Choices

Our prompt on Joggles Art Journal Adventures this week was to use a quotation. As it happens I have used quotes on every single spread I did for the Adventures this year and on most of my other art journal pages. I love words on my pages and quotations are a great way to add them. I also collect them, either cutting them out or writing them down manually, and also adding them to a digital Word file. That means I always have lots of choice which one to add. Therefore it seemed appropriate to use a quotation about choice for this spread, done in an A5 journal.

The quotation I used is by John C. Maxwell and it reads: "Life is a matter of choices and every choice you make, makes you". I decided that Frida Kahlo was a great way to illustrate those words.

For the background I used acrylic paints and S433 Amsterdam 6 stencil by Stencilgirl, designed by Nathalie Kalbach. I collaged on a collection of text (some vintage) and added some self adhesive stickers from my collection (the circles are by Robin Marie Smith). I also added some stamping with a text art foamie called Writer's Block designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

I then spray stencilled on Frida's face using the large stencil from the September 2013 Stencilgirl Club. The other Frida figure on the left comes from a set of Artists Notecards (produced by The Unemployed Philosophers Guild) .

The words of the quotation are a mix of words cut from magazines and letters from a self-adhesive alphabet set. Finally I did some outlining with black and white markers and the pages were done.

Small Pleasures

We are still continuing with the March theme of: Seeking Treasure - finding value in the small things on The Documented Life Project 2016. Our art challenge this week is: use arrows as your focal point.

This spread (in my 8 x 8" Dylusions art journal) came together like a dream, mainly because I had just the right materials to hand, specially a selection of very appropriate stencils from Stencilgirl Products.

For the arrows I used the Go Your Own Way Arrows stencil and the Kilim Patterns one. I used them in the background and slowly worked my way to the foreground, using the same stencils with black and white acrylic paint. The addition of the words felt like it was meant to be and I used the Are We There Yet stencil for those.

It was a small step to go from Seeking Treasures to Small Pleasures (at least in my mind) and I added the quotation by Normal Lear: "Life is made up of small pleasures".

Isn't it strange how we start to doubt ourselves when things seem to be too easy? I started to doubt myself and thought about what else I could add but eventually realized that the spread was done! So I signed it off and will admit to loving the colours. It also came to me that these pages point towards my upcoming journey.

Without Hesitation

Hearts are THE motif for this week ending in Valentine's Day on Sunday and it seems to be reflected in the themes on the various online groups. The Documented Life Project 2016's February theme is: Love without hesitation - taking the leap while the art challenge is to incorporate thread or floss.

I started with a painted background and used one stencil for all the stencilling I did on it. It is the Swirly Floral one. It's very versatile and there are little whirligigs (as I call them) hidden within the stencil. I found a very suitable quotation by Robyn O'Brien that reads: "Your power comes when you love without hesitation".

That determined the images I selected for this page and collaged on as shown. Love got a mention three times and also fulfilled the requirement for thread as the paper love words were stitched onto a hand painted fabric which was in turn glued onto the spread using matte medium.

I shouldn't say this because you wouldn't know anyway simply seeing the photographs here but this spread is upside down in my 8 x 8" Dylusions journal. There is always at least one in all my journals. You would have thought I might have learned that lesson by now, but no! When working away on the pages I seem to forget about checking that little detail.

To Be Alive

 I have been doing the Woman Unleashed online retreat over the last few weeks. It's organized by Amber Kuileimailani Bonnici and consisted of a series of videos  by different tutors on a wide variety of subjects. One of my favourites was Lesley Riley's one on quotations and it inspired me to make this page (9 x 12") on heavy duty watercolour paper. I illustrated a quote by Haruki Murakami. I've used only part of it. The full quotation reads as follows:

Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back. That's part of what it means to be alive. But inside our heads - at least that's where I imagine it - there's a little room where we store those memories. A room like the stacks in this library. And to understand the workings of our own heart we have to keep on making new reference cards. We have to dust things off every once in awhile, let in fresh air, change the water in the flower vases. In other words, you'll live forever in your own private library.

You might have noticed it in the sidebar of this blog some weeks ago. I left it up there for ages as there is so much to think about in it.  Part of it (Store Those Memories) was added to my latest spread for The Documented Life Project 2015 as you can see here. 

The page started with a background of paint and stencilling (using Circles, Circles stancil as well as Picasso's Words one by Stencilgirl). I added collage with vintage images and paper napkins. I then stamped on the ART word (using a stamp from ARTspecially). It's a way to remember this quotation which at first reading seems quite negative but is in fact spurring us on to make sure we treasure our memories, good or bad. Of course there had to be a postage stamp too. That has almost become a signature for my art journalling pages.

I keep a lot of my memories not just in my heart but also on my camera card and external hard drive,  and I wanted to post these pictures from the garden even though they were taken a few days ago when the sun was out. Every moment is so fleeting and I wander around the garden daily trying to capture each new development.

clematis

ligularia with campanula in the background