Tag Archives: 21 secrets

Beautiful Dreamer

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Hello friends!

Oh my I’m getting behind with so much stuff as I am trying to do too much.  I have loads of outstanding actions for my history group, so many it’s almost overwhelming me, and I want to get as much as I can out of 21 Secrets before it closes at the end of the year.  I am really enjoying the workshops on offer there, some of them are taking me out of my ‘comfort zone’ and that can only be good.  As well as that I have several other projects on the go which will be Christmas presents for a few of my friends.  If only I didn’t have to spend so much time at work!  But that’s what pays the mortgage and bills (and for craft supplies) so it’s necessary at the moment.

I am really pleased with this spread Beautiful Dreamer,  It has lots of layers – acrylic paint, Inktense, scrapbook paper and that lovely handmade paper I am so fond of using, bird and birdcage stamps, a stencilled flower and the pink dots are from some strange, cheap little pens I bought called Pretty Color.  I don’t know what the colour (English spelling) is made from but even after a day it was still wet on the page.  In the end I used some clear sparkly embossing powder on the top which seemed to work.  You can’t really see it on the image but the pink dots are now very shiney (and thankfully dry to the touch) 🙂

I have decided that I need to dream and day-dream much more and about the good things I want in my life.  I want to imagine wonderful things that could and might happen.  Only good can come of this, so Beautiful Dreamer is an appropriate title for today’s spread.   I hope you like it.

This month is Art Every Day Month, but to be honest with you I do that anyway and I don’t need a special month to motivate me to make art, what I need is more time, possibly a bit more money for more supplies might help too 😉   Art is pretty much the first thing I do when I get up in the morning and last thing I do before going to bed at night.  As I said before I make art in my pyjamas.   Since I started art journaling and getting into the creative flow I just can’t stop myself.   When I am at work, if I am on the phone or attending boring business meetings (I don’t think I have ever attended a meeting that that kept my attention engaged for the whole of the time), I am usually doodling (I don’t think my boss is very impressed, but hey, I do my job OK so he can’t complain).

Hope all is well with you and you are all creating wonderful things, I check a lot of your blogs so I know you are.

Big love

AJ

Tangled up in Blue

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Tangled UpIn Blue

Hello friends!

I really like this spread, I love the colours.  The gesso base was very textured and it has loads of layers of acrylic paint on it, I think it changed colour about three or four times!  I found some great scrap book paper in purple with vintage hand writing on it and also a scrap of paper that came with some ephemera from K & Co.  I think there is some Adirondak Colorwash spray where I put a wet stencil in the journal and I also stenciled (through my paper cut stencil) with some gesso to lighten the page,  I used a flower stamp and blue ink to stamp over the top and then I drew swirls in dark blue Inktense pencil.  I am really pleased with the result.

I think I have said before that I am much more a visual person than an auditory one, but my husband is the other way around, and all through our time together (over 40 years!!!) I have heard lots of great music.  Tangled Up in Blue is a song by Bob Dylan from the album Blood on the Tracks released in 1975, it was/is a great album and I was 20 years old when I first heard it.  It still sounds good today.

I am having a great time over at 21 Secrets, I am doing two workshops at the moment: one is Gretchen Miller’s Ready for Revo-ution which is about creating a book/journal about the changes you want to make or about the things you want to attract into your life.  Gretchen very kindly posted my second page, about Living Life Fearlessly, on her blog Creativity in Motion.

I am also doing Jane Davenport’s Draw Happy workshop.  I am pretty useless at drawing, but this workshop is at least encouraging me to have a go, and I’m sure the more I practice the easier it will become.

I hope I have time to do a few more workshops before 21 Secrets closes at the end of the year.  I just can’t tell you how inspiring and what fun it all is.

OK now I have a question, does anyone know how to add a badge to the side bar of a wordpress page?  I’m so dense I just can’t figure it out!  I’d really like to put the 21 Secret’s badge on my sidebar (and a few others too).  If anyone could give me a clue, I’d be ever so grateful.

Big love

AJ

Happy Day!

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Hello friends

Oh my gosh, I am so happy that I will be taking part on the 21 Secrets online workshops.  I think I’m going to learn such a lot from all those great teachers.

Thank you Carolyn of A Colorful Journey for giving me this wonderful opportunity, I can’t wait to get started.

In honour of this day I took down the Cheshire Cat, that lives on top of my wardrobe, to share with you.  I made him out of papier mache a long time ago and we are both grinning from ear to ear.

Big love

AJ

Wow! What an opportunity!

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My friend Carolyn has a fantastic giveaway over on her blog A Colorful Journey.  

It’s a fantastic opportunity for one lucky person to have a spot in 21 Secrets!  I would love to win and have an opportunity to learn from all those amazing teachers, I think it would really help me grow.  I was thinking about it today and I realised if it’s meant to happen then it will and if it’s not going to be me I should at least give you, my new art journaling friends, an opportunity to participate too.

So drop on over to Carolyn’s blog have a look at her fantastic artwork and leave a message for your chance to take part in this awesome project.  Good luck everyone!

Big love

AJ