my moleskin journal (2)

I find I am getting into this small moleskin journal (3.5 x 5.5”) for my almost vintage gluebook work. This book seems to call to me to work in it, and you know, because it is so small I find it pretty easy to complete a spread or  two! Here’s the latest two:
Above, a copy of a favorite Waterhouse painting of mine combined with handmade paper, some words and a math text book . . .
And here,  a copy of a vintage postcard, a journal card downloaded from Green Paper Packages, some text, a heart my husband made to stencil wrapping paper for me (you saved that, for a few years?? -yes!) and some scraps of painted paper I made. Yes, my almost vintage gluebook!!  ; ^ ) lenna

skinny book page for betsy

Halloween is not really my favorite thing, but I did have fun creating this kind of ‘modern’ Vintage Skinny Book page (4x8) for Betsy Harting as part of our monthly exchange at Oh My Gothic! You can tell I bet, that this yahoo group originally swapped gothic arches : )  Anyway, see what you think and if you can figure out what the colorful, multi-colored background on the second side is??   ; ^ )




View all the skinny pages I've made here -
Thanks for visiting and checking out my art! lenna

my moleskin journal

I had never heard of a moleskin journal before signing for take Mary Green's online class,  Your Vintage GlueBook. They are small, flat little journals which I found in a set of three, all sized 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" - I chose the paperback cover. I do like this small size, even though I started my work in the gluebook class in a somewhat larger 5" x 8" sized notebook and it was a little bit hard to get used to, at first. I created another page in it fairly quickly today, and I will share that here along with the other pages I've done in this small journal so far:

I have called this my "almost" vintage gluebook because I know
I will be adding some non-vintage things!

The couple is cut from a vintage postcard, the flower background is from
mary green's e-shop and one ot the transparencies is from artchix studio! 

Click here to visit Green Paper Packages.

This is my latest spread with images from the class with mary green, a small
photo of my grandfather and transparencies from artchix studio.

Most of the right side (background) of my newest spread above is a small piece of a large fabric-paper I made earlier this year. You can read how I made that here. This is why I have titled this journal my "almost" vintage gluebook, for one thing. I knew I was going to take what I learned and tweak it to make it my own!! This spread has watercolors (crayons), transparencies, rub-ons, fabric and rubber stamping along with vintage items and composition ideas I learned in mary's class. You can still join this online class, find out about it here: Your Vintage GlueBook class. I must say that taking this class with my dear yet distant friend Frieda in Scotland, and seeing all the absolutely wonderful work she has produced for the class (and still  is!) has really inspired me and spurred me on to continue creating based on Mary's class. I think about working in this little journal now even when I really should be getting other commitments taken care of!! I think I will just have to strive for a good balance of what I want to do and what I need to do!!! : ) lenna young

my latest video

I am afraid I am slightly addicted to making these animoto videos . . .



if you have time, tell me what you think: do you enjoy these videos or are they not your thing?? thanks! lenna

4x6 quote swap

I created these 4x6 cards for a swap through  the Circle of Friends yahoo group.We needed to make 7 for the swap and then I made an extra one for a friend. They are all similar, but different!

I used water color paper . . .

images from Vintage Image madness . . . 

rubber stamps from swirly girl and lennalines (yes!) . . . 

my trusty watercolor crayons .  . . a transparency of a photo I took . . .

gold metallic splatters, my fave embellishment . . . 

a white opaque marker . . . 

leaf patterned vellum paper . . . 

and generally had fun! Off they go to Sandi, tomorrow! : ) lenna

Vintage GlueBook spread 6-22-10

1.lenna-VintageGlueBook 6-22, originally uploaded by creativelenna.

I finally got back to my Vintage GlueBook pages! I did this spread in the same journal I started in the class I took, and then for fun I started working in a smaller 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" moleskin journal that my instructor Mary Green likes. It was really different! The original journal I was working in for the online class (which is shown here) is larger, 5" x 8". To see the work in the smaller journal, click here.

The small b+w photos are of me at around age 20, some 30 years ago!! I took photo booth pics of myself and xeroxed them (that is what you said in those days!) for an art class project. Can you imagine that I still have them around? They were in my Art class drawing pad for a long while until I moved them to one of my collage boxes where I obviously put them to use! : ) lenna young

family fun

Well, my visiting family has returned home . . . we took everyone to the airport late yesterday afternoon. It was wonderful to spend time with my sister and nephew and to have my son Decklin & his partner Tina stay here with us. Oh! Except for the fact that our AC broke and we had to all live in a very hot house (it's been in the 90's outside) until our landlord could get a replacement unit. Thank goodness for ceiling fans! Unfortunately the AC was out the entire time my family was visiting : (  but we survived! We often went over to my mom & dad's quite a bit to cool off and go swimming. I did not take a lot of photos, but I have a few to share . . .

Tina and Decklin in the sun!

Tina & Deck at our rental house 

Decklin, Lenna, Asia & Chloe!

Decklin will be 29 in September, wow!

Below are my favorite photos from the visit, taken on father's day of my dad and Steven. They spend a lot of time together most every day in the workshop space they are renting. When my mom & dad's house in Avon, CT sold recently, they moved all dad's woodworking tools from CT to this workshop space in Bradenton! The sailboat the two of them are repairing and making sea worthy is almost finished . . . I will catch up with photos on that soon, but the beginning of the project can be seen HERE on flickr.

my dad & husband steven, at dad's house on the bayou

Dad does not like steven too much!!!

We had a great visit!
I was able to get the Tag Book swap completed and mailed out today. Hooray! My swaps are held on a separate blog called creative swaps and the new swap I announced recently already has 41 participants registered!! I am also having a give-away on that blog celebrating the 700 posts I've written: the prize is a chance to win FREE registration to one of my creative swaps! Just head over to the creative swaps blog, visit this post and leave a comment -before June 25th!   : )))) lenna young

happy father's day, dad!

give-away on the creative swaps blog!

Amazingly, I hit 700 posts on the creative swaps blog, where I host some fabulous swaps (at least  think so!). To celebrate, I am having  a drawing for free registration to any creative swap -the current one, or any others I announce in the next 3 months!


Edit: June 25th, 2010: This give-away drawing is now closed!! Congratulations to Carmen Marie Hirkala and Jan Korzenaskie!
Just head over to the creative swaps blog and leave a comment on my "700 posts, YES? A give-away!!" -by June 25th. You'll have a chance (or two)) to win!  : ^ ) lenna

vintage gluebook atcs

As an extra treat added to the Vintage GlueBook class I took online recently, instructor Mary Green is hosting an Artist Trading Card swap for those in the class. The timing was great, as the live classes were just ending and I felt myself already pining for the challenge of Mary's class. For the swap, Mary directed us to use what we learned in class but to put our own spin on it, embellishing as we liked . . . . I had already given up resisting my desires to add other things (ink, fabric, a feather!!) to our glue and paper only pages . . .  but as katharine hepburn said, "If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun." : ^ )

I sprtitzed watercolor cards with watered-down paint,
then worked in the gluebook fashion Mary taught us.

When I was done I edged the cards with gold metallic ink.

I like the mixing of the paint with the GlueBook style.
I tried to use snippets of paper Mary gave us in class.

I made 7 ATCs, one for Mary. It is the least I could do!
Her class has been an inspiration to me, and  to many others.

I could not resist creating a special GlueBook style envelope for Mary.
I love mail art and figured this may be a first for her!  I popped my ATCs
in the envelope AND SENT THEM OFF!!

The class I took online with Mary is still active and you can still join, meaning all the lessons are up on the password protected blog for "Your Vintage GlueBook" class and all available once you sign up. The Flickr group is still going strong and people are still posting and sharing . . . Go here to read about the class if you are interested: Your Vintage GlueBook class.

Deck and Tina are out shopping and when they come back we will head over to my parents for a swim and a cookout Steven and I are putting on - : ^ ))))) it is fun to have them and my sister & nephew here. Tomorrow we go and try to finish the paperwork for purchasing the house - Wow!! Thanks for your notes & good thoughts sent our way, lenna

quick update!

We scooped up everyone at the airport just fine, even though there was some delay as Tampa is known as the lightning capital of the world! "The word "Tampa" may mean "sticks of fire " in the language of the Calusa, a Native American tribe that once lived south of today’s Tampa Bay. This might be a reference to the many lightning strikes that the area receives during the summer months." (from wikipedia)
- This delayed my sisters flight a bit. We found out as we were leaving that our offer on the house near my parents that we want to buy was accepted, hoooooray! Now there is paperwork (addendum) that needs to be looked over by an attorney and a title search, and all those kinds of things, but it looks good!! The closing is scheduled for a month from now and of course it won't be a done deal until then but I am feeling positive. Thank you for your prayers, wishes and good thoughts. I believe the positive vibes certainly helped! : ) lenna

family visiting

Soon we will leave for the airport to pick up my oldest son Decklin, his partner Tina, my sister Kathy and my nephew Dale, who is named after my dad (well, so is decklin, but it is his middle name!). I can't wait to see them all!
We are going to squish everybody into my dad's 7-seat Mazda van and make the hour drive from Tampa fun : ) Here's my sister with my mom & dad, taken this past December . . .

Dale, Kathy & Priscilla

 And here is Tina and Decklin Tisdale waving to us from London, 

when they were vacationing this spring!

I will have to get an updated photo of young Dale while he is here. I don't want to embarrass him with a photo from our wedding 5 years ago when he looked so young -he is now attending college! : ^ ) I still have more to share with you art-wise and will get back to that as I can. I also hope to have good news about an offer Steven and I put in on a house that is located very near my parents. Think good thoughts for us if you can!

On Siesta Key, FL - for our 5th wedding anniversary!

guest designer for Alpha Stamps

As I briefly mentioned in my post yesterday about creating Tristan's gift - I have been busy behind the scenes with some artwork I could not show you until it was revealed on Alpha Stamps. I was recently asked to be a guest designer and so I made the following samples below plus the last 2 cards and envelopes shown on Tristan's gift post -the cards with the themes "Be Happy Every Day" and "Botanica". I concentrated on postcards and ATCs for my samples, to coincide with the Alpha Stamps garden Variety Swap I am hosting on creative swaps. It was fun work!

Pink Roses collage sheet on fabric left + right sides.
Graphic 45 'Birds in paradise' paper in the middle.  Pieces are sewn onto a
muslin base, then backed with a card stock postcard back. 

Tulip Slides + ATCs collage sheet  fabric left + right sides.
In the middle is part of a fabric collage I made based on Frieda's Instructions. The pieces 
are sewn onto a muslin base, then backed with a card stock postcard back.

 Majestic Tomatoes collage sheet and Creative Scraps-sheet/ Vintage:Garden.
 I started with a text background from an old magazine, inked it with Adirondack ink
to make it look older, then smeared white paint on top of all.

I photo copied a master onto card stock & I am giving this master
to swap participants with their instructions.

 Teresa Collins Travel Ledger scrapbook paper is the base to create my postcard -
Creative Scraps-Vintage:Garden, Graphic 45 Domestic Goddess collection - Farmer's market 
sheet. The butterflies and square lady postage stamp = Graphic 45 Botanicabella. I brushed gel 
medium over the front of  this one. The back is the next scan.

 I stamped the Postcard/Correspondence/Address - from Alpha Stamps.

image is from tulip slides + ATCs sheet, fabric. 3 glass flowers and 1 plum leaf
were hand sewed on and the fabric was sewn to a card stock base with a decorative stitch.
The card stock was painted bright yellow around the edges with watercolor crayons. 

image is from Women + Flowers (paper). 3 small lucite flowers from Alpha Stamps
were painted with a bit of Lumiere (white pearl) paint. I used  watercolor crayons around the
edge first, then a bit more white pearl paint over that and hand drew a stitching line. 

 image is from the Sunflowers collage sheet, paper. I sewed the paper
image onto a piece of fabric with batting underneath, then backed it to
a piece of card stock. 2 paper flowers and 1 glass flower from AS is sewn on. 

 Teresa Collins Travel Ledger scrapbook paper is the base to create my postcard.
I added a large image from the Sunflowers collage sheet. The little brownie running with the mail 
is from Alpha Stamps, the bird & flowers is tissue paper. The back is the next scan.

 I stamped the Postcard/Correspondence/Address and sunflowers-all from Alpha Stamps.
I colored the sunflowers with water color pencils. The button ribbon and plaid ribbon
in the middle are also from Alpha Stamps.  

There you have it, why I was so quietly busy!! You can find all of the supplies for the samples I created above on the Alpha Stamps Summer Garden Theme Page. If you have time, I would love to see you in the swap!
  Go HERE for all of the swap details!!
happy day, lenna

Tristan's Gift!

Gosh, it is unusual for me to go a week without posting . . .  but there it is! Not to worry, everything is fine. My dad is doing as well as anyone could be who is dealing with liver cancer. He is still off chemotherapy for the time being, which is a blessing. His most recent tests showed the last round of chemo had knocked the cancer down a lot. My mom is hanging in there through everything and we are here to help. Steven and I are fine too! We took a couple of days off and went to Siesta Key, Florida for our 5th wedding anniversary. Boy, was that fun! So great to spend that time together and re-connect. I am sure some of you remember, or perhaps even helped to create for our wedding -Stars, ATCs or even collages, in June of 2005. We always remember that and in fact, went over some of our wedding and courtship things while we were away  : ^ ) 5 years! wow.

I also had a number of art pieces I was working on that I could not share with you at the time, so there were no posts! As the title of this post suggests, Tristan's gift was one of those things I was working on. I wanted him to receive it before I revealed what I made.
Tristan Robin Blakeman and I have know each other through the sharing of our art for a few years now. When I reached 500 posts on this blog and had a related give-away, Tristan entered my drawing and won the prize: “Art by me, made for YOU!” As I noted in an earlier post, I was a little nervous about what to create for Tristan. But with reassurance from him - "I have no ideas or instructions LOL. I really admire all your work, and anything you make just for me will be a treasure to me! Thank you so much! Tristan".
I got an idea for something different that he might like and got to work! I created handmade envelopes and cards for Tristan that I thought he might enjoy . . . . . click on any one for details.

I have an envelope template -makes it easy with double sided paper!

back of envelope with card

photo removed from pocket -pocket matches envelope

yes, this is Tristan! Not sure why his hair is like this, but I LOVE it! 
He shared this photo with the colour groupies a while ago.

another envelope, front

back of envelope, card

another envelope made from an old CT calendar

the same envelope and card

I thought the sayings I stamped were quite appropriate!

this envelope did double-duty! I sent it to Tristan, but used the scan
as part of my Alpha Stamps Guest Design Team requirement.

same envelope and card to match -
I thought this would appeal to Tristan's quilting sensibilities.

last one -front of envelope

back of envelope

envelope and card

Now, even though Tristan was a bit under the weather, he promptly wrote to me after receiving these treats and said . . .

"You can (and should!) share my treasures with others!!!

Lenna, they're absolutely FABULOUS! I love them!

The slogan and the photos are hysterical - you're too clever by half!
I'm going to hang on to these for a long, long time ... and then send them to special friends for special occasions ... and I know they're going to be as enchanted by them as I am! Thank you so much - I'm sure all the prizes are marvelous - but I bet mine is the bestest of all!!! (They actually arrived a few days ago ... but I just couldn't type. But I'm on the mend sorta!)

Thanks again - you're a doll!"

-I am very happy! 

It was my pleasure, Tristan!! 

I've decided to give away prizes like that more often! I also have more to catch up on . . .  catch you back here soon, lenna