Battling on

I continue to try and get my head around the features of the blogging world, I can't believe how many hours can be spent moving from blog to blog veiwing all the incredible artwork. I have spent a few fruitful days in my craft room doing some journalling as I am currently home from work recovering from a small op. It is a rare opportunity for me to enjoy some uninterupted time on my own, I've even set the phone to silent! I created this layout the other day, it was challenging because I had pieces of wet texture paste all over the page and I was impatient to continue working and kept smudging it. The licorice allsorts were the hardest as the template I cut had tiny slits to allow the colours to layer, anyway I got there in the end. The entire black background was for the benefit of the licorice! I then used the leftover colours of the texture paste and smeared them together to create the pastel flowers, the whole thing reminded me of a trip the ice cream parlour and all the different choices. Painted the leaves, very random!

This page was fashioned around the image I had of a penny farthing cycle. I used permanent

markers to doodle the background and stuck the transfer image of the cylce over the top. The image got me thinking about pennies and the other page emerged. I scanned some old pennies to create images and added a bit of writing and an old theatre ticket. I was especially pleased with the background for this, did a wash with brown and olive green paint and then placed some paper towel over it and pressed. It left the imprint of the towel, looks great. I still have trouble being spontaneous with my creations. I am a draughtsperson by trade and unfortunately my trained "drafting eye" always wants to line everything up evenly and balanced, I really have to work against it at times. I love the colours in this page. I didn't really have a design in mind it just evolved. I did the black swirls first and everything else followed. I'm always impatient to finish the page because I already have the idea for a new one and I'm seriously comptemplating having a few journals on the go at the same time so that I can jump around a bit. I often lay in bed a night and have to resist the impulse to jump up and go back to my paints with a new idea that just emerged. Am I mad? Mind you it wasn't like that when the kids were at home, too tired.

My eldest daughter is getting married in a few months and I am busily tracking down supplies to make all of the decorations. Fortunately she has chosen a theme close to my heart so it is a pleasure to create. Antique creams and coffees, mixed with a soft russet colour, laces, pearls, ribbons, candles it's dreamy. I will be very busy between now and then though. They are giving each guest a wine glass as a bomboneire and I am making a beaded wine glass ring for the stem of each one as well. I've done a prototype and was quite pleased with the result. I am waiting for supplies to arrrive as I want the ring a bit smaller and I am contemplating dying the rosebuds a bit to make them look more antique. I discovered a wonderful product during a recent art course that was right under my nose and I had no idea about its properties (thanks Kerryanne). Parisian essence has been my best friend ever since. I think I'll try dipping the edges of the paper rose in it today and see what I come up with. Fortunately my daughter is an angel in disguise and I will do anything in the world for her. Best sign off, I can hear those brushes and paints calling. Wish there were more hours in the day.

Enjoy yours.

Janet