Life isn't all flowers

My house is being inundated with seed catalogues at the moment, so I decided to put them to good use and cut them up before they go in the recycling bin! So, they made into a journal page in my little moleskine, and I have scanned them in to my computer as a kind of homemade collage sheet. I'm not sure that the image particularly goes with the subject matter, but I'm told that doesn't always matter...I think the phrase I was thinking of was 'life isn't all sunshine and roses', but this is how it came out. I kind of wish I had stopped before I did all the black and white, but I was watching the skier-cross at the same time and I kind of got carried away. Have you seen those guys? Nutters!

Do you want the truth or something beautiful?

I love collage sheets - they give you a starting point when you are stuck, a finishing touch when you aren't feeling very confident in your own arty abilities, and they are a legitimate way of using the bits of other people's style that you admire. However, sometimes it's good to challenge yourself to create something all by yourself. This page was inspired by my children - I had been reading a book with my daughter about mermaids, and what with Christmas and losing teeth, I get the distinct impression that they are asking ever more challenging questions about things that they just used to accept. Add to that the fact that I got the Paloma Faith CD for Christmas (which has this title) which I LOVE, and this page was born. It was just one of those evenings when I was half watching something on the couch, and couldn't be bothered to move myself to go and find any more materials, so I just used what I had to hand, namely pens and pencils. I find people really hard to do (note the rather surprised look on her face!), but at least with a mermaid, you don't have to worry about legs and feet!

the next installment

I said that I had been busy over the Christmas period, and I have. I know some of you have felt that I have been TOO organised getting my monthly journal pages up to April ready, but I have just been fortunate enough to have some child free, guilt free time. As well as that, my little journal has seen some action, mainly because we have been through some fairly emotional times at home, so these pages reflect that:

The image is from itkupilli and the background is painted in Adirondack acrylic, partly covered in Tim Holtz Hard Candy and then the cracks highlighted in Frayed Burlap distress ink. The corner stamp is Tim Holtz too.
The next page is one I prepared a while ago, and was just waiting for inspiration. The images are from itkupilli again, and the text from an old novel (I still get a bit twitchy about cutting up books though). I used the Tim Holtz scratchy tool to distress the pages and Neocolour IIs and charcoal to 'bed in' .the images