The universe sent me a message or two this week while I was at CREATE taking classes and helping out at the StencilGirl booth.  There are some amazing new stencils coming!  And I’m going to listen!

Friendship is inspiring.  Meeting such wonderful internet friends in person and making new friends touches the soul.  The creative energy is so contagious. Laughs and creative ideas flowed freely all week!

Daily journaling of some kind has always been something I wanted to do but never seemed to get around to making a habit.   Seeing Janet Joehlin’s journals in person was pure inspiration for me.  Check them out on her website here.

Laughter and play is not just for little kids- well, we did act like little kids at times and it was such fun!  I need to do it more often!

Take time to experiment and leave the comfort zone.  I took several classes that were outside my usual play and it felt great!

I get back and find more inspiration waiting for me at August’s Colorful Gelli Print Party! Have you seen the latest ideas?  As soon as I post this, I am going to play on my Gelli Plate!!

Click on the artist’s name to see their post! You can see all the entries for this month’s party at August’s Colorful Gelli Print Party!  There is still time to get in on August’s party and on Sunday the September party will be here!

Mary Anne is making recipe cards for Gelli Printing ideas. This post shows you how to do it and there are links in there to other cards she’s made!  And you can make your own and share it like she did!

Tracy made beads from her Gelli prints to create this amazing necklace!  She’s got even more beads to check out!

Butterfliecrafter made vibrant flowers for her calendar with Gelli prints!

Froebelsternchen  played with her print to make a fun art journal page!

Mary Anne has a great tutorial on making a calendar with Gelli prints!  This has me thinking about Christmas gifts- December will be here before I know it!

Boo made a fun and playful card for a dear friend!

Anja Wisker’s journal page reminds me to print directly into my journal!

Mary Anne is using wallpaper for these great circles!

I’m off to play and attempt to get caught up from being gone…no…just to play with my Gelli Plate!

Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom.  If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn.  Charlie Parker’s quote really resonated with me as I held Nathalie Kalbach’s Stand Up Bass stencil from StencilGirl Products.

I don’t play a musical instrument anymore. With good reason. I am nearly tone deaf according to every music teacher and I had a bit of a challenge staying focused in band like when I got my finger stuck up my flute the day of try outs.  You can’t play a flute with one hand…anyway, you get the idea.

But I do play with color.  My music is my art.  It is full of my experiences, my thoughts, and everything that makes me, well, me.  It has taken me a lot of years to believe in my music.  Do you believe in your music yet?

So on with the art journal page!

I had a piece of blotter paper from way back that I loved.  Very proud that I am not hoarding but using!  I used acrylic paint to stencil the bass over and over.

If I have the supplies out why not make extras I can use in future projects!

As I flipped through an art journal looking for a page to start on this one jumped out at me.  It is from when I randomly cleaned off my brayer while Gelli printing.

This rubber stamped Gelli printed paper shouted to be used so I just “had” to use it!

I rarely leave white space so I filled in some of the white with paint getting it ready for my Gelli print.

Glued the ripped Gelli print in place.

I cut up pieces of sheet music and spray inked them green.

A bit of scribble journaling on spray inked notebook paper becomes the mat for the stand up bass.

In my stash of leftovers, I had believe but that just wasn’t enough for me.  I wanted more words so I turned to my favorite work making tool, the Block Talk Alphabet Die. This has become a favorite tool because I never run out of letters!  I just cut more!

Can you tell I’ve run out of letters in sets of alphabet stickers?  I made the exact letters I wanted to wrap around the Stand Up Bass to match how I was feeling as I made this page.

Thanks Nat for inviting me to play!  Be sure to stop by and check out all the other wonderful music created by these talented people!  And every blog in the hop you comment on gives you another chance to win Nat’s Stand Up Bass stencil!!!  That gives you 6 chances to win!  She’s randomly choosing a winner on August 27th at midnight EST.

Nathalie Kalbach

Louise Nelson

Carmen Sanchez

Michelle Hernandez

Maria McGuire

 Linking up to Paint Party Friday, Art Journal Every Day, and Creative Every Day.