A Cross to Bear Journal Page

Time to share another spread in my Dylusions art journal with you and this one was made on the 30th June. It's my favourite thus far in the journal but these were pages that morphed into something totally unexpected seemingly completely without any intention from me. I simply started the pages in my usual manner, with gesso, paints and stencils. All stencils used are by Stencilgirl Products and the main ones I used were the X Rows stencil and the 9 x 12" stencil from the April 2015 Stencilgirl Club.  I added rubber stamping with a French script stamp, imagery from a flowery paper napkin and collaging with vintage images and text.

Then I added the more modern imagery in the form of the fashion model, the clock and the picture of  a painting featuring the Annunciation. The many crosses I had used on the background led me to the words KNOWLEDGE and A Cross to Bear.

It wasn't till the spread was finished that it struck me just how those words also resonated with the Annunciation. By that time the pages were done and I knew that the double entendre had somehow sneaked in when I wasn't paying attention. A sort of message from above you could almost say. Certainly I didn't mean any disrespect. I may not be religious myself but respect the fact that other people are. I like the fact that symbolism crept into my page just like it is on full view on the painting featured. The words on the vintage music too contributed to the meaning in the pages.

To lighten the page I added the three circular cut outs from pictures printed from my own flower photographs by Prinstragram and these then led to the addition of the pink postage stamp.

A lot of outlining with white and black markers was done to finalize the pages as well as additional embellishment with water soluble oil pastels.

It's a page full of meaning for me as well as a colour scheme that makes my heart sing. I keep discovering new delights in it every time I look at it. It confirms my belief that all that layering work is so worthwhile and it also convinces me that the universe speaks to me from within my own art if that doesn't seem too esoteric a way to describe it.

My Art Life

The Documented Life Project 2015 is using the September theme of Journalling with Photos for the last time while our art challenge for the week is: StoryBoard, and the journalling prompt: A Week in the Life. I interpreted a bit wider and made it The Story of My Art Life.

I started by making a background in my Dylusions journal using paints and stencils. I used two of the stencils that were part of September's Stencilgirl Club and also one from February 2015.

Then I grabbed all the Instagram images that were printed for me by Prinstragram in both sticker and rectangular shapes and added to them to the page with glue. Then these were surrounded by appropriate film strip featuring washi tape.

 I thought of a title and came up with The Story of My Art Life which was stamped on as shown. 

Let There Be Light

We are still journalling with photos for The Documented Life Project 2015 in September. Our art challenge for this week is: silhouettes, and the journalling prompt: There is no shadow without the light. I have shamelessly borrowed various elements of my own art for this page. The circular sunset photographs come from my Instagram presence where I tend to put them whenever we have a spectacular sunset. I also like sunrises but am not often up early enough for them! I had them printed out by Printstagram and then used a circular punch. The photo top left is from one of my journal quilts. This one is called: You Leave me Cold. And the idea of two facing silhouettes comes from a sketchbook I did for the Sketchbook Project called: Passioneyes.

I used complimentary colours toning in with these pictures to make my background, as well as the Ripple Effect stencil from Stencilgirl Products.  I also used some vintage text in the background and a stamp by Stampotique, designed by France Papillon.

For the silhouettes I borrowed a face from a fashion magazine and outlined it with white paint and then added blue Radiant Silk glaze on top. The text too came from a magazine.

Finally I added the quotation by Helen Keller: "Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow" around the two silhouettes and added the postage stamps.

Only One Day Page

Week 2 of Documented Life 2015 (DLP15) and we are staying with January's theme: The blank page and how to face it. Our art challenge is: gesso, and the prompt for the week: "The beginning is always today" by Mary Shelley. This means the same as the quotation I choose to use by Jean-Paul Sartre and that I mentioned already earlier on the last day of last year: There is only one day left, always starting over. It's given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk".  I started with a layer of gesso on a background of watercolour paper and added acrylic paint in warm colours that can be seen at either dawn or dusk.

To that I added stencilling and stamping as well as the text consisting of words cut from magazines as well as stamped ones.

The image comes from one of my own photographs and I can't even remember whether this was dawn or dusk so it covers both. It was printed for me by Printagram, glued onto the page and further adhered with washi tape. I then used gesso again to spatter across the page. Finally I ussed a variety of black and white markers as well as watercolour brushes to further emphasize some things on the page. It's such a shame that the glittery appearance can't be seen on the pictures. I liberally applied mica sprays for that sparkly effect.

A lovely warming presence in my planner while outside the wind continues to rage. It's wet and cold too, although all the snow has vanished overnight. More to come though, by all accounts.

The last day of 2014

My feelings about the end of one year and the start of another are much like those of Jean-Paul Sartre who said: "There is only one day left, always starting over. It's given to us at dawn and taken away from us at dusk". And what a dawn it was this morning. A curtain of light was projected up into the sky and a hint of gold touched the clouds. It is hardly surprising that sacrifices were made in the past in order to persuade the gods to give humanity a new day. Nowadays we understand much more about why those days dawn but in a way that also makes it much more daunting. Only one small thing needs to go wrong in our universe and we will all cease to exist. And no sacrifice will save us.

I tend not to worry about things I cannot control so simply enjoyed the light show this morning in the certain knowledge that it was much more beautiful than any fireworks to come this evening.

Nevertheless the coming of a New Year is a good time to clear the decks as I showed you recently and in the process of clearing my desk I discovered a project that was finished in April this year, put on that desk to blog and then got lost in the general chaos. So what better time to blog it and then stow it away than on the last day of 2014.

It was part of an online course called Snap and Share by Roben-Marie Smith and is project no. 4 in that course called Journal and Photo Portfolio. It is still available if you are interested and if so perhaps a good idea to click that Buy button today before the new EU VAT rules come into effect tomorrow. I have indulged in quite a few online courses myself which I won't all take at once but since they will be available for all time once bought I now have them without having to pay the additional 20% VAT. And yes, officially places based outside the EU must charge it too although it will be interesting to see just how the EU and our tax authorities plan to enforce this.

Roben-Marie's classes are among those that once acquired can be done for all time and it's now so long ago that I did the Snap and Share one that I might well have another look at it. As it is her class there will be no explanation from me, but just a show of what the finished article looks like. The first one is the front of the closed portfolio and above is a glimpse of the inside.

Above is what you see when all 4 sides have been opened out and you can see part of the vintage page enclosing some sketchbook pages as well as the embellished envelope enclosing some of my own pictures.

These pictures of my artwork were printed off by Printagram on 4 x 4" squares. Love this size and finding this project reminded me to have some more done very soon!

And here is the back!

 

Now I can tidy this project away finally and leave my desk ready to tackle whatever will come it's way in 2015. I am going to do The Documented Life Project 2015 (DLP15), Life Book 15, and well as the next round of 21 Secrets (starting in April), while still working on projects from the Autumn 2014 21 Secrets. And a few other smaller classes. I also hope to make some quilts if I can squeeze them in! Only joking! Quilts remain the priority and I'm pleased to report that I managed to finish the one I was working on before the year is over! It's on the theme of migration which I wrote about yesterday. No picture until it goes to it's first public outing but for once I'm very content with it. It worked out better than my wildest dreams could have imagined. Sometimes art works like that and it leaves you in awe of what came out of your own hands. Wish it was always so but sadly not! So when it happens it's a cause of great happiness.

 

I wish for myself that it will happen a lot in 2015 and for all of you my wish is that all your own wishes for the coming year may come true!

 

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Grateful to be Alive

The theme for The Documented Life Project week 48 challenge was very appropriate for today which is our wedding anniversary. It was: Depict Gratitude in a creative way. There is much I'm grateful for and at first I wanted to fill the page with words but in the end they can all be encapsulated into this: Grateful to be Alive.

This page started with a collage of magazine pictures that I really liked, mainly featuring plants and flowers. I painted over this with acrylic paint in matching colours and then added the stickers (made from my own Instagram pictures by Printagram). I stamped the text and added the word Eclectic as I might well make that my word for 2015 and it has also been used frequently to describe my art.

I added the stamped hearts (to refer to our anniversary) and coloured in some areas with markers and outline pens.My 2014 planner is getting very full now (I promise to share a picture of it at the end of the year) but I love how it's looking and am rather torn about what I want to do next year. I could add planner pages to my Dylusions journal but I think I will continue to use an actual planner and tip in the pages, just like I have done this year. But no need yet to make a final decision as I have both planner and art journal to hand. In the meantime I'm being taken for lunch!

 

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I Will Create

It was a busy old time this weekend but somehow I managed to complete my page for the Documented Life Project where our challenge for week 40 was to paint or colour with three colours you never use. Those three colours in my case don't exist. I use each and every colour and love them all. I do however like to use them mostly full strength and one thing I do hardly ever do is use them in more subdued ways. So that is what I tried to do on this page. Once again I grabbed my gelli plate to make the background as it's quick and easy and also lots of fun. Check out this post on Lenna's blog to see how we worked away together in my shed when she was here.

For this page I used a mix of brown, burnt sienna, some green/gold and oker yellow and a selection of stencils from StencilGirl designed by Carolyn Dube. I love using words and so does she. When I had finished painting and stencilling my paper I cut out a bit that was meaningful to me reading Now I Will Create. I feel the pull of wanting to make something all the time now as hardly anything significant has come out of my hands since the 52 Journals exhibition began and I'm beginning to feel a strong urge! It's hard to explain to other people but my art is what gives my life meaning, it's what I feel I was born to do. And when I don't make art I feel somehow incomplete.

The little images I used on the page were printed by Printagram from my Instagram pictures. 

Other things in life are equally important and one of those things is the daily dog walks as well as the garden and we are having an amazing autumn here in the Borders at the moment with warm, sunny days. I'm making the most of it by taking many pictures during those walks and this morning was a real treat. The cotoneaster berries have never been quite so fruitful.

Nor the view from our gate so lovely. The low light gives a beautiful tone to all it touches. 

 When the dogs and I first set out the landscape was still wrapped in low clouds.

But on our return journey the sun had won the battle.

One more week to go as far as the 52 Journals exhibition is concerned so if you were planning a visit this is the time! 

In other news we have now had so many telephone engineers out here trying to sort out our line that I have lost count. Despite all the work however, incoming calls still knock off the broadband but at least it now comes back quite quickly. I suppose that's progress of sorts! I'm just very grateful we don't have to rely on that connection alone and have our satellite broadband to take the strain. I'm also very pleased I haven't been home for most of all those BT activities! I'm frequently complimented on my patience in making my art but I must admit that my patience doesn't stress to dealing with such annoying issues. 

Star Book

I have had several projects on my desk which I finished quite some time ago but that I haven't blogged about yet and this star book is one example. It's one of Kiala Givehand's free videos on YouTube in a monthly series on book making. This was her June book. I didn't make her May book as it involved a book binding machine and I don't have one (although I'm thinking about it!). Kiala made this star book without content using gelli plate printed pages but I wanted to add text so instead I used coloured craft paper. Above is the front cover.

This is what the book looks like from the top and it explains why it's called a star book. I haven't added a closure and when folded the book is flat.

However when it is open it acquires the star shape and as a consequence is difficult to photograph. Above and below are some of the pages. I have used printed versions of my own photographs inside (printed by Printagram from my Instagram pictures) and on the front and back cover used two of my Polaroid pictures.
I also wrote a poem for this book using sentences from a vintage book. Here is the full text spread out over the pages:

For what then was I born?

The day-dream of deep thought

Shall all things else be in mystery.

The vision was sealed upon my soul

How small the glimpse of knowledge.

I saw, and asked not its name.

Reflection is a flower of the mind.

The glance of recollection.

As you can tell below on the back cover, I finished this book back in August and I love the shape although next time I would make a separate cover to go with it and a means of closing the pages.

I won't bore you with the power upsets we had during the night. Poor John was still awake and dressed well past midnight (2 am in fact) to accommodate 2 Scottish Power engineers who fixed a loose connection on the electricity pole replaced back in July. Ever since then our lights have been flickering but despite reporting it to inspectors nothing had happened. Last night the flickering became non stop and we called out an emergency engineer who discovered that a fault had been made installing the connections and had we not called them out last night the entire pole would probably have gone up in flames. Between the pole being erected and last night we have had engineers looking at it three times and all were told about the flickering! None took any action. Glad to know we are in safe hands with Scottish Power!!!

At least that has now been fixed and we're left with our ongoing telephone saga. Is it really possible to call out a British Telecom engineer and end up with a worse line than before. Yes, it is! More engineers will be arriving to work on the line tomorrow. Fortunately I will be doing lots of fun stuff with our visitor and will leave John in charge which I have to say is lucky for the engineers in question. I'm a much harder task master than he is. And far less polite!

And they talk about an idyllic life in the country.

 

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Staycation page

I made the page for week 30 of The Documented Life Project back on Saturday but there were too many flower pictures to enjoy in the meantime so here it is now. Our task was to: Add receipts, labels, business cards,smash book style. What a good thing that my mother was here and we visited both Peebles and Dobbies Garden Centre that day so we had a wealth of receipts and car parking tickets, otherwise this would have been a much more difficult task. I gathered them all together and stuck them onto a plain paper background. Then I briefly retreated to my painting shed to administer  layers of pink, purple and blue Silk Acrylic Glaze and using a stencil from Stencilgirl added a first layer on top of that of pink acrylic paint. I turned the stencil 90 degrees and sprayed with blue Dylysions. It looked a lot more cohesive after that.

I added the picture of the rose (printed by Printagram) as it seemed appropriate to the garden centre visit and added the small picture stickers to the bottom (also by Printagram). I found the word Staycation in the newspaper magazine on the day and that seemed appropriate for this week. I used my sewing machine to adhere things (my glue stick ran out) and also to outline the edges of the page.

Finally you might not hear from me tomorrow as we are having the electricity pole in our garden replaced. This will mean no electricity between 9 am and 4.30 pm but the last time we had repairs made to another pole the work overran and the power didn't get back till 8 at night. Fingers crossed that won't happen again. I will Blip from that trusty lay-by (where I haven't been for ages now) should that happen but no blog post will appear. Hopefully though all will be well!

A Season of Reflection

Week 28 has arrived and The Documented Life Project is keeping us on track this week with the task of: adding an Instagram or other tiny photo to our page. As some of you already know I am on Instagram and love printing those pictures using Printagram. In fact, I think I got to know about Printagram via Roben Marie Smith, one of the organizers of The Documented Life Project. This American company (who don't pay me to sing their praises. I wish!) prints all sorts of delectable goodies using your Instagram feed. For my page this week I used their miniprints which measure 8.5 x 5cm with the picture in the centre as you can see above.

I layered it up with gelli printed deli paper and  stitched this onto a gelli plate printed background and adhered it both with stitching (what else!) and with washi tape. For that I had to get out my ever growing collection of tapes and decided to use it some more and both the filmstrip at the left and the pointing fingers are washi tapes too.

I then did some outlining of the leaves which were achieved with a stencil on the gelli plate, using a blue water colour pen. The final addition was the vintage text that reads: "in a season of reflection".

Always Beautiful

As promised this is the week 21 page for The Documented Life Project and our remit this week was to add embroidery or embroidery floss to our page. I started once more with a gelli plate printed paper and then layered a picture of my own art (printed by Printagram), layered this with a piece of patterned card by stitching it on and added that card with more stitching to my page, in both cases using embroidery floss.

 You can see the stitching here in detail. I pre-made the holes with an awl to make it easier to stitch.

I added the words  Always Beautiful, and also stitched them on. The final additions were a cut out flower, torn patterned paper,  and the rub-on insect and butterflies. So far the week is living up to the sunny colours of this spread!