DLP DF weeks one and two

 Well I'm only a week behind in the Documented Life Project 2015 and Documented Faith but I'm very behind with sharing it with you here on my blog!!

I'm finding these two challenges easy to combine as I just add a tip in to my moleskine planner, following the DLP prompts in order to create the page then just fold it in half and add the DLP quote on one side and the DF one on the other!

I'm also managing to keep a diary!  Something I've always wanted to do but been rubbish at.

Above is the week one prompt and I'd already added the tip in with the snowflakes on one side so the two sides differ...

... which I like, but time-wise it's much less demanding doing both sides with the same background :)

I'm not a huge fan of gesso but did like the textured effect I got with it through my leaf stencil...

This time I added handwritten quotes rather than printing them out or stamping them - my challenge for the year!

What on earth was I thinking?!!!

... when I decided NoT to include my snowflake stencil in my travel journal kit for a week in the French Alps!!!

Whilst the rest of my family went ski-ing (I tried it a few years ago and it scared the living daylights out of me so I stuck to walking this time!) I had time to read, walk and journal :)

Bliss!

The view from the apartment changed daily, sometimes snowy, sometimes cloudy, sometimes very clear, but it did have an influence on my journal pages.

I made myself a couple of stencils.  One of the little tree you may be able to see peeping behind the building in the carpark in the above picture; and of a snowflake!  Funnily enough, after hankering after a snowflake image I didn't use it that much, but still...

My other influences were a couple of journaling books I bought recently to bring away with me.  I love Melanie Testa's style of journal page so treated myself to 'Dreaming from the Journal Page'

Her suggestions for 'decorative drawing' [pg 84] got me adding some drawn texture to my pages.

I took two journals with me, and worked in both (well, a couple of small ones snuck in there two but I didn't use them).  One of them is my typewriter teaching guide, which I love to use, and the second was a new one from Hobby craft - the same size as the typewriter book but plain cartridge paper inside.  Both books are A4 in size, but in landscape format, so the pages are really long when you work on a double spread.

Although I really like this page now, it took a lot of working at, and didn't feel quite as relaxing as when I splash a bit of ink or paint on a page and respond to it from there on in (although learning curves don't tend to be that relaxing!)  It's my 'Melanie Testa' style page!

I did enjoy painting with my watercolours though, something  I used to enjoy at school but hadn't really incorporated into my journals.  I really like the contrast of pencil with paint and pen and added some visual texture by tracing within my stencils - not that is ReaLLY fun!

I have more pages to share, but will keep them for another post, some inspired by my other new book, Dina Wakley's 'Art Journal Freedom' which I HiGHLY recommend.

journaling in a tent..or field..or the beach even!

It was with some trepidation that I only packed paint, baby wipes, stencils, a Pritt stick and the odd stamp, a couple of book pages and a pencil/pen with me to go camping.

I chose a journal to use, just the one, and as it is an old book it's pages required gessoing.

Now I'm not a fan of gesso.  I like my paint to stay put once I put it on the paper. But being forced to stick with it meant I did have fun, and ended up with some interesting effects.

My pages have been feeling a bit 'samey', and everywhere I looked things seemed very similar, so I started by using parts of hymns or bible verses as starting points and using my journaling as part meditation.

I journaled these pages whilst attending a Christian conference so they have lots of meaning for me but I still didn't feel I'd 'cracked it' as it were.  I used to be able to just enjoy my journaling without feeling it had to mean something or say something.

So I've given myself a bit of a talking to, read some stuff, watched a fantastic video by Jane Davies HERE and am back just enjoying being creative, playing with paint and mark making and seeing where it takes me, if anywhere!

AEDM day 7 - an online colour tool

Jane LaFazio featured this on the Sketchbook Challenge blog and I just LoVe it!  It's slightly annoying in that it doesn't seem to be able to see yellows but I think it really has potential re looking at the colours you use in your work, and I also think that the swatches would make a great starting point for a second piece of work.

I did the circle painting first and was a bit disappointed by the results.  As you see, no yellow!  But my other image choices gave better results.

The program is called 'Colour Generator'.  You just upload a photo and it creates a number of swatches featuring the colours you've used.  Cool isn't it?!!

snug in a cubby hole through a very wet weekend

When it's raining outside, the best place to be is snug and warm inside, making stuff!  Carol and I taught a weekend long workshop at The Cubby Hole this weekend, starting with a 'big paint' on Friday night.  This was SuCH fun (head over to Nigel's blog for a great piccie).  We used some rather unconventional materials for adding paint to the paper - mop, brush, scourer, spray bottle...

This paper looks fabulous now; some of it is framed in A3 size, some makes up journal pages, and smaller pieces form elements in our books.

Carol taught a great tyvek class on Saturday morning.  The painted and heated pieces looked fantastic put through the cuttlebug with Paper Artsy's dies

 By the end of the weekend everyone had made a felt paper journal, with tiny books and pockets inside. 

At various points during the weekend my mobile played the Strictly Come Dancing theme tune which indicated that it was time for a journal prompt. Our theme for the weekend was 'Permission to Play' so there  were various game related links. My favourite journal prompt, 'Inspired by...', involved Suzanne choosing a number using the Bingo machine

We then looked up this number in my book '1,000 Journal Pages' by Dawn DeVries and found a collection of pages by Kathy Welsh.

Looking at her pages, and number 37 in particular (this matched the bingo ball), we decided that her work  was characterised by bright colours, circles, faces and writing. 

I really struggled with painting a flat coloured background, but love the nearly finished page.  I just need to add some writing now.  Not being brave enough to paint a face (unlike Christine!), I used an image from the fabulous Graphic 45 Steampunk papers.

Here's a close up of some of the others' pages

 little Sue's peacock page

 Christines' beautifully painted face

Tracey's fab Zetti style page

 Love that dragonfly of Nigel's

Suzanne's exquisite peacock lady page

I'll show you some more pictures tomorrow.  Thanks to everyone who came and made the weekend so great!  And especially to Carol for looking after us so well, and Paul for drilling holes in draught pieces for me and making our toast for breakfast :)