Art for heart's sake

Yesterday I managed to get out from work promptly (that's a rarity) and I took advantage of the afternoon daylight just to enjoy some creative play. I very rarely do this as my crafting time is very limited. I tend to make things for specific occasions but this time it was just art for arts sake. There were several challenges that I wanted to join in with so I decided to make something heart/love themed that would tick all their boxes.

This week has been bitterly cold but beautifully sunny so I decided to use a cold/winter palette rather than the usual pinks or reds associated with traditional Valentine/love themes.

As I wanted just to play and not make anything formal I dug out my Dylusions journal which I first used at my buddy Brenda's Dylusions workshop last summer. Brenda is also hosting a lovely art journal link up over at her blog, encouraging everyone to share their creativity. Do have a look at the link here and it would be lovely to see lots of people joining in.  It is not a challenge, there are no prizes; it's just for fun and we all learn so much from one another.

I was also trying to finish off my folio that I made at her recent workshop and I had been printing off some of my lovely vintage family photos to use in it. I had a spare photo of my Great Grandma sitting on the side I picked it up and looked at her. I adore this photo and I wondered what she might have been thinking as this was taken?

My Nan wrote down some of our family history before she died in 1989. Both my Nan's parents died young, in their thirties. My Nan was named Florence as was her mother above. Florence senior was born in 1882 and I guess died around 1912 when my Nan was about 7 years old . This photo and a pair of earrings, which she gave me, are the only things she ever had which belonged to her mother.

Everyone says that Florence's husband, who died only 6 months later, died of a broken heart. Now I'm not sure how true that can be but it shows that they had a very deep love for one another.
This also gave me the idea for the theme for my journal page.....art for hearts sake.........so here is my creative journey together with my process to share with you......

I started off with some gesso and some torn book pages for texture.

I got out my blue and silver sprays, inks and paints for my wintry colour scheme.Here are just a few of those I used.

I mixed some blue acrylic paint into grunge paste and scraped it onto the pages using a palette knife.

I  pushed my TH honeycomb stencil into the paste to give some extra texture and also did the same with the texture fade stencil

I added some swooshes of other coloured acryllic paints, spritzed with water and allowed everything to drip around. I love the way it pools around the grunge paste.

I then added some more gesso by stamping with a wooden heart stamp.

I continued to play, adding colours, water, wiping bits off and knocking back with watered gesso until I was happy with my background. I then added a few more blues using Distress stains.

I also sprayed some blue and pewter metallic inks onto some white paper flowers and also onto some strips of card. I used the card for my die cuts.

These dried with a lovely metallic sheen. I then set about creating my pages using the elements I had assembled.





So I am sure you are wanting to see my finished pages.
Here were are

I can imagine my Great Grandmother Florence writing a love letter  to John, my Great Grandfather. In those days most communication would have been via letters. I wonder what it might have contained? They were married on Christmas day 1902. Their daughter (my Nan) was born in 1905 and their son a few years later.
How tragic that she never saw my Nan even reach her teenage years, but life in those days was very short and very precious.

Here are some close ups;

What an apt Tim Holtz stamp this is. I added it by stamping on tissue paper. I love the way this technique make stamps blend in so well. You can see parts of the torn book pages still peeping from underneath the layers of paint and ink and also the textured stenciling in the Grunge paste. I also stenciled blue archival ink through Tim's heart stencil. I added a twine bow,  as I like to think that Florence might have tied her love letters from John in this way.

I also added some silver mesh and some glitter to the flowers to give them some shine and metallic sparkle.

You can see the pewter metallic spray shining on my leaves and lacey die cuts and the sparkle on the flower again below.

Below you can see I stamped some love wording using Watering Can archival ink by Wendy Vecchi.

and some more here

and one final "artsy" shot

I really hope I can get some more time just to play and if I do I will share it with you. My pages really were "Art for hearts sake", what could be better?

I would like to enter my journal pages into the following challenges;

PaperArtsy Topic 2; Shiny stuff I have been following this great blog for a couple of months and I have finally jumped in to join their current challenge by adding lots of pewter metallic paint, silver mesh and glitter for my shiny stuff entry.
Craft stamper Take it make it February challenge  stencilling
Country View challenges drips and drops
A Vintage Journey tic tak toe my line is the 3rd (right hand) vertical line; ribbon/twine, die cuts, stains
Wendy Vecchi's Make art  hearts. As I have shown above I used her watering can archival ink for my love stamping.
Frilly and Funkie be my Valen-twine
ABC C is for Cupid
Our Creative Corner tic tak toe my line is the middle horizontal line; paints, stamps, stencils
Inspiration Journal love is in the air
We do doobadoo hearts and flowers

I hope you are enjoying  the weekend and keeping warm. It has been very slightly warmer here today and no more snow, thank goodness.

Thank you for all your kind visits, it's lovely that you take the time to visit me here,

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x