having fun with paint and a sketchbook

i'm having a nice time this week playing with paint and sketchbooks.  i'm taking sarah ahearn's online class "pages and paint" and it's just been nice to have time to paint and play.  i even signed up my two daughters for summer day camp and preschool this week so i could have a whole 3 hours to myself just to enjoy the quite house and my bright studio.  wish i could do this every day! :)

the above two paintings came from a fun game that we played where we took a handful of prompts, but them in a bucket, and blindly picked one at a time.  we had two minutes for each prompt and the prompts ranged from simple ("add collage bits to your canvas") to scary ("paint and scribble with your eyes closed")!  i love the results.  i found that my paintings were more free and interesting this way.  it's a great exercise in letting go.  try it sometime!

part of the classwork is to keep a small sketchbook and to take it out with you into the world and capture just every day life.

i made the above two sketchbook spreads while i was at a water park with my daughter (a park with a tiny water feature-like fountain...no way would i take my eyes off of her in a pool!)  i wanted to capture just the essence of color, shapes and sounds.

and summer is not complete without fresh fruit! especially cherries, watermelon, plums and nectarines for me.  so many childhood memories trapped inside the juicy flesh.  i just need to take one bite and i'm transported back in time to endless summers of the mid-1980s!

and this was just a fun exercise in using up all the scraps and tiny bits of paper left over from bigger projects that i was just going to throw away.  sometimes inspiration can come from the trash! :)  i love the colors here on the left.  i used them as inspiration for the page on the right.

happy summer, everyone!  i'm still hanging onto the last bits.  school starts again soon.  but we will be enjoying summer-like weather well through october (i hope!  it's actually been quite a chilly summer so far!)

summer fun & giveaway winner!

here i go happily journaling my summer days away. just a few pages-in-progress.  i really like to see the pages before i write on them. sometimes i like them better that way.  full of potential. :)

i just love mixing the craziest colors together. i don't think ahead, just play with whatever catches my eye.

journaling about some of our current summer happenings and catching up with photos from summer days past.  played with my pogo printer and used some photos in my journal.

thinking i'd love to get my hands on an old polaroid, but i heard they stopped making them and the film, too!  anyone know more about that?

and here we are, strawberry picking round 2!  we loved it so much that we had to go back with some friends and show them the fun and wonder of picking your own fruit, straight from the ground!  yum. so fresh and the smell is just divine!

we've been playing at the fountain a lot these days.  it's like going to the beach but without the sand and the fear of little ones wandering into the ocean!

how could i resist this photo of cute little feet?  our friends love to visit and join us on our picnic trips to the fountain where we sit in the shade and enjoy our little oasis in the middle of our lovely downtown.

oh, and congrats to LELAINIA for winning the packet of summer fun from my giveaway.  please email me your details and i'll get that out to you asap! :) (kinueko aT gMail (dot) Com) thanks for all who entered.  i do love to read your comments!  you are always welcome to stop by and chat.  my door is always open. ;)

HAPPY SUMMER!!!

pink and blue

working in my new journal the other day.  played around with a set color combo.  PINK and BLUE.  here are a few pages and close-ups.  remember to enter the giveaway on this post by friday. ;)

little green dress (and giveaway)!

my littlest one models her new green dress that i made for her the other day.  it was my first attempt at sewing an article of clothing and i think it came out pretty good! :)  (just don't turn it inside out to reveal all the funky stitches!)

i've always wanted to learn to sew clothes.  especially make them for my little girls.  one of my very first memories (may be my actual first memory!) is of my mom making a nightgown for me when i was 2.  i remember laying down on the floor on crinkly pattern paper so she could trace around my body to get the right size for the gown.

next i'll sew up something for my 9-year-old and then maybe even try to make a skirt for me!  it's funny how all of my latent math skills came in use while constructing the dress.  looking at the pieces, i couldn't believe a dress would be possible.  but i followed the directions and it just all started to make sense.  it also helped that i bought the kit pre-cut to size from this awesome etsy shop.  next up, i tackle a vintage pattern from the 50s!  i'll keep you all updated.

ALSO, don't miss out on a little giveaway in the previous post.  still open until the end of the week.  i'll send a lucky commenter a little packet of artsy fun just as a little way of saying "thanks!" and "enjoy the last remaining bits of summer!"

Colorful little pieces

ok, i'm officially back from vacation and getting ready for back to school (eek!)  i was in a little bit of a blog/journal slump the past week.  just didn't fee like posting!  but i had to take down that last dreadful post with the too-dark photo and re-do everything bright and up close!  hope you enjoy. also did a little blog redecorating.  i like it. :)

 colorful little pieces

 meaningful experiences

meaningful (close-up)

open

 open (close-up)

 the month of joy

the month of joy (close-up)

 hello my name is summer

 hello my name is summer (close-up)

 special

 special (close-up)

 curious (close-up)

 stuff i want to remember

stuff i want to remember (close-up)

the two photos above are of a mixed media painting i did recently.  i was inspired by the style of sarah ahearn and her new book, "painted pages." i thought i'd try something outside of my usual approach.  my first instinct is to cover the entire page/canvas with color and pattern and brightness and joy.  i like this more reserved approach with lots of white space and simplicity.

what creative adventures are you up to these days?  how are you savoring the last few days of summer? let me know in the comments below and i will send someone a little summer sunshine packet of fun.

beach boardwalk

shot_1310598148790, originally uploaded by kinueko.

having fun with my droid and "retro camera" app.

strawberry pickin'

shot_1311013882252, originally uploaded by kinueko.

our beautiful, fresh strawberries from a recent berry-picking trip.

sureya and her baby

shot_1310333716102, originally uploaded by kinueko.

my youngest poses in her kimono with her "baby".

summer photos

shot_1310333642735, originally uploaded by kinueko.

hope your summer is going well. mine is great, but it sure feels like it's flying by! i'm on vacation and finding it challenging to blog without my laptop. but i figured out how to post photos from flickr so that'll have to do for now.

this is a photo of my daughters taken in early july right before we set off for the obon festival in japantown.

they are wearing kimono-style jackets that my brother and i used to wear as kids.

Journaling page tutorial & summer photos

i thought it'd be fun to take some photos of my pages as i put them together.  i love seeing how others' journal pages come together, so i thought i'd do the same. ;)   first, i start by adding washi tape to the edges of the pages to create a fun border. there's no rhyme or reason, although i tend to use darker or bolder colors to act as a kind of frame.  i also add scraps of paper to get rid of all the white space. 

paper i like to use:  old book pages, maps, tags, tissue paper (LOVE!!), scrapbook paper, etc.

i fill in smaller gaps with tinier pieces of scraps (like the ledger paper piece on the left).  then i start to add smaller images on top like decorative tags, childrens book illustrations, playing cards, and scrapbook die-cut images.

at this point, i start to add more tape.  i'll add bits of tape to some of the tags and images (to make it look like those things have been taped in).  also, i add tape to the borders of some of the paper pieces.  

then comes the "title" or a quote in large stickers and stamps.  i like to use scrapbooking letter stickers and large letter stamps.  

i also like to include the date somewhere on the page and then i'll journal all around.  or i might stamp a quote or part of a journal entry or a list in the larger areas.  well, that concludes part one!  i'll have to finish the page and show you what i came up with in the end.

meanwhile, i have been thoroughly enjoying taking photos with my android and using fun apps to alter them to look old and artistic!  above, i've used the app little photo.  and below i've used urban camera.

urban camera is so much fun.  and it's FREE!!  you can choose from 5 different "cameras" to take your photos and you get these instant, distressed images!  you can even choose from taking pictures in black and white or color on most of the cameras.

i think these make my photos look so much better! especially since the quality on my phone camera isn't the greatest.

it also saves me hours of time in photoshop or iphoto trying to get my photos to look "just right."

and it's just too much fun! :)  i'm going to print them out to see how they look.  i recently purchased a pogo portable printer (EEE!!!) and so far they print out really nice!  (i'll share my experiences with the pogo in another post soon!)

so fun and mysterious! i love it.

hope you are all enjoying this fabulous summer (or winter, if you're in the southern hemisphere!) :)  here's to another whole month and a half of warm weather, sun hats, cute bathing suits, flip flops, swimming, watermelon, and everything that is fun about summer! :)