{points of two week #25: change}

Points of Two is an experiment in journaling with myself and Roben Marie! Check out our archives to see the previous weeks' pages.

I'm going to give you this week's theme in Roben-Marie's own words:

This might be too deep, but I was thinking this weekend about how much I have changed over the last few years.  I find that I have much more patience and find I am much more giving of my time and talents.  I am calmer and react so differently to situations when things are out of my control.  I believe that people can change and I wonder if there may be a way to reflect on our growth over the last few years or less.  How can we meld that into a journal entry?

I do agree with her. There are so many things in me that have changed over the past few years: different reactions, more silver-lining, less depression, more confidence. I tried to meditate on these things while I worked on my page, even trying to work through the different stages in my art as I created. Experimentation. Mess. Thought. Collage. I even used watercolors, which was my very first medium.

People do change. I've seen it with my own eyes, how, if you put your mind to it, if you truly want to change for the better, you can. And if you want to become something more, a bigger, better YOU, that can happen, too.

I took some shots while I worked outside yesterday. Today, I'm grabbing the umbrella and setting up shop. I can't think of a better way to spend a nice, long holiday weekend.

Here's my completed page:

Materials: gesso, pan watercolors, collage bits, liquid acrylics, white pen, pencil, pen, hand-carved stamp

And Roben-Marie's page. Check out her blog for her story!

{points of two week #24: trim!}

Points of Two is an experiment in journaling with myself and Roben Marie! Check out our archives to see the previous weeks' pages.

TRIM! I love trim. I really, really do. It's so much fun and comes in all sorts of colors and styles. Just wandering down those aisles of trim in Jo-Ann's or Hobby Lobby causes my muse to start jumping for joy and spurting out all sorts of ideas. Sewing it, stitching it, gluing it -- you can't escape the fun and joy of adding trim to your page.

True, true, in a journal, it may be a bit harder, and defiantly makes it thicker, but sometimes, we've just got to do what we love.

These days, scrapbooking shops carry all sorts of trims made especially for paper work, some of them miniaturized to fit better on the page. They come in more colors, with coordinating patterns, almost cookie-cut for a themed piece. Personally, I love the vintage-looking trims, those crocheted pieces of ivory lace, the sewn pieces full of frills and eyelets. You can find great trims at thrift stores, that is, if you're willing to cut up old tablecloths or sheets.

This page was actually created on the back of one of those postal service flat-rate envelopes. I just finished my current journal and haven't bound together my current one (it's all cut down, along with one I'm making for Norm!), so I grabbed what was closest and just started working. Gesso and paint reacted differently on this cardboard surface, even after a few layers, and I'm tempted to cut up a few more of these envelopes to bind into my new journal. I love working on new materials, and really love how things turned out on this one.

I attached the trims with double-sided tape. I find that works the best when working with ribbon and trim -- just lay down a path with the tape and press the trim/ribbon down along it. I've tried glue and gel medium before, and just wasn't satisfied with the results.

Be sure to check out Roben-Marie's blog for the story behind her page!

(click & go to flickr)

& Roben-Marie's page!

{points of two week #23: art bits & digital work}

Points of Two is an experiment in journaling with myself and Roben Marie! Check out our archives to see the previous weeks' pages.

A few weeks ago, Roben-Marie came to me with a proposition. She said that, over at the site where she sells her digital scrapbooking goods, they sometimes pair designers with artists to create some lovely things, and would I be interested? Now, if you've seen her creations, you know how amazingly talented she is, so I jumped at the opportunity.

And you should see the gorgeous things she came up with!

Of course, I just HAD to play with them. They're so fun and bright and COOL. So this week's pages were created with the digital bits Roben-Marie created. I love how different our pages came out even though we were using the same bits and pieces. It really is a great dichotomy. And if you'd like some of the bits for yourself, go on and grab 'em!

Click to make the images bigger!

And Roben-Marie's page. Be sure to check out her blog for her story!

And here's info and such for the bits ;)

First user save $1 on Art Bits!  Use code:  meandkira110  at checkout! :)

First user save $1 on Art Bits!  Use code:  meandkira210  at checkout! :)

{points of two week #22: nostalgia}

Points of Two is an experiment in journaling with myself and Roben Marie! Check out our archives to see the previous weeks' pages.

Today is hot, for the first time in a week, and I'm still getting ready to walk to the store for a nice ice-cold diet coke.

This week's theme was nostalgia. It came about when I told Roben-Marie I was already working on two pages in my journal, two Very Important Pages, and wondered if we could use one as a theme?

You see, I was driving home last weekend, and decided to stop at one of my favorite places for lunch in the Old Neighborhood -- that moniker given to the place where you grew up. So as I was passing though, I thought, "Why don't I stop at my elementary school?"

Now, I left there over 15 years ago, but the moment that scent of wood-chips and summer heat washed over me, all these memories came back. I couldn't believe the place smelled the same as it did when I was little. And while equipment's been moved, added, and removed, there's still the swings (now off to the left) I used to love playing on and the mass of connected jungle-jim in blue and orange where I broke my nose in 5th grade. Cracked, rusting, and soft at the edges from over a decade of children running all over, it still stands as I remembered. The bar where people would flip over and through their arms (which still makes me go ick!). The weird monkey bars. The slide. Did you know there are bars at the top of slides? This is a detail I conveniently forgot when chasing the leader in Capture the Leader up the slide -- I ran into it full-force, broke my nose, and slid down the corkscrew into all the other kids behind me.

My nose hurts, sometimes, as a reminder. It's one of those crystal clear memories I'll have for the rest of my life.

Sitting down to journal after a week + of not was hard. I had to keep walking away. I feel out of practice. I'll have to fix this ASAP!

Enjoy your weekend!

And Roben-Marie's page for this week. I wonder where she got that font? ;)

{points of two week #21: sketches!}

Points of Two is an experiment in journaling with myself and Roben Marie! Check out our archives to see the previous weeks' pages.

Sipping tea on a nice summer Friday. This week, I suggested adding a sketch to our pages, as I've been in a sketching mood. Roben-Marie was a bit hesitant, which is understandable - many people don't think they can sketch, and so, don't even try. But practice makes perfect, lovelies; five or six years ago, I couldn't draw a thing. And think I still can't. But I love the freedom and discovery and thrill of taking out a pencil and just playing.

And this page doesn't have much on it - not a lot of writing or doodles. But there's a story written there in the swoops of the pencil, swirls of a brush loaded with ink. It starts with me finally getting out of the house, drinking that iced chai I love, and putting on my big pink headphones. Grabbing a pencil and playing around. Shaping the eyes. Going back, in my mind, to shapes I've loved before, those I've hated, and how I wanted to reconcile them into something good.

Working with a blender that wasn't cleaned off shot down the coloring idea. I spread over white paint and spied an old painting from the corner of my eye, how I love the shape of the girl's head, and so I try again, over the paint, with ink. The eyes are big. The hair's odd. And while she isn't the best, she represents me getting back to the journal, having fun, not stressing about classes or blogging or painting on large canvases. Just getting in there, doing my thing. I started as a drawer; my first journal is full of the world around me interpreted through the tip of a pen, and I want to get back to that, somehow.

This was the first page created from my toolbox and suitcase, on the floor in what was a studio and is now half-packed away. Could this still work without it all? Yes. Yes it can. So here she is, a picture with so much written, the letters have blended to paint and shape.

And here's Roben-Marie's. See? She did lovely sketches! I never said they had to be of people!

I'm off to grab some tech gear and clean out my inbox. :D

{Points of Two Week #20: hearts!}

Points of Two is an experiment in journaling with myself and Roben Marie! Check out our archives to see the previous weeks' pages.

This week, hearts was the word! I decided to go digital since I had the perfect background already on my computer, a scrapbooking paper I made for Valentine's Day.

I didn't know how I'd feel about working in a digital manner -- I used to do a lot of graphics, and am kinda rusty. I also lost most of my Photoshop brushes when my hard drive crashed. So....could I create a page digitally that didn't look horrible?

I think I did a pretty good job for being rusty! I certainly need to play around more, let myself be and just ENJOY.

Make sure to check out Roben-Marie's blog for the story behind her page!

Roben-Marie's page:

Re: yesterday's post. I'll be putting up pictures tomorrow, when I've had time to sort through more stuff! Thank you for all the comments -- you have no idea how helpful this will be!

{points of two week #19: stars, stencils & stitches}

Points of Two is an experiment in journaling with myself and Roben Marie! Check out our archives to see the previous weeks' pages.

This week, we decided to continue with material/item prompts and went with: stars, stencils, & stitches. Which was totally a ton of fun.

For this one, I used my Tulip Fashion Graffiti sprayer, some papers I made myself, and a bit of sewing machine fun. I considered working digitally over the background, but then decided I like my handwriting too much to substitute it with type. What can I say? I've worked hard on creating different handwriting styles to work with!

Don't forget to check out Roben-Marie's blog for her story!

(okay, so i did use type for the date. i'm getting more comfortable with digital/handmade hybrids)

{points of two week #18: CIRCLES!}

Points of Two is an experiment in journaling with myself and Roben Marie! Check out our archives to see the previous weeks' pages.

This week, we decided to focus on CIRCLES! Which was kinda fun -- I'm enjoying working with a material theme instead of a content theme; it has me trying new things! For this page, I used some circles cut from cardstock and my black PanPastel to create the appearance of shaded circles coming out of the page. Shading with the PanPastel is tons of fun, and works so very well. And because of the way they're made/applied, you don't need to worry about fixitif as much!

(click me! i get bigger!)

And be sure to check out Roben-Marie's blog for the story behind her lovely page. I actually like hers more than mine this week -- so colorful and fun!