I looked at my girls today and realized that they are growing up and I like who they are becoming.  They are growing up right and right now.

A background made of paint &   a scrap of inked map glued on long ago.  This was a forgotten background until I was sparked today to use it.

I wanted to use Dina Wakely’s stamp but the base was too dark- no problem- just a bit of gesso and yellow paint to lighten it up.

Dina’s stamp in blue Brilliance ink.  The touch of blue at the bottom of the page is where I cleaned the stamp off.

Giant foam letter stamps

The text is a full sheet of rubber by Invoke Arts called Collage Words.  I used Distress ink so that I could easily rub it off the n in now with a wet q tip.  The numbers are a stamp by Stampers Anonymous.

I painted with a bit of orange inks to highlight the writing on the stamped image.

Grey Pitt pen to outline the letters

2 colors of paint for the journaling (this helped me get over my dislike of my handwriting)

There is lots of great art over at Paint Party Friday!  Stop by if you get a chance!

The colors this week for the Summer of Color threw me for a loop.  I don’t use browns very often so baseball nut colors of  raspberry and brown stumped me.

To get moving on it I decided to stop thinking and just do.  I wish I could tell you that I carefully planned out using my daughter’s homework, the butterflies, and the word stamps but no.   The truth is I just bought the word stamps from Donna Downey and I wanted to play with them.  I had the butterfly stencil and coordinating stamps from Julie Balzer still on my counter from when I was playing with them on another journal page.  It was serendipity and I even managed to make brown a bit more my style by using golds for the cashew color!

My world is so full of wonderful art right now!  There are great posts over at Creative Every Day, Inspire Me Monday, Art Journal Every Day, and the Summer of Color!  When you have a moment, stop on by!