Parisienne Poster Language

Posters use language to convey a message to us giving us information about an event or place and, quite often, to sell us something.  This can be in pictorial form with or without the addition of lettering or words.  The use of art and lettering is often very decorative and we sometimes buy copies of posters for aesthetic purposes around our homes and workplace.  

So I thought I would do a journal page with two Art Posters that I have rubber stamps of.  Both are in French and I sorted some more of my Paris related stamps out and did a medley all over the page.  Once again I used Versamark to stamp the images but this time I used a much stronger colour of Pan Pastel over the top in blues, mauves and yellow.  

You may notice that there is a ticket which has the letters 'VE' showing - yes, it is Venice and the one above it is the ticket for Paris - the romantic journey on the Orient Express between the two romantic cities.  There is also an advert for 'chocolat,' 'crepes', fromage and other goodies associated with this city, the Arc de Triomphe, Tour d'Eiffel as well as some postcards and several stamps with the capital's name on.

I will leave you with my journal page

which I am entering into the "We will always have Paris" challenge at Country View Crafts (my first entry I realised afterwards you could not see the background stamp very clearly - these are much clearer) and also Art Journal Journey where we have the topic of Language from Elle.  For the latter you can either look at the language that is French or, as intended, the language of Poster Art.  I hope you enjoy.

Paris - The City of Love

Paris is known as one of the most romantic cities in the world, known for its cafe culture, art, fashion, and gastronomy.  People call it 'the city of Love' because of its romantic atmosphere and you cannot disagree with that description when you visit it.  

So for today's art journal page I turned to some older rubber stamps I have from the early days of my stamping life - Non Sequitur.  They used to be my favourite stamping company back in the early days and I think these were from a Paris inspired set with a stamp I got from somewhere else making the background.  The background was stamped in Versamark and then I rubbed Pan Pastels over the top and the images were stamped and clear embossed.  The vase was embossed with gold and the ferns used two different colours of Versafine Claire stamp pads.  To add more interest to the page I cut four corner pieces from gold mirri card using Spellbinders Parisian Elements.

I am entering this into Art Journal Journey, where the theme is "Language" as set by Elle who goes on to say that this can be interpreted many ways.  I thought that I would set my page in Paris and show the love between a dog and his mistress, as opposed to a man and woman.  They say man's best friend is his dog but I think there can be great affection shown by a dog to his female owner and I do think this pair of stamps depicts that.  So my page is depicting the "Language of Love".

I notice that Jo has done a Parisian page for her journal also and it is used as inspiration by Country View Crafts for their monthly challenge so I am entering this page into that also.  I just hope the words "Paris sera toujours Paris" (Paris will always be Paris)" show up enough for this challenge.

Jeudi Journal - Some Day

I think this will probably be the last of my entries for Art Journal Journey this month.  I so enjoyed Eileen's theme of "inspired by ..." which has attracted over 140 entries.  Sadly Eileen passed before her theme was published but the team decided to go ahead with it in her memory and Erika and Chris have co-hosted throughout the month.  Thank you ladies, I have so enjoyed what I have been doing.

Today the Challenge I do with Wendy uses the quote "Some day you'll go far, and I hope you stay there" - not very nice is it?  I decided to do something quite different to what I usually do and use up some of the Dylusion figures that are difficult to match up with bodies and to use some collage papers as well.  These are from one of the Dina Wakley books that a friend once bought me and which I have not used before.  I divided my page up into three vertical strips and put some paint on the centre one and made a quick border with some scribble to decorate it.  The two sides were split up and I filled them with curved pieces using Dyan's acrylic block which has a lovely curve to it.  Then I used some Whipped Spackle through the 'Diamonds in the Rough' stencil, and the stars and the arrows ones - all Dylusions - drawing around them with a black pen.  As you can no doubt guess this page was definitely inspired by Dylusions products.

The story goes "Jane was a bit of a dreamer, a lovely girl who worked hard to better herself at every opportunity.  She had not had the best start in life but she was determined that she was going to go somewhere with her life and become someone her old school teachers would be proud of.  She had taken herself off to evening classes, after leaving school with very little in the way of qualifications, and had studied hard resulting in getting good grades in all the examinations she took.

Her friend Edwina was not ambitious like Jane and could not understand why Jane was not always ready to go out clubbing or simply hanging around with the gang.  She wasn't anything like Jane, in fact she could be quite spiteful at times.  Often their friendship suffered as Edwina could turn quite nasty if things did not go her way or if she felt that she was not number one as far as Jane was concerned.

Matters came to a head the night that they had gone out celebrating Jane having got three "A" levels, all with very good grades.  The other girls were making quite a fuss of her and everyone was laughing and joking about Jane going on to university and how she might become the Prime Minister one day.  Edwina did not like it, she wanted to be the centre of attraction not Jane.  Her eyes darkened, as they often did when she was in one of her moods and she surprised the others when she suddenly turned on Jane and shouted "Some day you'll go far and I hope you stay there".

Aghast the others turned to look at her, poor Jane put her hands up to her face and looked so sad, she had not thought her friend could ever be so mean to her, but Edwina just tilted her head on one side, put on the stare that only she could perfect and looked long and hard at them all."

Art Journal Journey - Squeezing a Circle In

We went away again for a couple of days hoping to catch some nice weather before it turned cold.  We had to come home today as we were expecting a delivery and when it turned wet on Tuesday I spent the afternoon colouring in some circles I had stamped using another of Tracy Scott's stamps for Paper Artsy.

My coloured pencils have helped me so much as when I can't do much because of this back pain I can sit on my chair with the heat pad on my back and just gently colour in.  I have so many Janet Klein and Dylusion figures already done that it has been a joy to colour something else for a change.   Art Journal Journey has made that so easy with Eileen's theme of "Inspired by ...", co-hosted by Erika and Chris because Eileen had passed before the Team had chance to put it forward but they decided to honour her memory by continuing with it in her name.

Just of late I got a little carried away with my colouring and I have definitely been inspired to fill my journal with pages where I used coloured pencils as my medium of choice.  One person who certainly inspires me to use my pencils is Miranda whom I have mentioned previously as she does the most beautiful artwork using Derwent products.  I would love to be able to use them as skilfully as she does but even so I get so much enjoyment just playing around with colour.

On Monday we went for a walk in the park and explored a part of it in more detail than we have done in the past.  We came across this tree.  I was fascinated by it's structure.  How had this trunk happened to grow like this?  My first thought was that it had been struck by lightening and divided into two but on looking around I noticed that the other trees also had divided trunks although none lying on the ground as this one was.  I have not found out what it is as yet but the cone type structures on the end of the branches might be a clue to someone - Erika?

WOYWW 621

 I thought I had done this in advance - obviously not as it is  Tuesday night and I am flicking the keys like crazy.  We have been away for a few days and I was certain I had done a rough draft of my blog for Wednesday and "What's on Your Workdesk".

I've just taken this photo as I am making a couple of cards in a hurry.  I've just taken a break for a welcome cuppa so thought I would get my blog done ready as in the morning I will be on a Zoom call fairly early and there will be no time for anything else but breakfast.  I made the one stood up at the back like the one I made last week but this time in shades of purple, it's fast becoming a favourite stamp of mine.

As you can see, apart from what I am working on (and with) I am managing to keep my desk fairly tidy since the mammoth cleaning up a few weeks ago).  Last week I showed you my inks which are on this photo and are all to hand when I a working on anything.  The only ones not displayed there are my Oxides as they are in a drawer directly behind me - no room on this wall for them.

The black card you can see on the left of my desk is the packet of "bits" that I save for those smaller mounting jobs, then underneath the kitchen roll is my silver mat which is simply an old table mat covered in aluminium foil which I use for heat embossing - saves the fingers getting burnt and reflects the heat so the job is done a bit quicker.

Next to my inks you can see this

My peg board.  This houses my glue (at the top in a tray), with my Gesso's and Texture Paste (the ones I am using at the moment) with my WOYWW badge, then some distress tools, scissors (how many?) and some white square pots (Ikea) which hold, pens, more glue, white charcoal pencil, Krylon pens, gas heat gun and those foam brush things for paste/Gesso etc.  Above on the elastic you can see a purple kite which was something I bought at a festival in Germany, a plaque with the Eiffel Tower on it that I once made with Ranger for a Make & Take at CHA, a cd book made with Kate Crane, a tag made in Holland and a plaque from Anne (Copper Beech Crafts).

Tomorrow I had better make a start on my atc's for the upcoming anniversary.  Anyone can join in if they just show their desks so if you aren't in the lovely group of friends on WOYWW why not pop over to Julias and find out all about it - quick!  See you there!

Below on the deck so to speak are a multitude of pots containing all sort of things plus my white carousel which I won at CHA once, and stood at the back are my Scoring Boards.  There, that's another side done in my craft room, or at least it's the end of that tidy side.

Art Journal Journey - Mandalas

Well, I have been inspired by so much this past few weeks and my blog has never been so busy in a long time.  So many different things have inspired me to join in with Art Journal Journey and Eileen's theme of "Inspired by ..." which has been co-hosted by Erika and Chris because, sadly, Eileen passed before they had chance to run the theme.

Although different things have inspired me as each page has unfurled, I think a big common factor has been that I have been enjoying my pencil crayons.  I am no colourist and would love to be able to blend and use my pencils like some people, like Miranda whom I mentioned the other day, but nevertheless I have so enjoyed working with them.  Today I am showing you some Mandalas I have just coloured in - with pencils - but this time watercolor ones.  And this time I have used a waterbrush to enhance the depth of colour.  Not strictly a watercolour technique but again I did enjoy myself.

The stamp is by PaperArtsy and is one bought for me by my bff for my birthday because I needed it for a fan I was making in a workshop.  Having only used it for that I decided I had better get more use from it and so I started on this journal page using my Inktense pencils for it.

The background is coloured with Speckled Egg Distress Ink and, as you can see, I kept to the same colours for all the Mandalas.  So, here we are, another entry for Art Journal Journey.

Art Journal Journey - Machinery?

 A few days ago I used a couple of Carabelle stamps on my Gothic Blooms page in my journal.  I so love those whimsical shapes which is why I just had to have the stamps when I first saw them.  They remind me, just a little, of the whimsical machinery drawings of Heath Robinson.

Heath Robinson was an English cartoonist, illustrator and artist, known mostly for his whimsical machinery drawings.  During the first world war he drew several cartoons depicting unlikely looking secret weapons used in battles.  In 1934 he produced a series of his favourite humorous machinery one of which was a "Wart Chair" which was for removing a wart form the top of someones head!  Another, which some of us might identify with was a machine for resuscitating stale scones for resale at the railway buffet.

Much of his machinery was heated by candles or kettles, a spirit lamp or steam boilers which was kept running by a bald headed man in spectacles and overalls.  The machinery often included pulleys and knotted string to keep it working and so improbable rickety machinery became known as a "Heath Robinson"

Whilst the Carabelle stamped images are not depicting machinery in any way they do make me cast my mind back to the work of Heath Robinson.  When I asked my other half if he could see it he could not, so maybe it is just me and you will not see it either.

However, a nice afternoon sat in the sunshine yesterday, coloured pencils by my side and an already stamped page in my journal resulted in this - which I like very much and which gave me a lovely restful afternoon.  So I would like to include this in the challenge set by Eileen at Art Journal Journey.  Although Eileen did not see her theme come into practice I am sure she is looking down and thanking the team for honouring her by continuing with her theme, especially Erika and Chris who are co-hosting it this month.  Thanks also to Carabelle from me for giving me such pleasure with their stamps (and Heath Robinson who did inspire me to use them in my journal.)

I am still convinced they are drawings of machinery - I would love them in my garden, whirling round and round in the gentle breeze.