May the Sun shine

The latest prompt on Colour Me Positive 2017 was: Sunshine. I immediately thought of an old Irish blessing and knew I had a book marker bought in Canada with the text. Sadly I haven't been able to locate that, even though I know it has to be somewhere in the house (no doubt it will turn up!) but I still had the words in my head and the blessing starts with: "May the road rise up to meet you, may the wind be always at your back, may the sun shine warm upon your face.....". 

That seemed very appropriate for the prompt and I set to making the pages in my A4 Dylusions journal. The background is made entirely using the smallest stencil from the March Stencilgirl Club set and a large variety of warm colours with some turquoise thrown in as a contrast. The collaged woman came from an advertisement out of a fashion magazine and the postage stamp suited the pages so well colour wise.

The sun was added using stencil L339 Aztec Sun Stencil Large, also from Stencilgirl Products. I printed the quotation using my computer and tore off the individual lines and glued them on. They were outlined with a black Stabilo All pencil.

The sun as well as some of the background images were outlined with a variety of black, white and pink markers.

This is quite a simple spread for me but the pages didn't seem to need anything else as I was working on them and that is always a sign that I shouldn't try and complicate things.

Glorious Mess

The prompt on Colour Me Positive 2017 this week is: Recognize the beauty in yourself. Not an easy one but I eventually found a quotation from Elizabeth Gilbert that I could work with. It reads: "Embrace the glorious mess that you are".  It seemed rather appropriate for me as there is no denying that I work best when surrounded by mess. It sparks my creativity. As the spread was meant to be all about me I added a self portrait that came from an earlier art journal page. I had it printed by Social Print Studio.

The background was largely stencilled using both sequin waste in two different sizes for the circles as well as the large stencil from the May 2016 Stencilgirl Club. I collaged on the self portrait,  images from both a magazine and a vintage Technical Drawing book, and then added the words and letters cut from a variety of sources.

I brightened up the background with some sparkling paint by Martha Steward. You can just about see it on the pages. It was combined with fluorescent pink paint.

 I've long wanted to use the image with the horse and for some reason it felt right on these pages. I found a matching postage stamp that I was given some time ago.

A Precious Priviledge

The prompt on Colour Me Positive 2017 this week was: Appreciate what you have. I used a quotation by Marcus Aurelius which encapsulates that for me. Those old Romans knew a thing or two!

I played with some of my stencil collection from various sources for this spread. The original background was achieved with the L449 Blooming Where Planted stencil by Stencilgirl Products. I added collage to that with Tim Holtz's Postale tissue wrap as well as some washi tape,  and then over sprayed the pages with text using Old French Script stencil by Americana Decor from DecorArt.  I stamped on leaves (from a rubber stamp, no idea where it came from) and also added some circles with the Ring Hopscotch art foamie designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.

I then blocked out the areas I particularly liked, using the black Art Graphite Pencil from Global Art and darkened the surrounding areas with blue paint. The text was printed out, glued on,  and outlined with a gold marker that I also put to use edging the pages.

Finally I used white, gold and fluorescent paint to add marks with the TCW2030 Burlap Bits stencil from The Crafter's Workshop, also designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.

I hope some of the pictures will give you an idea of the wonderful shine the gold paint (by Pebeo) provides.

Be like a Postage Stamp

 Last week's prompt on Colour Me Positive 2017 was: perseverance. I found a quotation I loved and that gave me a great excuse to go wild with the postage stamps. It reads: "Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there" (Josh Billings). I started with collage and used images from a magazine, pieces of a 7Gypsies tissue wrap as well as tissue wrap by Tim Holtz. I also added deli paper that I had previously stencilled using the large stencil from the November Stencilgirl Club , the L435 Ancient Marks as well as L301 Circles Circles stencil all by Stencilgirl Products. Vintage music paper was also added to the mix.

I also used the following stencils in the background: L467 Amsterdam and L470 Granada, both designed by Nathalie Kalbach for Stencilgirl Products.

 A stamp from the Kaffee Klatsch stamp set designed by Nathalie Kalbach brought a circular element to the pages..

The quotation was printed out from my computer onto vintage paper. I also added some lovely gold paint (from Pebeo) to the spread as well as those gorgeous postage stamps from France.

I worked in the A4 Dylusions art journal for this spread.

Progress

These pages are a real mix with a little bit of this and a little bit of that to finally end up with a spread for Colour Me Positive 2017 where this week's prompt was: Progress.

When I am working in my art journals I always have another smaller journal nearby into which I dump the left over gesso, paint and spray I'm working with.  In this case it's a 6 x 8" Seawhite of Brighton journal. I try out rubber stamps and clean off stencils and generally fill it without any regard for design or planning. So it is a bit disturbing that I frequently like the results in this journal better than what I am doing in my "official" art journals.

In fact, I liked the results of the background so much that I made the decision to continue on with it and make it my spread for Colour Me Positive, by collaging on the figure and the quotation I found by Khalil Gibran: "Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing to what will be".  In honour of Khalil I also added some collage with Islamic patterns.

The random things I did on these pages in the background came from ideas from a variety of sources. Someone (Nathalie Kalbach) mentioned gold gesso, so of course I immediately felt an urgent need for it and tried scraping it onto the pages (love it). Someone else (Kasia on Wanderlust) told us to add masking tape scraps so I did (had to glue them on with matte medium as they kept coming off). I did like the additional texture they provided. I had just acquired a bottle of High Flow Golden fluorescent pink so that was added to the mix (you can never go wrong with a bit of pink!).

I also used stencil L474 Mesa Verde, designed by Nathalie Kalbach for Stencilgirl Products, as well as one of Nathalie's stamp sets. This one is called Marks. You will also notice I tried out that little spirals stamp on this spread (unknown source), and went to work making marks with a Stabilo All black pencil. The pages were edged with a blue stamp pad. The circles were stencilled on through a piece of sequin waste.

Finally I wrote the quotation using my new Jane Davenport Inkredible Pen on one of the pages you find in the middle of Somerset Studio magazine, tore them out, edged the pieces in blue and glued them on. As you can tell I had fun with these pages and I like the end result. Eventually this journal too will end up filled with art.

Love Winter

The prompt for this week on Colour Me Positive 2017 was: Love. What else could it be on a week that contains Valentine's Day. I'm as fond of people (and dogs!) loving me as all human beings are,  but Valentine's Day leaves me kind of cold so I wanted to interpret the prompt a different way and instead I'm celebrating my love for winter. I used to intensely dislike this time of year, before spring and with cold and snow on offer, but over the years I have come to love it more and more. There is something very beautiful about a white world, in which the bare branches are clearly silhouetted against the sky, snowdrops and hellebores are starting to flower and a little dog is cavorting in the snow.

 As luck would have it I found the perfect quotation in a magazine. It reads:

"This secret beauty I have found

When morning sun came streaming down.

A golden glow like a celestial crown

in nature's winter garden"

(D. S. James, Nature's Winter Garden)

I started with collage using vintage images and text and some magazine imagery too. To that mix I added Distress Crayons and acrylic paints as well as acrylic inks. I used a lot of stencils to get the effect I wanted. Here is the list:

from Stencilgirl Products: S433 Amsterdam 6 designed by Nathalie Kalbach (on deli paper and then collaged), and M139 Diamonds and Triangles Mini, designed by Andrew Borloz and finally L464 Barb Wire, designed by MaryBeth Shaw herself, the owner of Stencilgirl.

from The Crafter's Workshop TCW2024 Rubber Bands Frags and TCW2038 TinyRingBits

I outlined with white and black markers before spraying with Perfect Pearls Turquoise mister. You can just about see the glittering effects on some of the pictures.

I hand wrote the words: Love Winter, onto the page. There is more going on on these pages than my love of winter and it's worth remembering that this is an art journal: stuff gets personal from time to time and there are things I prefer not to share. What is on the pages will remind me of what those things are without revealing them to you!

This is the very last spread in my 8 x 8" Dylusions journal although there is still one that I haven't shared with you yet. It's a project for Stencilgirl Products and you can expect to see it on the 27th Feb. As you can tell I don't use new journals for a new year but simply work in a journal till it is full and then grab another one from the shelves. Yes, I have a huge collection of as yet empty sketchbooks. Doesn't everyone? It makes me happy to look at them and anticipate what is going to materialize on those mostly white pages.

Inspiration exists

Week 2 2017 brought the prompt: Discipline for Colour Me Positive 2017 and it afforded me the opportunity to use one of my favourite art quotation by Pablo Picasso: "Inspiration exists but it has to find you working". 

It also provided a chance to incorporate his painting Les Demoiselles d:Avignon  (1907) on my art journal page (I'm working in the A4 Dylusions art journal). It remains astonishing to me that I saw this for myself last year in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.  I also added an image from a sketch Picasso did showing the artist and his model.

For the background and almost all the stencilling I used the L185 Unfinished stencil designed by Seth Apter for Stencilgirl Products.  It is amazingly versatile and filled to the brim with different patterns as well as words. It was augmented by words from Donna Downey's stencil  068 I am an Artist.

 The words of the quotation were stamped on using the new alphabet stamp set designed by Everything Art for PaperArtsy. They were outlined with a white marker.

The Power

The first prompt for 2017 on Colour Me Positive 2017 was: Power. I know I mentioned I wasn't going to continue with CMP but somehow I seem to  have grasped my art journal (A4 Dylusions) and set to, probably encouraged by the fact that I won a pack of collage papers for my contribution in week 53. It's winging it's way to me from Australia! The other factor is that sometimes I just want to immerse myself in art journalling. In any case I found a great quotation by Joseph Stalin: "I believe in one thing only: the power of human will". Stalin wasn't a man who lived up to his own quotations much but this one has always spoken to me, regardless of the person who said it.

I used collage with a magazine image, vintage text, wallpaper segments and postage stamps (from the USSR, of course!).

 The background was done with stencilling using L450 Fantasia stencil by Stencilgirl and rubber stamping with the Circles and Dots stamp from Carabelle Studio. Acrylic ink was dripped down the pages as well.

 The text was rubber stamped too using an alphabet set apart from the word POWER, which is collaged.

I'm coming to the end of this particular art journal so the pages are not lying quite flat any more hence the photography on the slant!