Being challenged

I enjoy participating in a couple art challenge groups; they ensure I make art regularly (who am I kidding? I would anyway). This week’s quote is from Lao Tzu, so I ended up doing a second page with one of the quotes from the Tao te Ching that I have on the wall above my desk.

The page with the circles was done with watercolour pencils on a gesso background, acrylic paint through stencils, and detailed with a Posca pen. The challenge included using pencils, and making marks with spots and dots. Challenge accepted 😉

The other page is Distress Paints, then metallic DecoArt paints through stencils, and finally blue Golden acrylic  through a StencilGirl stencil (thanks Lynne W!).

Hiding the details

When I journal, it really is the good, the bad, and the ugly. Currently I’m using a Dina Wakley mixed media journal, which I love, to “download my head”. If you’ve been foll wing me a while, you know I’ve had weight loss surgery and as part of that journey have faced up to my food addiction, abusive first marriage, miscarriages etc.

All my feelings get poured out into my journals, and I share all my pages, but some of that I don’t want others reading – and don’t even want to re-read myself because the psychologist think that creates a ‘loop’ in your head.

How do I write down the hard stuff, then share it safely?  There’s a number of things I do:

• Cover the writing with a light coat of gesso or Tim Holtz Distress Paint
• Put it in a sealed pocket or enveloped attached to the page
• Cover it with printed tissue paper, such as the Tim Holtz range
• Use scribble writing – this is my go-to

I did the background with Tim Holtz Distress paints and StencilGirl stencils, and the tag with Andy Skinner stamps using Stampin’ Up ink and a red Tombow, then wrapped some red cotton round it. I used a thick black Pilot pen for the journaling and added some messy burgundy and red cotton under the tag with Tombow glue to ground it a bit.

technique

This page talks about some hard stuff we’re facing at the moment, and how I feel about it. It’s personal and involves other people – it’s not just my story – so I needed to think about their privacy too.

 

CMP2018 week 10

This week’s quote is from Dr Wayne Dyer. I have followed his teachings for decades, so was thrilled to see this. He passed away a couple of years ago now, but continues to influence my life. I used Dylusions paints, StencilGirl stencils and Graphik ink pens.

CMP18 catch-up

I’ve been playing catch-up for various reasons. I’m using a wee 6×6″ hardcover journal this year and am enjoying the format. Distress paints, Dylusions paints, stencils, collage materials, Pitt Big Brush markers.

cmp week 44

This week I used Distress and Dylusions paints, black Fudeball and white Posca pens, StencilGirl stencils and Simon Says Stamp inkpad. This quote is so true for me – art time is part of keeping myself mentally and spiritually well.

CMP week 36

I love this week’s quote. Page done with Dylusions paints, StencilGirl stencil, Simon Says Stamp ink.

colourmepositive week 14

This week’s quote was about hope, so I have used sunny, hopeful colours – and bees, because bees matter to our world. The extra challenge was to use glitter, which I say I’m not fond of, but it turns out I have quite a lot of it tucked away really!