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So much to do and so few hours in the day!  That's how I feel.  Before talking about today, here's what I did yesterday.

I spent the start of yesterday listening to a great podcast between Julie Fei-Fan Balzer and Ronda Palazzari.   Julie has started a series called "Adventures in Arting," and Ronda was her first guest.  Ronda will be Carolyn Dube's and my first guest on Fall Fearless & Fly, the "art cleanse" starting 10/1 on Artists in Blogland.  It was so interesting to hear Ronda's and Julie's perspectives on fear of failure, and what exactly is success, as this is so much what the fall challenge is all about.  As I listened, I stenciled the cover of my new stencil storage book.  Ronda had a great tutorial on her blog about this, and I was so excited to try it.  I love how it turned out, and it's so nice to have all my stencils stored in one place!  I used regular craft and fluid acrylics, and am loving all the colors.

 

When I was done with the stencil journal, I had paint left over on my palette.  I HATE to waste paint!  So I smeared it into my art journal:

and layered over the background with Julie's Leaf Frame and Dyan Reavely's Distressed Harlequin stencils:

Smeared more leftover red and green paint on copy paper and then cut the papers up to make hearts, stems and leaves, to create this page.  Yesterday, I only had 3 students in my 4:30 yoga class because it was back to school night in our area.  Because it was such a small group, we were able to really take time and delve deeply into the poses.  I was able to give each of them a lot of individual attention and hands-on adjustments.  I felt like I was of great service to them -- I helped them get a better understanding of their bodies and breath through very detailed work.  They were so grateful, and I was so grateful.  And this made me happy.  Love truly grows by giving.

Two days ago I received a monthly package from Scarlet Lime studios, which contained a set of Maya Road chip board doorways.  I haven't used chip board in my work, and was a little mystified as to what to do.  So I did a little online research and found this great tutorial by Natalie Kalbach for this beautiful canvas:   

 

I took a canvas I had previously painted but didn't like, and added some stencils, sponging, splattering, etc.  I was pretty random with this.  I knew this layer was going to be behind, and peek through the openings in the doors.

 

Then I used a sponge to texture paint onto 12 doors:

I typed this saying:  "be an opener of doors...every exit is an entrance to somewhere else" using the American typewriter font and printed it out on white card-stock.

 

I added black and white detail on all the doors and windows, as well as some stenciling with TCW's mini-heringbone and mini-hexagon stencils (designed by Balzer Designs),  to add more texture.   

The numbers across the top are plaquettes by Tim Holtz.  I used "82" in honor of my dad - who is a young and vibrant 82 and still plays a mean game of tennis!  (I didn't use one for my mom's age because she likes to keep that a secret.)    UPDATE  - I want to make clear that this is my dad and MY MOM - not me!  I know it's confusing - I am lucky to look a lot like her!

I am busy setting my table and polishing my best silver for the Fairy's Tea Party on Sunday. I hope you'll visit me and all the other artists participating.  One of the commentators to my tea party blogpost will win an original watercolor - you can see and read about it here.

As always, Happy Paint Party Friday, Creative Every Day and Inspire Me Monday! 

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.