Back at it!

Hi friends and followers. I cant believe it's been so long since I've updated here. Right at 6 months! What can I say? Life has been pretty hectic. Since July I have changed positions with the company I'm currently working for 3 times, and I've changed locations 3 times as well. It seems now though that things are finally starting to settle back down and that couldnt happen soon enough for me. I've been really working my butt off lately. 

Along with work craziness comes stress and I've been dying to get back into the studio. I finally got the chance last week and completed an arf journal page I've been wanting to do for a while, inspired by the Sundays with Sandee series over at the Frosted Designs blog. Here is the inspiration page created by Sandee Setliff:

Here are a few photos of what I created. I did a 2 pager and added a vase to my table. I used patterned paper for the table top that reminded me of tile. For the flowers I used brown coffee filters. 

This is the whole page:







I hope to have much more to share with you soon. I'm officially #backatit in the studio creating. It feels so great to get some fun time in. I have lots of things planned for the summer so stay tuned! Here are some sneaks of my ideas:

Dollar Store revamped wedding cards for all those weddings you're attending!
Mermaid drift wood beachouse sign
Tim's Tags of 2015, I've got to catch up!
More art journaling
Bottlecap windchime
Scrappy pages
Father's day shadow box
Mixed media canvases

That is about all for now! Thanks for reading!
Until next time- VV

All about Mountains!

Hi friends! I hope you've had a good start to your week. I have been off for the last 2 days and have been super busy...cleaning house, getting ready for showings, going to check on our new place that we get to move into in less than 2 weeks! I did get a little time to myself too, yesterday I went for my first solo hike since we've been in Oregon, just a short easy one in Mt Tabor park, but it was very refreshing and renewing, felt good to get some sunshine on my face! It has been super wet here latley. I also got a little free time today to start my next art journaling page. I was once again inspired by Sundays with Sandee over on the FD blog, if you haven't had the chance yet to watch her videos, you have to check them out! As soon as I saw  her pipette painting tutorial I knew I had to try it. I ordered a few more supplies from the Frosted Designs store, and in less than a week I was on my way! I also challenged my Aunt Vicki, who is my lifelong creative inspiration (very much like my mom!) to try it out. We are supposed to share our creations next week when we do our monthly facetime chat. I couldnt wait till then to share cause I was so proud of how it turned out, so here it is:

Also it doesn't hurt that this is probably my favorite Dr. Seuss quote of all time....

"Today is YOUR Day, Your Mountain is waiting, so GET on Your WAY!"

I used basically the same technique as Sandee did for my rough lines. I didn't remember to gesso the paper first or anything though so intial ink colors spread a little more than I hoped. At first I didn't think I would like it, it took a long time to try and I think I used too much water, but after I went back over the lines several times with a fine tip marker it grew on me. I also gesso'd the back of the pages cause they were worn so thin from me painting and smearing..that also took a while to dry and i tried my heat gun...needless to say I'm not a super patient person! LOL! I had to cover over a few places on the back too with tissue tape just to make sure the front wouldn't tear through....not really sure what I will end up doing with those pages, but I will know next time to gesso first!!

This is what the back of the page looks like, the inks bled through even after I gesso'd. It kind of made a need look but for functuatlity purposes I had to add the tissue tape.

It was good to experiment and try a new technique. It really gets your mind going. I have a few more projects to finish before I can start packing up my scrapping stuff. So excited for a bigger place where I will actually have an entire room to myself again instead of a dedicated corner of the laundry room. Plus I will have a large window above my desk!!! I am soooo excited for that, I just hate packing. The only good thing is that we hardly have any stuff compared to what we had in Alabama, we did a major purge before our 3000 mile trek so it should be easier this time. We get the keys on March 14th. Guess I better get going since I'm under a deadline.... see you next time! Thanks so much for stopping by todayI love all your comments!!!

Here are just a few pics I took on instagram during my hike, it was absolutley gorgeous yesterday and I am glad I got to enjoy it for a few hours outside!!! These are all from the base heading up to the 'summit' of Mt Tabor which is just a few miles from my house. It probaby took me about 1.5 hours to get to the top and back down on the easy trail which has partial stairs. It was alot of fun and I can't wait to go again on my next day off if i am not up to my ears in packing!!!

Happy Tuesday Y'all!

Be as a Bird...

Hi friends! Happy Hump-day! I hope you are enjoying your week so far. I just had 2 days off so I was able to get in a little bit of crafty time. I had hoped we would also get to visit the park again one afternoon but it's been really windy here and rainstorms coming thru. Better comparativley to the snow we had about a week ago, but still yucky out. I did enjoy some time in my studio, the more time I spend back there I realize even though its small it's a place that makes me so totally and completly happy, surrounded by all my fun stuff, usually a cup of hot tea or iced coffee depending on the time of day, my pandora blasting away and plenty of inspiration from friends and fellow DT members. Today I wanted to share my 2nd ever art journal page that I did last night. I haven't tackled all of them and the million ideas that I have yet, but I am going to make it a goal to do one layout + one art journal page per week for the rest of the year. I think I can do it. I think it's nice too to go between the two, art journaling loosens up your mind and helps your creativity flow better, which in turn helps you scrap a page faster when you have good ideas!!! So the one I worked on last night was inspired by Sandee's " Out On A Limb" post on the FD blog a while back, like I said I am still catching up, hopping around here and there, I don't have as much free time as some, but this page probably only took me like 2.5 hours. That's about how long it takes me to do a layout too, I'm not sure if that makes me a slow scrapper!

Here is the inspiration photo:

And if you want to read more about how Sandee created her page, you can visit the FD archives here: sundays-with-sandee-is-out-on-limb. She has a great video & pictures.

Here is my page:

I did use the understamping for my page like she did, however I stamped directly on to my art journal then used some tissue paper that I misted with inks & water then dried. I found a great quote that I did on the side after drawing straight lines, then I started coloring in behind it with gelatos. I wanted some texture so I later added the chipboard flowers and washi tape.

The birds in the tree actually came from some old Basic Grey paper, I fussy cut them then decoupaged it onto my page. I went back over it with various pens and markers then stamped my other musical notes and did some doodles around those. I went back in with 3 different colors of stickles: christmas red, fruit punch, and tiara.

I dont know why but I felt like I needed something else at the top of my page, so I stamped this decorative frame and stuck a puffy sticker inside it. It's kind of random but I feel like it gives visual balance to the page, so much for WHITE SPACE, ha!

Thank you so much for stopping by today. i hope to have at least one more layout and art journal page to share this time with you next week! Maybe even some stuff for challenges coming up....who knows. The crafty bug has bit again and I am so glad!! It makes me happy to share and get feedback! I would love it if you followed my fb page here. Also on instagram @khhollister. Peace Yall! ~VV

Word of the Year! my first venture into art journaling..

Hi everyone! I am very excited to be here today to share my very first ever art journal page! I have been influenced, awed, and inspired by fellow Frosted Designs team member, Sandee to take a leap of faith and try it out! I had no idea how much fun it would be! If you haven't been following her Sundays with Sandee series on the Frosted Designs blog, you should stop what you're doing and go check out some of her videos right now!! You can find them all here: http://frosteddesigns.blogspot.com/p/sundays-with-sandee.html

So one of the posts that really inspired me was her 'word of the year' page. I spent several days researching this new idea of using one word for your new year's resolution instead of a list of several things. Obviously, its alot simpler and easier to remember, but it's more than that. After much thinking, I tried to pick a word that would help me in every aspect of my life, health wise, work wise, etc. When I ask myself about a decision Im about to make I will use this word to help me make the right decision. The word I chose is THRIVE.

I think it's a perfect fit for what I want to accomplish this year. I want to get healthier, become more active, advance in my career, and accomplish more creatively. I want to stand up for my life, and do what's best for me and my husband, instead of taking on tasks or volunteering for things when I could have better spent my time doing something else.I want to ultimatley look back on this year in 2015 and say that it was a time of determination and strength for me to push forward to something better. I think so far it hasnt been too bad of a start. Yesterday was the perfect kick-off to what i hope will be a better routine for Jimmy and I.

Ok, enough chat, now to share some pics of my page. The first thing I did was take some gesso with a mask I have (not sure the brand) and put it over several parts of my page. As you will see, thru pencil drawings, water misting, and using my gelatos it created kind of a 'resist' effect which was a happy accident. I was expecting to be able to color over it and was really only using it for the texture. This is a photo of the first step, after I gesso'd then drew my base which was a 'rock wall. Originally I was going to make it solid but in hand drawing all the stones I found a natural place where a hole should go so I added it.

The next photo is after I colored in the rock wall using some gelatos, grey and yellow, misted over with water, smudged with my fingers, and then dried it. I also took out some of my grungeboard letters in this step and started to figure out placement.

The last picture I took before the finishing touches was when I began to draw in the vines. I drew them in with pencil, then used several gelly roll pens to re trace them in the later step. I also had already glued down my letters that were colored with gelatos then inked over with Tim Holtz distress stain in vintage photo. The sun behind the wall is also pencil drawn then colored using sharpies, then gelatos blended in.

And this is the finished product. I added the 2014 in grungeboard letters at the bottom which I covered in Dylusions spray white linen and stickles in Tiara. The quote off to the side is from a song and I did some more journaling in very small letters on the tails of my hearts. Mostly affirmations to myself about the individual ways I want to THRIVE in 2014.

Thank you so much for stopping by today. I really love reading all your blogs and getting comments. I hope to give you some bloggy love soon! Maybe later today after I tackle this laundry pile and go for our walk. Then it's back to the studio for more creative time!!!! I hope you have a great week & can get some creative therapy time in for yourself. Peace~ VV

Supply List from the Frosted Designs store: Ranger Dylusions Ink Spray - melted chocolate, Ranger Dylusions Creative Journal, Faber Castel Gesso, Faber Castel 50's Diner gelatos, water brush, Gelly roll pens

Other: Stickles 'tiara' Tim Holtz grunge board letters, Tim Holtz distress stain 'vintage photo' epoxy heart stickers, bird stamp from stash, Tim Holtz distress markers-bundled sage, spun sugar, broken china, antique linen, pencil