July Journal

July in Words

For my monthly July Journal I decided to document it by using words.  Each day I journaled a few words or a short quote reflecting my feelings and thoughts.  Next to each piece I noted the day number.

The picture:

Why the sun?  Well it's July, the middle of summer and we need sunlight to grow and blossom.
Why the tree?  Well I think life is like a tree, it should have good roots that are firmly grounded with a strong stable trunk to hold its many branches and of course it needs sunlight to grow.

In each branch of the tree or within the rays of the sun, I have written down my many thoughts and experiences, or used a quote.

Thank you for reading my blog, I hope you enjoyed it.

Took Time To Get This Right!

"SHARE TIME TOGETHER" 

Journal Page Created With My Best Friend And Twin!

YOUR HEART AND MY HEART ARE VERY OLD FRIENDS anon

This journal page took some time to create. Not because it was difficult, but because I didn't know how to complete and finish it so that I felt happy!

My Twinnee and I decided to follow a tutorial and create a mixed media journal page in our lovely Dylusions journals. We scouted around on Pinterest and YouTube for inspiration and finally decided on the latter, a tutorial by Pringle Hill Studio.  This tutorial was how to create a special background for a Documented Life Planner.

The materials we used were:

Dylusions Journal
Homemade stencils
Card stock
Gesso - white
Acrylic paints - teal, white, black -
Crayola Twistables Slick Stix - orange, green yellow, purple -
Medium round paint brushes
Sharpie marker pens - green, orange, black -
White marker/gel/chalk pen
Baby wipes
Circular shapes for printing

Prep pages with white Gesso and allow to dry.

Twinnee and I worked together preparing the background and had such a lot of fun in the process!



To begin with we used the Crayola Slick Stix.

Both examples of start of backgrounds.

What we did:

We used the Crayola Slick Stix to add blocks of colour.  After each colour application we used a damp baby wipe to soften and work the colour around the area.  It is important here not to rub too hard as this would lift all the colour back off!

Once we were happy with how it looked, very bold!, using the teal acrylic paint, we painted some freehand circles randomly and in different sizes about the page.

Finished background.

We made sure the Crayola Slick Stix and the acrylic teal circles were thoroughly dry before moving onto the last part of the background.

Using white acrylic paint we painted star like shapes onto some of the teal circles.  Then using a kitchen roll tube we dipped it into the paint and printed white rings onto the page.  Next we added
lots of white dots around the page and some orange ones too, using a piece of wooden dowel.  For the white rings and circles, you could use any object, such as lids, pencil tops, finger tips, for example.
Using a marker pen,  we drew round some of the teal circles

Finished!

To be perfectly honest both Twinnee and I were horrified with the end result, we just couldn't visualise this as a serious piece of journaling and were so disappointed!


It was a few months later, once Twinnee had gone back home to the U.S., that we decided to revisit and complete this piece..  Each week we try to Skype with each other and while catching up, we journal at the same time.  Anyway, I had my idea as to how I would alter and finish mine, but Twinnee had decided on more drastic measures!  She had already Gessoed over hers and was ready to restart and create a whole new piece!

For me I decided to dedicate mine to us and the time we so enjoy being and sharing together.

What I did:

I made some templates/stencil shapes out of card stock, they were a few different sized hearts and an outline of a photo taken of Twinnee and me sitting next to each other.

Next, I placed the templates onto the pages and then using black acrylic paint I covered all remaining parts of the pages.  Once dried I used a white chalk pen to doodle over all the black and journal my quote.  I also wrote in black across the figures.  I now love my journal page.

Thanks for reading my blog.

See The Process Tutorial

BE INSPIRED

At the beginning of the year I treated myself to a beautiful Dylusions Art Journal and this was the first piece of mixed media art I created in it, inspired by MixedMediaJenn.  In fact my twin also treated herself to the same journal and bought it with her when she came to visit me this year.. We followed the YouTube tutorial and each produced our version!  This is my finished piece!  Twinee's, although very similar, did look quite different.  I have posted a picture of both pieces at the end of this post.

- Being Creative Souls -

I thought it would be nice to show you the process using pictures, so here goes.

Materials We Used:

Dylusions Journal
Watered down acrylic paints to go in spray bottles - blue, jade, purple -
Black acrylic paint
White acrylic paint
Twine
Tissue papers - orange, pink, purple -
Gel Medium
Coloured card or paper - pink, white -
Alphabet stamps
Stamp pad - black -

Step one - spray paint

1.   Using the three acrylic colours which have been watered down. Spray across the centre of the double page.  Note - practise on paper first to get the look you like as the effect is different depending on how close or far you are from the paper.

Step two - black vertical lines

2. Squeeze black acrylic paint into a flat paint pallet, then using a credit card, or something similar, dip into paint and then press onto journal page until you have the desired effect.

Step three - white vertical lines

.

3.  Same as step two, but this time use white acrylic paint.

Step four - twine

4.  Using a gel medium, glue areas of the page and then choose a coloured twine, I chose yellow, to snake around the page and stick down onto the gel medium.

Step five - tissue paper.

5.  Cut out shapes from your chosen tissue paper colours and glue on top of twine and areas of the pages.

6. Using alphabet stamps, decide on your quote, mine was Being Creative Souls, and stamp onto paper, tear out and mount on a contrasting colour, then glue onto picture.  Date and sign piece.

Here are both mine and Twinnee's finished pieces.  You can see how different they look!

HIDDEN MESSAGE ...

Dedicated to my son and daughter.

The prompt for this piece was to write something, anything in fact, then cover it, just leaving one word on show.

I decided to write a few quotes and some of my thoughts that I could dedicated to my beautiful children.

Family - where life begins and love never ends
To My Children 
Remember always. . . if you need me,
just call me. I don't care if I'm 
sleeping, if I'm angry with you or if I'm 
having my own problems - just call me
I will always be there for you, no
matter how big or small your need is. . .
I will be there

I may not always be with you BUT
when we're far apart REMEMBER 
you will be with me 
right inside my heart.

F  ather

A  nd
M  other

I

L  ove

Y  ou

Moments to remember, treasure them always.
REMEMBER -  the love of a family is life's greatest blessing

Once I'd finished writing, I took a photo of the pages and folded it up to fit snuggly into the pocket I'd constructed into the spine of the page.  I then created my abstract picture of our family over the top, covering all my words.

Secret pocket now has the message inside. The right hand page shows us, the parents, as being in the background giving warmth and love to our two children, who are being encouraged to stand out and be seen. It also shows them holding onto a heart and in deep thought, as they know our family's love is strong and we will always be there for each other.

I have tried to disguise the pocket by incorporating it into the main painting.

Materials Used:

Acrylic paints

Gelato (water based wax colours)

White gel pen

Black ink (to write message initially)

White Gesso to cover words prior to painting picture

THANKS FOR READING MY POST, I HOPE YOU ENJOYED IT! 

Deep in Thought

On the morning of my daughter's holiday travels I was lucky enough to capture a photo of her in a world of her own!  I knew she was feeling quite anxious as she isn't that keen on flying and her flight was looming.

I think although she was racked with worry, the photo is beautiful because she was so excited too, and this positive happy feeling shone through the most, like happiness always does.

Weeks 4/5 - INCHIES JUNE JOURNAL

Finished!  June's inchie journal

What a fun packed, busy month June was for my family!

We had 3 birthdays to celebrate, my return to work following spinal surgery earlier in the year, 4 trips to the airport to take and collect Kamilah with Danny and Jono with Seb, going on their long awaited and well earned summer vacations, to hubby and me swimming most days and reorganising our garden.

I like the look of my Inchies June Journal and feel I'd definitely like to carry on into July, but with another theme, still just journaling a small part of a double page each day.  Since my last post, when I mentioned perhaps writing a word a day, I've had some further thoughts and ideas as to what to do!  I quite like the idea of maybe drawing a small cactus or succulent plant each day to represent the hottest part of the year for us here, plus the flower bed hubby and I are completely redoing is south facing and I'd like to put in these kinds of plants there.  Another idea would be some kind of montage, but I'd need to consider how I'd go about planning and setting it up, it'd be fairly tricky.  Ideas keep popping into my head all the time but its decision time!

I had a go at sketching this month and completed a small watercolour of my beautiful daughter deep in thought on the day of her holiday travels. I've posted this on a separate blog post.

Week 3 - INCHIES JUNE JOURNAL

Wow! Where did that week go to?!

Here is my journal completed up to the end of week 3.

What a busy and fun week I've had! There has been lots of good news, starting with my precious daughter passing her Driving Theory Test :), my friend announcing the birth of their first child, baby Max and a friend and colleague completing and moving into their first owned home!  I have been rushed off my feet too, with it being my first week back to work since my surgery in February!  I have also tinkered around doing other watercolour pieces in my journal and making cards for all these celebratory occasions.

        My thoughts on returning to work
An INCHIE version of the card I made for passing the Driving Theory Test 

Two INCHIE versions of New Baby Boy card and
Welcome to your New Home card I made this week.

Since last week's post I have continued to fill in some more "white" spaces on the page including the June title and adding some journaling in the middle area.

Here we are at the end of the week, still busy, packing my daughter's suitcase for her summer holiday to Gran Canaria!  Up early today, Sunday, to take her and Danny to the airport ... Happy holidays.

With just over one week left in June I have been giving some thought to my July pages. I think I'm still going to use the same idea, but this time, instead of drawing pics I quite like the idea of a word a 

day with journaling added around the page.

Any suggestions or comments welcome. Thanks for viewing my blog.

Week 2 - INCHIES JUNE JOURNAL

END OF WEEK 2

Another week over!  At the end of the first week in June the weather seemed promising, but as you can see by the end of week 2, Saturday 13th and Sunday 14th, the rain and dreary weather was back!

Sunshine at the end of week 1


BUT


RAIN and storms by the end of week 2!

However, spending the day with my lovely daughter on Friday, 12th, shopping and doing lunch, was wonderful.




I have throughly enjoyed doodling and journaling as I go, even when I have made the odd mistake!  On the 9th, I drew a picture of fledgling blackbirds nesting, then painted it with watercolours, but unfortunately it turned out very muddy and ugly, so I spent some time pondering on how I could rectify it!  Inspiration struck at last ...

I cut out, using watercolour paper, a slightly smaller than a 1" square and stuck it over the top! Voila. Now all I needed to do was paint something. I decided to journal my thoughts for the day ahead, add a bit of colour and add a doodle border.

I rather like the effect it created, a raised square, giving texture.  I might try something else like this again.

So as not to disappoint, here is a photo of the fledgling blackbirds I hoped to include!

See you next week, I hope!

Thanks for viewing.

Inchies - June Journal

I wanted to start keeping a pictorial daily diary that would be quick and fun to do, so decided on using inchies as a starting point. Also with it being exactly half way through the year, I thought, what better place to start than June?

WATERCOLOUR JOURNAL COVER

For my family June is a busy month with birthdays, my husband's on the 5th, my son's on the 23rd and my daughter's is the 28th! Also for us Brits, the sun does usually start to shine and warm up, a bit, so lazy days and barbecues in the garden can be enjoyed, as much as trips out to take in the beautiful countryside and wildlife alike. Hopefully, with all this potential activity afoot, I'll have an interesting and fun month to document and for you to view!

So here is the start of my INCHIE JOURNAL for JUNE with updates to this blog as I go. Happy viewing.

END OF WEEK 1

In the Beginning

I have always dreamed of being a "natural" artist, for me that is being able to have a thought or a vision and paintting it, not necessarily including lots of detail or  being 100% accurate, but to create an impression which tells a story.  So anyway, I've never really had the courage to put pencil, brush and paint to paper and just have a go ...

... until now!

I don't consider myself particularly good at drawing or painting, but believe my desire to express my thoughts, feelings and visions  in this way is strong enough to try it. The opportunity came for me, to begin exploring different mediums and styles of art, following a spinal operation I had in February this year.  I was told I would need to have a long period of rest and recovery time following the surgery, which meant I couldn't go to back work for some time. Knowing I was going to have this time allowed me to plan and make decisions as to what I could do to keep busy, but still rest as I didn't want to vegetate and sit around doing nothing.  So for me that seemed like the perfect time to begin my journey.

I begun using acrylic paints to produce abstract pictures, along with stamping, collage and wax mediums. I also added quotes and words, which gave more expression to each piece. However, the results, to me, seemed contrived and didn't quite conjure up the feelings I'd hoped for when producing my own piece of art.  That's not to say I wasn't reasonably happy with some of the pieces I had done!

You see, when I was in my twenties, which was many years ago!, I had a go at painting botanical pictures using watercolours and enjoyed the detail and delicate results I achieved. However, having experienced using watercolour paints in this way, I knew that this wasn't a style I wanted to use now, but was keen to explore using watercolours again, but this time more loosely.

I decided I was going to start by keeping an art journal and began to produce sketches then paint in watercolours, which I did on a daily basis.  I am really happy with the results and by just having this feeling of being pleased, tells me that I've found a style which brings me closer to becoming a "natural" painter.

Here is my first attempt at mixed media journaling, inspired by my twin and mum, who are both so talented and creative.

Selfie - A Bit About Me

As I mentioned in my last post, I have used The Documented Life Project (DLP) for some help and inspiration to kick start my creative soul within!  For this page the prompt was simply "Selfie", so rather than just take a selfie photo or create a self portrait, I decided to add a little more detail using words, pretty papers wool and of course a little bit of acrylic paint and gel medium!

The 4 images of me along the top I traced from pics of me taken in the past year.  I've also used this as my profile photo.

The two top corner photos are possibly the most important piece of detail about "mySELFIE!"  I'm with my beautiful, kind, talented and inspirational TWIN.

The quote written in and around the heart says:

...sharing my life with you ...

To Susan, my twin,

Your heart and my heart

Are very very 

Old friends!

The quote here says;

I may not be 

Perfect, but I am

Always

ME

Here I crocheted 3 wool hearts.  I love hearts and pop them into my art wherever I can. You may have noticed that my logo has a heart in it too!  These crocheted hearts are dedicated to my family and I have written quotes for them too.

The main quote on this page is typed then cut out and glued down the right hand page edge.  It says:

SEARCH YOUR SOUL, FIND YOUR PEACE, BELEIVE IN YOUR STRENGTH. unknown 

A Lovely Place, Home

My next piece of journaling was inspired by The Documented Life Project.  The prompt they gave was to do something using a photo of your front door.  Immediately I visualised what I wanted to do both in terms of design and the message and feelings I wanted to express in this piece.  For me the very mention of my home brings a smile to my face and reminds me of how blessed I am to have my lovely family.

I took a photo of my front door, both inside and out and got to work with my journal.  I wanted to try something a bit quirky and have the door open and close as part of the art work.  I also included a family photo.  The mixed media I used was oil pastels and chalk pastels, tissue paper to make lots of hearts, a paper key and some doodled trees using a black pen and glossy accent paint for foliage.  I added some thoughts about being in and part of my home as well as a quote for each of us to consider as we leave our home each day.

Thoughts written here:  home and Love

step inside ...  The KEY to our happy home:

love, warmth, family bond, safety, growing, sharing,

happiness, talking

WELCOMING friends, family, visitors

The quote included:

Many can help you 

along the journey but when

standing at the crossroads 

only you can choose the 

right path.   Unknown