Art Journal Journey

A few years ago I was watching the movie  'La Vie En Rose' , the story of Edith Piaff. It struck me that at the end of her life she felt she had 'No Regrets'  (the video is from a live performance by the 'Little Sparrow'). I found that remarkable...this page was my response. I found the beautiful fabric off cuts in a quilt room ;-) Super simple page....but it does remind me of my thoughts etc. That is what I like so much about art journalling. It is a little like a decorated visual diary. Only better.

At the moment I'm following along with making a set of index cards of techniques. I found this over at YouTube. Cat Hand is doing this series and I will be adding some other techniques into the mix as well. I intend to have these just loose inside a box with the description of the technique on the back. I always enjoy trying something new and am having great fun with these so far. Plastic wrap in wet paint. Red paint down, leave to dry. layer of yellow paint, apply the plastic while still wet, scrunch to make texture. Leave to dry. Rubbing alcohol on wet paint. Orange paint on card. leave to dry. Add watery yellow paint and immediately drop alcohol into the wet paint. I did more of this on some journal pages and really like how it turned out. This example really doesn't do the technique justice in the least! Glue resist - white card, glue and blue craft paint. The glue lines need to be thick enough to work, but not too hick and close together or they run...

Ever had one of these? It is amazing how good it can be to just sit down, take a deep breath and scribble all the frustration etc out with pretty colours on a page in a simple composition book...

Having just started a new painting, I'm reminded how true this is, regardless of who may have said it... The page n the left is a napkin. I only had one of them though, so I added a mirror of the colours with paint on the right hand page. Some spray splatters tied it all together. The stamp set is by Recollections that I bought from Michaels. No problem cutting out all the letters. The background was so quick to do that this was completed in very little time!

Just because the blog is quiet, doesn't mean nothing is happening in real life. Although it is always nice to see or hear what is happening, right? So what have I been doing? Well as soon as I get the pictures processed I'll update you with what is currently happening on my table, but in the meantime, here are some pages I've done in the last little while : These are all pages from a study on the Book of Job. I stumbled across the study on Facebook and have enjoyed it so far. It lasted all of 2015, and I joined late and fell even further behind, BUT I think it is about the journey, not just finishing. I like to finish, but not at the cost of the journey. I'm using an old Dairy Diary for this. It has a sturdy hard cover, is spiral bound and a good size. Most of the papers are the 'waste catchers' from my desk, but sometimes I'm intentional with how I mess those up, I do confess. The first page deals with the names of God used here as well as the n...

And so the ICAD for this year has come to an end. It has been interesting, enjoyable, boring, annoying, refreshing - you get the idea- Again HERE is where the details are listed. Day 57   For this last group of cards I didn't even consider the prompts as I noticed bits and pieces all over the desk, that would be a shame to throw away. Instead I decided to use them for the cards. Thus most of these have some echo somewhere back to previous cards in this collection. Day 57 also has a piece of paint 'skin' on. It looked much to nice to just throw away... It is stuck on quite flat, the 'shadow' was added with paint. Those animal stencil date back to the 70's when we got them in cereal boxes. Day 58 - A piece of 'desk protector' paper found it's way one this one. This clearly dates from the 'mud' stenciling week  Day 59 - More protector sheets, some hand carved stamps and paint splats. Day 60   -  More 'mud stenci...

Well just look at that. All those cards! My little index card box is getting full...and to think just the other day those first few cards were getting lost in it's vast interior. Week 08 -  The index list can be found HERE  For this week, the theme was maps and cartography, geography etc. I need no excuse to grab a map, so I found some...and that led to travelling and that led to vacation... I put all the cards out on the table, numbered them on the back and then started sticking the maps randomly on cards, tearing paper, and just working quickly. Next I sprayed and coloured, working on all the cards simultaneously. Took out stamps that seem to suit and stamped away, did some embossing and inking on the edges etc. It was a different way of doing it, but it worked out really well and the cards came together rather quickly. Day 50 Day 51 Day 52 Day 53 Day 54 - I like the effect here on the embossed swirl. I rubbed charcoal over it, in the hope ...