another two page spread inspired by Yvonne’s OUT AND ABOUT theme for Art Journal Journey this month…
just in time as March 2017 is just about history … whoooosh … traveling has always been one of my favorite things…
here is a photo of rubber stamps I stamped onto white tissue paper to add to my pages (if you’re interested in the name of a particular stamp please ask…I am always happy to share details)…
a few rubons and some pencil scribbles and I thought I was finished but when looking at my photo on the computer screen I felt it needed something above the newspaper word TRAVEL so I added a postage stamp…
I intentionally left other spaces on my pages representing openings for adventures to come…
“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard
being out and about recently as noted in my earlier Botticelli post I was inspired by an image of Venus…
using some rubber stamps I got busy layering my pages with lots of paint… gesso… and stamping on tissue paper as well as directly on the page… the stamp on the lower right ended up completely buried but my new cityscape stamp from StampDiva was brand new (a great company with a great stamp selection and very good delivery)…
a snippet of my favorite flimmersterne made a nice halo…
“Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity.” Henry van Dyke
my mojo has seemed to be mostly out and about lately partly due to a few hitches in my get along (leg pain) which slowed me down and curbed my creativity…
grateful to be feeling a bit better again I did not want to miss playing along with Yvonne‘s OUT AND ABOUT theme for Art Journal Journey this month…
looking at my journal pages on the computer screen…I noticed that they needed a little something to help anchor them…
so I stamped additional arches using my Impression Obsession, Inc. J4478 Moghul Arch stamp and tore strips to add to the bottom edge…
my spread includes various kinds of paper…deli paper scraps…map pieces…scrap papers from cleaning paint brushes…bits of napkins…stencil with super heavy gesso…grass from a magazine and rubber stamping
“The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.” – Neil Gaiman
a couple of days ago I shared the right hand side of my first RED pages for Linda’s Art Journal Journey theme of “Fifty shades of RED”…
it is unusual that I do not finish both sides of a spread at the same time but I confess my creativity has been a little off center so far this year…
sometimes inspiration is right over your shoulder as this photo shows a bit of a hodgepodge of things that usually only we see at the top of our stairs…
I scanned the bumper sticker and cut the letters to fit my page vertically (by the way I would NEVER do this if I were going to sell what I made… this is strictly for personal use in my journal)…
a few more rubons and a bit of stamping with thanks to Jo of Let’s Art Journal and her great eye for detail …
she helped me remember with her nice comment on the right side of my spread when she remarked on the fine lines in the background which reminded me I had forgotten to mention I used a favorite Tin Can Mail Inkadinkado rubber stamp to add interest and tie into the black rubons a bit too…
life moves so fast I see I will be adding a bit of red pencil edging to the left hand page now that I see it on the big screen…
this week’s lesson in Lifebook 2017 is about using lots of layers of watercolor and other kinds of paints (hot mess at the moment LOL)… not wanting to waste any paint left on my palette for the work in progress above …
I smeared the dribs and drabs of paint onto smooth blank journal pages and then played with a new circle stencil and assorted colored pencils…
thank goodness for Super Heavy GESSO I was finally a bit happier with the pages…
inspired by words I saw on Facebook along with a few rubons one side of my spread is complete…
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” -Martin Luther King, Jr
the music lady I put together awhile ago waited patiently in one of my art journals until I figured out what was next for her (she was from a catalog and I gave her the music dress)…
the talented and prolific Valerie chose INDIAN SUMMER-GOLDEN OCTOBER-AUTUMN as October’s Art Journal Journey theme which sends my mind in lots of directions…
just when I think summer might go on forever it turned cooler which is perfect for open windows and warmer clothes...
we finally got some much needed rain too…
soon I will give up running barefoot around the house and get out my cozy slippers…
autumn makes me think of golden leaves andgolden sunsets so I added lots of gold to my scraped paint pages which was tricky to capture in my photos…
the WONDER page on the right began with an index card that I had made awhile ago…
~* Happy October *~
“Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons.”~ Jim Bishop
an all time favorite Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young song TEACH YOUR CHILDREN inspired this two page spread for Elizabeth’s BACK TO SCHOOL theme over at Art Journal Journey…
I challenged myself to use colors I don’t often use and found a napkin along with some of my mother’s old paints that helped move me in that direction…
not totally comfortable with my color matching my favorite heavy gesso came to the rescue once again…then I got distracted for a bit by my paint tray noticing a small corner of paint sticking up… sure enough the layers of paint peeled out easily and yes I did save those bits for what I am not exactly sure 🙂 …
then it was back to trying to make my pages work on a lovely rainy day here in Virginia…
it was fiddly fun cutting and pasting thin pieces of napkin to carry the design from one page to another (that napkin was too good to cover up completely)…
it took me awhile to get some matching turquoise and greenish yellow for my painted pages…
some Adirondack BOTTLE stamping ink applied with a wet wipe worked for one part since a lot of my Tim Holtz DISTRESS STAINS seem to have lost their color over time…
a little more doodling with my gold paint pen and my pages are complete (tricky to photograph on a rainy day)…
You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good-bye.
Teach your children well,
Their father’s hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.
And you, of tender years,
Can’t know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.
Teach your parents well,
Their children’s hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
joining in again for Elizabeth’s Art Journal Journey BACK TO SCHOOL challenge with a two page spread in an altered book of mine that surfaced in my recent clean up…
Lucille Borschke’s school memory book was given to me by a friend that found it in a thrift shop…
she thought I could make use of the vintage photos and bits of this and that in it…
seems Lucille was a local girl that attended Notre Dame Academy in Washington, D. C. back in the late 1920’s and her favorite subjects were History, Religion, English and French…
one of the group photos along with an old dictionary page were what got me started and a couple of rubber stamps came in handy too (FOREVER stamp not shown in photo)…
the ridged paper on the right is from light bulb packaging (I noticed when my pages were finished how nicely it worked with the background in the photograph) and the postage stamps were from a letter front included in Lucille’s memory book…
with my father being in the military we moved quite a bit when I was a young girl at all times of the year which made being the “new” girl in class an added adventure… I was quite chatty and made friends easily… I am grateful for memories of a sweet and colorful childhood…
NATURE’S WONDERS is Gill’s theme for Art Journal Journey this month…
oh how I enjoy nature and always have growing up in a household with parents that honored and preserved nature as much as possible…my father was known to have annual feuds with sparrows that were relentless in their attempts to build nests in his Purple Martin houses… he cared alot about the Purple Martins who were great at eating mosquitoes returning faithfully to the garden each year…
it was a bit of a challenge to incorporate one of my 5 x 5 collages onto my already monoprinted pages trying to match the paints I used earlier…
the final touch was adding some pressed flowers using matte medium under and over them on the pages with a couple of rubons too…
I like how the words I used in all of the spreads flow like a bit of found “poetry”… they evolved after working randomly with no theme for my journal (all it needs now is binding and a cover):
things are still topsy turvy here in exciting ways…
with our back porch enclosure coming along nicely…
but of course everything takes time…
I did get in my art room to play and created an art journal page using some of the ingredients above…
bits of torn napkin and plastered book text along with scraps of paper (matte medium works beautifully under and on top of the thin napkin paper to help it melt into the page)…
part of a Misty Mawn collage sheet that I highlighted with pencil and added the he♥rt in the hand to pulled together with some super heavy white gesso and some rubons and doodling to finish…
“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction”. Rachel Carson
as a final offering I created a 9 x 12″ canvas inspired by a photo of a statue in the sumptuous gardens of Isola Madre on Lake Maggiore in Italy…
lots of layers (pattern tissue… citrasolv paper… cheesecloth… netting… vintage lace and trims adhered with my favorite soft gel medium)…at first I had stamped IMAGINE on tissue paper with some turquoise ink that was too light so that gave me a chance to change the word to BLESSINGS (Art Impressions, Oregon USA)…
I rushed a bit on this and intend to go back and add some touches of green paint…thanks so much for visiting ~♥~
“It is only with true love and compassion that we can begin to mend what is broken in the world. It is these two blessed things that can begin to heal all broken hearts.” -Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free
"the 'L' in Love should be capitalized" ~♥~Patty Szymkowicz .....
Virginia, USA
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I try to give credit where credit is due. Please do not use any images or text from my Magpie's Nest Blog without my permission.
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~*~ Patty
you can contact me at:
PatriziaSzymkowicz (at) gmail.com
it also represents passion, heat, strength, danger, power and courage…
