaling is with my typewriter.  All the photos are sewed down, and some have fun little negative frames.  I have been having fun the the Martha Stewart Christmas tape or dye cut stickers on each page.  I am using punched circles out of red glittered felt for each day's number.  And once the front and back of a page is complete, I sew them together.  It has been really fun!

Anyone else out there working on their December Daily?  If you decided to use any of your prompt photos on a page, we would LOVE for you to add it to our Flickr Group!!!  And also please share your links in the comments here so we can see your beautiful art!


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The beginning of every month is fun but I think we can all agree that December is special.  It does not matter how old you are or where you come from this month is magical.  For me having a December Journal and following along with Ali Edwards just sounds exciting!

I am so glad Carrie and I decided to do this and kinda give it our own Bubblegum Life twist.  So here's mine.....

cover december daily

cover of december daily

cover of december daily

I am planning on sewing it together, but I might have a need to stick some extra stuff in there so I have left that for last, and just held it together with a ring for now.

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december daily

december daily

Then there are the rest of the pages.....some are water colored, others scrapped.  There is just a little bit of however I felt that day in December.  That's the great part about this its our rules, its your journal...
 
Have fun and I am so excited to see what we come up with for next week!!!

Love, Gloria and Carrie

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Your appointment with Friday

We are so excited to share with you today our first photo prompt for this lovely month of December!  The prompt is.....

Self Portrait - Create Yourself

My December Self Portrait

When I set out to take my photo for this prompt, I knew I wanted to do two versions.  The one above this is somewhat staged, and I hoped to try and represent something special that I am striving to achieve this month.  For me, it this would be the crisp wintery feeling of joy.  I wish for joy to be present as much as possible in December.  Present in what I do, say, think.....and when I look at the photo above it reminds me of that.  The other version I had decided on is the set below that was shot as it was happening.  I had planed to go ice skating with my dear friend, Melanie (Hi Mel!), and hoped that photos from it would also represent the feeling of joy as it was taking place.  Seeing them now, I have an instant smile on my face and remember how much fun we had.....it was chilly out, but only cold enough to make your cheeks pink and not your nose run.....our conversation was light and cheerful.....our bellies were full of creamy hot chocolate (made by Mel).....and we went on December 1st, so it was the perfect way to start out the month : )  I love this prompt.....

My December *Me*

When you go to take your Self Portrait, think about something that you want it to represent for this holiday month.  Maybe it's taking the time to enjoy a hot cup of tea every day, or maybe you want to spend more time painting.....what ever it may be, have it be personal to you.  What you want for yourself.  You can have someone take the photo of you, or you can take it yourself.  There are no rules here.....it's all about being creative and just letting yourself go there.

Enjoy your weekend!  I can't wait to share the fun project Gloria and I are making for our photos!!!

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Our prompt today is a creative prompt that will hopefully inspire you to do something you wouldn't normally do. Our first prompt for the month of december is Self Portrait, Create Yourself.  Carrie and I did just that.  We took the time to create an image of ourselves.  Yes, we kind of set it up...but it's a fun, very Christmas feeling picture.  I will look at it and see Dec 2010. Its also a great way to see what I look like at the end of the year before the stress of presents.  Self portraits can be very representative of a feeling, and a moment, and a time in our life.  They should be gentle reminders of where we are.....

Gloria December Self Portrait

Ok, so the second picture is me...I like to laugh, and its very me on a good day.  So, as you can see the prompt can mean different things to each of us, show us what it means to you and join our amazing flicker group to get inspired.

Love, Gloria and Carrie

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Joyful & Sweet Photos

*She could now feel her wings*

She knew she had come a long way because her feet were grounded and she could now feel her wings.
*Creativity Soars*

*Painting Rocks*

She took the time to go out side and paint the rocks.  In that space she found her creativity began to soar...for the rocks represent color, hope of what we are dreaming of creating.
*The trail leads us here*

As both girls stood over what they had created, they smiled at each other and for a moment their hearts touched...for creating something with a girlfriend brings joy.

( All these quotes are by Gloria : ) 

Happy first day of December!
Love, Gloria and Carrie