ANGELS .....

You know how sometimes you get a song stuck in your head and just can't stop singing it?  Well that's what was going on when I made this page.  All morning it had been "All night, all day, angels watching over me ...." so in the end nothing I could do but journal about it right?  It seems I was meant to, so I did.

It began like this - I'd dug out the angel picture from a collage sheet and wanted to make a sort of frame around her, so had that in mind when I did the background (Caran d'ache watercolour crayons) and chose the colours.  Looks boring at this stage below doesn't it?

As soon as I start adding detail I'm off - the first thing I did was give her better wings - these are made from German scrap, and are a gorgeous turquoise blue.  Then I wrote down the main wording "angels watching over me" but turned it into a question.  That left me lots of scope for rambling reflections on this subject .....

I did the colouring of the letters and the writing with Promarkers - and also went around the title letters with a white pen (Uniball Signo, the best) to help them stand out.  You can see the difference between the pictures above and below.  Finally of course I added lots of doodles and dots, also utilising triangle shapes this time - oooh I'm nuthen if not versatile me! 

And as for the answer to the question?  I guess its that I really REALLY want to think so, and its hard not to after some of the things which have happened in my life, so I suppose yes - I do believe :)

PS Sorry I've not posted for a little while - been away on a lovely short break.

THIEVES AND ROBBERS!

 

Here's a page that might make you laugh - it did me, I was chuckling all the time I was making it!.  Sometimes my pages are about big, important things, and sometimes they're not - at least this subject is important to me, but not of life-changing importance generally, except to me!  This may be a complaint that some of you recognise - known to me as Menopausal Brain Death, but also called Pregnancy Brain by my younger sisters of the woolly headed sorority.

This page began with my box of magazine clippings - I get it out and rummage through and see what tickles my fancy.  On this occasion it was the word "thieves" and the wanted poster ... so I began by sticking them down and then the writing around them just flowed from there ...

You can see how I start the lettering with quite basic writing and then go back and embellish it, making each line thicker and giving the letters curly bits.  I also began the background by colouring around the lettering with the broad nib end of my Promarkers - I like the effect this gives of leaving a white edge around the letter.

Then I got absorbed in what I was doing and forgot to take any more pictures, so this is the finished result.  Like I say I was laughing the whole time I was doing it - at least I think I was, but can't quite remember ...

If you are experiencing the same problems you have my profound sympathy ... perhaps we should start a club?  That would work if any of us could remember to turn up, or where to find the website?

GRATEFUL

Many of you will know that paint doesn't seem to be my natural medium, but I do keep trying to learn to love it, so that's what was happening here.  It may be purely a matter of laziness, in that I want to dive straight into a page and not have to gesso it first etc etc., but whatever I had some fun splodging paint about here.  I did a background of quite diluted paint (these are acrylics let down with water) and then used a baby wipe among other things to add more layers.

 Then because it was one of those times when I was just making a background and seeing where it led, I dug about in my collage materials and added a few images.  Although I forgot to photograph it at that stage, I used a technique I often resort to of asking myself what's the one word I want to put on this page?  This time it was "grateful" and so I wrote it in the middle - having learned the hard way that it rarely works to stick it at the top.

After that the creative juices just started to flow ... and although I do know that my writings here sound very Pollyanna-ish I am unapologetic about that!  It seems really important to me to regularly engage in the Count Your Blessings exercise - and all the more so when you're a bit down and dejected.  Its frighteningly easy to lock into a downward spiral in which you can only see negatives, but I find when you look for them that there are ALWAYS good things to celebrate and give thanks for.

You may notice that this is a page I made back in March ... when we were still hoping for a summer!  I haven't been doing a lot of journalling lately - it goes like that with me, I'll work all day every day in my journals for a while, and then I end up needing a change of activity.  I've got a sewing project on the go at the moment, but in a few days I'll return to my journal with renewed enthusiasm.

Sometimes I wish I was the sort of person who could concentrate on just doing one thing well - like sewing or making cards etc., or stick to just one medium, but I seem to be somebody who needs diversity and lots of different materials to play with.  Maybe you're the same?