I am staying in North Bergen, NJ and taking the ferry over to New York.
The Javitz Center is a couple of blocks away from the Ferry terminal and as long as I have this I am fine!
Saw a huge peaceful demonstration while I was here:
They are part of the Falun Gong demonstrations.
I am headed to the National Stationary Show in New York. I have not attended this trade show before, but am excited to discover some new vendors.
View from the plane
and I haven’t been to New York since I was at Ranger University in 2012
I have so many collage papers and images and when I have some free time I cut images out. I altered a small accordian file from the office suppy store to file my bits and pieces in.
I used my Gelli Plate along with stencils and Acrylic Paint on copy paper to make the backgrounds. I glued the background papers to the accordian file usng gel medium and then added a couple of layers of gel medium on top to protect it.
I glued on an image and some letter stickers and this makes a great file to keep small bits!
Here is a photo of the file opened. There are 13 tabs inside labeled.
Labels such as body parts, ocean life, heads, household, hats, etc make finding images a breeze
Here you can see some of my cut out images waiting to be filed
Before I get called out by those that know me, lol – I have hundreds of collage papers and bits and pieces. These are stored in plastic totes of which there are many!! This small file just holds all the cut out pieces.
I was inspired by an artist I saw at Wynwood Walls. He made huge canvases out of magazine images. I sized mine down for my art journal.
I like the effect, I would normally reach for Paynes Grey or Black when blocking images but I liked the pink
I love to make books and when I make a painty or repurposed journal I call it my Urban Graffiti series
This book was made out of a file folder using tons of paint, gesso, ink and of course my gelli plate
One of the inside pockets filled with tags
I cut openings in the cover so that the images could peek through
You can see some of the tags peeking through the openings
This was a fun journal / book to make
Used some Tim Holtz stamps and dies to make this vintage chipboard tag.
I took a Seth Apter Spellbinders die and cut few layers from cardstock which I glued together to make it nice and sturdy. Covered the whole thing in layers of embossing enamel. I glue on some old findings and added a leather string. Now I have a funky new pendant to wear.
I was able to play hooky this past Monday and visited the Wynwood Walls project in Miami for a few hours. The Wynwood Walls is a community revitalization project located in the warehouse district of Miami. Huge murals and graffiti cover the sides of buildings and shipping containers.
What an inspiring place, full of street art both on a large and tiny scale.
Here are just a few of the photos I took. The images that were taken inside the walls I have named the artists but those on the streets unfortunately I do not know who the inspiring piece came from.
side of a building
Side of a building
walking down the street
on the street where Zak the Baker is located
these photos were taken inside the walls
Lady Pink
We ate at a lovely little Bistro for lunch – Zak the Baker, Avocado on toast with marinated tomatoes and red pepper. The tomatoes had great flavor and there was just a little kick to the bread with the flaked pepper. . . . . YUM!
I have a million art journal and canvas ideas running through my head and I left feeling very inspired and can’t wait to go back and explore the neighborhood again. I just have to figure out a way to play hooky again 
Close up of a background in my art journal. Love that yummy white (Liquitex Acrylic Ink)
This is in my Moleskine art journal. I know a lot of people think the paper is too thin but, this is my favorite journal to use. It just feels greeat in your hands as it fills up
In the store we use cups and saucers, the cups are for our brushes and the saucers we use as paint palettes. Repurposing something and making it pretty.
Just a gratuitous Gelli Plate photo. Can’t help myself. Tonight I used powder as a resist technique in between the layers of paint. Great Texture!!
