A Place called Elsewhere

 This week's prompt on Joggles Art Journal Adventures is: travel. My first impulse on reading it was to go to New York or Venice but there are so many other places I have been lucky enough to visit so this spread is focussing on Paris, mainly because I had a lovely paper napkin featuring the Eiffel Tower and was looking for an opportunity to use it. Of course you don even have to visit anywhere in person, you can go there any time you fancy in your mind and the quotation I used refers to it. It reads: "Forgive me for not being all there. My mind has found a place called elsewhere".

I'm working in a small (5.5 x 8") lined notebook/journal with peacocks on the cover and in order to make the pages a bit sturdier I'm glueing them together in pairs as well as applying a liberal helping of gesso before I start. The background uses the S374 Stone and Mortar Version 1 stencil by Stencilgirl Products. I also added words from S261 Fridge Poetry stencil.  I then collaged with Tim Holtz's tissue wrap Postale, as well as vintage map images and the paper napkin mentioned above. .

I added a tulip themed person from a collage sheet by Alpha Stamps and also added some travel related sayings from a rub-on sheet, also by Tim Holtz. The 2 postage stamps with ships on them seemed to suit the travel theme.

Sadly you can't see the sparkle these pages have on the pictures but I recently indulged in some wonderful new paint by  Art Alchemy (Prima) called Acrylic Paint Sparks and oh, how it glitters and shines! I used the colour Fairy Wings on these pages which is a lime green colour.

Wonderful Life

Here is my latest project done as a Guest Designer for Stencilgirl Products. That means there is a step by step tutorial for these pages (done in the A4 sized Dylusions art journal) on the Stencilgirl Talk website as well as links to all the stencils I used.

Of course I do know that for many people life is not wonderful and most of us have days when things are not quite as rosy as we would like, not to mention the horrific events going on in the world at large. But underneath it all I think we are all aware that to be alive is a glorious thing.

My art is what saves me in difficult times. I may not always be in the mood but when I go to my studio, gesso some pages and grab my favourite colours and play, I start to feel calmer and more peaceful, more like myself and joy returns to my heart.

 And I find that yes: it is a wonderful life. 

Many thanks for Stencilgirl for inviting me as Guest Designer, not just for this spread but also for the rest of this and the whole of next year. It's such a pleasure to play with their fabulous stencils.

Don't forget to join their club. Every month I think they can't possibly get any better than the previous month and yet every month they come up with another gorgeous set. They are unique to club members! I know it's a bit early for the C word but I gave myself my club membership for Christmas some years ago and it looks like it is becoming a life long gift!

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Undecided

I'm always very much looking forward to my monthly Stencilgirl project, where I share a spread with you made specially as part of my role of Stencilgirl Guest Designer. It also means that there is a full step-by-step tutorial for these pages on the Stencilgirl Talk website and for this project that post can be found here. I am often asked how I make my pages and I usually say something about that when I post them but the much more in-depth information can be found in those Stencilgirl tutorials. Lots of info there, and not just about how I work but about all kinds of working methods by their designers.

These pages (done in the A4 Dylusions art journal) used the February 2016 Club stencils as well as one from the October 2014 Club. Remember that even if you aren't a club member yet you can still obtain these stencils by joining the club and back ordering them. I have to tell you that I look forward so much every month to seeing what our new club stencils will look like and then when they land here in Scotland it's like getting a monthly present. You also get access to demonstration videos and PDFs once you're in the club. 

This spread has a lot of rectangular squares and lines in it, probably as a result of my many pictures of windows and buildings during my New York visit, although biking in New York is not on my wish list! There are just too many cars about moving at a relentless speed. Nevertheless we did see people biking around but rather them than us

Hope you enjoy these pages in one of my favourite colour combinations: red, white and blue. The colours not just of the British flag, but also the Dutch one and very appropriately the American one too.