Thursday, July 31, 2008

Ellie's collage project and Soul journal pages.

I have had a fun couple of days with my journal and with Ellie may, We decided to make a collages girl for her bedroom wall. We started with Ellie laying on a roll of wallpaper lining paper. I drew around her and then gave her 2 magazines. She spent about 2 hours, maybe more cutting and sticking all sorts of things, including eyes, nose, mouth, a plat, jewellery and flowers for her dress.
Here is the close up of her face, miss matched eyes are a bit weird but love the bling!
Look how much bling on the wrist and fingers.
That was yesterday, today we used the roller and acrylic paint to put colour down. Ellie did all this herself. She then used a damp kitchen roll sheet to show the flowers and things, wiped them back, and a wash of pink for the skin. It needs to be cut out now and pinned in her room. Love the corsage!
Now onto my journal. Sarah has gone off for a little break and so we are now working on our own. This was the last 2 spreads we did before she went. I have been a little slow as I was waiting for paint to dry and to sew a few things. I started by squirting some acrylic and shutting the book, squidge! Lovely! Then I filled one page with numbers.
I then added a was, and painted with a fork. Here is the full spread.
After the wash and the fork painting, I drew round my hand 5 times, moving them slightly every time. I drew with a tippex pen, and I picked out important numbers like 21 (Ellie's birthday) 29 ( my birthday - August by the way!) and 24 (Craig's birthday).
Sarah then asked us to add some meaningful words. I chose a quote by William Ralph Inge, it reads " The soul is dyed by the colour of it's leisure hours". I thought this summed this journal up really. I stitched this to a fabric tag which came on a new top I bought the other day, it is a diamond ( my favourite) pattern in copper (my favourite) on black cotton and has a copper eyelet. I punched 2 holes in the page to attatch it to the page with a bow. I have to say I bloddy love this spread.
On the opposing page I used black and white crayon to draw 3 hearts. I filled the centre with white crayon to resist and keep the text from the letter underneath the gesso showing. I used the tippex pen to draw the dandelions and the zig zag.
The next sprad started with a wash, but the rose pink colour was too wet so i blotted it with kitchen paper and I got this amazing pattern.
Check that out, lucky or what!
I set about printing first of all and printed with one o Ellie's building blocks (Duplo I think), both ends to get the black squares and circles. I then used a little pot lid from when Ellie had puree food to print, what is now a pear, at this point I didn't think anything of it. Then with a white pen I wrote the list of things I had done today, this ranges from painting with Ellie to pickin up Craig Shopping and at the bottom, Ate a pear, BINGO! a light went on, I decided to use the same mint green to mono print a pear onto the left hand page. I wrote the alphabet as instructed, quick and angry, and then also as instructed gesso'd out an area, I chose the pear shaped lid print and turned this into a pear properly, I kept my marks really textural. I also gesso'd around the 6. I dry brushed aroud the gesso with black and lastly attatched a piece of copper hole punched with big cross stitches.
Close up!
Finally while routing around for my something metal I found some pink shell charms from and old bracelt and thought these might be nice and continue the hole punching. Now I would love to say I meant to get all those holes, and that I was going for the peppered with bullet holes, but really i can't hole unch to save my life!
Here is the close up of the charms.
Well I hope you haven't been bored wittless, I know I have rambled! I am excited as I love this work so far, I hope you are enjoying seeing it!


14 comments:

Doreen G said...

Brilliant Carol both you and Ellie are real artists.

Pat said...

You look as though you are both having a great time.

Virginia said...

Well Carol..I bloody well love it too!!!And how talented is Ellie....
Just loving this whole process...

Sandy said...

The pages are wonderful, and I love hearing how you do them.

Sharon Tomlinson said...

Love your soul journal and I can tell you are having loads of fun. But the thing you are doing with the little one is beyond cool!

Julie said...

Not bored at all! Far from it. Ellie's figure is awesome! And your journal is fantastic!! No wonder you are having such a great time, it shows in what you are doing in the journal.

Linda Vincent said...

Fabulous, fabulous pages Carol - well done you!!
But best of all (sorry) is Ellie's collage - its just stunning, (talent plus a good teacher?).
Linda xx

arlene said...

Well who wouldn't love it? It's fabulous!!

I'm having as much fun looking as I am creating....you are very talented, and I love your blog!

arlene in alberta

Kathryn Costa said...

I sooo soo soo love the colors in your spread. Wow, I have another potpourri page to do and I will try to go beyond my typical monochromatic palette. Thanks for the inspiration. Really, very lovely results - and I love the lines too!

Judy Rys said...

I love the colors you are using and the sense of fun and freedom. What is a tippex pen? Is it a paint pen?

Digitalgran said...

Fantastic Carol. Dwi'n gweld dy fod yn mwynhau hyn yn fawr!
Dweud wrth Ellie fod Anti Mags wrth ei bodd hefo'i gwaith. Mae'n amlwg yn tynnu ar ol mam!

Winter Wanderings said...

Love Ellie's collage -- especially her bling, with rings on every finger! Your journal pages are truly wonderful -- I want to do these projects too, both of them (collage & journal)! Now when can I find more time?

Anne said...

I've been having such a blast working on my Soul Journal. And it's so much fun seeing what everyone else is creating, too. Love how your potpourri pages came out! They have such depth!

Miss Oddity said...

Gotta love the bling! when I am reading your posts it is like lots of little lightbulb moments where I go OMG maybe I could try that ... thank you