Create what you need

Hello all!  I've been busy in the art journal, and surprised myself with a little touch of spring appearing.  It all started out in the neutral zone, and then the page itself demanded some fresh leafy green colour - minimal colour, but still definitely colour!  This page spread was done in the altered book created as part of a workshop with France Papillon, back in November 2014. 

That greenish-blue mesh at the foot of the right-hand page was already there as part of the alteration, as was the lacy fringe down the right hand side, so maybe that influenced what appeared on the page spread.  You can see details of the full book alteration in this Ancient History post.








I was influenced by the Geometric Shapes theme being hosted by Alison (a.k.a. Craftytrog) over at Art Journal Journey this month.  Having played along so often in December with my Winter Journal, I want to try to join in at least once a month from now on.














Geometric shapes didn't seem, at first sight, to be a theme I would find very easy, but then it occurred to me that I often use geometric shapes... they're just not usually the "point" of a project, but rather built into the background, creating architecture and structure.














So my collaging is built here of rectangular pieces of T.H. design paper, snipped to suit.













The two pieces of rusty mesh, though frayed and roughened along the edges, are also essentially rectangular.














As, of course, is the photobooth photo, taken from Finnabair's new Art Daily collection.














And there are plenty of circles around too - from the Muse Token celebrating the young woman's courage...















... to the inky lid-stamping here and there (some done with Distress Paint lids, and the tiny ones with the lid of one of my water-brushes)...














... to the tiny mica-esque sequins catching the light across the spread.
















I notice from the close up that those sequins have actually got a hexagon at their centre - another geometric shape for you there.






I was pretty happy with all that in place - a slightly spare composition, with wintry bleak neutrals, suitable to my mood (as we learned in Hoping for some light), and I could have left it there.

But somehow the page didn't want to stop yet, so I kept fiddling with extra possibilities - metal gears, or clocks, but they were all just a bit heavy and full-on.  I'm not often one for the paper flowers, so you won't be surprised to learn that it took a while before I came up with that as an alternative.








But once I did try a couple of (still pretty neutral-toned) flowers by the photo, I knew there was no going back.

I'm much more at home with greenery, of course, so along with the flowers I added some tiny leafy branches.













They're punched with a Tim Holtz punch from some more of the inky card I made for the greenery on some of the Winter Journal pages.  It's finally almost all used up now.













And once those stems were in place, I found myself adding some watery washes of Peeled Paint Distress Stain to the brown inky spatter already in place.















The fresh green surrounds the words (some of the new Art Daily stickers), highlighting their positivity.













The brighter colour echoes the energy of the ideas in the words.  And clearly this was exactly what I needed right now.








I'm very pleased to have succeeded in keeping some more white space than I usually manage.   Whenever I do leave breathing space around the composition it makes me happy, so it's something I'm going to aim for more often.

And given my "white space" has plenty of book text showing through, that's a double bonus as far as I'm concerned!








So there are geometrical shapes galore within this page spread, but my organic, asymmetric, wilder heart breaks through in the end - with the misshapen cheesecloth (it was originally cut in rectangles, believe it or not) tangled amongst the rusty wire...














... and of course with the natural elements of flowers and leaves, not to mention lots of spontaneous, organic, random spatter in various colours.  I'm simply not a regular kind of woman!






I enjoyed this a lot, and I think there are probably some more variations on this theme to come.  Who knows?  We may be in for another journalling series...

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  As always, it's a joy and an honour to have your company on this crafty journey... especially as we make our way through the January doldrums.  I hope you're wrapped up warm (in one hemisphere) or surviving the heat (in the other).

If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant.
Anne Bradstreet

With the rectangular collage pieces, and the circular ink-prints, Muse Token and sequins, I'd like to share this spread over at Art Journal Journey, where the lovely Alison (a.k.a. Craftytrog) is hosting a theme of Geometric Shapes