Traveller's Notebook

Hello all!  I'm sorry it's been quiet here, but I'm so grateful for the lovely feedback on my Nature Assemblage for PaperArtsy.  It was one of those makes which just felt right, so I'm happy to know it struck a chord for many of you too.

The reason I've been absent is that I'm embedded in a new rehearsal process, and also enjoying settling in to New York City again.  That doesn't leave a lot of time or headspace for much else.

I have been spending some of my spare time playing with paints and inks, but I'm finding it hard to progress beyond backgrounds and preparation to an actual finished piece.  Still having fun playing both craftily and otherwise, though...














So this post really is a bit of a traveller's notebook entry.

I thought I'd just share a couple of pictures of my travelling craft set up here in my rather lovely Brooklyn apartment.

And then I've also got a few photos of some in-progress pages in my Midori Traveller's Notebook.  Yes, I yielded to my long-time desire for one of those lovely leather journal covers and some inserts.  Well, given the amount of travelling I seem to do...







I have a craft mat with me, some Oxides, some mini-distress inks, Prima watercolour pencils and my tin of Qor watercolour paints (the black tin you can just see on the left), as well as various brushes, plastic palette knives and selected embossing powders, twine and Archival Inks (in the craft bag on the right).

I had some stuff on order with The Funkie Junkie Boutique ready for posting when I got here (fantastic customer service from Linda Coughlin) - so that's where the mini Dina Wakley paints you can see came from.  And I've also been to Blicks for some Watercolour Ground, and a sample set of Golden texture pastes.

On the windowsill right next to the table (lovely big wooden table - couldn't be better!), I've got some stamps, tags, book pages and ephemera, stencils, and stickers (some brought from home and some bought here).

And the lovely basket was just sitting there waiting - perfect to hold the washi and tissue tapes, as well as various Idea-ology bits and bobs - not to mention some Tattered Angels sprays picked up for a song here (yes, there'll likely be an extra bag on the way home).  I'm not travelling light, but then I am here for ten weeks.






As well as the bits and bobs of tag backgrounds and watercolouring you can see in the very first photo of this post, I've been having a lovely time starting to add things into the Midori notebook, though so far I've not progressed to any writing or completed art-journalling.













Before leaving home, I'd already stuck some Tim Holtz design papers into the Midori inserts in various places.














The 8x8 Etcetera pad is perfect for creating signatures just by folding the sheets in half or, as I've done here, cutting them in half to add detail to one side of a page spread.














And I'd also added some washi and deco-tape detailing...














... as well as doing some stamping with the gorgeous vintage Scrapcosy stamps from PaperArtsy...
















... alongside some of Lin Brown's grasses and leaves.










One of the things on order from The Funkie Junkie Boutique was Tim's Illustrated Garden stamp set from the releases earlier this year.  So I've already inked them up and started adding them in to the notebook.

These fantastically detailed botanical drawings make wonderful page accents (and go so well with the Scrapcosy stamps too!).

I don't know yet whether I'll paint these, or tint them, or just work around them, but I feel as though I'll be inspired to write or draw or collage when I arrive at these pages. 







The "blank page syndrome" is already dealt with, so you might as well just write something.













Not all the pages have been inked or altered so, if it continues to be the case that all I really feel like doing is backgrounds or occasional elements, then there's still plenty of space to carry on.  I'm not going to bully myself about it.













While still at home, I was also using up scraps and leftovers from around the craft table.














So these two Photobooth photos...















... which have tried and failed to make it onto a number of projects in recent months...














... now finally have somewhere to live.














And I constructed a kraft pocket insert to hold extra Photobooth strips in case I want to add more vintage photos as I go (seems probable!).













Although the standard Midori papers are not really up to much in terms of wet media, I rather like the weathered look you get if you add watery distress inks to them.














The covers of each insert are made of sturdier stuff, so there's some space to play with wetter media there.  And I've got some homemade watercolour page inserts ready too, so if I do want to branch out, I've got the wherewithal.









So that's what I'm up to... just some dabbling to keep my hand in while my creativity concentrates itself back in the Words side of things for a while.  (For the insatiably curious, this is the production which I'm working on here.)   I'm also continuing my drawing/watercolouring endeavours, as well as ending up with lots of Oxide-y backgrounds to play with if Mr Mojo moves over to Pictures again at any point.

Thanks so much for stopping by today, and for your patience while things take a turn for the peaceful here at Words and Pictures.  I may get some Encore posts up, or I may manage to share some more of my watercolour journey (there's oodles to catch up with on that front), and I hope I'll also manage some blog-visiting at times.

But for now I'll wish you all a wonderful week, and happy crafting!

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.
Ralph Waldo Emerson