Getting Back Into Routine

Wowzer! I am always amazed by how difficult it is to get my kids back into school. It surprises me every year. I am one of those moms who isn't excited when my kids go back to school but after the summer I've had battling my health, I'm sure they are excited. I've been pretty boring. The last few weeks have been spent traveling and squeezing the last bit of summer out of the year. So most of my creative time has been spent with this little traveling treasure.
This is my altered book art journal. It started out as "Yankee Lawyer: The Autobiography of Ephraim Tutt". I picked it up at the thrift store. I'm not sure how Mr. Tutt feels about me cutting, gluing, and painting over his life story, but I sure am enjoying it. I also pick up bits and pieces from Ephraim Tutt's life and it is fascinating. I like to take it with me because the size is so portable and I use it more to document my daily happenings. At some point I intend to alter the cover too, but until it decides what it wants to be, I will just pack it around "as is". Here are a few of my favorite pages as of late.

The page on the left I painted in the hotel room on a trip to Utah. I was practicing with my acrylics. The page on the right I did about my trip when I got home.

The page on the left, tells about a GREAT day I had last week, when my aunt, Ilene, came over and I introduced her to art journaling. She did a flower similar to this in her art journal and it was AMAZING! I saw the scraps on my desk after she left and wanted to document the day for myself, so I made a sort of replica of her flower in my book, therefore, I can take NO credit for this page. I just wanted to remember the day. The page on the left is about my son's first day of preschool. My baby now leaves the nest two times a week for a couple of hours. I'm not sure I'm happy about that!

One of the things that goes along with my autoimmune issue I'm having is a complete intolerance for the sun. Even a little exposure has made me sick and I have to be very careful now. So, while my family was swimming at Lagoon, I sat under a tree and sketched what I saw. I was just doing a loose pen sketch and trying to work quickly before we headed off to something new. I finished the pen and the underpainting while I was sitting there and added the rest of the watercolor when I got back to the hotel.

I used the map of Lagoon as a base for the page and added journaling and ephemera from the day. I recycled patches of tissue paper to Mod Podge onto the places that needed more coverage and dry brushed a little paint on them.

Used the little notepad from the hotel to make a list, then glued it to a painted background.

Had to document our family's first visit to Chuck E. Cheese (we don't have one where we live) especially since my son ended up with these cute pictures. I copied the pictures on plain paper and used color pencils to color a little background on them. I also used the wrappers from his first PEZ dispenser, which he got when he turned in all of his tickets. Speaking of tickets, I found two in his pockets this morning while I was doing laundry, so I found a place to stick them in too.

This little book has been so much fun to take places. Yesterday, my son went to preschool and I came home and painted. I began a canvas board and an art journal page (in my big journal) and now I am wishing that my house wasn't such a disaster because I am dying to get back to work on both of them. So I am off to finish my housework ASAP. I've got some painting to do! Hope you do too!