What you love... or Etched Branches I

Hello all!  I'm here with the first of a couple of nature pages in my small journalling book (see Away She Went... for the details if you want them).   Both spreads use the Etched Branches stamp by Penny Black, but I think you get a quite different look in each one.  We're enjoying an Indian Summer here in Columbus, Ohio, so here's probably the last of the summery meadows for this year...  (The set of pages still to come is definitely heading for autumn!)

It's a simple page, but it's very much in tune with the words.  I'm still working on it being okay that I tend towards similar themes and colour palettes very often, not to mention favourite techniques and products... the things which make me happy when I'm creating.

I hope that it's not about being repetitive, but about recognising what feels like "me" when I make something.  I hope that it's about expressing something inside me which wants to come out in those ideas and colours.

I know quite well that this year, when I've had relatively little time for crafting (and usually on the move, as you all know), I'm even more inclined to use the time I have in ways which make me happy rather than trying to push myself in other directions.








In any case, here we are amidst the wild meadow grasses again... 

There are some delicate Distress Inks in the background, spritzed with water for soft texture.  I think it's mainly Old Paper, Weathered Wood and Antique Linen.












The Etched Branches are stamped in Olive Archival...

(It's all looking rather bleak and wintry at the moment, but things are about to change with some more inking around the edges.)












... as is the Cow Parsley (or Queen Anne's Lace if you prefer the posher version!) from Tim Holtz's Wildflower set.

I used a white pen to add detail to the flower heads as well, of course, as some white paint spatter to add the impression of a summer's day with pollen and haze in the air (better enjoyed on the journalling page than in real life if you're a hayfever sufferer as I have been for much of my life).











The words are from one of my Donna Downey sets by Unity.  I brought a grab bag of them with me, so I'm not sure which particular set these are from.

Simple pages, but they make my heart happy.  I hope they do the same for you.






There'll be some more seasonal nature pages along soon, and if I can get my devices to cooperate with one another I hope to share some pictures of the beautiful set we have for my production of Romeo and Juliet.  Talk about favourite things... watch out for crackle and splatter on a huge scale!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and I'll see you again soon.



Little things seem nothing, but they give peace, like those meadow flowers which individually seem odourless but all together perfume the air.
Georges Bernanos

In a meadow full of flowers, you cannot walk through and breathe those smells and see all those colors and remain angry. We have to support the beauty, the poetry, of life.
Jonas Mekas