I love long weekends!

I got off work early on Friday and being Presidents Day weekend I don't have to go back to work until Tuesday!  I've had a lot of fun!

Did you know that February 16th was Chinese New Year? I did but I forgot that when I made my blog post on Friday. 

They had a local parade and celebration here on Saturday. The hubby and I debated about going and opted to stay home....mostly because I had been up since 6 working on a spread in my journal and didn't want to leave lol

This is in Dina Wakely's Media journal. 

I first put down some gel medium through a stencil. I then used acrylic paints in reds, yellows and oranges. I also added  Dina's paints in Turquoise and Cheddar. I wiped the wet paint off the stenciled areas.

There are some bits of newspaper (in Chinese) from a Sunday paper I picked in San Francisco over 10 years ago. It comes in handy when I need Chinese text (although I have no idea what it says....these bits are from the ad section)

The rubber stamp is from, I believe, StoneHouseStamps. I colored her with alcohol markers. The shadow on her right side was done with black Scribble Stick.

I drew and painted the lanterns. I tried to make them look like they are glowing.

I then borrowed a technique I saw in a video from Kristin Van Valkenburgh. Spread some gel medium on the page, let it start to set up and get tacky then lay down some foil. (The foil you use in the Minc.) When the gel medium is dry, pull up the foil and bits of it are stuck to the gel. I used it on the lanterns quite a bit and then little bits all over. I love how it turned out!



Today I was able to get back to my journal again.

I have been wanting to draw one of these Slender Horned Gazelles ever since I saw them on an episode of The Zoo a couple weeks ago.  

This is on a kraft paper page in my journal. I drew and colored the gazelle with Prismacolor pencils.

I painted yellow and brown acrylics on the right side and stenciled over top with DW media paints Turquoise and Cheddar.

I rubbed Distress Inks on the left and stenciled again with Turquoise and Cheddar.

I used Scribble Sticks for the sky in Night, Blackberry and Magenta. I brushed it with water to blend then stenciled dark blue acrylic over top.

In case you are wondering, there are less than 2500 Slender Horned Gazelles left in the wild. :-(

And I also finally had time to work in my Bullet Journal. Continuing with the March theme of ... In like a Lion, Out like a Lamb ... I drew Mufasa from Disney's The Lion King. I printed the images of Simba because I just couldn't draw him that small.

My daily 'blocks' are based on African shields. As I look at it now I may need to add some color along the edge of my left page. Hmm.

That covers my long weekend. I wish I had more art time and less work time but I guess I should be thankful since the work time pays for all the supplies I use during the art time. :-)

So, until I get more art time....Happy Crafting!