LIFE - YOU KNOW IT AIN'T EASY ....

 

I must have been in multi colour mode when I did this page - probably because I was determined to use the wacky figure top left I found on a Ceremony collage sheet!

It started like this, with a painted background, and then I drew these ribbons with a Posca paint pen.  I've included a picture of this pen because I can genuinely recommend them - and nobody is paying me to say this, but I don't mind if they want to!  As you can see you get a really good opacity even over the acrylic background.

Then in went the little man (sporting new eyes) and those blue lines just invited me to write in between them.  I didn't know this is what I was going to write, and appear to have been just getting stuff off my chest as per usual!  I've tried to show here how the lettering is built up from the basic - see the previous post for a tutorial on this.  The white lines and the red dots are also Posca paint pens, and again their opacity is really easy to see.  The little heart is from another collage sheet.

Here I'd just added yet more ribbony lines and even more red dots ...

And then I went a bit wild on the doodling front ... I actually think I prefer the picture above to the finished version, but there you go.  I am occasionally guilty of overdoing it on the decorating front!!.

I really ENJOYED making this page, especially doing the red paint dots.  Funny what will prove satisfying to the creative mind ...

SEEN DANCING

This was one of those times when I just put pretty colours on the page and waited for inspiration to strike - which took some weeks!  I'd intended to use the page portrait wise, but it insisted on being landscape, and it was only when I turned it sideways that I was able to write on it.  I'd come across this quote some time back and written it down in the notebook of ideas I keep for journal inspiration.   I have a wheel stamp by Stampin Up which I was able to wiggle along the lower edge - the music couldn't have straight lines could it?

I deliberately took a picture at the stage above so you could see how I put the words down very simply at first, and then go back and sort of "fill out" the lettering, adding thickness and shaping.

The white parts above were done with my Posca Paint pen, and the finer details added below were done with a Uniball Signo pen.  These are the best of all for white coverage - and no they're not paying me to say that!  You know how I love doodling about anyway, so lots of it here.

You won't be surprised to know that I'm somewhat distraught at the recent vote going against Women Bishops, and deeply sad about the result.  I was angry at first - we've waited SO long, but I can't hold on to that.  However, this quotation seems just right for my attempts to understand those who opposed the Measure - they just can't hear the music.  We will find a way forward somehow, whether together or apart .... I just wish that the church didn't look like an outdated eccentric dinosaur, totally irrelevant to much of the world.  :(

STOP WORRYING!

Well I wish I could (stop worrying that is).  I am an expert in this field and could give lessons, having been practising for a lifetime.  This page began as so many do with just a blank page and NO ideas ... so I follow the helpful advice that I once read somewhere to just write a single word on the page.  Guess what mine was?  It does work, and is often true that by using this technique you find out what is really on your mind, and what you most need to work through - sometimes with surprising results!

It won't come as a shock that the pen which jumped into my hand was the deep pink Promarker, and then I outlined the word with black to make it pop off the page more.  Another pink pen provided a background - at which point it was clear that this negative subject needed to be suffused with my favourite colour - which also works!  I do love this Stampotique face - she looks absolutely FRANTIC doesn't she, a particularly good fit with the subject matter.

After more writing I began to fill in the background some more and the doodly process began.  Because the writing is done with a waterproof pen I could probably (possibly?) have gone over it with the colour too, but it can still smear.  Its more reliable if you wait until another day when the ink is truly dry, but I rather like the effect of the white background.

Then of course it was time for the fiddly (my favourite) bits - and of course generally I can't bear to leave too much empty space - somehow its part of the process of working through something for me, that I haven't quite "done" the subject unless I've filled every available inch.

It will however be obvious to those of you who've been with me some time that this is a counsel of perfection - a life-long worrier like me won't be stopping the practice without a struggle.  I am working on it however, because it IS a waste of my strength, so now when I catch myself doing it I am trying to ask "can I change this situation"  or "is there anything I can actively do to make things better here"?  Much of the time the answer is no, so at that point I am trying to put my worries into God's hands and let Her deal with them .... and work on trusting that somehow, in ways I can't yet understand or see, things will work out for the best exactly as they are meant to.  I can't say that I've achieved zen like calm yet, but She and I are working on it together!  Let go, let God, as the saying goes ...

ANOTHER SHRINE

I absolutely love these little shrine blanks from Retro Cafe Art - this one less than 2" high. They can be very potent symbols but this is just a sweet and simple treatment. I painted the two sides with metallic paint and the centre section black, onto which I collaged the image. The black dots are done with outliner so they are actually quite raised, then I added the two keys and paper lace. The outside is done with textured paper which looks like animal skin - weird stuff but rather pretty!