MIA and on Vacation.

Well I have been MIA (Missing in Art) but I have not been idle. This whole going back to work has seriously cut into my art time and I even considered taking more time off but it pays the bills so…..

Taking my own advice has not been easy but I am now doing art for me and not just to post on the different projects or groups that I am in. I have also not done a video in some time cause the pressure of filming the process, remembering to hit record (for me that is a challenge) and then editing and posting is just a little much right now. I will be making more when I get the time and the energy.

So what has been happening with my life, well I have arted some in the past weeks. Although a challenge to sit for extended periods, I have gotten some quality time in the studio and have actually enjoyed the process.

The more routine stuff has been getting in the way of my blog however, and I intend to remedy that. Barring a major relapse in my health I should be able to blog more frequently. I won’t post a blog if it isn’t art related as that was not the purpose of this adventure to start off with and besides, no one wants to hear about the type of work that I do for real, cause it can be quite troubling and depressing. But I really love my day job. What keeps me going though is my family and my art.

Have I ever told you that art can be very therapeutic. Well it can. For me anyways.

Enough chit-chat and on to some art. Those of you who are my Facebook friends will have seen most of these so if you stop reading now that’s cool. Have a wonderfully art-filled week and enjoy life. For the others here is what I have done in the time that I was MIA.

Yeah, the title does mention vacation cause right now I am on vacation until after labour day. Enjoying the sun, the pool and the down time.

Here is what I have done for DLP2015 – playing catch up but taking my time and enjoying the process.

  

And these are my interpretations of the Inspiration Wednesdays 2015:

  

I have also redone a canvas for a charity auction; the original canvas that I did is hanging in my dining room and was part of the 48 weeks workshop, although no two canvases are ever alike.

I also took time to get older, but I didn’t grow up

. This pretty card and box were lovingly done by my beautiful and extremely talented wife.

But what I am doing most of these days is taking it easy.

So everyone, thanks for reading and sticking around and being patient with me, and I wish you all an art-filled and wonderful week.

Bob.

Following My Own Advice

Hi everyone,

Yes I am alive and well, and I have been following my own advice and creating art for the fun of it.

Although I want to catch up on my projects, there is no more stress involved, If I get behind well then I get behind. If I feel like catching up, I just try to catch up, there is no more pressure. My pages don’t have to be masterpieces, they have to be fun to create. What has become important to me is the process and if I like the outcome I keep the page and I might even show it off, if I don’t like the page then I say hello to my best friend in the art world – GESSO.

So the fun part of the past week and this coming week is that they are 4 day work weeks. Last Wednesday was St-Jean-Baptiste day here in Quebec, he is our patron saint and we get June 24th as a statutory holiday every year to celebrate our pride in being Quebecers. Next Wednesday, July 1st, is Canada Day a national holiday to celebrate Canada and the pride we take in being Canadian.

What do I do on these two holidays, I do what I always do when I get a day off – I create some art. So last week I decided to try and catch up on my DLP2015 and I got two pages done. Yay for me.

Just went to make sure it was two spreads that I got done and realized that it was three spreads for DLP2015 and one for my Inspiration Wednesday 2015 with Donna Downey. I have been downright prolific.

Also checked on my last post and now realize that I wasn’t prolific in the past week but rather in the past two weeks.

See what happens when you don’t post every single week – you lose track and write nonsense. But I like my nonsense it is, like my art, all mine.

Finally got our pool started, cleaned, heated and salt water system changed. The swimming season has officially begun. Well it began on the 20th of June as that is when our swamp (aka pool) began to look like an actual pool you would want to step into. I mean the water was black, not green or brown but actually black. Our nights have been rather cool so I am not looking forward to the electric bill but I would rather pay a little more in electricity than try and swim in a pool that barely reaches 72 degrees F.

Anyways, I keep my pool at a nice 82 degrees and it will reach 85 on a sunny day so getting out is actually worse than getting in. I could probably keep it cooler but as I get older I find that I don’t enjoy a cold pool as much as I used to. I mean it is a pool, not a lake.

Back to the art portion of this rambling post.

3 spreads for DLP2015 that I had fun doing. One of the spreads is a special reminder of NYC from 2 summers ago when I turned 50. 1 spread for Inspiration Wednesday where Donna Downey introduces us to VerDay paint – I am now seriously in love with this paint system. Fun and easy way to create rust and verdigris on paper.

DLP2015 – Textured paper :

 

DLP2015 – Travel Journaling :

Inspiration Wednesday 2015 – VerDay Paint

Latest Page for DLP2015 : Travel journaling – a special day for me in 2013

Have an art-filled week everyone and enjoy.

Bob

Late Again …. Oh Well

So yeah, it’s been 15 days since I posted, but sometimes it can’t be helped.

I have tried to create and be creative and today I realized that I have been putting pressure on myself to create beauty and that this was counter productive. Creating should be fun, it shouldn’t cause anxiety and it shouldn’t ever feel like a chore. Well, I had started feeling like creating was a challenge and a chore. I started feeling like it all had to be perfect and it all had to be original and it had to be ALL THAT.

I am, as some of you know, following Donna Downey’s Inspiration Wednesday 2015 and working along at my own pace, I am also striving to catch up with the Documented Life Project 2015 (at the time of blogging I am officially 3 weeks behind) and not doing a super job of catching up. I am also trying to get back into the 48 weeks Workshop that I had to set aside after the surgery. I am taking online stamp making classes now and I am also trying to go to all of my journal calsses at Scrapbook Centrale with my fabulous friend Gisele Cabral. I also have a YouTube channel that is a lot of work. All of this wanting to do stuff was creating pressure and my studio was no longer my refuge.

My studio had become the area to be avoided because of all the stuff that needed to get done, all those open journals staring blankly at me accusing me of neglecting them. Even my iPad and emails were reminding me that I was not blogging – emails from the blogs I follow postings 2 or 3 times a day in some cases or per week in other cases.

You see the problem was me, not the journals or the studio, not the emails or the bloggers, me simple as that. Me trying to be original, artistic and not wanting to be a copy of something else. But like I said to someone on youtube today, your VOICE is what you make, what you do with the inspiration you get from others. Your voice is what you create. Inspiration can come from nature, it can come from an artist, it can come from your mind, inspiration comes to you and you use it to create something that may look like someone elses work but you add your own little touch, your own spin on it and thereby make it yours.

Give credit to those who have inspired your work and accept the praise that you inspire in others.

When I create now, I have fun. If I keep it simple I keep it simple. If I go all out and add way too much – so be it.

No Pressure. Only fun. I decide when a piece is done. I create to make myself, not someone else, happy.

What I show you now is what I created to make myself happy. I hope you enjoy – but know that this was created for me.

Created for DLP 2015:

Created for Inspiration Wednesday 2015:

Have an art-filled week everyone and have fun with it.

It’s Been 20 Days???

Hi all,

I hadn’t realized that it had been 20 days since I last blogged about my art. Believe me I haven’t been 20 days without arting something or other, but I just didn’t get around to blogging about it.

So these past 20 days have been rather busy, I am FINALLY back at work, after a 3.5 month medical leave, and it feels great. Although the first couple of days were rather tiring it was nice to be back in the thick of things. Feeling useful and having a purpose, walking around and interacting with different people, seeing colleagues who genuinely are glad to have you back, it all felt great.

Yesterday we attended the commencement ceremonies at McGill University where my son and his girlfriend both received their B.Ed. degrees. We are so proud of them both for attaining their goals. It was a beautiful ceremony and the weather cooperated in such a magnificent way, bright and sunny and not too hot with a nice breeze under the tent.

On to the art portion of this blog.

I finally got around to finishing my Kaiser Craft storage tower and craft storage units:

These are such fun to build and decorate, and afterwards they have a practical application. I use or gift all of my Kaiser Craft creations.

My Inspiration Journal is coming along quite nicely, here are the latest creations. I was truly inspired by what Donna Downey does. The face stencil I used was by Dina Wakley. And on the second one, I loved the golden shimmer I got due to my choice of colours. And the bling helps with the shimmer as well. LOL

Will it surprise you to know that I have fallen behind in my DLP2015 project. I am now officially 3 weeks behind in the creative process. After being all caught up for a while ( may have lasted all of 2 weeks really ) falling behind was to be expected.

I did however do two layouts, one is a 2 page spread and the last one is a single page spread. The theme for May was fabric. I used an embroidered dragon that I cut off an old t-shirt for the 2 page spread. And on my single page spread I used faux-stitching on the fairy mound that I created. You’ll understand why I call it a ’’Fairy’’ mound. All of the stamps used in the single layer page are by Finnabair for Prima and it was coloured using PanPastels.

You will never guess what else has been taking up some of my non-existent free time lately.

Yep, stamp carving. I decided to try my hand at it and have discovered that A: it isn’t as hard as I thought and B: I really like having the ability to make my own unique stamps. This is so cool. I have also decided to sign up for Julie Fei-Fan Balzer’s online stamp carving class just to be more proficient at it. So far I love this new addiction.

And finally, my last project was to devise a new way of storing my stencils so that they were easily accessible and where I could see everything without having to pull out boxes or sort through piles of stencils. Here is my solution:

A wire curtain rod and the clips that go with it. They are hanging over my head when I am sitting at my primary work area. I need to get a second one to hang over my second work area as I have yet to place my 12 x 12 stencils on the wire. Yeah I know, I have a thing for stencils.

So all caught u and I hope to have something new to show you next week. If you are interested in seeing some of my process in action go check out my YouTube channel, look for Bobs Creative Days, I have a studio tour up on the channel and I have a couple of process videos up as well.

Have an art-filled week everyone and thanks for dropping in.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

Hi all and Happy Mothers Day to all you lovely ladies out there (and all the men who have both roles),

So I was absent last week because of a slight set-back with my recovery. For some reason that remains unknown to me my leg was swollen last weekend and I could not sit at my computer and blog. But being absent from my blog did not mean that I was unproductive.

I did get my YouTube channel up and running with two process videos. These are not tutorials, I am not proficient enough to make a tutorial, these are just videos that show my process when I create. I hope to have more videos up in the near future (have to create layouts or tags to have videos to post). If you want to check out my channel please hop on over to YouTube and look for Bobs Creative Days. (have no clue how to link directly to my channel so bear with me)

youtube.com/c/BobsCreativeDays

I was so proud of myself last week for being caught up in my DLP2015 and now I am again at least a week behind. But I will be catching up again this week and have some more work to show you next week.

This week I was busy taking care of myself so my art took a backseat to what was more important. If I make myself sick trying to create then I will not be able to create very long. PRIORITIES. Also if my wife finds out that I am making myself sick for the sake of art, she will ban me from my studio for at least a month. Gotta love a woman who loves you enough to be tough with your pig-headedness.

So because I didn’t show you my latest DLP2015 project (would have been for the week of May 3rd) here it is: (it happens to be one of my process videos):

I was also busy today making changes to my studio. I have a stash of stencils, 4×4, 6×6, 4×8, and 12×12. I love stencils for adding dimension and interest to my pages either with pastes, gel mediums, inks or paint. Whatever strikes my fancy. So when I see a stencil I like I buy it.

Is there anything more frustrating than wanting to put an element into your page and not having it, especially when you saw it at your favorite store. So not wanting any more frustration in my life if I see a stencil that I like it ends up in my stash.

Back to the changes that I made to the studio. Now my studio has run our of wall space for me to add shelves to. It has also run out of under desk space for me to store things (I really do need to get my legs under the work-table to create art). So the only space left was the ceiling. Digging through my stencil box was never the ideal situation but I could never figure out what to do to make the access easier. Well after seeing my friends come up with ingenious solutions I was not going to let myself be outdone. My solution was simple, inexpensive and puts my stencils where I can see them. Being 6’1″ tall in a room with 8 foot ceilings helps make my solution viable. A wire curtain rod system from IKEA. Here is what one side of my studio now looks like. Tiny clip hooks keep all the stencils right where I hang them.

I like that now I just need to look up and grab a stencil whenever I want to use one. Now I need to add more clips and one more wire rod system on the other side of the room for my 12×12 stencils.

Have a great week everyone and may it be art-filled and joyful.

Spring – Hopefully

Hi everyone,

Well it would appear that spring has finally arrived in Montreal. So with that in mind I went to the garage on Monday and had my summer tires put on the car. Up here, and almost anywhere where there is more than 12 inches of snow received during the winter months, we have two sets of tires. One set for the summer ( make that mid-spring to mid-autumn ) and one set for winter ( aka the rest of the year ). So this week I was feeling optimistic about the fact that we would no longer receive any of that white sky dandruff. This optimism was also reflected in some of the art I did this week.

My week was not all tires and art though, I also went to a presentation ceremony for one of my friends who has acceded to the bench as a Quebec Court Justice (she so deserved this honour). This ceremony took a lot out of me as my recovery is not complete and has its challenges. My week was also filled with doing mundane everyday things and some fun stuff like reading. I am on the second novel by Glenda Larke in her new series.

My recovery also takes me away from my art at times as I cannot sit for long periods creating. I also cannot sit and type at the computer for long periods so sometimes my blog takes hours to write. Little snippets at a time but I try to get it done in one day. As you have all been able to tell I have limited success getting it done on schedule.

But I did get some art done, I am up to date in my DLP projects, I am also currently working on my Inspiration Wednesday spread and have two other craft projects in the works. Along with my art journals I enjoy making things like replica dressers or desk organizer kits. They are made by Kaiser Crafts and come un-assembled. Your job is to put the together, paint / paper / decorate them to your liking. I will show you some of the ones I have done in the past and those that are presently under way.

They make great gifts and wonderful storage solutions in your craft room – if you have the space.

Here are some that I have already done:

My craft caddy – it rotates: 

stationary organizer and tool box:

letter organizers, see how paper can make a difference on the final look   the blue one sits in my kitchen where it accumulates everything,

another style of letter organizer: 

stationary organizer made for my mother-in-law: 

mini buffet stands about 16 inches tall: 

mini chest : 

Mini chest of drawers: .

And in the works I have a tower of drawers and a craft organizer, guess which is which:

As I mentioned previously I did get some art done:

from my mixed media art journal class with Gisele two faces made using Balzer Design stencil.

I also updated my art journal cover using my new Dylusions paints, some stamps and some stencils.

My latest DLP2015 spread:

used the small gelli plate for the background, stencils, collage paper (some was happy mail received from Gina B. Ahrens from over at Krazy Island Family), paint and my focal images were created using stencils by Donna Downey and StencilGirl.

I had a great week and I hope your coming week will be art-filled and glorious.

Keeping A Promise – Weekend Fun at Scrapbook Centrale

So last week I told you all about the fun class that I was looking forward to on Sunday last. Well I took the class, had a blast and now I am keeping my promise to a friend, Marie, to post some of the details of that class and especially the results of my work.

The class was given by the incomparable Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Her energy and her evident joy for journaling and art in general suffused the class from start to finish. Her joy was infectious, there was not a grumpy face in the crowd, and lots of laughing throughout the day.

Being the only man in the class had its advantages, Julie learned my name right off and never got it wrong all day. There are also drawbacks to being the only guy, sometimes my mind goes places it shouldn’t with certain comments and every woman there knew it.

This class was called Art Journal Playground and with the multitude of techniques the we tried and played with my art journal was definitely my playground for the day. At one point I was even forgetting to prop my leg up I was having so much fun – I paid for that oversight later on in the evening with a swollen ankle ah but it was so worth it.

Julie wanted us to have 6 to 10 pages done by the end of the day – the class was from 10 am to 5 pm – I got 2 double spreads and 2 singles done, only one of the single pages is yet to be finished all my other pages turned out great. Well they are great to me and you know what that’s what counts.

The other fun part of the day was that I got to art journal alongside my teacher and friend Gisele Cabral, seeing her work and feeling on a par with that talented woman, even if only for a day, felt great. I had brought along some fun collage papers that had been sent to me via Happy Mail by Gina B. Ahrens, a gifted artist and one of the admins at Krazy Island Family on Facebook. Check out that group it’s a hoot.

Julie actually gave three class over the weekend, a collage class, a stamp making class, and the art journal class. If you ever have the chance to take one of her classes don’t hesitate just DO IT!!!!! If you don’t already follow Julie’s blog i invite you to do so, look for her at balzerdesigns.com

This class brought me so much but the greatest thing it did was it allowed me to dispel my inner critic. He has gone away for the time being.

Here are the fruit of my weekend labor :

 

I also have some pictures of everyone hard at work:

 my friend and mentor Gisele.

And the lady who made it all so much fun the one and only Julie Fei-Fan Balzer:

Have a great art-filled week everyone.

Caught Up on DLP2015 But Late With Everything Else (LOL)

Such is life my friends, you get caught up on one thing only to let everything else fall behind.

I forgot to blog last Sunday. Well, that might mot be entirely true, I may have thought that I needed to go and blog but then I got distracted. Have I ever mentioned that I am (or was) a natural blond man once upon a time when I had hair. So I tend to get distracted easily whenever I am doing something that is not work related. In my professional life I am really focused, no choice, so I guess in my home life and in my pastimes I have a tendancy to be somewhat scatterbrained.

I did get into the studio last week and this week as well, I also took a journaling class – second one since the surgery – but I have not finished that page yet. Will get to it this weekend, actually tomorrow or Monday because Sunday I am taking a class with the fabulously talented Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.

Yes Julie Fei-Fan Balzer, of Balzer Designs, is coming to Scrapbook Centrale this weekend and I am taking a journaling class with her on Sunday. I would have signed up for more but that would not have been a healthy choice for me. Sitting around all day for 3 days straight would not have been good for my leg.

Yes there will be a post with some pictures from the Sunday class, if I remember to take some, as well as the finished project that will be the result of that class.

Now let’s see what I have to show you this week:

From my Inspiration Wednesday 2015 Journal:

This is from one month back as Inspiration Wednesday comes out every other week,

This one is the one from two weeks back, I still have to do the one that came out this week,

Now for the DLP2015 journal pages that I got caught up on, the next prompt comes out tomorrow (at least this one is not overdue anymore):

Week 13 was to “Make Your Mark” – so my focal image was hand-drawn:

Week 14 the challenge was to use water colors and the quote was “Water Under the Bridge” – I forgot to use water colors –

I did use the right quote though –

I also got week 15 done which was to use acrylics with the quote being “Cry me a River” for some reason that picture is not showing up. Oh well maybe in a subsequent post. Alright I got it to load in my library via my iPad so without further ado here it is:

here is a little something my wife made for me at Easter – it is no longer filled with chocolate – but it was such a treat to receive:

My own little Easter cow.

That’s it for now, wishing you all a lovely art-filled week.

New Art Pages and Some News

Hi everyone,

So I have been absent for the past three weeks because I haven’t had the energy to blog. I also didn’t have the energy to do much in the way of art after the surgery, but this past week I have been feeling better. My surgery occurred on February 18th and I left the hospital February 24th but late in the day. I have been home and recovering for 5 1/2 weeks. My energy levels at the start of the recovery had been pretty low. They are increasing daily but it is a slow process.

While I wait for my energy to get back up to par, I have been keeping busy trying to catch up on all my art related projects. As I told you in the last blog, I had moved some of my supplies to the kitchen so I didn’t have to climb the stairs 3 or 4 times a day. Well I am happy to report that all of my supplies are now back in my studio where I can art again and have access to EVERYTHING I NEED to create.

It was frustrating at times to realize that, as I was creating something, I didn’t have certain products with me upstairs in the kitchen (my studio is in the basement). But now being able to climb the stairs unhindered has allowed me to return to my studio to create.

Also, last Sunday I took my first art journal class with my teacher and friend Gisele Cabral at Scrapbook Centrale. It was so great to get out and get back to some normalcy, it was also nice to see all my friends at art journaling. We take so much of what we do every day for granted, it is only when life keeps you from it that you truly appreciate some of the little things like walking without pain, being able to sit for more than 15 minutes without pain, being able to go out and create with your friends without pain or worry, and last but not least being able to sleep a whole night without putting a pillow between your knees so you don’t feel pain.

Enough about the surgery and the recovery, this is not really what this blog is about. So as I was saying, I have been trying to play catch up with all my art projects. I had to set aside my 48 Weeks Workshop because I couldn’t get to my studio so I am really behind there, as for DLP2015 I think I am 2 weeks behind and I know for sure that I am 2 weeks behind for Inspiration Wednesdays 2015. But if I hadn’t gotten some art done I would effectively be so far behind that I would likely have given up trying to catch up. As it stands the last two weeks have been very productive.

Along with some of the directed art projects I have been on a roll making some personalized tote bags:

Made this one for my friend Natalie who is the owner of my fave store – Scrapbook Centrale in Dollard-des-Ormeaux.

This one was made for my mother-in-law for her birthday it was also because she tried to act as my nurse for the first week I was back home.

Some of my other art that I got done these past two weeks are mostly for DLP2015 and from the art journal class last Sunday.

From DLP here are some of the pages:

actually 6 weeks worth

repeating elements 

 forget what the prompt was

doodling 

overcoming the elements 

borders 

coming into focus .

You can go to the Art to the 5th Academy page to register for the Real Documented Life Project 2015 to see all of the wonderful artwork that has been posted by the students and the teachers there as well as get a list of all the prompt challenges for the past 3 months.

I was forgetting that I had also gotten an Inspiration Wednesday 2015 spread done as well:

Made a skin for the insert using molding paste and a stencil by Dina Wakley. This was so much fun to do. And I loved the stencil by Sheena Douglas “The Big Apple” for the cityscape. Didn’t yet have my Dina Wakley metallic paint so I used gold metallic paint by Liquitex over a black gesso background. The sentiment is by Dyan Reaveley.

The last thing I want to show you for today is what I did last Sunday in class with Gisele:

Backgrounds were all done in Gelatos by Faber-Castell. The birds are by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous and are also colored with Gelatos ( some in the new bright colors and some in the new pastel colors). All of the hilarious quotes are by Dyan Reaveley for Ranger.

I want to send out a big thank you to Gisele who had made a promise and kept it – she said if I made it to class she would buy me my favorite pie from Rockaberry’s – lemon meringue. Thank you my friend it was delicious.

I would also like to say a big immesurable thank you to my wonderful wife and my two great kids for being there for me and for taking care of everything while I take the time I need to recover and get back to normal life.

With that I would like to wish you all a wonderful Easter or Passover (if you observe the holiday) and a wonderful art-filled week.

Recovering and Playing Catch up.

Hello everyone,

So this week is another catch-up week and also a recovery week. My recovery is steady but somewhat slow. I had been warned by the doctor that this recovery would take time. So I am taking the time I need to get better.

Sometimes however I forget and try to do too much, like climbing stairs 3 or 4 times in one day. So to help me stay on track, if I can, I went to my studio and brought up some stuff to help me art the day away. This is a very small, tiny even, portion of what I have in the studio.

 

Had to bring up some of my favorite paints, Dina Wakley Media Heavy Body acrylics. Couldn’t decide which colors I wanted so brought up all 12.

After getting my paint I set up my workspace on the kitchen table. But wouldn’t you know it, I forgot something else downstairs in the studio. Went down again and came back up. My leg started to protest at that point. But if I don’t have my needed supplies then I can’t art. If I can’t art I can’t catch up and that will never do. But if I had to make one more trip I wasn’t sure my leg would hold out. It did cause I had to make the trip one more time.

So I am now officially behind in my DLP2015 project by 1 week and I still have another week before the next Inspiration Wednesday 2015 video comes out making me 2 weeks behind for that. If I get all caught up I can then turn my attention back to the 48 Weeks Workshop. The Inspiration Wednesday 2015 and 48 Weeks Workshop are both by the fantastic Donna Downey.

DLP2015 is a free weekly prompt/workshop brought to us by the lovely and talented ladies at Art to the 5th Academy. I find it very inspiring to see all of the different takes on the weekly challenges and prompts. Funny how words inspire different things for different folks.

The challenge that I just finished was to “Cover up the good stuff”. Here is what I did with that:

I actually covered up the good stuff with a panel of paintable wall paper and made more good stuff on the left. I will keep plugging away and trying to make some art, just to inspire myself and make myself feel better. Art therapy is good for the soul and for the body.

Another thing that I have been doing for the past week has been reading. I have found a series written by a husband and wife team –  pseudonym Ilona Andrews – it is urban fantasy at its best. Love this series, the Kate Daniels novels, which although not newly published is still being added to. There are currently 8 novels in the series and I have read the first 4 currently reading #5 “Magic Slays” and will need to get 6 – 7 and 8 if I don’t want to go stir crazy.

That’s it for this installment of my blog looking forward to posting more art in the near future.

Have a great and art-filled week everyone.