"Year of the Doodle" Art Journal

Hello Dear Ones!

I began a daily journey in January in a wonderful new book/journal/planner/tracker called "Year of the Doodle" by Author Dawn DeVries Sokol. The paper is wonderfully thick and takes all types of media quite well. A sort of collaged/mixed media background has already been subtly added by the talented author and the days are numbered. It works for any year since there are no days of the week associated with the numbers. It was less than $12 on Amazon at this link:

https://www.amazon.com/Year-Doodle-Collaging-Mark-Making-Adventures/dp/161769178X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1476730269&sr=8-1&keywords=Year+of+the+doodle

There's a great book review at this link that provides lots of details about the book:

https://isniffbooks.wordpress.com/2015/11/02/review-for-year-of-the-doodle/

This is a wonderful way to practice creating and/or tracking your time. The link on Amazon shows an amazing peek at the book but I've added a few photos here for reference. One of the photos gives an example of how the pages look (rather like they have been collaged using various papers) when you buy the book and the others are my art on top of it. I typically start out by drawing with a Sakura Micron Black Pen (or pencil if I'm concerned that I might mess up with pen). I then use watercolor pencils which allow you to color with pencils (rather haphazardly is my method) and then use an aquabrush to add water evenly to the colored areas. The addition of water transforms the colored pencils into watercolor! I like to add more lines and texture with my black Sakura Micron Pen and possibly a white Sharpie Pen to finish it off.

The prompts consist of verbiage geared to trigger your imagination (such as: "doodle like the artist Marc Chagall" or "doodle a roller coaster").  There's a Facebook page created by the author where I post my work.

The idea is that the background provides an unintimidating place to add one's art. The prompts provide sparks of inspiration! 

This is an excellent book for anyone who enjoys a little drawing or likes an interesting background for their planner or tracker. It provides excellent art therapy and exercises eye to hand coordination. I highly recommend the book to all who are interested as it will provide many hours of fun!

Letter Journals (LJs)

LJs Created Using a Variety
of Methods on top of Junk Mail

LJs and Snail Mail - Hello dear ones! Today I wanted to share a "round robin" art swap group I joined earlier this year which included folks around the globe! I was invited by my wonderful, talented friend Sue from Australia to participate in this warm and wonderful group called: "Letter Journal Love." To build an LJ to fit U.S. Business size envelopes (#10) which measure 4-1/8x9-1/2," trim 5 pieces of U.S. paper (which starts at 8-1/2x11") to 8x7." Fold these together lengthwise, lightly stitch them in the middle with a very simple stitch using a large needle and embroidery thread, and you'll end up with a folded booklet of 8x3-1/2" which fits inside a U.S. Business envelope. This should also fit international envelopes. An alternative is to make your own envelopes and there is plenty of info on the internet on  that. We keep LJs lightweight to keep postage down and don't use organic material that might be prohibited from coming through our mail systems. We even add tidbits or treats of punched paper or stickers for the people we're sending to sometimes! 

The host of the group is my fantastically imaginative friend from Australia, Jade Herriman! She discusses details here: https://jadeherriman.com/2016/07/20/loving-letter-journals/  She's setup a FaceBook Page for the group to post about their LJs. To start off a swap, a person will use the FaceBook Page to ask for 3 or 4 volunteers to join them and specify details such as: will it be International or restricted to their country, is there a theme to follow, what are the timelines (it's important to know if folks will be away from their mailbox!). Addresses and the mailing order are exchanged using the Messenger App to keep private information within each small LJ group. When LJs are received or mailed, sneak peeks are posted on the "Letter Journal Love" FaceBook Page to share the beautiful art being passed around. Each LJ cover is given identifying marks (such as "Barb's LJ#1 dated --- to ---" - see above left for an example). The originator typically creates a place on the inside front cover for group members to jot down a few notes about themselves. On the inside back cover, the originator provides addresses for the group in the order the LJ will be passed around, as established by the swap lead. The inner 16 pages are for the group members to decorate. Members each decorate a few pages, then sign and date them to communicate those pages are completed. They may also doodle a little on other (incomplete) pages. The organizer can set the specifications for this - how many pages each person should decorate, etc. Everyone starts with an LJ and after being mailed around, it returns to them with wonderful decorations from their team mates!  

Tessa's LJ Page to Me

My Art Over Tessa's Page

LJs Shared Instantly & Decorated with iPhone Apps - Although creating and sharing paper journals in snail mail is a lot of fun, the cost of postage (especially internationally) and long waiting periods due to mailing can sometimes be frustrating. The LJs I mailed were between $2 and $3 (USD) each. Mail to and from Australia could take 2 to 3 weeks. An LJ can take 4 months to come back to you, depending upon many factors. Because of this, I I partnered with illustrious, gorgeous Tessa Wyatt to try something different - Digital LJs! We created LJs and photographed or scanned them then shared them on FaceBook (Messenger works too) and decorated each other's digitally using our iphones and some iphoto apps that blend art and photos and give us other ways to manipulate our art. We provided the finished products back to each other digitally, as well. 

My Page to Tessa Created
by Collaging Sheet Music
Over Junk Mail and Adding
Washi Tape

Tessa's Art Over My Page

Tessa gives a wonderful description of her process using iphone apps in this manner on her blog at:

https://tesswyatt.wordpress.com/2016/06/22/messing-about-with-my-iphone-apps/

This is a wonderful way to get instant gratification! We didn't have to wait days/weeks to work through our swap! It won't be replacing snail mail any time soon, but it's another fun art project to be aware of. My use of the apps was minimal but I think Tessa spent more time and created a much more sophisticated product - so gorgeous, don't you think?  I enjoyed this so much that I signed up for an online art class called "Paint and Pixels" to learn how to use iPad Apps and photos and create beautiful digital art from the wonderful artist, Ivy Newport! I've been eyeing the class for about a year and she just marked it down 30% so I was delighted to jump in! I'll blog about it soon but you can read more and sign up at: http://ivynewport.com/purchase-paint-and-pixels/   If you enjoyed my blog post, please enter your email address above where it says "Follow by Email"  to subscribe to future updates which will come out every week or two. I would also love to have you subscribe to my YouTube Channel (Barbara Hauenstein's Happy Art") at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCluMZdFIgDl9pxum0JfBDsw to be notified when I produce new videos. I have a list of fun videos I'd like to create aimed at helping you de-stress your life by enjoying Happy Art, but also welcome your comments on what you'd like to see on YouTube as well as what you'd like to have me blog about! Thank you for hopping by! :)

Inktober #02 - Prompt: NOISY

This is what happens when you mix up a mixed media girl with ink! You end up with a mixed media face in ink, ha ha! I couldn't resist adding a bit of inky color plus an acrostic-style version of the word NOISY. The story is that she's having problems because her neighbors are noisy! :) #Inktober, #Inktober2016

Inktober #01 - Prompt: FAST. (Inktober is back - YAY!)

Inktober is a creative challenge started by Mr. Jake Parker in 2009 where artists from around the world create inked art daily or weekly during the month of October. The challenge is to draw something in ink and post it daily or weekly and I like the daily practice! Here's my #1 for 1 October for the prompt "Fast": FAST IS RELATIVE. It's a real first for me - I don't remember ever drawing mules, ha ha! You can join in the fun too! Just look over the below rules (not many) and prompts. If you'd rather ink up something on your own (not follow the prompts), that's fine too. Then, post to your Facebook Page or other favorite social media and add the hashtags #Inktober and #Inktober2016 to enable searching. Please join me in this fun challenge! #Inktober, #Inktober2016

Inktober Rules and Prompt List

My first Inktober Drawing for prompt #1 "FAST." 

"The Circle" Daisy Yellow Workshop

I've been deeply inspired by Tammy Garcia's fabulous Daisy Yellow Art website at daisyyellowart.com for the past several years! She's most well known for holding a wonderful free creative challenge by posting 61 prompts (1 per day) during June and July for many years back where many people around the world push themselves to create art on an index card every day (thus the name "ICAD"). She hosts an associated Facebook page where everyone may post the index cards they've created which address the prompts or anything else the person wishes to create! Close bonds develop between thousands of people around the world as they post and sweetly comment on each other's family-friendly index card-size works of art, providing support and encouragement to one another to spur everyone on to posting for the entire 61 days, if possible. It's been a stress-free, supportive, loving place to create.

This year, Tammy developed a new paid workshop called "The Circle" at http://daisyyellowart.com/workshops/  ntended to compliment the ICAD experience by adding more than 61 unique posts to inspire us to dig deeper into our creative practices as we take our creativity to new levels. Projects include everything from collecting inspiration in an idea book to making circles into slices and merging pieces together like slices of pie!

This thought provoking workshop encourages deep thought about art and causes us to move out of our comfort zone and explore the hows, whys and what ifs of our personal journeys with the creative process. Like other projects from Daisy Yellow, we are encouraged to enjoy the process without worrying about the end result. Tammy has always pushed us up the mountain of possibilities into a new chalet of opportunities and now, with this workshop, has provided easy to follow steps to get us to that optimal place we need to go but never realized! The Workshop is online and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until December 2017. It contains many new projects and ideas. I've been happily enjoying working through the many areas on my own time and in many different media including ink sprays, pen drawings, acrylic paint, collage and more. I highly recommend this Workshop to the novice and seasoned artist alike, since it is a motivational, yet self-paced, warm, and welcoming place to explore ones art and the creative process.

Here are a few pieces I created that work to the prompts of "The Circle."

Video 002. Learn to Stencil and Doodle Envelopes - Uploaded!

I uploaded my second video on YouTube! The link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAv6GIlaAUk. I demonstrate how you can use a simple stencil to decorate an envelope and then use a black pen to doodle around the stencil - this makes it uniquely your own! This technique can be applied to art journaling and any type of foundation you'd like! If you like it, please click on the "thumbs up" icon and I'll make more!  Then click on the subscribe button so you'll be notified when I upload new videos. If you have an idea for other happy art you'd like me to demonstrate, please let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Video 001. Learn to Draw 4 Faces with Pencil - Uploaded!

I uploaded my first video on YouTube! The link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzmI5eP2DNQ. I demonstrate 2 techniques I learned in elementary school to draw simple faces and then 2 more that are a little more lifelike, but still fairly simple. If you like it, please click on the "thumbs up" icon and I'll make more!  Then click on the subscribe button so you'll be notified when I upload new videos.

My First Dozen DaisyYellowArt.com "Muse30" Creations

I started working the wonderful MUSE30 prompts found at DaisyYellowArt.com and on the Daisy Yellow Facebook Page in February 2016 and continued through March (see my 2 March 2016 blog where I first wrote abouty the MUSE30 prompt series). I became busy with family, travel and other efforts through May. Then more travel to family across the country and index card creations every day in June and July (Daisy Yellow's ICAD creative challenge). I've been creating other things (mostly greeting cards) in August but plan to complete the rest of the Muse 30 prompts starting in September. I invite you to do them with me! Here's a collage summary of the first dozen which I incorporated into one photo using the excellent app "Pic Collage" which thankfully works on my iPhone, iPad, and Windows 10 PC. I did one of my own ("MUSE") instead of #9-JETSONS, but followed the other prompts. I created acrostic style work on each prompt so far and plan to continue through the end - there are 30 plus a bonus prompt. I also posted this on the Daisy Yellow Facebook page (which I urge you to join), and my FB Pages.

ICAD 2016 is a Wonderful Memory!

I enjoyed another wonderful June and July creating and posting in Daisy Yellow's "Index Card a Day" (ICAD) Creative Challenge for a final count of 63 cards using Daisy Yellow's wonderful prompts and FaceBook Page! I completed 63 cards myself and thoroughly enjoyed participating with all the wonderful artists in the group. I was very fortunate this year to have been asked to be one of the moderators, as well.  The owner of Daisy Yellow, Tammy Garcia, is a wonderful creative soul and continues to hold these fantastic, creative events on an annual basis. Now that the challenge has ended, she invites everyone to request to join her Daisy Yellow Facebook Page to enjoy an artful life! Her website holds extensive free and paid workshops aimed at enabling the artist within each of us to venture out and enjoy creating. She has several prompt series that are enjoyable for all! The link is: http://daisyyellowart.com/  Below is a collage of all 63 cards created this year. They have found their way to my coffee table in their own photo album alongside those from last year!

Below is a peek at both photo albums - they go back and forth from my studio to coffee table, ha ha!

Thanks for buzzing by for a visit, please drop me a nice comment if you have the time!

*~*~*~*~

2 PHOTOS FROM LAST ICAD (2015)

ICAD IS COMING AGAIN THIS JUNE-JULY, YAY!!

The Daisy Yellow Index Card A Day (ICAD) is coming soon, yay!! Just add any creative thing to an index card, take a photo and post to the DY ICAD FB page (you must request access and be approved). I recommend you go to Office Depot (or Amazon) and obtain heavy index cards.  The link to the site (currently under construction) is http://daisyyellowart.com/icad/ More info to follow as we get closer but this is a short excerpt from Tammy Garcia of Daisy Yellow: You'll start seeing information about the 2016 challenge at Daisy Yellow in the next few days. We'll start doing warm-up exercises mid-May and at that time, I'll open a new FB group for ICAD. I will update the FAQ this week. The challenge will work as it has in the past two years. Thank you for your interest and for your enthusiasm for this wacky challenge:)

DY MUSE30 Prompt Series!

This is a journal page I just finished for Daisy Yellow's fun new prompt series, MUSE30. Prompt #3 is "TUXEDO." I used a light wash of pink and yellow acrylic paint over a background of old newspaper articles/photos I pieced together. I collaged on a gal in tuxedi'ish garb (which I altered) and drew some tuxedo-dressed pets for her to hang on to. The bunny and dog may look familiar to some of my wonderful Family members, ha ha! I used black Pitt Pens, white Sharpie Pen and Inktense Watercolor Pencils. I am creating acrostic poems plus art for each of these MUSE30 prompts then posting them on the DY Art Journal FB page. You can read more about this fun new prompt series on the Daisy Yellow website at this URL: http://daisyyellowart.com/vividlife/muse30-prompts

DY Lettering Tutorial - it's fantastic and it's free !!

Below is a photo of the recent post on this, please click on this link for the tutorial and read below for my discussion about it: http://daisyyellowart.com/vividlife/draw-your-words-doodle-letters-one

This is a fabulously fun lettering tutorial! I've been lettering for awhile and have never seen such a wonderful video for new and experienced artists! Tammy Garcia guides you through the lettering process - from a wonderful review of pens, drawing difficult letters, adding patterns and ultimately adding color to bring those letters alive!  It's perfect for spring with all the color but can easily be adapted and made more complex for fall by drawing leaves in the letters and coloring with fall colors or adding Christmas stuff and coloring with Christmas colors or - well, the sky's the limit! Thank you Tammy Garcia /Daisy Yellow for putting your time and talent into this valuable free tutorial - I recommend it to EVERYONE!! :)

DY Novel Approach Workshop - Blending Exercises #2

After an unexpected week-long trip to our beautiful, blizzardy Midwest states of Nebraska and Iowa where we had outstandingly fun visits with 2 wonderful sons and their delightful families, I'm finally getting back to this wonderful workshop! This exercise involved blending. I enjoyed getting in a little lettering exercise too :)  this is a wonderful workshop where the amazing instructor leads you through a fun learning process involving heavy body acrylic paint. You need absolutely zero drawing ability but this will also appeal to an experienced artist! You may do the projects and exercises at your own pace. You can find out more information about this wonderful workshop where we alter books here: 

http://daisyyellowart.com/vividlife/new-art-journaling-workshop-novel-approach

DY NA Altered Book Workshop, Blending Exercises #1A.

Some paint blending done on index cards! Posted on the Daisy Yellow Novel Approach Altered Book Facebook Page. I'm enjoying this do it yourself online workshop by Daisy Yellow! Link for more info: http://daisyyellowart.com/vividlife/new-art-journaling-workshop-novel-approach.

DY Art FB Page and Website

DY (Daisy Yellow) Art is a wonderful website, full of free ideas and prompts presented in a mix of written articles and videos. There is an accompanying Facebook page where you can peruse the work of others and, if you wish, post your own art work. The website has excellent prompts with encouraging ideas for doing art journaling/artwork. There's also a special area for children and teenagers, since young people are paramount in the life of the owner, Tammy Garcia, who has teenagers of her own. Although the website is available to the public, and you can sign up for periodic emails, you need to request to join the Facebook group, read the pinned post to view the guidelines of the FB page, then just jump in to this wonderful place! Tammy Garcia is a patient, kind person who ensures that this is a positive place to be. She also teaches online paid, do-it-yourself classes that help you get motivated and she sells beautiful, prompt cards and zines on Etsy.com. She's completely involved in the FB page and provides personal assistance as requested. The link is http://daisyyellowart.com/

Here's the link to the Facebook page. It's a closed group so, as I mentioned before, you must request access to join. The focus is art journaling on paper using prompts and info from the DY website. 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/daisyyellow/

Every summer, DY conducts a 2 month event called "Index Card A Day," with a different FB page where participants are encouraged to complete art on an index card every day and post their efforts - it's tons of fun! 

 Here's an excerpt about one of the two prompt series.

Prompt60 is a series of journaling prompts that will challenge you with sparks, ideas & quotes. My goal is to inspire and gently nudge to do something creative in your journal. The challenge will help you strengthen both your art-making & writing practice. The series contains a mix of thematic, art, creative & writing prompts, plus ideas for how to get words into your journal.

Mixed Media Morsels FB page

Great new Facebook page! Some great artists post videos with mixed media art techniques and you can view the videos and peruse the posts or follow along and try them then post your photos! Wonderful, positive feedback - a great way to learn more about mixed media or share your own talents! This group uses a small notebook or index cards or small paper to test out techniques.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/MixedMediaMorsels/

To join this FB page, click join after clicking on the link and seeing the FB page. Once you've been approved to join, go to the page and click on info, then files (last item) on the page. This will give you tips on what it's about and links to the videos.

DY NA Altered Book Workshop, Exercise #10: "93 Million Miles"

I based my 2-page spread in this second hand book from the thrift shop on a quote from a song called Beautiful Boy by John Lennon! This workshop provides an excellent introduction to altering books, setting up a workspace, and using acrylic paint. Highly recommended for beginners and experts alike. Lots of flexibility to add details - or not, so you don't need to be able to draw to do this and there's no prior knowledge of painting or collating required. Its pure fun applying paint with tools or your fingers! It's an online, self-paced workshop that will help to de-stress your day or make a great day even better! The link to Tammy Garcia's Daisy Yellow Workshop is at this link and there's a Facebook page to display your work or just look at work posted by others. Lots of personal attention if you need it, but very laid back and relaxing - no pressure: http://daisyyellowart.com/vividlife/new-art-journaling-workshop-novel-approach

DY "Novel Approach" Workshop - Blending Exercise #1

Here are some index cards where I tested colors and blending. I added some stamps and other decoration. I'm lovin this workshop by Daisy Yellow! Link: http://daisyyellowart.com/vividlife/new-art-journaling-workshop-novel-approach.

Link: http://daisyyellowart.com/vividlife/new-art-journaling-workshop-novel-approach.