LAYERS AND LAYERS

I really like making pages with (what I think of as) layers like this ... I just draw the wavy shapes with my water-soluble crayons and work on these until I'm happy with the colours and how it looks. That's a very restful process in which my thoughts can just drift off ...
Then I start to put in some definition - darker lines to demarcate the layers (dark blue paint in this case) and the beginnings of some pattern. I actually got the page this far on just one day, and then left it alone for quite a few weeks until I happened to feel like writing on it. When I did, this is what I wrote ...
Then a couple of days later I added some more as my ideas about what I wanted to say developed. The page came out of some difficult feelings that I was able to work through and resolve ... I love how I can do that through my journal.
It was about another week before I finally finished the writing, after which it was easy to just fill in any spaces. It always seems right to me to fill the page - not sure I can explain why, it just DOES!!

PASSION

I got this lettering from an advert in the colour supplements - some kind of spirit is being advertised but it was the lovely white letters on the red background I noticed and cut out!! There are several versions of the ad and the wording is different on each, so eventually I laid everything out on the desk and started to see what I could make out of it. This is the result!

I painted my page black and then set to work, like someone composing a ransom note out of the newspaper! I'm amazed at what came out of this exercise - but then again I shouldn't be really, its clear that something here was meant to be ...

AUTUMN REFLECTIONS

Even though I dread the cold weather, I do love the colours at this time of year .... I even like the wild blowy days as long as I don't have to go out in them! Watching the leaves blow outside my bay window is quite enough thank you. This leaf is done with one of my favourite stamps and for once I decided to use my ordinary handwriting rather than the style I usually use for journalling.
I was in the mood for a little bit of reflective colouring, so this page is quite simple and straightforward, but it catches how I was feeling.
It kind of reminded me that I could waste some perfectly lovely Autumn days in dreading the cold ones to come, instead of appreciating what IS, right now .... do I sound like Pollyanna? Hope not. Bah Humbug!!

BREATHING UNDERWATER ...

This title was one of those journal prompts which I got from my trawling through magazines, and I think it touched a chord because I occasionally have days when I feel so overwhelmed by life, the universe and everything, that its almost as if I can't breathe, or hear what's being said except distantly. My beloved describes it as like wearing a goldfish bowl, but I prefer my way of looking at it. Anyway, that's what was on my mind when I began this page with a distress ink background and a rough border done with water soluble crayons. Acrylic paint takes really well on the top.

Almost immediately I stopped liking the heart I'd stuck on, so I took it off again, which resulted in a rather interesting effect up there in the corner! Did some more work on the self portrait, but I ended up looking grumpy rather than the solemn and slightly confused effect I was after ... well let's face it, breathing underwater would make your face look a bit funny wouldn't it??
What you probably can't see from the finished page (which is less busy than those I usually make isn't it?) is that I've given some of the bubbles a coat of glossy accents which gives a rather good effect - well I was pleased with it anyway.
PS there's a reason why the word breathe is a bit different - it originally was the same as the others until I discovered that I'd actually written "breahe" duh. Not sure I have any talent for drawing fish either, but who cares?? I'm away for a few days now - off to a convention in London for a bit of FUN! May be a hospital case afterwards ...

ONE OF THE BIG GIRLS ....

For this journal page I was responding to a challenge from somewhere to block out big splodges of colour as a background. At the time I can't say I enjoyed it as a way to get a page started, but once I got going it did turn into something I was quite pleased with. Not sure I would necessarily use this method again though. Above you can see the colour blocked page, and the first statement that I am "one of the big girls now". It was obvious that there had to be a picture of me to go with that ...
Then in my usual fashion I started adding bits and pieces - and I couldn't leave the photo alone could I, which is why I sprouted pink lipstick and a hat!
And this is the result when I'd finished adding curly doodles, more words, and generally filling up every inch of space! Its not clear to me why I do that (am I scared of too much empty space?) but I always feel more satisfied if the result is nice and busy ... make of that what you will! Maybe its to do with my determination to make every day count - with this illness it would be so easy to just sit about achieving very little? Or perhaps its simpler than that, and it simply doesn't look finished until I've filled all the space? Who can say?