Well.....

... I can see the floor but I find it impossible to be as ruthless as I would like.
However play has been resumed with work on another journal, sort of a bit Gothic this one....the first page.

I have a new book, The Collage Workbook by Randel Plowman.  I came across it on Carolyn Saxby's always beautiful blog .
She is planning to work though it along with her sister Evelyn Flint , they previously worked through one of my favourite books Surface Treatment Workshop  So I thought I would perhaps try and combine the two.
The first exercise is to make a collage in five minutes.  I'll have to try that again because this took me about 15minutes.I used bits leftover from my Book of Trees  

This is the first one I tried mixing collage with paint.

I have to wonder why nearly all my mixed media attempts turn out like these mountainous landscapes.  I think this one is waiting for the delivery of Seth Apter's Deep Sea Embossing Powder 
I don't think I mentioned I had these on per-order from the excellent That's Crafty. 
I have no affiliation , It's just I have found them to give excellent service and we know how much I like that.

On another tack if the CEO of Marks and Spencer would like to contact me I could probably solve a lot of his problems.  

The Book of Trees.......

.... is finished for the moment.  This course was  by Roxanne Evans Stout  for the Jeanne Oliver Creative Network  and I have really enjoyed it.  It was good too to be able to apply some of the things I learned from Seth Apter earlier this year, Go check Seth has some new embossing posers coming out in the New Year that look absolutely gorgeous.

But I digress.  I loved the way this opened up Trees as a thought process, so many ways to go. Roxanne suggested that we wrote about trees which had a special meaning for us.  This I did and put them in a safe place where they still are.  I suspect they are in the same place as the leaves me good friend collected for me. So both to be added at a later date.

Here are some pictures just in case the video doesn't work as I've never posted one before.
The cover, it is a combination of pieces I have had for ages and ages. The girls will recognise the sticks made ages ago(Seth inspired)  and the silk piece is from the embellisher days. The actual cover is a piece of bark cloth I acquired at an Embroiderers Guild meeting  and have hoarded ever since. Love it when that happens.

So many textures and  techniques.  My own photographs, digital alteration, painting, gelli plate prints,drawing,collage,  rubber stamping........so many other things I could have done.  Best fun.

I have a smeaking suspicion that a junk journal might be made from the leftovers from this book.


My best wishes for Christmas to everyone. 

The Winter Journal........

.... finished I think, only every time I look at it I add a little more.  I made it as a journal with plenty of space for writing and I have tried to use my own photographs and "artwork"

This is the cover,

it actually came about by accident.  The letters and tree are made out of plain old kids foam sheets The cover is scrim adhered with Golden Matte medium which I am discovering makes a wonderful glue. (Late to the table I think).
This is the first page and I may still add another pocket on the cover

 The card in the pocket is made from a happy swoosh and the first stamp I ever bought on my first trip to America many years ago.

 

A few of my favourite pages.

The ponies  are a photograph I was lucky to snap and the leaves are a digital collage/

Distress Oxides on the tag (did I mention how much I love them) and the grasses are printed onto tracing paper.

Another serendipity page, a gessoed book page which I had used to make some die cuts  and then used to try out some paints.  Turned into a tuck spot.

  

End of the first signature. One of my photos and an old encaustic wax experiment plus a bit of paint play.

Just a few more.

Loved making this one, though it has taken a long time.   Now for the Book of Trees, As I mentioned I have started the backgrounds but I am finding it difficult to move on, I selected some of my photographs (who knew just how many photos of trees I have) but I want it to be something more than pictures stuck on a page so I will take it slowly and hope. In the garden yesterday.

Right.........

........where was I?  I have just spent a lovely long weekend with my sister-in-law.

We took a trip to the ICHF supposed Stitching, Sewing and Hobbycraft show at Excel.  Never again. The "free" Christmas show consisted of a woman demonstrating a £400 exercise board and some very dubious foods. The rest was mediocre to say the least.

Monday we went up to town to "see the lights", on the whole the Christmas windows lacked imagination. These were probably the best at Ralph Lauren in New Bond Street.

Am I wrong or were the Christmas shop windows designed to delight children(eg ME) as well as sell.
We had a little adventure when we were invited into Southeby's to look at Winston Churchill's last painting and four Lowries which are about to go on sale.  I explained to the charming doorman that I didn't have Southerby's kind of money but he explained that these exhibitions are open to all  Who knew?

My next journal is nearing completion, pictures soon and I have started my "Book of Trees" workshop with Roxanne Evans Stout here

So far I have only had time to prepare my pages.

 but I am looking forward to filling them.  I love trees (the only thing I can draw) and this time of year makes them even more appealing with the colours and the falling leaves.
 

Just saying.......

...........I don't want to get into a list of superlatives but if you ever get even half a chance to take a workshop with Seth Apter.....grab it.

Yesterday was such a treat. The workshop was called A Book of Moments and it was organised by The Birds in the Barn, near Colchester Essex. .It was one of the most well organised workshops I have ever attended. The attention to detail was faultless. Every table was covered and had a waste bag attached, on the table were baby wipes, kitchen towel, a box of things that might come in handy and at each place a gift or cards and a goody bag.

Another table was full of items that might be useful; during the day, collage papers, brads, string, everything you can think of.

So generous, there was even a box of old books. There was a pop up shop of very tempting supplies, tea and coffee available all day and lunch was delish as was the lemon drizzle cake which appeared in the afternoon.
There were a lot of us too,  so it must have taken a lot of hard work to organise. 

Seth taught how to deconstruct a book so that you can use the covers and then how to build a new, different kind of spine to hold the pages. My book was already in pieces

A Rochester junk shop find from a while ago.
When the spine was in we started on the pages and Seth told us he thinks there are two kinds of people who collage, the Auditioner and the Committer and urged us to try identify which one we are and try the opposite.He is a Committer,  I am definitely an Auditioner, freeing up is hard. 
Seth in demo mode.

The time went so fast but this is what I had at the end of the day.
 The cover, not quite finished

The pages are not attached yet as I will complete all and arrange at the end. The background on this one ancient gelli plate papers

The background on the right is an Citrasolve experiment 

 This background is town paper collage

The photograph  is the one of me the family call Keep Death of the Road.

And finally, my present to me my own tiny piece of original Seth Apter. It is called September. Scan doesn't do it justice.

  

A superlative day.

Coming...........

.........my favourite time of year. Strictly contestants being announced, NFL pre-season started, nights are drawing in but the days still long enough and the Vuelta has started.  Add to this an interesting online challenge what more could a girl want.
 So far Strictly s the usual collection of "celebrities" I have never heard of but I am sure I will get to love or loathe them.
The Vuelta is going to take me up nicely to the NFL season proper. I treat these cycle races like a holiday. Sit back and enjoy the scenery. The racing is pretty good too.  The Artic Tour of Norway was particularly breath taking and made us wish we were still able to take a real trip to Tromso .
The challenge I am following is ITAC 17 by AALL & Create .  To create in whatever medium you wish an "artwork" to represent a continent.   The first one was Europe and this is my contribution.

  
 Surprise, surprise, a book.
This one is a concertina with five pages and was a nightmare to photograph.

So many words sprang to mind, Renaissance, History, War, Architecture but I finally settled on Antiquity. Something modern was part of the brief so on the back pages I addedmy own personal sadness at Brexit.

This is my favourite page as my drawing skills are pretty below average, I made this little
collection of European icons by copying individual photographs of each building.

The continent this week is Asia.  I know what I want to do...we shall see.

I can't go without a small rant about the truly dire "craft" programme Craft it Yourself on Channel 4. Such a poor format. Given up after one and a half episodes.

Days are full.....

........Le Tour de France and Wimbledon, well that takes half the day at least. I love watching the Tour for the scenery, sometimes places we have visited, more often stunning views of places from the helicopters which you would never see in a car ride.  My brother introduced me to watching the Tour and we used to discuss on the phone, I miss him.
 
Weather back to normal British summer, every day is different, Saturday was a can't-make- up it's mind day and we took a little trip down the Darent Valley forgetting it was the lavender season.

Can you smell it?

Another sight was a flash of red as we were driving and I had to go back to catch the most glorious field of poppies I have ever seen.

I really needed a ladder to do it justice.

 Apart from TV my other occupation has been to play with tea bags and paper. Just look, it was such fun.  I bought the cheapest fruit teas that I could find and made up three bowls.

This was liquorice which I thought would give me light brown but in fact it remained a very pale yellow. The other two I used were blackberry & blueberry and masala chai.

I arrange the papers and for once had patience and left them overnight. Whoo!

 

  One has an embellishment of a leaf I walked in from the garden.

It was interesting how the different types of paper absorbed the dye.

I actually have dozens more but won't bore you, I used the last of the dyes to make book pages. the Blackberry made a lovely grey. You can see them behind these little journaling cards I have been making.

Did I say that after initial reservations I am now deeply in love with Tim Holtz's Oxide Inks.

Sun shining, what to do first?  Oh, housework. OK then.