It's Easter

so let's have a voodoo journal page!!

 What do you mean WHY? WHY NOT? LOL

 Well one reason is that I got this bunch of stencils this week and wanted to have a play. One word about the stencils.....they are by ANDY SKINNER

one very talented bloke who has just landed himself the job of Executive Creative Consultant for DecoArt......a position well deserved.

 So, here is my page.......I had no idea where I was going with this when I started and it came out quite yellow but I like it! 

It started with a Gelli print.....you can just see the zig zags of the Burning Rubber stencil in the background

 next came the skulls (from the Voodoo stencil) along the top, added some extra colour and drawn lines to them...........

 then added the little black figures (again from the Voodoo stencil)......cut out some doll faces from a photo (you could have fun here and add faces of people you know) and addded these, the circle around the head, the painted hearts and finally stencilled pins (from the stencil)

The stencils (and all DecoArt products as they are now a major stockist) are available from THE STAMP ATTIC.

Hopping down the bunny trail?

And other such Easter nonsense leads me to say

 HAPPY EASTER!

Here is my Easter offering.......eggs, a cross, a rabbit.....what more could you want?

I love myth and legend and symbolism so this is my homage to all things Easter.
 

Had to get an altered doll in there somewhere.......meet bunny girl:) 
I read the blog of Terri Windling, an American author (her book The Wood Wife is one of my fav books) and illustrator living in Devon ......she draws the most beautiful bunny girls, they inspired this bunny girl doll.

 I used clay to make her ears.........

and doesn't she look cute with her paintbrush bristle whiskers.
 

HAPPY EASTER!

Flower power

 This arrived in the post yesterday.......a journal full of prompts and ideas and suggestions.......and you work in the book itself!

 So, last night I sat on my sofa with an open bottle of ink and a dip pen and started on this page......a bit of a dodgy thing to do considering how messy a dip pen can get but I am happy to report that the sofa survived!

 The page is called flower power, it  has coloured blobs that you doodle into flowers......feels like I got a bit carried away!

 Inevitably the pen dripped and made blobs.....these became flowers too....messy one admittedly but I kinda liked them so made more on purpose!

This was great fun, very relaxing and hard to stop:)

Doodles

 There is a bit of a new thing going on in the art journal world......a craze for doodling! It is being led by Dawn DeVries Sokol with her book 

ART DOODLE LOVE

 my copy is on it's way!

 

KATE CRANE has been doodling too.....take a look at her blog:)

 

While I am waiting for my copy of the book I thought I'd have a bit of a doodle in my "going places" journal.........a few weeks ago I went to a talk by Chris Beardshaw at my local garden guild in Nantwich. I hung onto to my ticket to remember the event by......the doodling was good fun.

 The background of the page I did with coloured pencils, I don't use them very often but I liked the effect......I then doodled over the top and around the ticket with marker pens, more crayons and a white gel pen.

Everyone can doodle.......I quite often do it while on the phone.....so, nothing to be scared of.....why not have a go:)

It may not surprise you

to hear that

 

only kidding:)

This is Maggi Hamblings shell sculpture, it sits on the beach in Aldeburgh, Suffolk.

The words around the top of the shell are

 I HEAR THOSE VOICES THAT WILL NOT BE DROWNED

taken from Benjamin Brittens opera Peter Grimes

 

A grave view

Have been visiting with a friend in Suffolk the last few days so no art to show......so here is the next in my series of random pics......this time of a church and its graveyard.......this is Iken Church in Suffolk

 Some of the decorative flint flushwork on the outside of the church....a speciality of East Anglia

 beautiful stained glass window

 and tiles on step risers

 

and so, outside to the graveyard......I love graveyards, I know a lot think that weird but they are so interesting to me

 rusty metalwork surrounding a grave

 

in memory....

 just loved these gravestones.....so simple but for me saying all that needs to be said 

ELIZA and HENRY

We're all mad here!

March is the month of mad hares!

 So I decided to have a go at painting some! I dont consider that I can draw......I know there is the thing that every one can draw in their own style and I get that but when I draw I more often than not don't like what comes out so I don't see the point.......however these were such a simple shape even I managed them!

 It's a good job I like a naive/folk art look cos that's how they came out!

HAPPY MARCH!

I made a book

and it's called the children of God.

I'm not a religious person so the title has no deep meaning.....it's also not intended to offend anyone, I just like it.

 

When I haven't made a book for a while I forget how much I like making them!

This is a piano hinge book.....I like these because they look a lot more complicated than they actually are!

 The spine of the book is held together with a painted pencil with a little doll on top......oh yes, the doll thing.....I fully intended NOT to do a doll themed piece when I started this but somewhere along the way I forgot!

 Take the pencil out to reveal the accordian folded spine which can be opened out....the spine is made from canvas for extra strength

 All the pages are made with Gelli printed papers....I had lots sitting around after experimenting with my Gelli plate....this was a good way to use them up!

 I decided to use printed collage images thinking it would be quicker.......this has taken a couple of days of cutting and sticking.....searching for words then more cutting and sticking......need more images....more cutting and sticking........

 Tags (also Gelli printed) are tucked into pockets between the pages