ARTFUL JOURNEYS - WEEK #47 PROMPT

Five weeks left until the end of the year, Thanksgiving is being celebrated this week.  Where has the time gone?

We are getting our first light freeze Saturday night (tonight) here in north Texas, forecast to be just below freezing,  and it is coming early this year.  I know many of our friends up north are already battling winter head-on with lots of snow and bad weather.  All the more reason to live in the south and southwest!!  You Yanks have 9 months of winter, we have 9 months of summer.  I much prefer short pants and flip flops to heavy jeans, closed toe shoes and sweaters, although I like to laugh and say in the winter you can put on enough clothes to get warm, but you can't take off enough when it is 105 degrees in the shade down here in July.  We usually  have quite mild holiday weather and don't get much of the real wintry stuff until late January and February, when suddenly it will start to act like spring again. 

As we are all starting "the big cook" and preparing all our families' favorite dishes for Thanksgiving, being thankful for all we have, we want you to stop for a few minutes and be creative in your journal, and just have some old time fun!



YOUR PROMPT THIS WEEK - Make a turkey the old fashioned way -- USE YOUR HAND!

Yes, you heard right.  We're drawing on our childhood this week, but we know YOUR turkeys will be far from child-like, and you will put your own imaginative spins on this challenge.  Remember to add some special memories of Thanksgivings past to your journal.  Get some writing on those pages!

Here's what we offer up to you for inspiration!

I had a lot of fun with my spread for this prompt, enjoying the childhood memories of making turkeys this way in school.  I started with a gelli print background that I had previously made, then played with one of my new "mini" gelli plates by adding the additional features.  I traced my hand onto yet 2 other gelli prints and fussy cut them out. One tracing was wider, on purpose, and I cut apart the other and tucked them in behind, adding some colorful feathers for additional effect.  I added the stamped "Gobble Gobble" with Stampin' Up's Tidy Alphabet blocks, added some doodles, outlined the "finger feathers" with NeoColor II in black, drew in the eye, the beard, the google and beak, added smudged NeoColor II around a few of the blocks and called it good.  The whole thing came together quickly, and it was great fun trying to think outside the box but still in keeping with the prompt!   I like the non-traditional color palette as well!  Thanks for looking!

 SHANA made another artful spread in her journal and here's what she had to say about it: 
"For my Thankful Turkey, using a pencil, I 1st traced my hand with my thumb tucked in then moved my hand 2 more times just tracing the finger tips to add more feathers. I the traced around my thumb for the Turkeys head and neck, but I did end up slimming his neck down but it was a good reference nonetheless. I then sprayed my turkey using orange and red dylusions ink. I went in with gesso over the ink to make the turkey the focal point and creating some nice muted color from the ink. I outlined the turkey using my Faber-Castell Pitt pen then added detail using assorted  Acrylic paints. "

LYNN put together this colorful and happy spread, making good use of her Cricut.  Here's what she had to say:  "I totally forgot we were supposed to use our hand so here is my Tom.  On the background I used the Viva paper soft color in Sunny Yellow. I highly recommend this brand of paint by the way. It goes on smooth and dries quickly. Since I forgot this was a turkey using my hand I wondered all day what I was going to use for my turkey and finally found a cartridge that had Mr. Tom that I could cut. The turkey, the gobble, and the eat ham were cut using the machine.Even though I didn't follow the prompt exactly, and I don't suppose it really matters, I hope you enjoy it just the same. Make sure you check out what the other ladies did this week. 


MELODY is traveling with her family out of state and was unable to participate in this week's prompt.  She will be back next week in full form, I'm sure!

I hope you enjoyed looking at our takes on this week's prompt, and perhaps can draw some inspiration for your own.  Don't forget to add some words, writing or memories to your spread!

As always, have an artful week and a very happy Thanksgiving!

ARTFUL CHICKS
~~Betty, Melody, Lynn & Shana


Interested in what we are doing? 
--Join us at ARTFUL JOURNEYS, our art journaling group! 
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