Happiness is not a Destination ...


Hello everyone,

There's a chill in the air and grey skies today here in Norfolk - brrrrrr!!! I've been collecting beautiful fallen leaves for my next Life Book project - watch this space :o)

Not too much arty farty time this week, but I did finish my journal page for Week 44 of Life Book. This was a very enjoyable yet challenging lesson. Tam, who is the creator of Life Book, got together on Skype with the wonderful Effy Wild to play "Art Journal Tag". It was great fun to watch and then I had a go myself - here's what I ended up with ...


Perhaps this is an over-used saying, and I did have to paraphrase it to make it fit - but I think it's so true and particularly appropriate for this page, because I had to embrace the process and just enjoy the doing of it, having no idea what was coming next or where I would end up!

The idea of Art Journal Tag is that you work with an arty farty friend and take turns to pick prompts from a "hat" to use on your page. Effy provided us with around 50 prompts - based on techniqes, media, colour and so on. I didn't have anyone to work with, so I picked 9 prompts at the start and worked through them in order, allowing only 10 minutes for each one.

Here are some pics of the process ...


You can see my list of prompts there in the top right. The first one was to use stencils, so I pulled out these two lovelies and some gorgeous bright paints in some of my fave colours ...


I liked this just as it was and didn't really want to cover it up, but it's all part of the process. Prompt #2 was "Wavy Shapes", so I added these in Neocolor II watersoluble crayons and then activated them with a watery brush ...


Looking a bit scary now, but hey let's press on! Prompt#3 was to stamp an image onto pretty paper, cut it out and stick it down. I used this stamp which was free on a magazine and repeated it three times, using Archival Ink so that it wouldn't smudge later ...



Next came Prompt #4, which was to scrape paint on with a gift card - oh no! covering up my pretties again!! But it's all adding to the layers ...


Quite liked how that looked, then splattered some gold/silver for Prompt #5 ...


Next Prompt #6 was to draw a shape, so I drew some hearts in the Neocolor II crayons ...


Prompt #7 was the only one I didn't enjoy - "use a colour you don't like" - I should have cheated and thrown it back in the pot, because I know that if I don't like a colour it can make me quite uncomfortable. Some colours are even ok in certain places but not in others, such as orange - love it but NOT in the bathroom, in the bathroom it makes me feel icky. WEird huh?! So anyway, I chose to use a dark purple Neocolour II crayon ...


Bravely scribbled it all over the place ...


And instantly regretted it! So, out  came the gesso and I went over the whole thing to knock the purple back a bit ...


Oh dear! Trouble is that it knocked everything back except the purple and I lost all the lovely vivid colours I'd built up, so I went back in with some Distress Inks to try and bring it back to life ..


Which helped a bit ...



Then I went back to the prompts. Prompt #8 was doodling and Prompt #9 was to write a phrase that's meaningful to me. First I did a bit of doodling, adding detail to the flowers with Inktense pencils and lots of dots with a Posca paint pen, then I pencilled in the words ...


Finally, I used coloured paint pens to fill in the outlined letters and add even more doodling to finish the page. Here's another look at the end result - I think it's another contender for front page of my Life Book  ...



Phew! What a journey that was, but such a lot of fun. I think I will keep Effy's prompts and add some more of my own, and have another go - maybe find an arty farty friend to play along with ...

Well, if you're still reading this, you're a hero! Thanks for spending time with me today and see you again soon :o)

Annie xxx


Comments

Lizzy Hill said…
That really was a journey..... that's my prob with scrapping in general & MM in particular. I NEVER know where to stop & I invariably wish I'd stopped before I actually do, which can be a tad frustrating! Yours turned out brilliantly. LOVE the lettering!!!
Helen Wallace said…
Oh goodness - this is all a bit terrifying! Every time I thought that's looking gorgeous, you had to muck it up!!! But in the end it was transformed into a triumph! You are SO brave. Thanks for sharing the process.
Loving your lettering, Annie! Very funky and elaborate! I have those exact same stencils! Looks like you had fun with your layers, even if it didn't always feel like it at the time!
SusanLotus said…
Your pages for your Life Book is awesome!
Great project.

Have a happy WOYWW!
Val-Belle said…
Such happy play time. Love the colour and gorgeous doodling again. Lovely stuff Annie