Love and music is in the air

Welcome to February, the month of love. As the weather is not conducive to any kind of gardening at the moment I have been spending some of my leisure time time enjoying some mixed media play in my art journal. I am really enjoying the dictionary challenge over at the Craft Barn and the 2nd letter we have been given to work with is Q...yes I know...not the easiest at all. There are also several other challenges this month asking us to use the theme of love.

I got out my vintage dictionary and thumbed through the Q entries....hmmm...quadrangle, qualm, quart, queen...too obvious....and then I spotted the word quaver. I immediately thought of music and quavers...there are 2 to a crochet, 4 in a minim or 8 to a semibreve. I have played the piano since I was 7 and I own one which I bought with a small bequest an elderly great aunt left me 30 years ago.

I don't lift the lid every day but it is fun when I do.

 I opened the seat lid and pulled out an ancient book of waltzs.

I have some lovely old books of and sheet music, some were my granddads'. The first piano I played was his as we lived with him when I was a child.

I rarely practice but a bit like riding a bike, your fingers just know where to go and I had a pleasant hour tinkling the ivories. Below is one of my favourites. I always enjoy playing a waltz...if you can read music it's a very famous one and I guarantee you will be humming if for hours!

I also sorted through my old school  music from the 1970s. I was looking for something I could cut up and put in my art journal "quaver" pages. Lots of quavers below and the fingering from 1979 when I first played this concerto. I really didn't want to tear anything out here, too many fond memories.

 Below is another old book of music which one of the children must have used, both of mine played piano for a short time. I love the dinosaur sticker.

 My daughter became more interested in the flute at age 11 and played until she left high school.

I found an old book of music theory practice written in by my daughter circ 1997. She was playing both the piano and flute at this time.

I smiled as I looked through her writing as an 11 year old (she's now nearly 30)

 and I saw that she had started her own little piece of piano music called "Song of the Flute."

 How sweet is that...and like Beethoven, it remains unfinished.

I was going to tear it out to use it but then I had a light bulb moment that I could scan it and use it in my journal page. One day perhaps Daisy might finish it for her Mummy? My SIL is very musical indeed, he attended a famous private school on a music scholarship and already sits Daisy on his lap as he plays their piano.

So then it was play time in my art journal.

Here is the dictionary page

I wanted some very vintage colours for my pages so I chose these inks and sprays.

I decided to work on a double page spread again.  I used my LOTV music stamps and added some partial stamping and also some flourish stenciling using texture paste.

I started adding my inks and sprays, lots of splashes and drips,

drying and adding layers

until I was happy with my background

It was then time to put on my creative hat and add the elements I chose.

Here are my finished art journal pages.

 You can see how I scanned and reduced the music book cover and my daughter's music theory work.

 I found a perfect quote on the internet attributed to none other than Plato.

 Here is the close up of my dictionary page showing the definition of quaver.

 My darling girls forgotten composition.

 I added some glittered words ; love, family, cherish and forever, very apt for my pages and for the month of February.

 There is so much texture and you can see all the random music stamping I added.

 My Memory Box music notes die, seen on my friend Pamellia's blog,  is a new addition to my stash, I think it will be useful for lots of crafting projects.

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

The Craft Barn alpha dictionary challenge Q
Simon says stamp Wednesday  anything goes
Simon says work it Wednesdays something new my new is my music notes die
Pixie's snippets playground  2/3 #214  I used lots of the snippets from scrap of my mixed media die as accents on my pages and snippets of gold glitter card for my words.
Whimsy stamps with love
Anything but cute ring out the old bring in the new  my new is the music die
The Ribbon Girl  with love
We love 2 create 2/2 #3 anything mixed media
Allsorts 2/3 bring on the bling
As you like it 2/3 favourite 1 or multilayer mine is multi particularly in journal pages...I love adding layers for extra texture.
Vintage stamping   1/3 splatters and drips
Country View make your own background
Crafting from the heart  1/3 anything goes
Try it on Tuesday  1/5 a fine romance
Artistic Inspiration 1/3 anything goes/twist of Valentine
Noor UK  love

I really did enjoy making these pages and they are also a lovely memory of my daughter's early musical years...I put plenty of love into this creation. Happy days.

It's been a lovely sunny afternoon today...it makes such a change from all the rain. I hope you got to glimpse a little blue sky today. I also noticed how much lighter the evenings are getting...yes spring is not too far away now.
Thanks as always for your kind visits and comments.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x