Jeudi Journal - Silence

To begin with I used three colours of Distress Ink on an acrylic block and then spritzed it with water and swiped it over the page.  I repeated this util the page was mostly covered.  I don't mind any uninked bits.  Next, and using Cracked Pistachio again I stamped some of the stars in a semi circle where the main image was going to be.  (These are to depict pain).  

Then I chose my figures.  A head who could be seen to be holding her ears and four little characters from the mini range of Dylusion figures and some tiny birds from Aall & Create Janet Klein's range.  All were coloured in using my Promarkers.  finally I drew a line around the whole page, and thickened it in parts to represent some kind of border - unfortunately the scanner did not pick it all up and one side is hardly showing.

'Alice was feeling very much like her namesake - Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland - as her head was spinning and she was supposed to be studying for her final nurse's examination.  She had been along to the local library and done some studying there.  It was good as they had computers available so she was able to do research as well as use the notes she had taken in class.  However, it was a lovely summer's day and she longed for the outside so had taken her leave of the library and made her way to the far end of the park.  It was lovely to get some fresh air but oh, what a mistake!

On an ordinary summer day it would have been lovely to have the birdsong around her but trying to study she found it most distracting.  The little birds were happily flying here and there and although she loved them dearly, today was not the day for birdsong.  She wondered if it was tension that was making her feel like she was, but now she had the birdsong in her head and she could not shut it out as how she tried.

However, it was much better than the constant chatter of people who were walking past her.  Children ran, laughing and shrieking as they played tag and threw a ball to one another.   And one young woman had had the audacity to sit by her on the bench opposite.  Luckily she was reading too.  Alice breathed a sigh of relief.  All too soon a pretty young woman walked by and sat on the bench opposite with the other young woman.  They appeared to know one another.  Oh no, they obviously did as they began chattering.

It was all yakkity yak around Alice and she decided that enough was enough.  Closing her book she allowed her eyelids to droop and was soon dreaming about the holiday she and some other nursing students were planning to a little island off the mainland of Greece.  The sun was lovely and warm and she felt she had been transported on holiday where she and her friends could practise their sparse knowledge of the language of Greece.  

In her dream she was wearing the new sundress she had bought especially for going out in the evenings and a handsome young man came and touched her on the arm and spoke to her in broken English. Just as she was about to reply she woke up and realised she was at home, in the local park, and there was a lot of noise around her,  "I wish more people were fluent in silence" she said to herself as she got up and set off home.

Because I have included some birds I can enter this into the Art Journal Journey Challenge - Fur and/or Feathers.  See you there - there's just one more day to enter?

Art Journal Journey - Puffin

 The background for this page was made using Blueprint Sketch and Wilted Violet Distress Oxides smooched on an acrylic block and then with an image from Aall & Create (Numerator) stamped over the top and embossed in white ep.  The fact that the image is not fully stamped is intentional, a partial image often looks much better, especially when used as a background, than a complete one in my opinion.  I assure you it was no mistake.

Next I drew three circles with my White Posca Pen and then went over them with a Blue Gel Pen.  I stamped Reckoner Digits and a script stamp in various places over the background but not too much on the plain uninked part.  This was reserved for the man himself - the Puffin.

The idea for this came from something Tracy Evans of Aall & Create had done but as I do not have her puffins (I have no idea why) but I did have a puffin from another company and so I used that one, stamped, coloured in with Polychromos, fussy cut and then adhered to the page.

You will notice there are some small black and white circles at the base of the page - these are from a piece of Aall & Create washi tape which I used to ground the puffin and kind of finish the page off.  I am entering this into Fur and/or Feathers at Art Journal Journey.

WOYWW

Well, Saturday draws near and it's almost that time of the year for a lot of WOYWW members to meet up.  What a lovely way to meet one another it is too.  There will be some old faces and hopefully some new ones too.  Sadly LLJ will not be with us as she is off celebrating her Ruby Wedding Anniversary - have a lovely time J & G.   Luckily we will have our glorious leader, Julia, and the two sisters, Annie & Jo, who are responsible for booking us in at the lovely hall.  Thanks ladies for all the work you do behind the scenes.

Here I am, back home and missing being on the edge of The Lakes.  Had to come home for our Covid jabs, his on Sunday and mine on Monday.  I did say he was a softy for complaining that his arms ached on Sunday, but now I have had mine done I daren't moan and mine both hurt (flu and covid) and he is fine.  Typical!

Last week saw me away and having a sulk at myself for leaving my stencil brushes on the worktop - yes, that's where they were when I got home.  However, I did manage to finish a workshop I started at Victoria Stampers last month.  It was a folio that Carol, our Programme Officer, did for us - such a lot of die cutting for her so big thanks went to her for all the work she had put into the class.

Here are some photos of it, I still need some words to put on some of the pockets and haven't finalised what all the pockets will hold - but saying that I cannot wait to make another one.  Hence my desk - full of cutting out.  Found out that my friend had this die and she has loaned it to me.

and today's desk

At the back my Lavinia stamps and the brushes followed by my folio.  Back to the left we have some white card waiting for colouring and a couple of rulers and some pens.  Behind that the glue and the cut out folio.  In front of that my trusty scalpel and the bits of card off cuts.  The labels on my stamp pad are for my Distress Oxides, just need colouring and sticking on - a job I keep putting off - must get on with it.  Must order another of those stands for the DO's too as all my browns are sat on a shelf and I am bound to buy more.  The usual stuff is at the back, rarely changes.

Better go and get cracking.  See some of you soon.

Art Journal Journey - Fractured Face

The stamp I used is from Aall & Create and is number 7 but does not appear to have a name.  I chose to call it 'fractured face'.  It was designed by Bipasha, one of my favourite artists from A&C and I just love the simplicity of this beautiful girl's face behind the quartered mask and the swirls.  I also chose it because of the numerous feathers on the small plate which I used alongside the face.

There are so many things I liked about this face, the shape of the actual face, the lips, the spectacles she wears and the mosaic effect down the top left hand side.  I like the fact that she is a free spirit too and, of course, she has feathers framing her.  

  

To fit in with her fractured face I chose to simply stamp my favourite crackle stamp in three of the corners and to add the tiny birds close by.  The words of positivity seemed to be perfect in the top left hand corner as do the bulbs below also by Bipasha but from stamp number 23.

Minimal colouring is how I chose to leave this page, which has a lovely cream colour to it naturally, and I hope it has a message for you as it did for me when I chose these stamps.  I would love you to join me at Art Journal Journey with the theme Fur and/or Feathers.

Art Journal Journey - Feathers

The title says it all - this should have been an earlier post for Art Journal Journey and my suggestion of Fur and/or Feathers as the theme.  I think the feather rubber stamp is from Chocolate Baroque and I stamped them both more or less central on my page in my journal.  That was after I had coloured the page with three different acrylic paints - New Grass (Eco Green Crafts) and Pistachio and Sea Breeze from Kaisercolour.

I blocked the feathers off and left a space at the bottom to do some writing and then used a stencil, with my black Posca pen, which did not turn out as expected but instead left me with lots of little irregular triangles dotted all over the page.  I had expected more of a shattered glass look from it.

I got my cake icing book out and tried to copy some of the lettering it showed - I just about managed to fit it on to avoid the punching at the top of the page.  

Finally I used my Polychromos to add one or two additional bits of shading to the feathers, mainly the shapes shown within some of them.

I hope this has shown that you can just take the theme literally and add some feathers.  I would have liked to have drawn a quill pen and ink pot but don't think I have the time now.  Maybe I will carry on within this journal and add it at a later date.

Art Journal Journey - Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend

I thought it would be different if I was to introduce a black piece of cardstock into my journal for Fur and Feathers.  

First of all I made a small piece using Peeled Paint and Crushed Olive Distress Inks for my background, and then I used one of my favourite stencils (from the year dot) 'Diamonds in the Rough' on the small piece with some texture paste.  I wanted something a bit Art Deco'ish and so I used one of my long thin strip stamps that rarely see the light of day anymore in Nocturne

I have no idea where the picture came from originally but it was in my Collage Box and would appear that they did not always use young girls to advertise Pears Soap but used beauties of the age too.  As she was wearing the most delightful fur stole (I hope it was fake) she fit the bill perfectly for my theme at Art Journal Journey.

I then placed the piece on my black cardstock and pondered how to elongate the texture paste onto it.  In the end I just replaced the stencil and drew with a white pen to carry the central focal image to the whole page.  A quick punch along the top and it was inserted into my journal.

I hope you decide to join me and the others with your interpretation of "Fur and/or Feathers"

Jeudi Journal - Beautiful Day

Another snarky comment from the book of Tim Holtz and this time it is "It's a beautiful day to leave me alone" and we have a page with Sophie sitting in the woods surrounded by beautiful flowers, two bluebirds fly overhead and a little chicken has come up to her as she sits there in the grass.  Thank goodness for the two little bluebirds and the chicken now I can enter my page into Art Journal Journey where the theme is "Fur and/or Feathers" and thankfully all these birds have feathers.

I started off with a blue painted page and then I did some reverse stenciling which I learned from Abs at Aall & Create with Mermaid Lagoon Distress Oxide Ink.  Next I stamped some words and letters from Aall & Create and I was ready for the images.  Because it was supposed to be a "beautiful day" I chose to put some flowers around the outside edge as a border.

'Sophie was a lovely girl, very popular with her peers and with her proud parents.  A good all rounder was how the school described her.  She was in the school netball team,  played tennis for the County and had been voted Form Captain two years on the run.  Her teachers knew she was going to make a school prefect and some even thought she would have their vote as Head Girl when the time came.

It was a beautiful summers day and Sophie had a lot to think about, it was decision time about her future and where she was going to go once school ended - university or work?  Her friends had called her on the phone and suggested they all went down town but Sophie had said "It's a beautiful day to leave me alone" and had set off in the direction of her uncle's farm.

Uncle Seb had always been her favourite uncle, her father's big brother, and the one she always turned to if she had a problem.  Dad was a bit too soft with her but uncle Seb was fair and just the right man to go to with a problem.  

After a short chat with him and some of Aunty Dorothy's home made lemonade, she went off into the field and sat amongst the flowers, her jacket slung over her shoulders.  This was the perfect place to sit on a lovely day towards the end of summer.  The birds circled overhead and a little chick came right up to her.  "I wish you could talk to me" she said, "sort me out and give me the right answers to my questions."

She sat and sat and the little chick stayed with her chirping away.  It really was the perfect day to think and it was made all the better because she was alone with her thoughts.  

All too soon it was four o'clock and she realised that it was time to set off back home before her uncle came looking for her.  She had made the decision.  She knew exactly what she wanted to do.  The day had been perfect and the little chick had helped her tremendously, she was going to stay on at school, work hard and eventually go on to university.  She loved animals and although the training was tough and long she was certain she wanted to work with animals and so becoming a vet was definitely her way forward.  It was something she had dreamed of as a child and today she was determined that was her goal in life.

And so Sophie got to the gate, shouted and waved to her uncle and skipped merrily on her way home.  Her parents would be so pleased with her decision.  She was - she was certain she had made the right decision.'