Winter Journal VI

Hello again!  Romance seems to be hidden in the snow of this winter journal.  Winter Journal IV dwelt in the heady joys of the early days of an affair, and here's another page which celebrates love (and I know that there's another one on the way... the pages are ahead of the blogposts!).

It's not a common topic around here, or at least not usually an uncomplicatedly positive one.  There's more often a touch of heartache or melancholy attached.  But maybe I'm getting sentimental in my old age...  No, that's not quite right - I've always been a romantic at heart, just all too aware of the down sides too.






In any case, in the hard cold of winter, I'm finding lots of warm hearts appearing in the artwork arriving on my craft desk.  Today's page celebrates a lifetime of love.













Again, I've been using up leftovers.  This tag with the ovals cut out has been sitting around ever since August, when I made my engraved enamel word plaques for PaperArtsy.

At the time, I thought I should try to cut the ovals out centrally, so that the outline would be of use at some point further down the line.  And that day has finally come.











The tag got a rough, thick coating of gesso, applied with a palette knife and then super-heated.  At first, I kept it plain white, and I liked the look of billowing snowdrifts.














But later, as I started to apply ink, it took on the look of toasted marshmallow - which is also quite a good look!








This is one page where I'm still not quite sure whether I shouldn't have stopped earlier.  Here it is in its pristine whiteness, which I really like... but it does have an unfinished look.

The distressing - with walnut ink splatters and a touch of Vintage Photo Distress Ink blended on - has given everything a much warmer tone.  I don't know... what do you think?









I have to say, I do love the extra texture and detail around the snowflakes post-browning.
















They've had a helping of white embossing powder, as well as some inky splatters and washes around them.














There's plenty of thread swirling in the snowstorm...
















... and the walnut ink splatters beautifully.















Of course, at the heart of it all are the lovers themselves - first, in their young and carefree days...
















... and then after many years together, having weathered the storms, sharing the burdens and the joys.













It's odd working with those frames at the centre - I'm used to off-setting my focal points to one side or another.  But with the tag at the centre, the two sets of words have to balance each other out...










... just like the man and woman have had to balance one another out, in order to achieve always and forever.

(And not just the words to be balanced, but the film strip and washi tape too.)

I think these two word sections and the snowflakes work best for me on this page.  I'm not sure about the photo frames, after all that!





I hope you're enjoying the winter love stories finding their way into some of these pages.  I'm not sure where they're coming from, but sometimes it's best not to enquire too deeply into these things, I find.  I'll be back with more soon (not only love stories, you'll be happy to hear), so I hope to bump into you again, either here or elsewhere in Craftyblogland.

A good marriage isn't something you find; it's something you make.
From A Lifelong Love by Gary L. Thomas

At the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge they are offering up some Warm Winter Wishes
I'd like to play along again at Art Journal Journey for Bleubeard and Elizabeth's themes of My Favourite Season/Tis the Season
At the Creative Artiste Challenge Blog they are playing, as always, Anything Mixed Media Goes