It's been a long time...

I have neglected this blog terribly over the past month. But I do have a good reason... I've been busy working on my drawing skillz. I joined Adriana Almanza's Doll Dreams community, and I swear, I have NEVER felt so artistic in my entire life. I'm learning SO much from her workshop. Ady is an INSPIRING artist and for the first time I can really say that I found my place. See, I've always felt creative. I always had that in me. But I never really got the chance to find MY place. I started Art Journaling, and it was fulfilling. But not as much as I would have thought. And then I found Doll Dreams. ALLELUIAH! I can truly say that it is fulfilling, more than anything I have ever done before. So I wanted to share with you my last creation. I am really proud of this piece, and it is very close to my heart.

Please come and celebrate with us the 1st Anniversary of Doll Dreams! Who knows, you could win one of Ady's giveaway!! =)

See ya!
Marie =)

All That Jazz

Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and the charleston automatically comes to my mind when it comes to Jazz. I am not a huge fanatic of this particular type of music, but in the end... I love music. So when I opened that Graphic 45 Curtain Call and saw all these wonderful 'jazzy' type of papers, I just knew I had to make a jazz page. I was mostly inspired by the papers, therefore I have covered my right page with different papers and started from there. For once, I completely let go and just went with the flow. I just trusted my feelings, my instincts, without a plan. Lots of black and gold, with some touches of purple, cream and black cherry red... I just fell in love with the end result. I am very happy to know that I AM able to just go with the flow, and let it out without any preconceived ideas. So I had a blast making it, and I hope you like it too. This just has to be my favorite page I have created so far (funny how I say this everytime I finish a new page...!).

If you're blue and you don't know where to go to
Why don't you go where fashion sits
Puttin' on the Ritz

See ya soon!
Marie =)

Black Bird Singing...

Blackbird singing in the dead of night.
Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Black bird singing in the dead of night.
Take these sunken eyes and learn to see.
All your life.
You were only waiting for this moment to be free.

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly.
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird fly, Blackbird fly.
Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night.
Take these broken wings and learn to fly.
All your life.
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise,
You were only waiting for this moment to arise.
-The Beatles

So I'm really liking how this page turned out. I've been singing this song since... Forever. I really love it to be honest. The lyrics are so powerful. And when I opened that Colorful Life paper stack by DCWV and saw those cute little black birds, I knew exactly what I was going to do with it. Today was a good day for me to make this page. Today I am feeling good, perhaps because I got some happy news about my grandpa. He finally got out of the hospital after 5 weeks, and multiple scary episodes. So what a better way for me to celebrate than doing a happy page?! These colors are completely out of my comfort zone. But then again, that gorgeous paper inspired me. If you don't have that paper collection yet... Go. Buy. It. Now. Seriously. Best papers ever. Alright, enough rambling for now! I hope you like this page as much I as do!!

See ya soon!
Marie =)

Search Your Soul

Search your soul, find yourself. Explore your mind. Let its creativity come out. Art the pain away. It'll be the best therapy to heal your soul. No therapist, psychologist nor psychiatrist will have the ability to save yourself. You are the one that needs to save yourself. You have the power to change things. You are powerful enough to make it happen. Because you are in charge of your own destiny. We create our own happiness. So go ahead and search your soul. Find yourself. And take control. This is your life, and nobody else's. Now that I've let this out... Time for me to put it in practice. Here is what came out of all these thoughts last night while arting away the pain...

Thank you for stopping by!

See ya soon,
Marie =)

No Art...

I have neglected this blog in the past week, due to lack of mojo. I haven't touched my art supplies in about a week now. Oh so sad. Perhaps it's because of all the anxiety that has taken over my life in the past 2 weeks. Perhaps it's because of that stupid month of September that I dislike very much. Too many memories, too many losses. I lost my grandma from a heart attack on September 5th 2002. September 8th 2005, we celebrated my father's 50th anniversary... He passed away from a heart attack 4 days later. Never had the chance to say goodbye. I was very close to my dad, and to be honest, a part of me has died with him that day. I am not the same girl since he passed, and will never be. How can one live a life feeling so lonely?! How can one live a life feeling incomplete?! I've been surviving for the past 6 years, and I am not sure I will ever find my way to happiness again.

And this year, during the month of September, my 85 years old grandpa (who has always been top shape, I swear he is the most healthy 85 years old man you could ever meet) was diagnosed with bone cancer. He is also suffering from anemia, and has now been hospitalized for a couple of weeks.

And to top if all, I am also dealing with some health issues right now. I am forced to go back to work now, and I am not ready. Not at all. Anxiety is now taking over again, and I am not quite sure how to handle it. But apparently, there is nothing wrong with me. Or if there is, they don't know what it is, because I don't talk. I don't know how to express myself, or express how I am feeling, therefore, they are unable to put the finger on what's wrong with me. Since there is no diagnostic, my doctor, the insurances, and my mother are forcing me to go back to work. They say I should be ok. Just thinking about it now makes me freak out. What to do now???

Oh please, pretty please, wake me up when September fuckin' ends.

Well Behaved Women...

... rarely make history. Oh so true. Who are the women who made history?! Mother Theresa and Lady Di aside, this quote is fairly true. Marilyn Monroe, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Janis Joplin, even Britney... All these badass chicks made history in their own way. And I ain't no saint. As a matter of fact, I've been a bad bad girl many years of my life. I've always been a badass. I made my poor mother sweat and cry and go crazy during my teenage and young adult years. And then I hit 25. It all changed for the better. My life is slowly going back on tracks. I'm almost 28 now, and I can not say that I am exactly where I want to be. There's still a lot of work that I need to do in order to feel 100% accomplished. I've put the devil to sleep... But deep down inside, the badass is still there. I don't think it will ever die. And this journaling page is in the honor of that little devil that is sleeping inside of me. But don't worry, it's still alive... ;)

See ya soon!
Marie =)

ATCs Mania!

Sadly, I haven't worked in my Art Journal since last Friday. Why?! Because one of my ustream friend, Jo, got me addicted to ATCs. I had no idea what they were until now. I started making these, and just couldn't stop! So I am here today to share some of my first ATCs. I have made 7 so far, but here are a couple of them! They are mixed media ATCs by the way.

Anybody wants to trade?! ;)

See ya soon!
Marie =)

Spread Your Wings page!

I've been pretty busy today journaling with my new craft supplies! I went to the store yesterday and bought a lot of stuff, so of course I just had to try them out today! I am really happy with the way this came out. Really really happy. Remember, I've been art journaling for about 2-3 weeks only now, so every accomplishment of a page that I like is a huge deal for me! Ok so enough rambling, here's the beauty!

I used a couple of different colors for the background, all acrylic paints by Americana. On the right side, you can easily see the stencil i have used, which is Serendipity by Momenta, and some bubble wrap for additional textures. There's also two butterflies stickers by Tim Holtz. However the left page is my fav! Look at that cute little girl! And those wings! I can't take any credit for that, it's from the Vintage Collage Stack by DCWV. OMG do I love those papers! I sponged a little bit of paint on her shirt and skirt so it matches my page a little better. I also used a sharpie pen to outline the picture (and I must say, I don't think I will be able to use that sharpie pen anymore, I've killed it!). And that's pretty much it! Not too many layers, I really wanted the focus to be on that girl. She is absolutely gorgeous with her butterfly wings! Oh the wings are all glittery too. I tell you, fab papers!

See ya soon!
Marie =)

Pin'Addict Thursdays!

So if you have read my post last week, you already know that I am a 'pinner'. That's right. I love to pin. I love Pinterest. And I always find some AWESOME stuff over there. So it was obvious that I needed to do a weekly chronicle about my addiction. I now officially welcome you to Pin'Addict Thursdays! This chronicle will showcase some of my favorite stuff I found this week on Pinterest. So enough rambling, let's get started right away, because i've got tons to show you today!

*Recipe of the week*
Buffalo Chicken Nachos by The Girl Who Ate Everything

Look at this plate. Seriously. I need to give this a try ASAP. It looks SO yummy. And I mean, nachos?! Come on!! The recipe is so easy, it's ridiculous. I would personally change the blue cheese for some goat cheese, or feta cheese. I really don't like blue cheese, but that's me. Thank you Pinterest for making me discover this website. She has TONS of other recipes that just looks delicious!

*Sweetness of the Week*
Strawberry Lemonade bars by K&K Test Kitchen

Hum. Hello gorgeous. With the summer coming to an end, this feels like the best dessert to make. There's nothing better to me than a cool glass of lemonade for hot and humid summer days. So can you imagine what a lemonade bar would do to me?! Alleluiah. Check it out, it looks really simple!

*AJ's page of the week*
Just Be by Pretty Days - Nessa

Look at these colors! So vibrant. Inspiring, really. I love all the layers, the stamping, the word bits here and there. I could seriously stare at this page for hours. It's usually not my style, the bold and vibrant colors like this, but this might just change everything. Gotta love it.

*Quote of the week*

I don't think I need to say more?! I absolutely adore this quote. Traveling is the only way to grow and it's probably one of the best way of finding yourself. There's nothing like spending a day in the unknown...

*Photography of the week*

*please click on the picture for copyrights*

Purple is my favorite color. For now at least! And this picture. I mean, wow. Is this place for real?! If it is, I need to go there. I can definitely picture myself reading on this bench... This would totally feel like paradise to me.

Want to see more?! Check out my pinterest account, I've got plenty more goodies going on there. It's been a very productive pinning week for me!

See ya soon!
Marie =)

Art Squared- Circles

Good day everyone! Hope you are all having a wonderful week so far! I'm sorry I've been quiet in the past couple of days, but that's what I needed for my sanity! LOL. I've been doing a lot of art and I've been having a love affair with my post office. I've been receiving packages everyday, and I'm lovin' it! Included in those packages, stickers. A lot of stickers. I ordered my Sticker Nation sticker book, as well as 3 spiral bound book of stickers by Tim Holtz. So of course, I had to make some pages with them right away! So I am here today to share with you my page for the Art Squared prompt of the week: circles. I gotta say, this was more challenging than I thought! But I finally managed to do something that I liked! Here's the final result!

So feature in this page: Reeves acrylic paint (background!), bits of papers by K&Company, The Clock is Ticking sticker from Sticker Nation 2 and lots of stickers from various books of stickers by Tim Holtz. I also used a stamp by BoBunny, and the ink... Again from Color Box. I honestly can not wait anymore for other ink to arrive at the post office!

That is all I wanted to share with you today. As I said in my previous post, I spent the week-end up north with my family. I saw my grandpa, hopefully he'll be able to pick himself up a little. His health is currently stable, but he is kinda depress right now, and he hasn't made a lot of efforts. The doctor told him that if he wanted to start his treatment, he had to make the effort of getting out of bed, walking around, go outside a little. So that is what we tried to do: make him move a little! As long as he doesn't give up, he should be fine. Hopefully! Alright, that's it for today! I'll be back soon for other pages! Thank you for stopping by!

See ya soon!
Marie =)

Someone's been Pinning!

Have you heard of Pinterest?! If not, please continue reading, and go sign up right after you're done here! Honestly, this site is absolutely fantastic. It's the world biggest pin board ever. Seriously, they should be in the guinness book of records! The idea behind this is that you can 'pin' pictures onto your pin board. You can have different boards for different themes. It is SO inspirational! And the reason why I wanted to talk to you about Pinterest today is because this is the reason why I started art journaling. I accidentally ended up on someone's board, which was an AJ board. And oh my. Did I fell in love! I really really liked what I saw, and instantly wanted to find out more about AJ. I ended up on YouTube and found Paula, from Journal Artista, which basically convinced me to give it a try with her tutorials. And the rest is history. Pinterest, allows me to get inspired. I see all the beauties created by people from all over the world, and it gets my brain working. It gives me ideas. It motivates me to keep going. I'll be honest, sometimes I'm like 'Oh geez. How am I going to fill up all these pages?!'. It gets a little overwhelming for me, I always keep thinking that I don't have enough inspiration to fill up an entire journal. Wrong. Yes, my brain constantly stop working, but there is no rush. If I don't have any inspiration, I can just stop and get back to it at another time. And that is what I did today. Started a project, made a couple of layers... Then, brain fart moment. I just couldn't think of anything. I left it there. Came back to it later, added stuff to it... And then again. My brain decided to go on strike. What did I do next?! Pinterest! I needed inspiration, and I found it. I promise, this place won't fail you. If you're not into AJ, no worries. Pinterest can help you with some wedding ideas. Help you come up with the best recipes ever for that family reunion you are planning. Show you how to do that very cool bookshelves on your own. It can even bring you all around the world! Looking for a makeover?! No problem, Pinterest is full of fashion & hairstyles ideas! Pinterest will be whatever YOU want it to be. Be aware though, once you've started pinning, you might have trouble stopping. So now, what are you waiting for?! GO!! Start pinning!! You need an invitation in order to register so go ahead and request one right HERE. The system is sometimes really slow, if you can't wait to get your invitation, please reply to this message with your e-mail, I'll send you an invite. You can find me on Pinterest by clicking right HERE.

That will be all for today, I wanted to post some of my art today, but I'm being lazy right now. Plus, I'm leaving tomorrow. Going to see my 85 years old grandpa, who has been hospitalized for the past 2 weeks. He was diagnostized with bone cancer. But he will fight it, the cancer hasn't done any damages yet so it's not too late. He will fight. Cancer appart, he is probably the most healthy 85 years old you will ever meet! He's a real fighter! He's hospitalized about 2 hours from here, near our family cottage, so I'll be spending the week-end over there with my family. It will be quiet time for me! So I wish you all a wonderful week-end!

See ya soon!
Marie =)

I want to be...

Pretty as a princess. I really do! See, I've been going through a lot of stuff in my life in the past years. And I mean A LOT. I think I could write an entire novel based just with the content of my life in the past 7 years. Serious. I'm going to put myself out there here, and tell you that I do not really feel entirely comfortable with the way I look right now. I used to look very good, with a killer body. I am affraid it isn't the case anymore. I've been literally eating my emotions for years. When it was time to go back on track, I first needed to take care of my mental health. I needed to be comfortable emotionally before I could start getting back in shape. I am getting there. So hopefully I'll be able to concentrate my energy on my actual physical shape soon. So basically, I created this page because I really want to be pretty as a princess again. Those cute little dress, I wish I could wear them proudly like I used to before. Hopefully this page will keep me motivated! Alright, enough with the rambling and back to business! This is actually my very first '2 pages' project. I am really proud of how it turned out!

*the cast of character*

So here are the supplies that I have used to create this vintage/grungy page. As you can see, I really haven't used a lot! Absent from this picture are the standard items, which includes the Golden gesso and Regular Gel (Matte) that I use on pretty much all my pages. Also absent from the picture is the alpha chipboard that I have used. I really couldn't find the box, but they are from the Blue Awning collection by K&Company. I like this alpha set because you can flip them over . One side is blue, the other one yellow. Of course, it didn't match my page perfectly and I wanted them to blend in a little more so I have distressed the alpha with some ink! The ink I have used is from Color Box, the Chocolate & Blueberry set. I honestly like the colors, the ink, not so much. But that's all that I've got handy right now. I'm still waiting on a couple of packages in the mail! For the background, I have used acrylic paint by Reeves, a mix of Lemon Yellow, Burnt Sienna, Brilliant Red & Medium Yellow. On top of the acrylics, I added a layer of stamping. I used a beautiful butterfly stamp by Magenta and I went crazy with it. There's some butterflies ALL over the page, which created a lovely texture to my background! Then, I added the dresses. The pretty little dresses. I really love the way they turned out on my page! I cut the dresses from a paper I had. It's by Creative Imaginations. I outlined the dresses with my Mr.Sketch markers (which I totally adore by the way!). I also outlined my alpha with the same marker so it pops out a tiny bit. Next was the paper strips, they are from BoBunny's Napa Valley Wine Labels. With a lot of ink on the edges!! A bit too much... LOL. Oh well! And to finish off, I added my Pretty as a Princess tag which is from Love Notes Journal Cards by Cosmo Cricket. Also some pieces of ribbon, from the Savannah set by 7Gypsies. And voila, this is how it turned out!

*the final result*

*I like the left side a lot better*

I am sorry, I didn't mean to make this post so long... But I often get carried away when I start typing. In case you didn't know, I am also a writer! I hope you enjoyed this page, I know I had fun making it. Don't you just love those cute little dresses?! Come back soon, the best is yet to come!

See ya soon!
Marie =)

Art Squared Prompt!

I was pretty busy creating some wonderful pages today. I honestly can say that it was a very good day for me to get creative. Thanks to the girls over at Art Squared for the prompt inspiration! Basically, the prompt was 'Today'. Fairly easy! And here is what I have created!

Today I am artist. Which is kinda true, I spent all day playing with my stuff and making some wonderful pages! So I started this one with some green and blue acrylic paint for the background. The yellow we see on the edges was made with watercolor crayons. Over the acrylic, I added more gesso and made another layer with blue and green watercolor crayons. I am using the Neocolor II by Caran D'Ache crayons. In my opinion, they are the absolute best. And they better be, because they ain't cheap! But honestly, if your budget permits it, run to your craft store NOW and buy a box. They will never let you down! Also featured on this page is a stamp by Tim Holtz (it's the one on the right side, on the edge where the word artist is repeated!), a stamp by Stampin' Up (a simple flower), cardboard alpha by K&Company (which I added some ink on it, the blues of the alpha was a bit too bright for my liking!), rubber stamp mini alpha by EKSuccess (which is REALLY cheap, I do not recommend it!!!). I also added some papers, for more texture. I used a wite-out pen around the circles so they really stand out from the page. I draw some flower petals with Reeves' Oil Pastels, I used the black one for the outside and colored the inside with the peach one. And that's pretty much it! Overall, I am very pleased with the way these pages turned out! And I am VERY surprised at how fast I am learning! Alright, enough rambling now. It is almost 4AM here and I should be sleeping by now. Serious. LOL.

See ya soon!
Marie =)

A New Beginning!

OK so I came accross a couple of art journaling sites recently, and after about a month of watching videos & tutorials, I told myself... Hey! I can do this too! And surprisingly, I can. I jump right into the art journaling process and honestly, I have never been happier. I've never been really good at anything 'crafty' to be honest. I can't draw a simple sun for the life of me. Serious. But I've always had a very creative/artistic side to me. I was able to explore that artistic side with digi-scrapping, which I totally adore. But I often think that it isn't enough. I need more. And I finally found something that I could do. Yes, I can actually do this! And anyone can. The thing that I like the most about art journaling is that you can do ANYTHING. There is no error. There is no right or wrong. And I guess that is what I needed. Something that allows me to make mistakes. Something that allows me to experiment without worrying about doing it all wrong. Mistakes can be covered up so easily that it really pushes me to TRY new techniques. I. Love. It. Period.
So here I am today starting this new blog, hoping to share with you my new found passion. I hope that you come back often, and that I am able to inspire you a little. If I can do it, trust me, anyone can! So please stay tuned, I will be back shortly with a couple of pictures of what I've done in the past week! *yes, I only started a week ago!*

See ya soon!
Marie =)