"Mixing It Up" Loves Cottonwood Arts Blog Hop!!!

Welcome to the Mixing it Up loves Cottonwood Arts blog hop!

This is a closed blog hop just for the members of the Mixing it Up Every Day Face Book group so that we can get to know each other better.  Having said that, if you are not in our group, please feel free to leave a comment anyway and come join us over on Face Book. We would love to get to know you better too.  :)  Here's are the links to every ones blog, remember in order to have a chance to win the prize package from Cottonwood Arts you must: Be a blog hostess  and leave a comment on everyone's blog

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Sandee Setliff http://inthehillsofnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/
Tiare Smith Woods http://www.tiaresmith.com

Martice Smith II http://www.uneekart.blogspot.com

Tiffany Goff Smith http://southerngalsdesign.blogspot.com/?m=1

Anna Turner Ely www.foronemoment.blogspot.com

Cat von Hassel-Davieshttp://www.catseyestudio.us/

Terri Sproul http://www.terrisproul.blogspot.com

Sharon D. Estes http://grannyskornerstudio.blogspot.com

Betty Guffey Richardson http://artyauntie.blogspot.com/

Tommy Jo Vilello Anderson http://www.tommyjovilello.blogspot.com

Melissa Willard Edwards www.melissaedwards.org

Donna Simmons Lueders http://www.damseldesignsbydonna.blogspot.com/

Jean Marmo http://pagesintime.blogspot.com/

Tamiko McCurry http://mikosspot.blogspot.com   you are here

We were also asked to answer a few questions 

before we posted our art.  

Are you a journal hoarder? How many do you have and why different ones? Maybe post a picture of your journals. 

I don't think I am a journal hoarder... yet. (haha!!)  I only have eleven! Nine I play in. Two I haven't, because one I received as a gift and it's a duplicate of one I am already working in. I do love working in it, so I dare not give it away! The second is a new purchase, less than a month old and I just have others to work in right now that I am very pleased with.. 
Like this Cottonwood!  

I have different ones because of the paper characteristics and what works best for me.  I like to sketch.. Would I place my pencil sketches on heavy duty papers? I may truly go simple and use a sketch book or a line-less art journal  or some super uber cheapo book (which I did not include in my art journal totals).  Sometimes I may want to do several layers, as if I was using a canvas.. I wouldn't use my sketch, although i could glue several pages and gesso and yada yada.. but why??..I would just grab my mixed media journal.. or a heavy duty 140lb water color paper to hold that. 

 Anyway.. Different companies meet my needs different ways.. So I am forever looking for the perfect book for various things.

Here is a quick couple of photos of my wittle babies.

From the top is my Loew Cornell, Moleskine Sketch (unused), Strathmore 400 Mixed Media, a Michael's Sketchbook and two other Strathmore 300 Mixed Media Journals.. (there are other Michael's books probably in the car or hidden in bags.. but I rarely use them.. I won't count them either)

Here we have my Cottonwood Coldpress, then a spruced up Dollar Tree Composition book, a Canson XL Mixed Media, Dylusions, and a Dick Blick Mixed Media Journal. My largest journal is only a 9in by 12in.  I did not included any paper pads/books I was basically going to tear from to create smaller pages, ATCs or whatevers.  I also did not include any unfinished handmade signatures or junk journals (innocent look)..

Now on to my page.. ::smiles::

My page says:  Art washes away from the SOUL the DUST of EVERYDAY Life..-Picasso

Do I believe that??  TOTALLY!!  

created with Faber Castell Gelatos, DecoArt Media Gesso in white and black, Sakura MoonLight Gelly Rolls Pens and Sharpie (water based) paint pen in white and a cosmetic sponge

This is the first page of my Cottonwood Coldpress journal.  This journal feels like it's for the professional artist; the artist who takes his/her work seriously. This is the smaller of the two sizes available.  I will indeed plan to buy the larger one AND use it! The quality of the papers within it are supported by a kind of board, if you will.  So you are not just getting papers in a Cottonwood journal. The pages lay flat and there is NO BLEED through, which is a plus. You won't have to worry about any puckering because of wet medium.  You would truly have to saturate the page to see that happen.  I am very impressed with the quality of the book.  It's one of my favorite! 

 Can't wait to do the drawing to see who gets the Cottonwood Prize Pack!!  The winner will receive... 

If you are on my page and you have not seen the others, 

the links are listed above!

We hope you are enjoying the hop! Please subscribe to my page while your here and I will subscribe to yours, if I haven't already!!

Enjoy your weekend and thanks for stopping by!! :)  

MIU AUG-SEP Challenege

This was the Aug-September Challenge for our Facebook Group

called Mixing It All Up.. Great group of folks.. You can find us by clicking here.

The challenge that Sandee.. our fearless Artist Leader gave us.. was to tell her where we were.. during 9/11/01 and create a journal page about it...   In this case it was easier for me to talk about than it was for me to draw.  I saw so much! Hard for me to ONLY create one page.  So I will begin with  with this...

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On 9/11/2001 .. I worked for an airline.. and I had just worked a lot of OT because we had cancelled all of our overnight and first flights departures.. due to some flight regulations issues.. which could be a number of things.. they never told us what.. Then I was up the next morning ONLY to see this.. across my TV screen.. A skyline I recognized so well.. up in smoke and flames.. and it wasn't some marvel comic movie trailer. It was real.. very real... The only thing memory that surpasses the planes exploding as they crashed into the buildings.. were the thousands and thousands of faces that came across my screen.. wondering who they were.. what their story was.. if family saw them long enough to know they were ok.. Power was down.. phone lines were down from Manhattan Area.. for a longggg time.. all we had was the media.. I volunteered and went right back to work and almost lived there. We prayed with panicking people over the phone. We sat and talked and talked and 3wayed phone calls. As I worked I thought of all my friends who lived there and wondered if they and their loved ones were ok. I found out my godson was on a trip.. so every little black boy I saw...I looked to see if it was him.. well after he got someplace and called his mom and told her he was ok.. and would have to walk home.. and would take a few hrs.. but he was ok.. My friends who drove trains..were finally home and safe.. It took weeks to hear from everyone I could think of.. Anyway.. a year later.. and for a few years after that.. coworkers and I..use to fly to NYC.. to show people we we not afraid to fly.. we were not going to let an incident, although traumatic as it was.. keep us.. closed from the world. Nothing wrong with being an alert traveler and ALL TRAVELING is serious business.. although the reason to travel.. may vary..