A little birdie told me

My Art Journal sessions are broken up into four weeks. Each four-week session is themed. These cute little birds are from Art Journal-Fly Away where we worked with creatures that had wings.

These background pages started out with just a few stripes of acrylic paint colors and some water. Pretty darn boring! But we learned to work it into a beautiful background to display our winged birds on.

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DecoArt acrylic paints spritzed with water.

Combining other mixed–media products with stamps, stencils and more, we were able to create the most beautiful backgrounds.

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Die-but bird added to background.

It’s just so much fun and very relaxing to just sit and play with no end-game in sight. Your page may never be done or it can feel complete in a quick 10 minutes.

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Die-cut birds stacked atop each other create a colorful scene.

Art Journaling requires no art background, just a willingness to express yourself while playing with paper and paints.

Loving this art journal thing!

Teaching classes at the CoBACH center in Brighton came to an abrupt halt back in October when the center was closed for building maintenance. With no word on when it might reopen I decided to try the classes in my  home. I won’t lie, it’s been cozy but it’s also been fun and rewarding.

My most popular has been my Art Journal sessions. I never thought I could enjoy something as much as this form of free-form crafting. It’s a way to incorporate products you most likely already have and chances are haven’t used much.

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From Art Journal-Fly Away

My Art Journal classes are offered in four-week sessions. Each week I teach a different technique and the students play with that technique, experimenting to make it their own. They’re able to see how other products they may have at home or items found around the house can be worked into their art journal.

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It’s fun to watch the students grow each week and become a little more free in their interpretations of the projects.

We’ve had to limit class size for these but hopefully the CoBACH Center will reopen early next year and I’ll be able to accept additional students. The sessions have continually sold out.

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Heat guns, acrylic paints, tissue papers, glazing mediums and more!

In the meantime we just keep plugging along having a grand ol’ time right here in my living room where I set up extra tables, push the furniture back, put out the chocolates, and we all get nice and cozy to play and socialize.

Visiting the farm

Back in September the old guy, Rachel, and I had a chance to travel to Trade, Tennessee to visit our middle child/Rachel’s brother, on their small farm. A visit to their farm is like stepping back into a quieter time with a much slower pace.

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Kevin (River) and Sarina bought the 13-acre farm nearly two years ago. They packed up everything they wanted to bring with them from Oregon and traveled through the mountains in December’s snow and ice. They have some funny stories about that trip and I’m hoping someday they blog about their farm life.

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Milking goat. These guys are cute and friendly.

They raise Icelandic chickens, Icelandic sheep, rabbits and have added a couple milking goats recently. Sarina takes care of animals while Kevin works part-time and spends many of his free hours carving. Together they’re carving out the life they want to live in Appalachia.

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Icelandic Sheep. They have the strangest eyes.

You can follow them from their Facebook pages – Mezzaluna Farmstead and River Neff, website (where you can purchase their sheep skins or carved spoons),  or Instagram. They’re doing some amazing stuff and I cannot wait to visit again!