ARTFUL JOURNEYS - WEEK # 7

MARDI GRAS, FAT TUESDAY, CARNIVALE -- the final last big hurrah before Lent for many people.  Another reason to party and celebrate for others.  A time when many cities come alive with people, events, parties, parades and debauchery.

Mardi Gras begins on or after the Epiphany or King's Day and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras is French for "Fat Tuesday", reflecting the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten season.

Related popular practices are associated with celebrations before the fasting and religious obligations associated with the penitential season of Lent. The date of Fat Tuesday coincides with that of celebrations of Shrove Tuesday, from the word shrive, meaning "confess".  (courtesy of Wikipedia)

You guessed it.  This is our prompt for this week.  Mardi Gras.  We want you to express Mardi Gras in your journal.  Make it bright. Make it bold. Make it colorful.  Use all the greens, golds & purples you want since these ARE the colors of Mardi Gras.  The gaudier it is, the more it becomes about this event.  Collage some costumes.  Make a mask. Represent this huge international event however you please.  Many people, in many cultures celebrate the last day before the Lenten season.  Maybe your celebrations are quiet and reserved, feasting, sharing time with friends and family and not filled with quite so much of the rituals that have become these wild Mardi Gras celebrations.  However you choose to intepret it is strictly up to you.  After all, it is your journal.

Please take a moment to visit the blogs of Betty & Melody to see their creations and processes, and leave some blog love while you're there.  Tamie's blog is still down and of course, Lynn says she is not blogging. Ever.

Enjoy our creations.  We had fun making them for this week's prompt.

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LYNN JACKSON - I can't lie. When I first heard of this prompt from the other members of this jolly band of chicks, my first thought was that nothing was going to come to my mind with this one but, as it turned out,  I really enjoyed doing it. 

I used Blue Bird acrylic paint for the background, and created some fluffy white clouds.  The south is always clear and sunny, right??   The letters were brown that I used my glaze pens on and found some New Orleans stickers at the local hobby store that represented New Orleans.  I just kinda tried to make a cute page out of it.  Remember, I'm still learning, like some of you, and I am sure having fun experimenting and playing!

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TAMIE RODRIGUEZ WILSON - Well, my blog is still down, and I am really missing it (um, did I say that? hehe).  Bless Betty for doing these posts for all of us. She does her darndest to keep us all in line (most of the time).  Anywho...  for this week's prompt I first started with a gessoed page and used some round homemade stencils for the effects.  I used all Gelatos for background. I also used a new circle stencil with greenish ink and placed red dots with a marker. Then, I glued down some gold confetti I just happened to have. Used apple green acrylic and an end of a pencil to make some more circles.

The dolls are from Xquizart Designs (http://www.mischiefcircus.com/shop/manufacturers.php) I printed out my word art,  drew around them with a black marker and added white dots. Glued some on some neon color butterflies and here you have it!

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MELODY ELZY - Melody's spread this week leaves lots of room for her to write and journal, as is her style and preference.    Visit her blog here,  to read about her processes and materials. Remember to leave her some blog love while you're there!

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BETTY RICHARDSON - This week was a lot of fun and I think I went a little bit crazy with this thing.  I'm only giving you a little sneak peek here, so hop on over to my blog here to see BOTH things I created for you this week.  And a little blog love would be especially  nice, too.

If you want, you can follow my blog either by email, on Bloglovin or recommend it to your friends on G+1.  If you follow, you will likely see these posts before they are posted to the group, giving you a bit of a head start.  Jus' sayin' .... 

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We hope you all enjoy our interpretations of this week's prompts.  We're getting back on track (with the conclusion of 14 Days of Love yesterday) with all our weekly prompts, pop-up art challenges and our Artful Tactics.  So stay tuned, and keep it artful!

ARTFUL CHICKS
~Betty, Melody, Tamie & Lynn