Playing hooky

I wasn't supposed to journal today. My parents arrive at 10:30am tomorrow, so I have so many last minute things to do. I was supposed to get the kid off to school this morning and immediately head out to buy groceries. But while I was finishing up my coffee, I felt the magnetic pull of the book and before I knew it I was slapping down some images, stamping, and coloring with my crayons! Oh, well...it only put me off of my schedule by about an hour and a half.

And the thing is, I needed it. I'm thrilled to have my folks coming, especially for a nice, long 3-week visit. But it does mean I won't be at the art table as much in the next few weeks. Already, there are all of these plans- an aunt and uncle stopping by tomorrow night and Wednesday, Sean's school carnival Wed. evening, a trip to Vegas for the weekend. Art time will be at the premium for the near future. So it was nice to take a little bit of time and journal while I still have a little time to myself.

Nothing really new here...a layered acrylic paint background (yellow and aqua), some collage, a lotus stencil, some stamping. I did pull out both the watercolor crayons (used dry) and the regular Crayolas for this one.

I'm still working through Less's free online Cult of Stuff class (you can find it here if you're interested!). The first part was working with a new medium, and now I've moved on to the week where we focus on using real ephemera from our daily lives, instead of store-bought goodies. This should be a good one for me this week, as I imagine finding lots of fun stuff in Las Vegas. I typically work with real ephemera a good bit, but it's often part of the background and you can't see much of it in the page in the end. I love working with ordinary stuff, so I think I'll have a good time with this part of the challenge.

There's another new class/challenge group starting up on the same forum,  run by Moira of Crafty Moira , and the focus is on an art supply spending freeze from July 15th-August 15th. Moira is open to people making their own rules (can re-purchase anything you use up, or gesso and gel medium is a "free" purchase, whatever works for you!). Looks like it will be a nice group of folks supporting and encouraging each other to stop the spending insanity and use what we've got. It's called the 30 Day Craft Cleanse, and you can check it out here.

That's about all from here for now! I might not be at my art table as much in the coming weeks, but I plan on posting some of my older pages and such when I don't have anything new to share. And I do hope to get SOME journaling in while they're here...I couldn't go cold turkey when I've gotten used to doing at least a little something every day!