The day had been filled with grown up thinking and decision making and I had become a bit of a stress monster so my family banished me to the art studio to play.  I wasn’t up to starting with a blank page so I flipped through my journals and found a stenciled page to begin the process of shaking [...]

Washi tape made a colorful background for an art journal page and since it is tape, there was no waiting for it to dry.  Just the right place for a dancing butterfly man to be stenciled. https://youtu.be/WlcuSPbrgbg Watch Using Washi Tape in My Art Journal on YouTube. Randomly, I filled the page with washi tapes.  You might [...]

Finding images inside free Sparks of Art-spiration is like spotting objects and characters in the clouds.  In this one, I saw Bed Head Betsy, a very happy woman waking up excited about the wonders the day holds for her. In the video, you can see how I bring the image out and use it to build an [...]

The plan for this canvas went horribly wrong. The idea in my head did not translate one bit the way I intended on the canvas.  That is a polite way of saying “Yuck, it was rear end ugly!”   But it was just an O.O.P.S., an Outstanding Opportunity Presenting Suddenly, that started the journey of this canvas. [...]

What do I do when I want to play but don’t want to tackle a blank page?  I flip through my art journals and see which page calls to me.  That’s one of the perks of having random backgrounds and pages in progress sprinkled throughout. The page that called to me was loaded with brown, which usually affects me [...]

Treasures were used to create this art journal page.  Were these expensive treasures?  Nope. Would they be considered trash by many? Yes!  These treasures were a bag of scraps of paper that I had been saving in my studio for a very long time that I decided was time to use them or lose them courtesy [...]

What are the best supplies for art play?   Whatever is within arm’s reach!  If you’re feeling a bit tricked by the headline, I was too when I started playing.  I hunted for the best supplies to use but experience taught me that it wasn’t the supplies that made the difference.  It was just diving in with [...]

The sun was in that wonderful late afternoon golden glow phase, the birds were singing, and I was playing outdoors.  Springtime is my goldilocks time outdoors, not too hot & not many bugs. It’s just right for play. A basket of fun was put together quickly, of what was on my counter, with absolutely no clear [...]

The muse had me on a need to know basis for this piece of art.  I only knew what was happening in that moment, without any idea of what the next layer would hold.  I was so in the dark, I didn’t know that it would become a gift for my daughter as she graduates and [...]