Chamil Garden Stamps

My annual birthday art supply buying spree had to be changed since my favorite store closed!   Fortunately I saw these stamps that janethecrazy posted on  Instagram .   (Check her out - she does great  travel journals) .  

The detailed doodle stamps are a brand made in Japan - Chamil Garden. I  tracked some down on Nico Neco Zakkaya's  Etsy shop where she sells Japanese stationery, stamps, washi tape and other goodies.   It was such a treat to get a package from her store!

First, the envelope all decorated with tape and little stamped designs.

And inside, another envelope:

Look at this fantastic black glassine envelope with a hand-written label, decorated hole reinforcer and washi tape.

I carefully peeled off the washi tape as I opened the envelope and look what fell out -

a little plastic stick wrapped with extra washi tape !    I love the extra time put into all the details that make things special .

Back to the stamps - check out these beauties!

I just finished a major purge of my stamp collection,  but who could resist these?   The stamps are small - the tallish ones less than an  inch wide and the fat ones about about and inch and a half wide.    They look like they will be great as journal accents, but I had to try them out on some quick tags.

I rubbed  Distress inks on the tags ,  stamped on the designs, then added  some Tim Holtz phrase stickers and ric - rac ties.    I love the detailing in the stamps and the mix of images and text.

Isn't the Internet amazing ? A woman in New Hampshire finds stamps made in Japan and buys them from a seller in New York !

Year of the Doodle Update

It's been a while since I've shared  pages from this great book by Dawn de Vries Sokul.    I'm about 2/3 of the way through and amazed at how well the binding is holding up to all the paint, ink, and bits of ephemera.   I probably shouldn't mention it - maybe it will  boingggg apart while I'm sleeping !

Here is how fat it's become -on the left is a new copy of Ms Sokul's Art Doodle Love and on the right my overstuffed Year of the Doodle that started life as the same size as the one on the left.

We've had a busy summer and I haven't been doing much art work, but it's been fun to work in my book - a small canvas for each day that doesn't take much time to finish.

Doodling is what the book is about - most pages have a prompt and some subtle background color or design, so there's no dreaded white page.   I've been stretching myself to put pen to paper on most days-either as a doodle or lettering,

Some days the prompt just doesn't speak to me, so I go off on my own  as on the 25th,

The Birkenstocks are a big deal.   I've been reading Danny Gregory's book and he keeps saying to draw what you see, not what you think you see.   I had to really study the shoes and force myself to draw what I saw.  Amazingly, the sandals look recognizable!

I also use lots of stamps.  I love the "before my dock rots" one and rarely get to use it.

I love this doll by Traci Stillwell that I cut out of Cloth Paper Scissors  - doesn't she seem perfect for this quote from A Reunion of Ghosts?  (It's a fantastic book, BTW).

Honestly, I can't rave enough about this book - if I'm not working on a day, I'm adding shading or otherwise fiddling with pages I've already done.  So much joy in such a little package!

More Year of the Doodle Art Play

I'm still loving my Year of the Doodle planner/art journal.    I love the small size for each day, the beginning backgrounds, and the prompts.  Well, most of the prompts- sometimes I ignore them and do my own thing.

I turned the splotches of color into  little  birds, adding a few more with watercolor pencils so I'd have a whole flock.

I continue playing with doodling.   I'm reading Danny Gregory's The Creative License and appeciating his reminder to draw what you see, not what you think you see.    It is interesting that when you really look at something, it is often not quite the way you see it in your mind .

It's no secret that I love Vivian Swift's art and blog.  In a recent post she explained how she paints teacups, making the tea in the cup lighter at the far rim  as that's the way it is when you look at it.  Sure enough - again, what you think it is isn't always how it really it.   I'm trying to really look at things as I try to draw and , who knew, it makes my drawing more realistic.

The picture on the right started out as the watercolored squares - so fun to turn them into faces!

As if this book isn't fun enough, our Montana grand  loves working in hers.  I love anything that helps me stay connected to this far-away sweetie.

Year of the Doodle Planner

{Doodled flowers on text page with dots - January 8th}

Yikes -  three weeks into January and I was still waffling about what planner to use.   I had high hopes for the 2016 Documented Life Project.   This year the planner to use is a 3-ring binder and downloads with prompts.  Since I had already made pages for a binder, I thought I was good to go, but a couple of weeks in I realized I was in trouble.   First, I'm not much of a rule-follower and decided not to use the downloads, the prompts, or really much of anything.   Second, the binder is too big to carry in my bag.  And then I realized I was really making an art journal - taking way too long with my pages to realistically expect to use the binder as a planner.

Here are the first two weeks' pages - I 'm happy with how they turned out , but they really aren't planner material.  Somehow adding , "call plumber" or " clean garage" didn't enhance the designs!  I painted over the day numbers and declared this an art journal instead.   I'll be following the DLP Unplanner Project to pick up tips, but the format isn't working, so on to Plan B.

 I love this lady, inspired by Shirlee McGuire's art pieces featured in the November/December issue of Cloth Paper Scissors.   She adds embroidery, buttons and bits of fabric to her pieces - check out her lovely work on her blog.  I cheated and stamped my lady's bouquet.                        .

This one was fun.  I made this page of sewn paper strips for another project

 and couldn't bear to throw away the excess cut off the edges.   When I laid the strips on the pages I saw houses!

Fun pages, but no way could I keep up if I continued to make pages that took days to complete.  I present Plan B,

I bought this book by Dawn DeVries Sokol as a Christmas present to myself.   It's a year-long exercise in doodling, with prompts, some doodling or art work already started for every day.   The size is perfect for take-along, about six by seven inches.  The day sections are small, so working out a doodle or small art work is quick and easy.  Voila, my new planner.   Pretty sure Ms deVries Sokol  would approve.

 I started by covering the book with some handmade wrapping paper from World Market.  I had an Erin Condren journal elastic that works well with the paper .  I like a closure on my planner so it stays closed in my bag.

Then I altered the title page and table of contents to work as a planner.  

 and folded a page to make a pocket inside the front cover for phone numbers, extra washi tape, stamps or whatever.

Here are a few completed pages:

One of my goals for this year's planner is to go outside my comfort zone and put pen to paper more often - documenting what's going on and making some sketches or doodles to go with the text.   I've blabbed about my non-existent drawing skills, but finally realizing that while I'll never make a living sketching, it apparently is possible for me to occasionally make something recognizable.  Who knew?

I also need to work on lettering - so many skills to improve!

Coffee mug, whimsical flowers and cupcakes - this is fun!

And some yet to be fiddled with:

Aren't they fun!

I am loving this format - small spaces already jump-started and the challenge to make some marks.  This is so much less stressful than the big two-page spread.   Thank you, Ms de Vries Sokul!