In between paintings....so join me for a cuppa

Hi everyone

I have been away from blogland for so long but have been trying to get my paintings finished for the exhibition at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show. I have a week to go and have 5 paintings to finish. Did I tell you that I like (well sometimes its not by choice) leaving things to the last minute? I did have things planned further out than this but you know when life gets in the way and throws you some curly interruptions then you just have to go with the flow and do the best you can, so that is what I've been doing. I am hopeful that I can have them done in time.  I have been trying to visit all my friends blogs but still haven't gotten around to everyone yet and have been trying not to turn the computer on when I get home from work so I don't get distracted.

I was honoured last week to be featured in a blog post on the 3 Shared Paths's blog.  These three women share their experiences and share inspiration on their path of self discovery. I hope you go and have a look at their blog, it is well worth the visit. Thank you girls.

On another note I went to my letterbox last week and was so excited to see a postcard from Janet. I was one of the lucky winners in her giveaway a couple of weeks ago and the postcard now has pride of place in my art room with the tag I won from Carmelina too. I am such a lucky girl :)

I have managed to get one journal page done in the last couple of weeks. It started a couple of weeks ago when I attended a class at Scrappers Warehouse called "Playing with Inks". I haven't really played with inks before because I mainly use paint but wanted to learn some different techniques and new ideas. It was a great class run by Jacinta and Pam and we all came away with a sketch book filled with our practice pieces together with explanations of the techniques and the products used. If you are in the area I recommend a class with these girls any day, you will learn a lot and they are only too happy to answer any questions that come up in the class. Thanks girls for a great day.

Anyway, back to my page. As we were using the inks I dabbed the leftover pads of inks onto my journal pages as the start of backgrounds.
Since becoming addicted to art journaling I can't seem to let anything go to waste so here is what I started with...

When I got home, I rubbed on some more ink directly with the inkpads. First Pansy,

then spray with a little water and let it run and slide all over the place.

 Don't you love the patterns that it makes?

Next came more ink in Carmine...

 and a little more water..

After I had dried this with my hairdryer I rubbed on some Lemon Yellow using my dry baby wipes.

To give this....

Then I used my new Crafters Workshop stencil called Birds of a Feather. I just fell in love with it when I saw it and Jacinta ordered it in for me.

so I stenciled softly with Jo Sonja Warm White and a sponge brush.

Then I used the Warm White and sponge to sponge onto some sequin waste and then stamp onto the page along the bottom.

As you can see here...

I then got out my Artline black marker and doodled around the edge of the pages, roughly outlined the stenciled bits and drew my title.
 


I am not that happy with my writing, I need more practice I think. It looked better in my head than on the paper...

I again had some trouble writing on the gessoed background, I thought the ink would be more of a barrier and it was also rougher than I thought at the start so some of my smaller writing is a but yucky looking but it gets my message across, it's all a learning process isn't it. Sometimes i think I need to start a notebook on little tips I've learned on each page......mmm now that has the mind ticking again LOL.

I also rolled my brayer in Warm White and randomly brayered over the pages to soften but not hide the background.......

and sponged on Warm White through the sequin waste

I also used a purple glitter gel pen, a Zig writer and a silver gel pen to write and doodle.

Here are some more shots of the pages so you can see the silver doodling and writing.

So here is the finished page. Part of the scan on the right page is blurry, I tried twice but still came out that way not sure why.

What do you dream of doing with your life, with your creativity? Do you let restrictions stop you from doing what you love to do? How real are these restrictions and are they self imposed ones that you could alter and/or remove? Sometimes these perceived restrictions are actually fear of the unknown or lack of belief in ourselves. It was a super full moon last night, a perfect time to break free and let go of all the beliefs and restrictions that are not serving you and time to envision a life more in line with your dreams for yourself. Bask in the moonlight tonight while you journal what you envision for yourselves in the future. Whatever it is I hope it is doing what you love, full of creativity in whatever sense that means to you.

 

A dream is your creative vision for your life in the future. You must break out of your current comfort zone and become comfortable with the unfamiliar and the unknown.
-- Denis Waitley

Namaste

Lee