The Impermanence of Future Dreams

Time for an update on my Wreck this Journal.

Chew on this

I guess all the politicising over the last few weeks finally got to me yesterday.
In England we voted to elect our Member for Parliament
as well as electing Councillors for our District Council.

I had three votes to cast.

Over the last few weeks we have been leafleted nearly every day - seems such a waste of money/paper/ink/manpower.

I have been avoiding doorstep canvassers too.

My thanks to Michelle Ward for the label template image
& to Mary Green for the images of the lady & ticket.

To add a little colour & cheer, here is a

Page of good thoughts

My thanks to the Brave Girls Club for their inspiration cards.

Finally a little fun with the pages at the front of my journal

Glue, staple or tape these PAGES together

Cut

Glue

Stick

Tie string to this book

A Picture of our Lives

The new theme for May at The Documented Life Project is

Touchy Feely
(Texture)

The Art Challenge for

Week 18.  Fabric

& the Journal Prompt for

Week 18.  The Fabric of Your Life

I took inspiration from Leona Lewis's song The Fabric of our Lives.

The different colours paint a picture of our lives.

Imagine all your dreams & plant the seed.

Let the rivers of your heart & mind collide.

& close your eyes.

I searched the book I have been using for #DLP2015 to find the words for the quotation,
which is Pride & Prejudice.

Their edges were inked with Black Soot Distress Marker.

I used a cover from an old edition of the John Lewis seasonal magazine

together with fabric by Vanessa Arbuthnott (wild rose).

I have lived today

This is my altered playing card for my weekly series, which I have called

Waddington Weekly.

It is inspired by a poem by John Dryden.

Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own:
He who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.

Additional image of the postal stamp from The Graphics Fairy.

Happy Days

I took a few moments over the Bank Holiday weekend to finish a card for

a couple who are celebrating the birth of their second child.

I have used decoupage designed by TC Chiu from a collection

entitled Country Cottage, available from Joanna Sheen.

Each layer was cut by hand & adhered

using Pinflair Gel Glue (clear dimensional non-silicon glue).

For the background I used a sheet of floral patterned paper from Brenda Walton's Brianna range,

by K & Company, together with silk screen printed vellum by Papermania.

Funday Times

The theme for April at The Documented Life Project is

Colour Safari
(Exploring Inks and Paints)

The Art Challenge for

Week 17.  Inks

& the Journal Prompt for

Week 17.  Before the ink dries

Well the prompt this week just screamed playtime so I coated the blank pages with gesso
& grabbed my alcohol inks & plenty of kitchen towel.

I went to the paper recycling box to find an old newspaper (to protect the desk)
& found this wonderful image,

so before I set to with the inks, I cut the image out
& once adhered to the page, I covered it with clear gesso & left to dry.

I used my kitchen cookbook stand to secure my journal in an upright position

& then let the ink drip down the page.

I added a few more words found in the same newspaper.

I used Ranger's Adirondack Alcohol Inks
(Eggplant/Stream/Lettuce/Butterscotch/Cranberry/Wild Plum),
Liquitex Clear Gesso
Sakura Pigma Micron Archival Black Ink Pen

time to create and have fun

Songbird

Waddington Weekly

I have chosen another Browning poem for this week's altered playing card.

That's the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over

Lest you should think he never could recapture

The first fine careless rapture!

How to be an artist

Thrilled that my own #CreativeWisdom has been included in
the Royal Academy of Arts Storify article on

How to be an artist.

What are your rules for creativity?

Take a moment

The theme for April at The Documented Life Project is

Colour Safari
(Exploring Inks and Paints)

The Art Challenge for

Week 16.  Gelli Plate

& the Journal Prompt for

Week 16.  A lot on my Plate

Take a moment to pause & remember to breathe. 

I am interpreting the prompt as those occasions when you have so much to do
that you may begin to feel overwhelmed.

So my aim this week is to portray the feeling of being overwhelmed,
the moment when you realise that complicated mixture of emotions are rising to the surface.

This influenced my choice of colours & style of my page.

A feeling of restraint by the harsh ordered strips of background paper & use of the bubble stencil,

but also of release by the softness of the floral design & the escaping butterflies.

Or maybe the butterflies represent time slipping through your hands
& the feeling of not being able to control your situation.

There are the many layers of all the tasks before you
& some things that always remain hidden, out of sight.

One tag is fixed & cannot be moved.

The butterfly hinge

The other is hinged, so that you can see underneath.

A place to journal

I took inspiration from a digital piece that I did a few years ago, which I resized & printed out.

I waxed the printed elements to create a translucency,
so that the background would show through.

I used gesso, a Gelli Arts gel printing plate, a Speedball brayer,
acrylic paints (Tide Pool/Mulch/Pure Gold),
Ranger's manilla tags, Archival Ink (Jet Black) & Texture Paste,
Tim Holtz stencils (Bubble/Flourish),
Woodware clear stamp (Plant a Meadow) & ric-rac ribbon.

Dancing with the Daffodils

The daffodils are always such a cheery sight at this time of year,

so it is not surprising that for this week's poem

I have chosen a wonderful poem by William Wordsworth, for

Waddington Weekly.

And then my heart with pleasure fills
And dances with the daffodils

The daffodil image is from The Graphics Fairy.

Beauty

It's Wednesday, so it's time for my next altered playing card for my
Waddington Weekly.

a thing of beauty is a joy for ever
its loveliness increases
it will never pass into nothingness