Astoria Rocks

Astoria Rocks is a thing around here - there's even a Facebook page devoted to these decorated pieces of stone. I painted my first rock today.

A friend recently lost her dog, Bear. She has asked friends to paint rocks in honor of Bear. So here's my first rock painting attempt, with my own twist:

Gesso layer

 

Printed a photo of Bear on Artist Transfer Paper, then ironed to fabric 

 

Adhered the fabric to the rock with heavy gel medium 

 

Adding detail

Life Book 2018 February Lessons

https://www.willowing.org/

 

http://www.wyanne.com/

https://www.willowing.org/

 

 

https://www.artsycanvasgirl.com/

 

 

http://theloveoffensive.com/

https://effywild.com/

 

More Art Journaling Explorations HERE

I’m trying to put things in perspective today. First of all, I’m happy that I’m keeping up with the Life Book 2018 lessons thus far (just waiting for some hard pastels to finish the current lesson), but discouraged that I was only able to complete a fraction of 2017 and 2016 lessons – less than half of them.

For that reason, I hadn’t bound those years. I had this compulsive idea I wanted to bind them in order of the lessons – and of course since some were missing I felt paralyzed.

 

So I pulled out all my Life Books since I joined in 2013. Not too shabby! I completed ALL lessons in 2013 and 2014, and about ¾ of those in 2015. This week I bound 2016 and 2017, even though they’re not complete and not “in order.” I will add to them as I finish the back-log of lessons.
 

I’ve also decided to back my 2018 pages as I finish them. It’s really time-consuming to do it at the end of the year, especially when I'm so excited to get started with the new year's lessons. I’ve always chosen to ring-bind my books, because I like the option of removing pages if needed (to scan, display, or whatever).
 

Seeing this body of work reinforces to me that ANYTHING I produce is so much better than not being creative at all.  

More Art Journaling Explorations HERE