Book of Days update

Back again to finally show you some art...

While I was away last week, I did do a few pages in my Book of Days which I can show you now.  I am a bit behind in art journaling the pages but because I am also working through Sarah Ban Breathnach's Simple Abundance I am writing it all down so I can refer to it later on. I am really enjoying this process as it stops me from sailing through each week unconscious of what is going on around me but also within me. If you feel like joining in, just visit Book of Days here.

This is a page with the challenge of doing a mosaic of some kind. As you know I love my spirals so this was the shape I first thought of. It expressed perfectly what I was feeling on the day, going within and listening to your inner voice instead of all the chatter that can sometimes send you off course.

  This was my first spread for the start of last week using crafters workshop stencil in the background (white sponged over the stencil on a blue background), glazing with various colours of Copic markers, white paint and punchinella, cut outs of thongs from a scrapbook paper collection, and a white signo pen for the writing.  

 As I had limited supplies, I actually used a few supplies that I don't normally use and it just shows how much you can do with very little. The background for this one was water soluble crayons, then white paint and punchinella and journaling with a black copic marker.

 This last page of the week was to celebrate my youngest sons 20th birthday 

(yes I did say 20 and this makes me feel.... ummmmm... well more advanced in age than I was last year lol).  I am not saying 'old' because I think that it is all in the mind but it did make me pause - in a good way :)

The background was Inktense pencils, a circle border stamp in Black Staz-on and journaling with a purple artline marker and white Signo pen.

The message on the right hand side describes how I was feeling after a lovely relaxing week away, realising that you don't need all the latest gizmos, the clutter of "stuff" and other distractions to make your life complete. Sure they can make it easier but I have found recently that they can also make it more stressful. The technology that was supposed to make our lives easier can often end up taking up more of our time as it gives us more and more things to do while we try to fit it into our already busy lives. 

Sometimes you just need to  

stop, breathe and listen to the stillness. 

Find a quiet retreat, even if for only a few hours and  

just "be". 

This is often when you realise just how much you have to be thankful for.

My quote today is the one I used on this spread.

"Who is content with nothing,

possesses all things."

Have a lovely day

Namaste

Lee

I love Butterflies...

I wanted to show you parts of some pages that I did for a swap that I have signed up for. Soon I will show the whole pages but here they are for now.

Each of the participants has set a theme for their pages and then we do a round robin so that we do a page for each participant in their chosen theme. I really liked the way that we are doing this one as we are not posting the whole journal all around the world (which can be very cost prohibitive) but we have taken our journals apart and are just sending a page at a time. Over the year each recipient will receive 16 journal pages which we will then re-bind (that is the beauty of spiral bound journals) and have a finished journal. We are using a Strathmore visual art journal 300gsm.

I then found a post about a page that I did late last year that I thought I had posted but was sitting there as a draft. So here it is..

I was inspired by Paula over at Journal Artista when she showed a ghosting technique on her you tube channel. Paula used Alcohol inks under the white but since I didn't have any I tried with ordinary paints mixed with Atelier Liquifying Medium so the paint would thin in consistency but not in strength of colour.

I started with Jo Sonja Carbon Black

 .. then used a butterfly and flower stencil with Jo Sonja Napthol Crimson and Pthalo Green to pattern the background. I had quite a bit of water in the sponge so there would be the bubbled pattern as below.

 ... here it is dry

 .. with a stencil I sponged on shapes with Titanium White

 ... then misted with water

 ... and wiped away excess with a baby wipe. I like the ghostly moon-like appearance I ended up with. Until this stage I didn't know where the page was headed but the moon gave me some direction

 I found some ribbon and butterflies I had die cut out of red cardstock

 ... stuck them down with Mod Podge

 ... and floated Napthol Crimson around the outside edges of the flower shapes with an angle shader brush

 Next I chose a stamp and the Cloud White Vera Magic stamp pad and stamped over the top of the ribbon and in some other places

... I then found some other butterflies I had die cut and embossed with the Spellbinders range, rubbed black paint over them to distress them, and doodled on them with a silver gel pen. I stuck them down only by the body part so they would be 3D.

I then stamped the word butterfly on the right hand page..

 and journalled around the page about transformation, freedom, change and the colour red. I also rubbed silver paint around the outside edges of the pages to frame them.

A butterfly is the symbol of transformation, change, soul and transition. You can go here to read  a bit more about butterfly symbolism.

My quote today

"Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. 

But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder"

- Thoreau

Have a lovely day everyone, tomorrow is the Melbourne Cup which means a nice day relaxing at home with friends and family watching the race that stops the nation,  so pretend we are all together and have a glass of bubbly with me.

Namaste

Lee

Where is your soul's compass leading you?

Hi everyone, 

I hope you all have had a great week and weekend. To my friends in the US I hope you had a great Labour Day relaxing and enjoying your long weekend.

So today I want to share with you another page in my journal. I was inspired by some great new stamps I have and some papers. 

It is titled "Where is your Soul's Compass leading you?"

My journal page already had washes of green and red which were leftovers from a previous page.
I used a Tim Holtz mask called Concerto randomly over the page

I sponged over the mask with Jo Sonja Pearl White

To give this nice shimmery effect. I wanted the base to show through.

Next, out came the Kaisercraft clear background stamp called Sheet Music and the Black Staz On ink.

I then got my hands dirty by finger painting on some Jo Sonja Titanium White, streaky down the pages

The papers I wanted to use today were from a Kaisercraft mini papers pad called  Black and White Timeless

I tore and cut out images and stuck them down with Atelier Binder Medium.

My next layer was using stamps from this great Stamp It set. I love the detail in these stamps and you get so many stamps in one set that there are endless combinations.

So here is where I am at this stage, not too busy but starting to convey the message that I had in my head.

Out came the obligatory Crafters Workshop stencil. This one is called "mums" and I have wanted to use it for a while now, so I softly sponged on Permanent Alizarine.

A border was called for so I drew around the pages with my Sharpie, Zig black pens and Signo white pen.
and wrote the title on another page out of the mini paper pad which had gridlines on it. I rubbed some of the red paint on it too after tearing it apart.

Here is the final page. The pages always look a bit bright when they are scanned but they are clear so I hope you get the idea.

Do you feel guided by your soul or are you mainly in your head? 

Do you take time to connect with your soul and what it really needs?

Or are you influenced by what everyone else wants you to do or what you think they want you to do? 

Do you make decisions based on your true nature or do you base your decisions on outside influences that don't really satisfy your soul's needs? 

Sometimes we feel anxious when making decisions, we jump from one answer to the other, being influenced by others comments on what we should do, then we go over and over it in our head, constantly swinging from yes to no, to where and when. We feel scattered and full of worry. Then after we have made the decision we still feel anxious and still have an empty feeling and wonder why.

When you connect with your soul on a regular basis, through meditation, art journaling, doodling and writing you are touching base with the wisest part of you, the part that has your best interests at heart, the part that knows you best. We are then able to calmly make informed choices based on what we need. When we make decisions based on our soul's compass we may still feel butterflies in the stomach, but they are butterflies of excited anticipation, of taking a leap, fully trusting in the universe and where you are being lead.

Have you connected with your soul and listened to its message today?

Have a great day everyone.

Namaste 

Lee

PS. I have come down with the flu so I am a bit slow it getting round to visit everyone but I will see you soon.

Going around in circles

G'day everyone from a freezing cold Melbourne. We are only in Autumn at the moment but today has felt like the middle of winter with ice cold air. I was very glad today to get home, put the heater on and rug up in my woolies.

My journal page is how I feel like I am going in circles trying to catch up, every time i cross something off my list I am adding another one or two things to do, feeling like I am treading water at times.

This is how the page started with left over sprays and wipes from ink projects etc.

I liked the pattern on this serviette so I tore it and stuck it down with Mod Podge

I chose my colours, Jo Sonja Gold Oxide and Teal Green hoping they will compliment each other.

I slipped my onion bag over the end of the journal so it could stretch out, filled a mini mister with water, added a few drops of Teal Green, shook and sprayed

then I dipped an end of a cardboard roll that came out of a roll of baking paper, into Teal Green and stamped over the page

here is a close up of the spraying and stamping.

I then sponged on some Gold Oxide using my new Crafters Workshop Stencil Mini Cosmic Bubbles.

and ended up with this.....

I then got out a new stamp I bought recently, a grungy one and stamped on the pages with StazOn Timber Brown

and it looked like this

Up until this stage all I new about this page was that I wanted to do circles. Then the words came and so I painted a track for my words with Smoked Pearl

To write my words  i used a blue and green Sharpie and then a blue glitter gel pen because the letters weren't standing out. I also rubbed around the edges of the pages and in other places with the Impress Pale Aqua ink pad.

Here it is finished

Anyway, I have lots still on my list to do but doing this post has grounded me so I can keep moving.

I just heard on the news that we are expecting hail in the next day or two so i think I need to get my gloves out for work tomorrow.

I hope you are keeping warm or staying cool wherever you are, I am off to pour a nice hot cuppa and have a piece of Chocolate Brownie to warm my insides.

Breathe and Just Be.......

Namaste

Lee

Summer Rain

Hi everyone,

I am back today after a frustrating week with no home phone or internet. With all the rain that we have had lately some moisture had gotten into the lines and my phone was dead. Anyway, it meant no computer at night after work and I must say that I was much more relaxed when I went to bed, I hadn't realised how much time I actually spend on it.

I have another journal page to share with you today.  I was sitting out under the pergola the other night; it was warm and humid and it started lightly raining. You know, that gentle rain that just lulls you into a peaceful state, the crickets were singing to each other, there was no other sound, I could have been in a rainforest. I had candles lit all around and it was so meditative that I had to grab my journal and start writing. The next day I finished the page. I hope you like it.

I had journaled on the pages with a purple pen. Then I scribbled over the top of it with a blue chalk pen that has a chisel edge.

 I rubbed it with a dry baby wipe. i keep my baby wipes even when they dry out because they are good for this use. It smudges without getting so wet that it comes off.

 I then drew a border around both pages with a purple chalk pen. These were a great buy. i found them in Spotlight in the sell out bin a couple of weeks ago. They dry like chalk.

I grabbed my trusty bubble wrap and stamped on some Jo Sonja Titanium White and cut out and collaged a picture of a drop in milk from a magazine ad.

 With my stencil and Jo Sonja Pacific Blue I stippled a pattern around the pages.

 Some finger painting was called for with Titanium White. I am a messy painter, getting stuck into the painting process and letting it flow. I find finger painting makes me feel free-er and not so stuck on precise painting (not that there isn't a place for that too)

 To me this was beginning to look like rain ......

...... softly falling

I then used my angle shader brush and floated in some rain drops.

 I thought it needed some more colour so I used the Impress ink pad in Pansy and again used a dry baby wipe to rub on some colour. I don't have the other proper ink rub thingys so this is what I used instead.

 I then rubbed on the Pale Aqua inside the rain drops and on other parts of the page to balance it out.

 Here are the rain drops with a bit of colour. I also grabbed my gel pens and drew the title and outlined it in a thin black pen

 Lastly, with the baby wipe, I rubbed Indigo Blue ink around the outside of the page and also rubbed the ink pad directly onto the paper right on the papers edges.

So here is the finished page. In the rain drops I wrote a couple of words about what rain is to me.

I also have a couple of doodles to share. This first page started with a background that was finger painting that I had swirled around the page. Sorry but I forgot to take a before photo. Well while I was looking at the page a couple of days later I saw a face and hair so I started with coloured pencils and coloured in the face and hair as I saw it. I don't usually do faces because they usually end up all out of proportion and weird. I then used my new fineliners in various colours, to doodle around the page and on the face to outline and define shapes. I mediated on her for a while and my title and the journaling was the result.

This doodle was started while I was away in Anglesea but stopped it for a while for some reason. Last week I finished it and quite like the outcome. I haven't yet decided which way is up either.

 

I have been dreaming a lot this week which has stirred up emotions and given me a bit to reflect on so I have this quote for you today to ponder.

"The best things in life are truly unseen,

that is why we close our eyes when we kiss and when we dream."

-anon.

 

Well this weekend in Melbourne looks like it is finally going to be a bit of summer so I am looking forward to getting out in the sunshine. 

I also send my prayers to those places in this world that need all the positive energy we can muster. 

Wherever you are in the world I hope you have a weekend surrounded by love, hugs and kisses.

Namaste

Lee