Birthday Blues (and Browns and Greens!)

Hello all, and thank you for stopping by today.

There's been altogether too much pink around here lately, so I wanted to revert to some of my more favoured colour tones for my birthday (yes, today).

So here are some glimpses at work in progress inside the Dina Wakley Media Journal which I ordered at a bargain price from Joann's while I was in New York recently.

And since we're taking a bit of an art journal journey, I'd like to share the first and last pages at Art Journal Journey - somewhere I always mean to play along far more than I manage!














There's not much that is in any way "finished", except perhaps the first page, with its ripped teabag texture and finger-painted circles.  You can now see it in more detail here..













These are mostly just beginnings and backgrounds and works-in-progress.  But that's what an art journal is for, isn't it?  Exploring, and following your instinct, and not trying to force anything to be pretty or perfect or complete.













You can certainly see some of my art obsessions playing themselves out over these pages... the colours, the textures, the motifs.













I love working in the Media Journal - it's an inspiration in itself with all the different substrate surfaces.














And I will be back to add more to these pages in the future...

... but there are various "deadline projects" which need taking care of before I can have some more playtime to myself again.















These pages reflect how my New York crafting seemed to work - I would sit down to have a play, reach for something I loved, start something off, and then get completely stuck.














My creative attention was needed for my theatre work at the time, but I think these snatched moments of sticking and brushing and dripping helped to keep me sane in some pretty stressful circumstances...













.... even though they didn't necessarily lead anywhere at the time.  The burlap is so exciting to work on - a whole different way of thinking.













The blues and browns and greens are definitely part of my crafting happy place, as regulars here will be well aware.















And I'm never far from some texture paste or crackle paint, or some vintage script or ephemera, or from grasses and meadow flowers or other elements of nature.














My new and already much-loved Walnut Drawing Ink certainly got an outing amongst the finger-painted circles and splatters and splashes (aaaahhh, splatter!).














I love how the various pages in the Media Journal already have their own qualities - even the "plain paper" has a wonderful texture.












I've got plans for somehow incorporating these tags on the first of the canvas pages.  They're lightly taped in for now to keep them in place while my imagination comes to the boil.















Not quite sure how it'll go yet, but there'll be paint and mixed media and I think some interactive flaps or inserts.














And sometimes I just have to have almost all my favourite things in one go...

I've been enjoying incorporating my "proper" watercolour paints into the mixed media backgrounds, along with all the ephemera layers.













The colours make me so happy.  Who needs a focal point or a finished page?  With this one you just need to let the fingertips go wandering over the texture...











So, as I said, I hope I'll be back before long to share the first completed page in detail, and I also hope I'll be back to develop some of these backgrounds soon, or just start lots of new ones.  I'm not going to put any pressure on myself either way.







Thanks so much for stopping by today and indulging me in my birthday treat of some of my favourite things - even though most of the work is unfinished.  I hope the week is treating you well, and I'll see you all again soon.

Happiness is not a finished product, it is a work in progress.
Khang Kijarro Nguyen

With the ripped teabag papers providing texture and shadow in the first page here, as well as all the collaged ephemera in the final one including some old book pages somewhere under there, I'd like to share this at Art Journal Journey, where the fabulous Craftytrog - also Alison - is looking for pages which Recycle and Collage