I so enjoyed my 'cover up' border last week that I did another one this week although there really was no need to do it, guess it is just a border this week. I chose a heart one as it is so close to Valentines Day. It would not have looked correct to carry it on across the top or bottom so I just did the sides. I had used Distress Inks and an applicator to colour the page so I used a slightly darker Oxide to stamp some greenery in the bottom of the page between the feet of the two girls. In order to qualify for Erika's Heavy Metal challenge on Art Journal Journey I painted some of the hearts with some gold paint, the first tube did not show so I went with my new paints and they worked, squeezed too much paint out so one girl ended with gold shoes. And the story goes
"Christabel has always been the pretty one in the class, everyone is in love with her, she has the most expressive eyes and her crowning glory is her hair. It looks like spun gold shining in the sunshine with streaks of red metallic ribbon running through it. She is also lovely and slim, quite tall at 5'9" and has the sweetest nature possible. The boys adore her, the girls either want to be her or envy her and her teachers are so very proud of her academic achievements, as are her parents.
As you would expect she has lots of friends but a particular one is Bernadette O'Reilly. They have been friends since Junior School with a friendship everyone thinks is unbreakable. Bernadette is pretty too, has a sweet disposition, is just above average when it comes to her studies and she is crazy about animals, birds - and insects. Naturally Biology is her favourite subject (a bit like Erika's teaching life) Some of the classmates think she is a bit weird as she often wears a tiny veil, similar to an eye patch, with a spider on it - imitation of course!
Being such a sweet hearted girl Christabel, although she is not crazy about, "creepy crawlies" as she calls them, admires how Bernadette is so knowledgeable about the various insects she seems to attract and love. Why even the day they went out in the countryside for a walk and Bernadette squatted down to look at a flower she attracted the most cute little bumble bee. "How lucky" she thought, "am I to have such a gentle and loving friend." Turning to her friend Christabel asked her how on earth she did it, what was it about her that made insects and animals trust her so much? "What is your method she asked?"
Bernadette just looked at her friend, head tilted to one side and she said "I really have no method, just madness" and Christabel wished with all her heart that she too had that madness."
So there you have it, my story today which explains literally the reason for one beautiful, talented girl not having the same "madness" as her friend - but maybe secretly desiring it. A much different illustration to the one that comes straight to my head which is rather about my spending my money on craft materials - I definitely have no method - just madness when it comes to that!
