Sadness.

The emotion we are expressing in my art journal workshop entitled "Mixed Emotions" is sadness.

This time, Michelle taught a technique that I have never heard of - drawing a mandala.    I have never even heard of a mandala, let alone draw one.  I went on an online quest to learn more and . . .

 . . . here is what I found out about mandalas:

The word "mandala" is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.

Mandala definition:  Any of various ritualistic geometric designs symbolic of the universe, used in Hinduism and Buddhism as an aid to meditation.


You can see mandalas in all walks of life, for example, here is one found in a church:

Isn't it beautiful?
If you want to learn more about mandalas, you can also check out www.mandala.com.

Since this lesson is about sadness, I thought that my mandala was supposed to depict sadness and look sad.  My first attempt turned out kind of happy, so I wasn't going to post it.  But Michelle encouraged me - she said:     "Sharon, your mandala does not have to look sad!  The idea is just that making a mandala can be healing for sadness; if it turns out looking happy that's great!  I hope we get to see it!!!"

So, without further ado, here is my very first mandala:

I was upset because it has mistakes and imperfections - you can see my lines, the black marker smudged, etc.  But I have learned that it is not about perfection, but just expressing yourself.  So, there it is, my imperfect mandala!

And for my second attempt, I found inspiration online when I saw a mandala made with this stained glass window effect:

To make the tree, I used vellum and printed a silhouette of a tree then adhered it to  my page. The quote is from Michelle's inspiration video, and I loved it so much, that I just had to use it on my layout.


Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today.  I have been immersed in this class and have been have a blast doing it. I hope you are enjoying your day - ours is supposed to be rainy this morning, but sunny this afternoon.  That's good!

More hate, and love . . .

I have more Mixed Emotions to share with you this morning!

First, I created another page using the emotions "Hate."  This time, I wanted to convey how I feel about thunder and lightening . . .

I was eager to try the pin technique that Marit taught us with this lesson.  So I took a pin from my sewing kit and began pricking the letters with it from the opposite side.  I kind of like the way it conveys the emotion here, and it was fun to get all of my aggression out, too! 

Thank you Marit, once again, for teaching this awesome lesson!

The second page I want to share this morning is about love.  I saw a wonderful challenge at Scrap Africa that Lynette is hosting and it is all about hearts and love.

Here is the page I created:

I took this photo at Disney World last year during the flower and garden festival at EPCOT.  I loved seeing each imaginative topiary, but this one was my absolute favorite, as Cinderella is the Disney movie I most love!

Thanks for stopping by to visit my blog.  I hope you are all enjoying your weekend.   The sun is out today - YAY!  (Last week was full of gloomy and rainy weather!)

and hate . . .

Yes, this lesson from my "Mixed Emotions"  workshop is about hate.  Marit is teaching this time, and I found that hate is even a difficult word to say, isn't it?  I thought I would have a hard time with this one, but here . . .

 . . . is the page I created:

Our lesson included tearing and pasting!    I used the stop sign image from Marit's inspiration video as a starting point.  I then began tearing cardboard scraps up.  I tore and tore, and it felt very invigorating.  Next,  I started pasting those torn scraps down on my page, and just started adding more and more of my "stuff" on top of the torn cardboard.  I let it dry, then finally, I painted over everything with white Gesso and sprayed it with different mists.  I found the quote by Will Smith to be a perfect one for my page.  I can honestly say that I have learned that feeling, dare I say it, hate, for someone who wronged me (and my family) didn't get me anywhere.  Only forgiveness set me free . . .  Leave the rest to God.

Thank you so much, Marit, for teaching the amazing lesson about this difficult emotion.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Friday!  Have a great weekend!!!!

Hugs to you from me!

Love

Our current art journaling lesson for "Mixed Emotions" is about love.  "All you need is love . . ."

Michelle is our teacher this time, and she showed us a very cool "resist" technique!

Here are the two pages that I made using this technique and with love in mind:

This one is about the love I have for my sisters.  My oldest sister passed away some years ago from ovarian cancer.  She suffered with cancer for a long time, and is in a better place now, I am sure.  I still miss her to this day.  I am so lucky and blessed to have my twin sister and younger sister, who are not only family, but my best friends, too!  I love them so much!

My second page is about the love that Anne has for our dog, Kita.  This is one of my favorite photos of the two of them.  Can't you just see how much Anne loves her?  I used a line from one of my favorite Taylor Swift songs, too, as my title.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and for joining me in my art journaling "journey."  It has been a fun adventure so far, definitely not perfect, but very fun!!

Have a nice evening and sleep well!

Hugs!

together forever & always

I made this page in honor of my husband, John's and my upcoming anniversary.  We will be married 23 years on March 3rd!  I wanted to use some of the techniques that I have been learning in my "Mixed Emotions" workshop for my page.

Here it is:

 I used a photo of the 2 of us that was taken back in 1990 right after we got married.  My mom took this photo of us on Easter Sunday in Salinas, California!  I added the Eiffel Tower to depict the trip that we took to Paris in 2011.  I used the photo transfer technique for my background - this particular photo was actually taken in Paris!   . . . and the quote is from one of my favorite songs from my FAVORITE musicals of all times:  Les Miserables.

Thank you all so much for stopping by my blog today.  Happy President's Day to all of you born in the USA!

I Left My ♥ in San Francisco!

Miracles Momma Designs sketch/template #32 is up!  

Heather made an amazing sketch and example page:

To see her example page featuring her beautiful daughter, check out Miracles Momma Designs!

I was so impressed with her page and loved how she used her hearts and doilies.  She inspired me to dust of my Cricut cutting machine (I don't think that I have used it in over a year!) and cut hearts and doilies using the Storybook Cartridge.

Here is my page using a photo that I took when we were in San Francisco on new Year's Day in 2011.

I was going through my old photos and really love this one of the Golden Gate Bridge.  We took a family vacation to California at the end of 2010, and we visited the places that John and I did after getting married and living there in 1990.  

I loved using Heather's sketch and seeing her example page, too!  It was so much fun to scrap this photo and make my layout.  

Check out Heather's blog to see what the rest of the design team came up with using Sketch #32.  It always surprises me how different each layout is, even though we all used the same sketch.  Each one has their own distinct, unique, and wonderful style. 

That's it for today.  It is such a beautiful Sunday, I am getting ready to go for a walk and take some pictures.  I hope you are all enjoying it, too.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Fear

The current lesson at my "Mixed Emotions" art journaling workshop is fear.  This one was an amazing and very therapeutic lesson for me.  It was taught my Marit:  to learn more about her workshops, go here!

For my first page, I decided to make a page about one of my biggest childhood fears!  My parents let my twin sister and I watch the Alfred Hitchcock show and it nearly scared me and my sister to death.  Afterwards, I couldn't even bear to hear the theme music.  I remember it was on TV on Thursday nights, and we would hurry and try to fall asleep before the show came on so we wouldn't have to hear that awful music!  

Warning, my page is pretty graphic!  If you don't like scary images, please don't look!

I also used images from the Alfred Hitchcock movie "Psycho."  My dad let me watch this movie as a pre-teen and I can honestly say that there are times, even to this day, when I feel that inner scary feeling when I take a shower when I am alone in my home.  Isn't it funny what a silly movie can do to you??

My second page about fear was very therapeutic for me to make.  It depicts me:  my shy childhood and how I really worked really hard to get into college and always knew I wanted to be a nurse.  Then after taking one of those personality standardized tests, my college advisor told me that I would never become a nurse because of my quiet personality.  Can you believe it?  Well, I showed him!  I went on to get my nursing degree, (I graduated with honors, too!) get my first job as a nurse working in an intensive care unit, and I have been a nurse for 30 years and counting!!  I can honestly say it wasn't without fear, and took a lot of courage to do,(even to this day) but I did it!!!  To depict the end of fear, I covered up my journaling with paint and burlap bandadges!  

I got the idea to use a silhouette from the very talented Limor Webber.  You can check out her You Tube video here!

 . . . and to this day when that little voice in my head tells me that I can't do something, 

I just tell it "Yes I can."  

I also try to teach to my daughters that they can do anything.  I feel that the best lesson they have learned from me is to always be like The Little Engine That Could and say "I think I can, I think I can . . ." 

Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today and sharing my mixed emotions art journaling journey!  It has been amazing so far. Have a great weekend everyone!♥

Happy Valentine's Day!

Good Morning and Happy Valentine's Day everyone!♥

I was greeted by my hubby this morning and my sweet Anne!  They had some wonderful gifts for me♥

But nothing is better than their gifts of love that they give to me each and every day. ♥♥♥ We miss our dear Katie so much, especially at times like these.  We sent her a vintage "Winnie-the-Pooh" book for Valentine's Day that Anne spotted at Five Below. 

I also want to share my design team work for Color-Me-Scrappy.  

♥Today marks the beginning of Challenge #30! ♥

 I love the warm, happy colors of this challenge, and I know you will too!  And the "twist" for this challenge is to use the word "fresh" somewhere in your title of journaling.

  

When I saw the colors, I immediately thought of a photo that I took at Penn State during Parent's Weekend this past fall.

And here is my layout made with the above photo and for 

Color Me Scrappy's Challenge #30

 Some close-ups:

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!  I can't tell you how much your visits mean to me.  

♥♥♥Happy Valentines Day to one and all♥♥♥

More mixed emotions . . .

To say that I have been enjoying my MIXeD EMotiONs art journaling workshop would be an understatement.  I can't even begin to say how much I love this class.  It is only the third lesson and I have learned so much already . . .

Th current lesson is about JOY.  Michelle, our teacher for this class, taught us a cool paper weaving technique.

I loved it so much that I made TWO pages!

For this layout, I wanted to express the joy I felt when I spend time with my sisters, for example this past Sunday.  We don't get together  a whole lot, but when we do,  I really enjoy it!  We went to see Monty Python's "Spamalot" at the State Theatre in Easton, PA, and just laughed and laughed!  It was just an amazing and fun time.

For my second page, I wanted to make a page about the joy I feel when I listen to piano music, or even play the piano!  . . . and now I can enjoy hearing my daughters play the piano, too!

That's it for today!  I hope you all are having a wonderful Wednesday so far.  Happy hump day.  And Valentine's Day is tomorrow . . . . enjoy . . .

  ♥♥♥HUGS♥♥♥

For Katie

I have made 2 different layouts for my daughter, Katie's album that I would love to share with you this evening!  Both brought back wonderful memories for me, and my hope is that someday they will for her, too.

First is the layout that I made with photos taken at Nunsense!  It was Katie's very first play as a college student and what made it even more exciting was that she got one of the leads - the part of the Reverend Mother!  The play was directed and run by Penn State Students.  We were lucky enough to be able to see her in it on Saturday, November 10, 2012!  If you want to find out more about the play and see more photos, check out my blog post here!

Here is the layout that I created:

My second page was nostalgic for me to make.  I wanted to make a layout for Katie from her senior prom, and I haven't yet.   . . . I know, (bad mom!!  LOL)  I should have by now, but things just got away from me.  Then I saw this great sketch at Scrap Africa, and I was inspired!!!

Scrap Africa's sketch #14:

After I saw this sketch, my creative juices started flowing . . .  I decided to use my new "Lovebirds" papers from Doodlebug Design.  The most fun part of making this layout was using fabric from Katie's dress as the photo mat!

Whoa!!!  That background paper is bright!!!!  

Anyway, this brought back wonderful memories of Katie and Ryan from their prom.  I am so happy that they have remained friends even though they are at different colleges!

That's it for this evening.  I hope you are enjoying your week so far, my friends!

Snow!

We are getting a light covering of snow as I sit here typing.  Well actually it's turned to freezing rain right now.  Before the snow flakes were slowly sprinkling to the ground and falling very lightly.  It made me think of all of the snow we got this past weekend - just a couple of inches, but is sure was beautiful.  I was happy that we didn't get the amount that was first expected, and I will keep our neighbors in New England in my thoughts and prayers.

Kita just loves the snow - she bounds out the door and buries her face in it.  She looked so darn cute:

As does Anne, who has always loved to shovel, too:

Here's our back yard:

And I went for a walk early in the morning:

We live by a beautiful farm:

 Here are my footprints:

I was thinking about how much I love Winter, even with all of the "bad stuff" that comes with it like shoveling and school delays.  But there is nothing like feeling the fresh, crisp air on your face and going for a walk in the quiet of a winter's morning!!!

After my walk, I decided to make a scrapbook page about it.  I was surfing for sketches and came upon a lovely sketch at Once Upon a Sketch.

Their February challenge includes writing about something that you love.  How perfect, right?  I decided to get started right away with my layout about why I love winter, as follows:

I used the techniques that I have learned so far in the Mixed Emotions workshop that I am taking and loving!  The background trees were a photo transfer.  That technique (as well as others) have brought me so much joy!  And speaking of joy, this week's lesson is about joy.  I can't wait to get started!!!

Ok, drive carefully and stay warm and safe, everyone!

Hugs to you all!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Good morning everyone!  Happy Chinese New Year!

Gung Hay Fat Choy.  

Today marks the beginning of the Year of the Snake in Chinese culture.

To help celebrate Chinese New Year, Anne dressed up in one of her favorite Chinese outfits.  She got out her pinata from her third birthday party when she asked me not to break it, but to save it instead!

Here are some of the photos we took this morning:

We celebrated by looking at some favorite old books:

Looked over the poster about China we made:

And read through her "life book" and an old scrapbook that I made right after we got home from China - I made it in 2004.

But the thing that Anne wanted to do the most this morning was go out to play in the snow!

Making snow angels:

And here's that great smile:

Enjoy your Sunday and don't forget to celebrate the Year of the Snake!