Goal Book ~ So It Begins...

I figured I would do a stand alone post for this one.  I've officially started my Weekly Goal Book and thought I would share it with you.  By posting it here on my blog it will give me a bit of accountability to stick with it, I hope.

I've had this sketch book for a while and have been stain pages and trying to use different inks for junk journaling and art journaling for a while but didn't really have a purpose...now I do.  You can see the edges are starting to change because of the inks and dyes and I think that is completely fine.  I want it to be pretty funky.  The outside is fabric so it's soaking up the liquid pretty well.

Here's a blank page - randomly - in the book that I will use down the road so  you can see that each page will be different. 

I receive daily emails from DailyOm.com and last week they sent me this quote and it pushed me over the edge to finally start this project.

"Take the time to reclaim your creativity and watch your life blossom as a result."

 So this is my very first page...my first week!  What do you think?  Yes...I think the penmanship is a little rushed but I'm ok with that for the first one.  I am looking forward to seeing things change each week.  I found a small photo and the width of it was perfect and decided to use it at the bottom of the page.  Plus the colors match up with what I already had on the page.  I used mostly alcohol inks and Tattered Angels spray for this page background.  I used a glue stick in certain spots and used a very fine clear glitter to accent it.  I scribbled a hand drawn line boarder around the page, too.  And finally jotted down 5 goals I would like to focus on this week.  Some people say if you hand write your goals you are a more apt to do them VS typing them or saying them.  I want to write at least 5 articles (or Uplifters) for The Raw Food World News site this week.  I sort of slacked during the month of September.  I want to make at least 1 veganized World Food dish this week.  Eventho I started this Goal Book this week I still want to start a Vision Board, too!  So I added that one to the list.  I want to at least start it.  Then I want to Breathe more and Smile more this week!

Blissful Crafting Journey ~ More Mixed Media Tags

It's been a while since I've posted about my Crafting Projects...I have many of them on tap to share with you!  I sort of went on a streak with Mixed Media including Alcohol Inks, Distress Inks, and Distress Stains for a while.  This is one of the 40 or so I did.

This one is really neat because of the fading in and out color and it's mostly the Alcohol Inks with Powdered Chalk in Water.  I mixed it up and used a spray bottle to force the color around and let it naturally dry where ever the color laid from there. 

The color kind of reminds me of a Gas/Oil Drip you might see in the Parking Lot of a Gas Station.

This 2nd Tag is similar with the Alcohol Inks and Powdered Chalks in Water by spraying it.  I also used some of the shade of brown in the Distress Stains from Tim Holtz/Ranger Ink.  You'll see in the bottom left hand corner of this tag that I also added some Glitter to it, too.  This dried naturally with the other mediums.

I have a thought - I might add some grunge inked rubber stamp backgrounds to this one - but I don't want to screw up the subtle glitter at the bottom - so I've been on the fence about it.  What do you think!?

Speaking of inked Rubber Stamps...this 3rd photo will show you one that I have already done.  I used Dress Stains and Powdered Chalk - both DRY - and distressed by smushing and smudging.  I applied more Powder Chalk and lightly spritzed with plain water.  After it dried I used 2 different Clear Acrylic Stamps - on with the Cardinal and the other with the Sentiment.

I made this one with my husband's Grandmother in mind...she LOVES Cardinals.  It might be a little too Earth-Toned for her regular color tastes but I think the Cardinal Image Tramps the color.

This next one resembles rust, I think.

I did the Distress Stains - DRY - and then sprayed water and dried again.  I filled in with watered down Alcohol Inks and dried again and then the Distress Stains - dried - and spritzed with water and dried one more time.

I might try and do a Paper Piecing and/or Grunge or Art Journaling/Junk Journaling with this one in some way, shape, or form.

Next up...this spotty blue one...

It's pretty easy-peasy, really!  I just used the Alcohol Inks with a bit of water and dried.

I left some of the base paper color exposed on purpose.  I figured less is sometimes more.

I often have problems sticking to that but it seemed to work here!

And...LAST...but certainly NOT least...because I have like 30 more tags I could post but will wait another day!

This one is a combination of Alcohol and Distress Inks and Stains, Powdered Chalk, Water, Hair Spray - all dried - and then I smeared DRY Glitzy Powder Chalk over top of it for the finish.

I like the way you can see the paths that the water took with the color in this one...where it has moved and run a bit.  I also like the glitzy finish.

So there you have it!  A few Artsy pics and posts for you!  What do you think!?  Which are your favorites?  I will be posting another project in the near future using the inks and stains on a full page of card stock so be on the look out for that, too!