On agendas and painting

The end of the year is coming fast and soon we'll be in 2014 without realizing it! And I needed an agenda.

I like to buy myself nice ones (that cost at least 20$) because I intend to keep them forever (and when I'll be tired of that, I'll turn them into journals or collage books), except this year I am on a budget (a LOT of projects!) so I took an agenda I can get at my workplace for free. The cover was o.k. but nothing exciting, and I like to have a fun cover since I will carry this book around with me for 365 days! What I did is I printed a booklet Mary Ann (from dispatchfromla ) made for The Artstronauts Club (it is fantastic and you should subscribe!!) and took one the pages I liked and that would fit my cover perfectly. I cut it to size, glued it with a glue stick (the paper I use to print is a not too thin paper but I didn't want to get it all wavy because of medium acrylic...), decorated with washi tape, paint markers, glitter glue, and other things... It is drying as I type this, and I am looking forward to 2014 to use it and personnalise it even more!

My desk is always cluttered like this.

On another subject, did you know that I paint? Well, now you do! My main "subject" is portraits, because I love to draw and paint faces obviously, I think to look at a portrait of someone you know or a stranger, it is always entertaining to imagine what is going through their mind, what is going on in their lives when this portrait was made.

At least a year and a half ago, I made a deal with a creative friend. She would make me  a certain number of journals (that she made from A to Z, with the greatest paper in the world!)  and I would paint for her two portraits. The first I did was one of her best friend, and the other one I made of her. This is it.

My first hand-bound journal

This November, I stitched and glued and constructed my first hand-bound journal!

I bought the class of Mary Ann Moss from Dispatch from LA called "Ticket To Venice" a.k.a TTV. It is pure happiness: in this class, we can come along to her Venice trip and look at all her pictures, watch videos of her in Venice, and she also shows two or three stitching techniques, plus a very user friendly how to to learn how to make a journal (or a travel journal, since this class is centered around her trip in Venice), fill it, use it! I think I bought this class in October, but I first tried (and successed) making a journal in November.

It was a wonderful experience and I bought quality equipment so I am ready to make many more journals! Let me show you what I did:

Here is the cover of my new journal, I bought an old italian dictionary to use the cover, and covered it with a special wrapping paper.

I used the beginner's stitch.

This is at the end of my journal. I used a stamped flower to decorate, some paper from a moleskine pamphlet, washi tape, and duck tape

My first page! It reads: Productive day in the studio.

I used a variety of papers: some watercolor paper, some decorative paper, bits and pieces of this and that, and magazine pages cropped to fit the journal for the only purpose of writing.

Here you have decorative paper, covered by a smaller page of heavy watercolor paper, and a postcard taken from TTV class.

One of the magazine pages

Another

I've had this paper for years and didn't know what to do with it, until now!

And finally the cover of my journal!

I made my first journal smaller than the ones I usually use (I have a friend who made me several art journals) because I wanted to get back to the habit of daily journaling. I am still working on it, but I am so happy and so proud of the result!! I love using a journal that I made myself, it adds so much to the experience!

Coming back from Mexico

What a trip it was! And now, we're already in november, and it might snow today. Time goes by fast.

My trip to Mexico was amazing, and sometimes stressing (but that's just me who stresses too much). It was hot, sunny everyday (it only rained two times, for 15 minutes each time!), it was exotic, the food was excellent, and I had a great time. I went there with my brother (I also live with him so we made the entire trip together), my father, his girlfriend and her son, who is approximately my age. My brother and I stayed a week only, and I think it was enough for a first time there. I had so many objectives before I went, like how many pictures I would take, how I would draw everyday, bring so many special memories, buy gifts for everyone..... Well, it didn't happened exactly as I planned. First, it was HOT. And humid. So humid! I didn't do very well in the hot and humid temperature, I just felt tired all day everyday (except when we went shopping to Playa del Carmen, I don't know why that is....), and didn't have as much energy as I would have liked to do all my creative things. I did try to write everyday though, but the last 3 days or so I didn't write much, or at all. I'm happy with the pictures I brought back, but I feel I don't have enough! But the essential is there, at least.

Here, a couple of pictures for you to enjoy!

At our airport gate, there was this sign... Ohh Starbucks! Oppened at 4h30 am if I remember correctly!

One of many breakfast

La playa

Drink: Coco Loco

La cerveza... was even better because the temperature was so hot!

Lobby of one of the hotels

Playa del Carmen

Cigars

Another playa

My hat. I actually left it at the hotel when I came back. Not sure why.

Morning writing, before breakfast

 View from the dining room!

one of the pools

Margarita, oh my.

My father and a street musician, it was beautiful! I don't remember what he played.

Loved this store, didn't go inside I think.

The moment I should have stopped and buy some skulls

Regular sight on la playa

We spent a day on a catamaran (big boat), it was fun!

Going to Mexico

In two weeks, I'm going to Mexico with my family, to a resort where everything is already paid for. I've never been in such a trip before, so I'm getting ready by looking for traveling tips and tricks online, reading reviews of the resort, and of course I'm preparing my travel journal!

I don't have an "I always do this or that" because I don't travel that often, but I do always have a journal in progress. So, since my budget is restricted right now, I decided to use a new journal that I already have. This is a pocket sketchbook Moleskine:

I have not yet decided if I am going to glue something on the cover or not, but I intend while I'm there to bring it with me wherever and write and draw as much as possible, and also collect different ephemera to glue in later.

Here are a few other pages:

As you can see, I painted some pages with acrylic craft paint, to give color and a certain grip to the texture of the page. I also glued in some pieces of paper with washi tape to add little pages, and some magazine pictures (the Corona ad). I have a punch (Fiskars) to make the holes in the corners of the pages, witch I love it is very decorative!

I will bring a selection of pens, two water brushes and a small kit for my watercolor. I don't find the picture so I will show you the kit later, but here is a sample of colors I have and mixed only with this kit:

Thank you for visiting, and don't hesitate to leave a comment! :)