Happy Soul

On impulse, I was rather self-indulgent earlier this month,

when I signed up for the Brave Girl Soul School

& ordered their Premium Brave Box.

It only took a week to arrive & I was delighted by the quality of the material included.

I have since been thinking how best to work with the different pieces

& finally decided what I was going to do when I found an old white plastic floppy disc storage box.

I knew it would be useful one day!

I covered the outside with some lovely black embossed card from Inspire Me Papers

& started working on this months Truth Cards.

To fit inside the box, I cut some coloured cardstock (also from Inspire Me)

measuring 3½ x 3½ inches.

To make the Truth Cards, I printed off the worksheet from the website on to card,

then chose which sentences were personal to me

& used the patterned paper from the Brave Box.

I also used Distress Ink (brushed corduroy & black soot),

Dovecraft Lace Ribbon (curiosity corner)

& some bright butterflies that fluttered through my letter box today on a sales leaflet. 

Casting Shadows

The theme for May at The Documented Life Project is

Touchy Feely
(Texture)

The Art Challenge for

Week 20.  Modeling Paste

& the Journal Prompt for

Week 20.  Rising to the Occasion 

I will not be creating a new journal page this week for The Documented Life Project. 

Instead I am revisiting earlier pages in which I have used texture paste.

Firstly, my double page for weeks 8 & 9

Here I used Ranger's Texture Paste through Tim Holtz Layering Stencils to create a textured layer.

The bright morning sunshine helps to show the dimension that this gives to a page.

Here the texture paste, applied through the Faded Dots stencil, has been left uncoloured.

I coloured over the Typo numerals, once the paste had set.

From this angle, you can see that although it adds texture,

it does not add too much depth to the art journal page.

In week 16, I used the texture paste through the Bubble stencil.

Here is was used as a white highlight to an already visually busy background.

The Sound of Laughter

This month's theme at The Documented Life Project is

Touchy Feely
(Texture)

The Art Challenge for

Week 19.  Stitching

& the Journal Prompt for

Week 19.  "All that I'm after is life full of laughter."

I started by painting a piece of burlap with white acrylic paint.

Once dry, I cut into a tag shape & stitched a border with blue thread.

My inspiration for this piece was taken from a piece of printed white grosgrain ribbon,
which had been attached to a pair of denim jeans.

My inspiration & some of my supplies

Using denim as my theme, I mixed watercolour paint with a blend of Golden Soft Gel Medium
& water, I used three colours to create a denim look to the background.

I started with Colbalt Blue,
then added Prussian Blue
& then finally a drop of Black.

Once this had dried thoroughly, I added a stitch doodle around the edges.

I added heart shapes cut from book text & an old denim shirt, then stitched on the buttons.

I couldn't find a quote that seemed right, so I wrote a few words about what laughter means to me.

The sound of laughter is like a babbling brook,

which dips and rises over the pebbles of life

and carries us along on our journey,

with joy in our hearts.

True Hearts

The poem I have chosen for this week's altered playing card for my

Waddington Weekly

series, is by Sir Edward Dyer.

True hearts have ears & eyes, no tongue to speak;

They hear & see, & sigh & then they break.

I have an Idea ...

This is a project from Melody Ross.

I used what supplies I already had,
so that meant a smaller canvas (7 by 5 inches).

I also decided to do mine portrait,
rather than Melody's landscape original.

I didn't have any heavy-body acrylics,
so I just used my regular set of cheap acrylics.

Creating a textured background using a palette knife & cheap acrylic paint

Mars Black (background)

Titanium White (lettering)

Need to leave this to dry overnight

I used Golden Soft Gel (Matte) Medium as my collage medium.

Collage pieces added & painted over

Lemon Yellow (hat) 

Medium Yellow & Yellow Ochre (flower)

Phthalo Green (leaf)

Colbalt Blue & Phthalo Blue &  (flower)

Crimson (flower)
&

Walnut Stain Distress Ink (antiquing finish)

Trying to show the gold edge

For the edges of the canvas,
I used ecoGreen's Pure Gold acrylic paint
instead of sheets of gold leaf
over a background of Burnt Sienna.

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.