Wednesday 25 July 2012

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.

Friday 13 July 2012

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?

Friday 6 July 2012

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?