Tag Archives: paper

As We Grow Up

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As We Grow Up

Hello friends

Well we finally had some sunshine, and oh boy! doesn’t it make a difference, everything looks and feels better when the sun shines.

Yesterday I did a lot of work in the garden.  The only area of responsibility I have in the garden is cutting the grass, but because I don’t do it very often, the two grassy areas are more weed patches than grass and look very scruffy.  This contrasts very badly with the rest of the garden which is very neat and tidy, as are most things in my husband’s life (apart from me).  I really don’t know how he puts up with me, he is obsessive about tidiness, and I live my life surrounded by clutter and stuff!

Anyway I cut down the two weed patches and they now look slightly more respectible, however I am pleased to say I have finally convinced T that we should do away with the grass altogether.  The area at the back of the house where we occassionally sit on the rare occasions when it’s warm enough will be paved (when we can afford it) and the garden at the front of the house is going to have raised beds so T can grow even more vegetables.  This is a huge relief for me I can tell you, and gives him more growing space – he loves his home grown veg.

Today was even more glorious but I woke up feeling poorly and spent most of the morning in bed.  When I did get up there were chores to do and then a visit to my parents.  Fortunately I have a day off work tomorrow so I will be able to enjoy a day that I felt like I missed today – if you see what I mean?

This spread is from my A4 journal, it looks a bit busy, but I was pleased with how it turned out.  I did it a while ago so I can’t really remember the whole process, but there are ripped and die cut old book pages, acrylic paints, gesso, stamping and a really cool, but very long quote I found.  It starts “As we grow up” and ends “live in the moment because every second you spend angry or upset is a second of happiness you can never get back”.

I think if you click on the image you should be able to see it big enough to read the whole quote  – it’s a good one.  I use all these quotes because I am really trying to improve myself – to improve in my art and in my attitude and outlook.  I don’t always succeed and I definitely do have negative periods, but I’m trying and slowly I feel that I am getting to grips with it.

I hope you are having a great weekend.

Big love

AJ 🙂

The Moment is Now!

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The Moment is NowHello friends!

Happy Wednesday to you I hope you are all well and happy.  I am fine, but I’m feeling physically exhausted at the moment – in a good way I think.

I’ve been doing something completely different at work last week and this week, it’s interesting but tiring for me.

This is a spread from my 6×6 journal.  I started by collaging some images I’d printed but because my printer was running out of ink the colours came out really strange.  Rather than throw them out I decided to use them as a base for a journal page.  I also ripped up some of the local newspaper the was lying on my work table and stuck that down too.  Then I finger painted with blue acrylic, I used a handcut stencil and some blue distress ink then I over collaged with scrapbook paper and the quote which I hand wrote.  I know I should credit the author, but I’m sorry I can’t remember this time.  Finally I overstamped with a paisley stamp and black Stazon and a flower stamp and blue Stazon and I edged the pages with the blue ink too..

Right, I’m off to bed now to get some rest before another busy day of site visits.

I’ll be back soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

Be Grateful to People Who Make us Happy…

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Be Grateful to People Who Make us HappyHello friends!

I hope everything is good with you.  We are in the middle of a Bank Holiday weekend in the UK and it’s unseasonally cold.  At least it has stopped raining for the time being, but a little warmth and sunshine would be appreciated… maybe tomorrow?  I mean we are well into May now!

This spread is from my A4 journal.  You are probably getting the idea by now that one of the things I love to use in my art is torn paper – books, adverts, old maps, receipts, scrap book paper, etc. I just love paper!  I also love script and especially script I can’t understand.  I can only speak English so all other languages look fascinating to me.

I also like the idea of my soul blossoming, so thank you Marcel Proust for the lovely quote.  Fortunately there are quite a lot of people in my life who make me happy.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

A Beautiful and Incredible Place

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A Beautiful & Incredible Place

Hello friends

Gosh, it’s mid week already, I just don’t know where the time goes, but then they do say ‘Time flies when you are having fun’ 🙂

This spread is from my 6×6 journal and I used stuff that was just on my work table – scraps of paper, images from magazines, old maps, even a bit of packaging from a Tim Holtz mask I purchased.  The pages already had gesso on them which I had textured by putting the wet pages together and then pulling them apart (I love that effect), I finger painted with yellow acrylic paint and then collaged the paper scraps on top.  I edged some of the paper with black ink and some with yellow ink.  I added more gesso to the edges of some of the images to push them back to the background.  The quote is by Ole Osterkamp and I wrote it on some cream vellum, tore the edges, inked them with yellow ink and stuck the pieces on.  I have started putting dates on my finished pages, because I am having trouble remembering when I did what, if you know what I mean 😉  I liked the end result.

The journal is actually wire bound, but I am in quandry about continuing to use wire bound journals.  There are pros and cons.  The wire binding allows for expansion as the pages and journal thicken up and also allows for a lot of decorating, with fibres, charms etc,  of the outside of the spine when the journal is completed.  But the wire binding really distracts and disects the images I make across two pages.  That is why I scan the two sides of the spread and stitch them close together without the wire binding showing.  Is that cheating?

I hope all is good with you my friends and I’ll be back again soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

Have Beautiful Dreams

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Have Beautiful DreamsHello friends!

Warning: the last two sentences of the third paragraph are a bit rude, so please don’t read that paragraph if you are easily offended.

I hope you are having a good weekend, I am and I am also managing to get a few things done so that’s good, it eases the pressure a little.

The spread above is from my A4 journal.  I painted the pages with some really old pink and orange fluorescent paint I found in my art box (it must be at least 20 years old).  Then I stamped the pages with a Tim Holtz reflections script stamp and a Tim Holtz heart.  I added some gold leaf to one of the pages.  Then I collaged with scraps of paper of all sorts, some images of vintage ladies, some die cut dots, and various other pieces I found in my stash.  The lovely quote is, I believe, by Eleanor Roosevelt and it is to remind me that if I follow my dreams all will be good. 🙂

On Friday all the big bosses came for their meeting, it was strange, for most of the day they were crammed into the meeting room (which was really too small to accommodate the numbers that turned up) and it must have been very uncomfortable for them.  At lunch time they came out and ‘talked to the troops’.  A buffet lunch was provided which I had been tasked with providing.  I am not sure why I was asked to sort it out as catering is really not my speciality.  Anyone who knows me would tell you that.  I suspect it was more to do with the fact that I don’t have a pair of testicles and all my colleagues do.  I’m thinking of asking my mum to knit me a pair 😉

The lunch time chat was really more of a case of ‘the troops’ complaining about how things are run and some of them were quite aggressive.  All the managers acted very professionally, were very reasonable and promised to look into every complaint.  It remains to be seen whether or not they actually do.  After a couple of hours they said they had to go back into their meeting and asked if anyone had anything else to say.  No-one said anything and I thought ‘someone needs to say thanks to them for coming here today’, so I forced myself to say something.

As soon as I started speaking a felt a rush of blood from my feet to my head, I was hot, felt like my face must be the colour of a beetroot and my voice was really shakey, to the point where I almost couldn’t get my words out.  I did my best and I hope it was good enough.  I think it’s important when people make an effort that they are acknowledged and thanked.  It’s one of the complaints we make about our bosses – they never say thank you to us.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I’ll be back soon.

Big love

AJ 🙂

The Power Within

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Hello Friends!

I am really enjoying the weekend and hope you are too.

We had a fantastic meeting of the local history group yesterday and afterwards I went to a felt making workshop to help make squares for a ‘Friendship Quilt’ that will be displayed in Ryde Library for Ryde Arts Festival at the end of June beginning of July.  I made two squares that were only ‘squarish’ ha, ha, ha.  Lovely group of people and we all had fun.

The spread above was made late last year for 21 Secrets 2011 in Tamara Laporte‘s workshop called Collage Paint Soul.  Do you know about Tamara?  She is lovely, check out her blog.

My journal page already had Adirondak Colorwash spray on it from where I had put a wet stencil between the pages and I collaged scraps of paper with inked edges on top, and two images cut from a magazine to make up a girl.  Then I painted over the top with acrylic paints and stamped with various stamps including a Tim Holtz number stamp and I also used some glitter glue.  The thing I loved about Tamara’s workshop was learning that you can take a face from a magazine and paint over it.   I am hopeless at drawing people and faces, and clearly I need more practice, but this is a good way to learn.

I know the head is far too big for the body, believe it or not that was intentional.  Years ago I did an photo/art project called ‘The Big Head Project’ it involved taking photos of people’s faces, printing them out super large on my printer, cutting the face out and sticking it on cardboard to make a mask and then taking another photo of the person with the Big Head.

Here is an example, the colours look odd because the film was cross-processed.

I added the quote from Lord Buckley to finish off the spread.  Here is what it looked like before I started painting:

That’s all for now, I’ve got to get on – places to go, people to see, things to get done.

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

 

 

Out of the blue, I found you

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Out of the Blue...Hello friends, happy Wednesday 🙂

I created this bluish spread with gesso, Derwents Inktense blocks, a Tim Holtz reflection script stamp, some scraps of scrap book paper and edged the pages and the papers with irredescent purple ink.  The phrase ‘Out of the blue, I found you”, kept coming into my mind so I stamped it with some tiny alphabet stamps I got from Hobbycraft.

I was thinking how lucky I was to meet my soul mate when I was still at school and how over time (over 40 ears) the relationship has changed in nature but is still constant and true.  Then I found this amazing quote by Sir Hugh Walpole.  You probably can’t read it from the image but it says:

“The most wonderful of things in life is the discovery of another human being with whom one’s relationship has a growing depth, beauty and joy as the years increase.  This progressiveness of love between two humans is a marvellous thing; it cannot be found by looking or by passionately wishing for it.  Its a sort of divine accident”

See you soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

Mothers Day and Intuitive Cats

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Mothers Day

Hello friends

I Hope everyone is well.

Mothers Day – It’s Mothers Day in the UK (I’m not sure if it is in other parts of the world).  My mum was 80 a few weeks ago and I wanted to do something special for her for Mothers Day.  I realised recently that I make things for lots of other people, but I’ve never made anything for Mum, so this week I converted a box, which originally contained chocolates, into a sort of Mothers Day card which I gave her today.  In the middle are two photos of Mum and me when we were both much younger.  I was lucky then to have such a loving Mum and I’m still lucky now.

Intuitive Cats – Usually my two cats get me up at about 5:30am because they want to go out, in fact they are desperate to go out.  I don’t mind because I like getting up early, it gives me time to do some art or local history group work before I set off for my day job.  But sometimes at weekends I could do with a break, that doesn’t usually happen.

Today I wasn’t woken up – no-one scratched at the base of the bed, ran over my head or whined in my ear to tell me it was time to get up.  When I realised this in my half awake state I thought that Tony must have let them out while I was still asleep.  So I had a peaceful lay in bed this morning and when I eventually decided to get up at 8am (very late for me)  I was surprised to see that both cats were still on the bed:  Jack Kat was on the pillow next to Tony’s head just gazing at his sleeping face, and Bill Kat was stretched out full length alongside him.  Yesterday Tony was unwell – he had a change of medication recently and the change has proved difficult to adjust to – I think the cats knew, I think they were watching over him making sure he was OK.  Fortunately he has been a lot better today.

That’s all for now, I’ll be back soon

Big love

AJ 🙂

 

Let your heart lead the way…

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Let your heart lead the wayHello friends

It has been a glorious weekend in my part of the world, warm and sunny and, for me, extremely busy.  I hope you have had a good weekend too.

On Saturday morning I did some shopping then spent the afternoon working with my local history group in the Heritage & Learning Centre.  When I got home I decided to clear out  the space underneath our decking.   My house is really old, it was built in about 1860, and underneath the house is a huge space like a cellar but with an earth floor.  Underneath the decking area is what was originally a small yard with two cubicles – one I think was where the outside toilet was and the other I suspect was where there were originally steps going down from the kitchen to the yard.

We have lived in the house for almost 16 years now and the yard and both cubicles had gradually filled up with bits of wood because they ‘might come in useful one day’.  Recently I began to realise that even if the wood could be reused, it was going to be impossible to get to any of it except those bits balanced precariously on the top of the stack.  So yesterday I decided to clear it all out.  I swept the area clean and then put back the very few bits that actually will be useful.

Today I got up early and, after typing up an article for the Local History group and before T was awake, I loaded up the car and took most of the wood to the local tip.  When I got home T was up and I got washed and changed into clean clothes and we went to pick up his friend N.  N has severe learning difficulties and is somewhere on the autistic spectrum, but he is lovely and T usually spends time with him one day during the week.  Last week was N’s birthday so for a special treat today we took him out for a walk and then for lunch.  We all had a great time.  By late afternoon we were back home  and I went to visit my parents who are both doing well.

I managed to work a little on a couple of art projects during the day too, so that was a bonus 🙂

This spread above, which I make a while ago, is in my 6″x6″ journal.  I’m not sure if you can read it, but on one page it says “Let your heart lead the way” and on the other it says “Your heart will find treasures your eyes can’t see“.   There are lots of layers of gesso, acrylic paint, scrapbook paper and Adirondak colorwash spray.  I wish I could remember where the scrapbook paper with the butterflies on came from, because it’s lovely.  It could be from the stash I bought when I was in LA last year, unfortunately I can’t remember for sure.  Anyway I was pleased with how this spread turned out.

That’s all for now, see you soon

Big love

AJ

Queen of HeARTs

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Hello friends!

I hope everyone is well.

It’s been a week since I last posted, couldn’t post at the weekend due to various other tasks that had to be done.  I am getting behind with things at home and at work.  I spent the first part of the week at work preparing for two presentations I had to give today.  I’m glad I spent the time on them because I think they went well.  My presentations were on Employee Engagement and I was trying to be motivational to a group of people who were not really that interested, but I did OK and I was pleased with how I handled it.   But tomorrow I will have to try and catch up with over a week’s backlog of emails and other stuff I should also have been doing.  Oh well that’s life I guess, and I am pleased to say that although I am not managing to keep on top of things I’m not getting freaked out by that fact either.  There was a time when I’d have been full of anxiety and stress at the thought of my workload, but now I’m just going to try and work my way through it and eventually it will get done.

This page is from my A4 art journal and there is a bit of a ‘royal’ theme to it.  The page was gesso’d, then there are layers of acrylic paint.  I used white acrylic paint to make the ‘drippage’ lines which I thought gave a sort of tartan effect. The blue paper with the crown is a scrap book paper by Teresa Collins (torn and edged with blue distress ink).  Then I stamped over the page with a cheap foam crown stamp in black and some small hearts in red.  I stamped Queen of HeARTs with black Stazon but it looked odd so I edged and dotted the letters with a white gel pen.

I’m not sure what the significance of this page is, except it was one of those experimental and learning processes.

Big love to you all

AJ