Washi Tape - A Journal Page (Plus Mixed Media Houses & Flora's Bloom True E-Course)

I (along with the greater part of the paper arts world!) love washi tape and Cute Tape - where I have purchased the majority of my washi tape collection - recently had a giveaway.  I thought about entering but I have been away most of the last week with work and I didn't get around to it but today I thought I would make a point of using some while I was doing a journal page.  

Ever since doing Flora Bowley's workshop in March last year, I have been using up any excess paint on my palette or brushes on my journals.  I apply the paint very randomly and imprecisely and it provides a ready background when I decide to do some journaling.  This page has two washi tapes on it - the green text and the magenta birds and flowers (with silver dots in the background).  The rest is just doodling and writing using a less than perfect white pen on the painted background.  

And, while I am still on the subject of washi tape I found some in the Typo stores here in Perth just recently (not sure how long they have carried it but it was a pretty exciting moment for me). I bought the black and white measuring tape style and the green and white check - a very pretty two pack.

A few blog posts back I shared the results of the beautiful Aus Art Sisters Mixed Media Hanging Houses and I have finally hung them up in my "bliss box" (where I get to play with my beautiful art and craft supplies!).  Last weekend's effort fell off the wall so hopefully today's system will prove to be more durable!

Tomorrow the new Flora Bowley "Bloom True - Brave Intuitive Painting" e-course starts and I can't wait.  I had the wonderful experience of being part of Flora's March three day workshop here in West Australia last year but it left me hungry for more.  I've cleaned out my tiny little "bliss box" and made as much room as possible for BIG canvases and lots of messy paint.  I've checked all my art supplies and got out all the drop sheets and rags and mark-making tools I have collected over the several years of my fascination with surface design.  So you know what I will be doing when I am not at work or asleep over the next five weeks! 

PS If you are in Australia and have even the smallest urge to paint intuitively, I really suggest you get yourself to Melbourne in June for Flora's only Australian workshop in 2012. 

My Arch Book is Home and it is Beautiful!!

Wow! What a busy week I have had. I really need to get back in the swing of regular blogging - I miss it badly. But to get to one of the highlights of the week - my arch shaped book came home from its round robin travels over Australia and the US over the last 8 months and I just love the end result! Fiona's pages will be here shortly so I'll post pictures of them soon!

If you have been joining me here for a while you may remember my cover and the page I made back at the start of the round robin.

And these are the gorgeous pages that my fabulous round robin partners have created:

by Jo Wholohan

by Jo Wholohan

by Vicci Henderson

by Vicci Henderson

by Tricia Scott

by Tricia Scott

by Patti Gramza

by Patti Gramza

by Tina Shoaga

And I also received the last book for the round robin that I am still to work in - Jo's Diamond book. Jo has chosen a long rectangular shape and the diamond is just to be a design element or motif so these pages should be fun to make. I'll post my results as soon as the pages are done.

Take It Further - January (An Update)

You may recall in this earlier post I decided to go with the colour scheme Sharon posted as the TIF January challenge. Well, in the course of pondering what do with said colour scheme, I decided to think about qualities I admire in other people (given that someone we admire is the TIF concept for January). I toyed with various ideas and then "balance" was issued as a journal prompt on another group I have joined and I immediately knew that I wanted to use that as my theme for TIF! I am so in awe of people who have balance in their lives.

Over a decade ago I had the wonderful opportunity, through my job, to do a very intensive live-in week long Leadership Course at the Mt Eliza Business School over in Victoria. It was a life-changing event for me in many ways but one of the points that was stressed during the course (which was totally male except for two female participants, myself included) was the importance of balance. The course used the quadrant approach - family, work, personal life and community and I have kept that in mind ever since. Needless to say I have not always achieved it...

So, my TIF colour scheme has turned into a small art quilt based around the concept (quality?) of balance. I have used four equal squares as my quilt top and then I have divided two of the squares into length-wise strips (to symbolise the different areas in which we participate in our personal and community lives). I am adding a circle in the middle to represent the perfect balance between all four (and potentially the snowball effect!). I had already selected the fabrics before the thinking happened but I think they are ideal for this - there is a mixture of western and Asian text and design which emphasizes making the most of all approaches and philosophies. As an embellishment I will add a large Asian decorative coin that represents all the signs of the Chinese zodiac - a good representation, I think, of life in balance - all the personalities that we need to balance in our lives!! Not sure how much quilting etc I'll do although I really think it would look nice with some beading. The darker purple fabric (not pictured) from the colour scheme will be used for the quilt binding.

These are a couple of progress shots from my scanner (partial shots only, and of course minus the binding which isn't done yet!)


And because a blog post needs pictures, the other scans are of a green journal title page (below - a great way to use up all those scraps of beautiful papers) and a journal cover (at the top of this post) that I made some time ago.