Journal Peek-a-boo

...or "A Bit Of Fun With Colour - Part: The Second

Hello there!

In my previous post, I mentioned the li'l journal I made while I was packing and clearing and moving from my home. This be it:

The covers are made from a lovely gift box from a friend of mine. It had lovely vintage designs over thick chipboard so was a no-brainer for covers when it sadly got really rather squished during the packing process. I just couldn't bear to throw it away and couldn't KEEP random bits of cardboard as every inch of packing space would have to count. It's a coptic stitched collection of whatever paper was still lying about and it's become my favourite journal of, ooooh, EVER! I shall very much be making another one ready for the new year.

I had epic fun cutting up scraps to make loads of page tabs, also using some old sheets of alpha stickers which had escaped the packing process. When I found a little box of spare stickers left from old projects they swiftly got added too. Honestly - LOADS of fun!

Then:

...aaaand now:

I loved this journal so much that I actually looked forward to filling pages in every night, and it filled up pretty quickly! Writing was cathartic, but drawing helped me focus and relax. I only had a black pen and one set of pencils - the Crayola Pro set that I mentioned in the previous post. I found these pics that I took at the time:

I don't have the tin any more, and the pencils are way more worn down now but I reckon they're one of the nicest sets I've ever worked with where colour layering is concerned. Anyhoo, I promised I'd share some pages of doodles with you so here we go -

Living with piles and piles of boxes and STUFF, before the house clearance people came, but at least the garden provided some respite.

Of course, the Colonel, my kitty cat, made a regular appearance with his VERY understandable mood swings -

...and of course, his rich and exciting life of adventure had to be represented:

He has a very daring and thrilling private life. I don't ask questions, I am but his servant and chronicler of his exploits!

I recorded world events that affected me emotionally...

...and personal moments that made me smile...

I treated myself to a takeaway - not a regular thing, but intended to cheer me up. HOWEVER - I forget EVERY TIME just how crappy they make me feel! 

I have an awesome friend who lives MILES away, but who kept sending me pictures via Pinterest to cheer me up - it worked! Thanks buddy!

And this is a weird one - I found a perfect butterfly lying on the floor of the out-house. Like so many people, I've always held an almost spiritual significance to butterflies so it upset me. I picked it up gently but there were no signs of life. I put it in a shallow box by the open back door with some sweet flowers and a little sugar water but when there was no movement after a week I assumed it was indeed dead. I removed the water and the flowers but couldn't bear to dispose of the beautiful, perfect creature so left it in the box and carried on. Two weeks later, I heard a gentle scuffling in the box, and as I walked towards it the butterfly flew up and away over the garden hedges. Yep. Weird. And awesome also!

I also recorded grotty days, like when I was utterly knackered from moving boxes day after day after day and just spent 24 hours lying on the floor letting my body rest a while, basically because any and all movement was totally out of the question -

and those times when mother nature likes to remind us that we're the incarnation of a goddess. Thanks mother nature......thanks....

I recorded memories of my childhood that popped into my head as I let go of the heirlooms that I had no space for or had already lost -

 It helped to record them.

Of course, there are always going to be mermaids!

And there were moments of peace and being ready to move on -

So that's that! Somehow, even though this was one of THE MOST traumatic times in my life, I can actually look back at that little book and smile. It makes me happy, and I think that the doodles help a lot.

I'm so glad I had those coloured pencils. I think it's so important to find the colour in life no matter how dark things become, and allow to help you find a path back into the sunshine. If you've never kept a journal, I'd encourage you to give it a go - and make it YOURS. There's no right or wrong way to record your life and your feelings. You can write, draw, paint, collage, doodle, use quotes or passages of prose or poetry, song lyrics or exerpts from tv shows or plays. Use scrapbooking, note books, organisers, sketch books - anything that makes you happy. Not only is it a way to get you through tough times, but it records happy moments, the quirky and the weird, the downright mad and the hilarious. There'll be things you would forget that can be so precious if you record them - maybe not just to you....maybe to your kids, grandkids. And through it all, try and add that all important colour!

I hope you've enjoyed this journey through one my own favourite journals and I hope it in some way can inspire you to keep a record of your life and that of your family.

Sending love and hugs - Shroo :) xxx

ps. The Colonel thanks you for your time. 

You may return. 

Bring cake.

The Fox And The Butterfly - New Canvas!

Happy Monday!

Have we all had our coffee and braced ourselves for another week of STUFF? I have another quick post for you today - a new canvas is now available in my Etsy store!

I'm so happy with this one. I'm really self-critical so there's a LOT of stuff that never makes it to sale!! I do love foxes so I had some real fun making this. It's a 10"x10"x1.5" canvas, covered with 80 year old vintage French book pages before painting. I love that the book text still shows through the paint - I like the texture and depth that it adds.

I used artist's fluid acrylic paints for a colour base and then added a combination of soluble wax pastel and soft oil pastel to build up layers and achieve the final effect. I wanted it to look a little rustic, and I love the finished result!

I added some darker colour with Derwent inktense pencils and a couple of Faber Pitt pens. I was pleased that the texture of the torn book page background still showed through.

The butterfly, larger flowers and leaves are cut from thin designer papers and decoupaged onto the canvas, then painted, with added detail drawn and painted directly onto the canvas.

I love the combination of colours and that blue is always a favourite for me. In between the layers of wet media is a little rich gold gilding wax. I didn't want it to be to bold and brassy, just a subtle layer adding to the feeling of warm soft sunlight.

My smiley, friendly fox and his butterfly friend are now for sale for a VERY reasonable price and I hope he finds a loving home soon. Feel free to head over to my ETSY SHOP and take a peek at the auction. I have a couple more canvases in process and I'm just finishing a couple of watercolours so keep checking for new stock regularly.

Thank you for your support - it's very much appreciated! Sending out love and hugs from me to you - Shroo :) xxx

Happy Thoughts!

Hi again!

Hope you had a lovely weekend? Welcome to September! Look what I found hiding behind my bedroom curtain today -

How lovely is that?! Wasn't expecting such a lovely little visitor, but there ya go! As you can see I managed to transfer my guest to a more suitable habitat and after a bijou drinky it flew off quite happily. Awwww.

So, today's been one of those surprisingly BUSY days - lots of small jobs to do which seem to take FOREVER! However, I found some time this afternoon for a li'l project which is made entirely from scraps and bits 'n' pieces. I wanted to make a little thing to post here today as a surprise for my mum if she checks my blog as she might need a cheery up thingy! I found a piece of off-cut packing cardboard and some scrap paper and made a little country scene, added some chipbard shapes (from my hoard!) and added some shading and detail with a mixture of pens.

After sitting and staring at it for a while I decided that it HAD to be a little wall hanging so I pierced some holes with my book-binding awl, threaded through some turquoise craft wire and added some ribbon and yarn offcuts, beads and charms -

 

....then added a wire hanger, wrapped in organza ribbon and yarn and a li'l 'HAPPY THOUGHTS' motto and TA-DAH!

 

 It might just be scraps but it made me happy to make it! Hope you like it mum! MWAH! - Shroo:)x

Show & Tell Saturday: Kitty Canvas

Hello again!

Well...another month over and done and into autumn we go then! Even though the nights will be closing in, that means we'll have all those GORGEOUS changing leaf colours as inspiration - beautiful and abundant warm earth tones splashed with the gold of autumn sunlight.

In celebration of a lovely summer, I created a little 8"x8" canvas as a birthday gift and thought I'd take some process pictures to blog for the Artists In Blogland Show & Tell Saturday. So, without further ado - here we go!

Stage one was to choose a pose and sketch it, then to add crumpled tissue texture in layers to a thinly gesso'd canvas, building the kitty cat up a little from the background in the process:

I wanted kitty to look cute and friendly, not aiming for uber realism, more something cuddly and lovely to look at.

Adding some layers of shade and colour with neocolorII wax pastels and Faber Castell Pitt pens.

Time to add some colour to kitty.

The texture from the tissue paper helps when adding colour with wax pastels. Time to add a garden for kitty to sit in. I raided my die-cuts box for some flowers - they're K&Co ones from the Brenda Walton range ...I've been saving them for something special!

You know....this pic looked FINE on the camera....MASSIVELY fuzzy now! How irritating! I used Claudine Hellmuth's Studio matte multi-medium (from Ranger) to adhere the tissue paper and all the flowers. It leaves the surface nicely prepared for  any paint or other medium added thereafter, whereas Mod Podge can be a little smooth for some things - wax pastels, for example! I had fun with paint splatters and then put the finishing touches to kitty and his garden:

I glued the butterflies to the canvas with Groves Hi-Tack Fast Tack Adhesive. I've used Glossy Accents before but find that it's not awesome for this as it tends to dry out and crack over time.

Voila! One kitty. Hope you like him! Sending out my hugs to you for an awesome September - here's wishing something lovely happens for each and every one of us and those we hold closest to our hearts. - Shroo :)

PS - don't forget to have a visual hug of some of the lovely posts by other splendidly gorgeous artists by clicking the pic below! xxx