Home Page: written down

I painted the background with metallic acrylic paint, then took the risk tip on bleaching photographs. This was a blast. After i bleached them i sanded them and added a bit more ink. I attached the photos to the page with brands and bits of a fabric swatch that was a found object my DH found for me. I used magazine clippings and experiemented with glue transfers like Melissa told me. I used Aleene’s tacky glue and it was a blast! I used stamps and the writing says: Risk Venturing into strange landscape. I’m afraid of what will come out but I’m ready to find out. Does anyone else feel that way? Afraid of what’s inside waiting to be expressed? I guess I never really know what to expect since it’s an unconscious process for me. This is page one:

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As soon as I saw the email from Shimelle today I knew which item in my house I HAD to write about: this sample ballot paper from the first truly democratic elections in South Africa. A friend of my husband gave it to him and we have had it framed and put in our ‘study’. (This is the very grand name given to the spare bedroom which houses our computer and the filing cabinet!!!) Recently we were given one from the Iraq election this year, so we are planning to frame that as well. Most of the stuff in our house is pretty normal and this stands out as something really interesting and historical.

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I wandered round my house three times this morning debating what I never thought I would own. Nothing was particularly unusual for me, then I spotted it. My garden’s starting to flower and caught my eye – “well I never thought I’d have one of those” I thought. Then I spotted the gardening and cookery books. Okay, the cook books are Spouse’s (I DO NOT cook!!) but the gardening ones are all mine. No one was more surprised than me 5 years ago when we moved house when I found a carefully hidden love all all things botanical. And now I’ve a book collection to go with my tools, gloves & wasp jars!

I think I’m getting more comfortable with this AJ thing, the scrapbooking stuff’s starting to creep in!! I’ve been deliberately avoiding SB products, I don’t want this journal to look like a book of mini layouts! Two patterned papers, acrylic paint (natch!) a silk flower and some pretty ribbon….I think it’s starting to look more like me!! Not that I’ve a blossom for a head or anything…..... :)

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For some reason I knew I wanted to do stripes, but just didn’t know what kind, colour, shape etc. So far my entries have been shape led …. no idea why :) Suddenly it came to me, the degrees of grey are the “safety zone” the red stripe is the unexpected, the risk. On the left are some of the risks I have taken, on the right some of the risks I could have taken but didn’t. I hadn’t realised until I did this that I am not inherently a risk taker and when I do take risks I don’t see them as risks, even those which are downright dangerous!!

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I knew right away my, “something I thought I would never have in my house” item was…it’s not really “in” my house, but my garage. I have a garage FULL of sand toys! Ugh, my husband got started in this several years ago and some how I also fell in love with it.

I used parts of my husbands sand magazines to create my background (please don’t tell him I tore apart his magazines!) and then washed over them with different colors. I was really happy with my background. It seems to have a vintage look. “Got Sand” I inked and embossed with UTEE and stapled onto my page. My photo I altred some in Photo Shop and inked.

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i forgot to add one journaling close up…its difficult to read otherwise. thanks! i’d like to say this was cathartic, but it left me feeling on edge; faced with the question of “now what?”. hopefully next weeks challenge can help me answer that?

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just trying to upload this real quick….hope i remember how to do it! page about my recent risk…. tissue paper adhered with gel medium, watercolor wash over it, photo on transparency overlay, stamped images.

Thanks for looking!

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Most of my books are packed away in boxes, since last year when the carpets were replaced – I got carried away with the packing and took apart some furniture with my power tools and threw it out. So the only books around are those since I deliberately kept handy, those I bought since, and those I have sought out from the boxes.

I am finding it very difficult, as I have been surrounded by books since I was born. At first, the book spark did nothing for me. I thought it wasn’t relevant to me, as my books were packed away. I was surprised how true the results felt.

In my art journal, this page leans more towards the journalling than the art. I printed out images of the book covers onto photo paper, the journal page was already prepared with white acrylic paint. I just jotted down the words that became the title on a previous incarnation of the page, ripped it out, wrote them again on the new page, didn’t like how they looked, ripped them out of the old page and glued them on here. I doodled with regular kids felt pens around the book covers, wrote key words related to the books’ themes on the covers and journalled quickly about what each book revealed about my life.

Very straightforward, but nonetheless true journalling as the words do reflect me and my life so far. Thanks for looking.

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My first Risk page was created with various shades of pink and orange watercolors, magazine cutouts and journaling written with an orange sharpy. The journaling talks about different activities I could do to take a risk.

Page 2 is about finding what is holding me back from taking risks. I used navy and pink acrylic paint for the background and magazine cutouts. The journaling is in the Ban Fear pocket.

The journaling gives suggestions on breaking down the wall that I put around myself.

TFL

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I decided to make this journal not just about me but about the three of us.
I’m going to make my journal in french and spanish.
Journaling: Jean-Michel: engineer, 456 months old. Patricia: artist, 368 months old. Santiago: engineer & artist: 29 months old.
TFL

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