Memories Documented - Guest artist for Somerset Memories Blog

Hi everyone.

a few months ago  I was invited to write a post
for the Somerset Blog as a guest designer .
I am feeling very blessed indeed.

My Art Journal Cover 

I am so excited and grateful to have been invited to share 

one of my Art Journals with you .

I have journaled most of my life and love to look back and read
about my memories, words and feelings .

In 1999 my treasured son Mark, age 22 was killed on his motorbike .

as you may imagine this left a huge hole in my life.

I was absolutely consumed by pain and grief....3 years along my grief journey

I discovered scrapbooking in 2003 and it has changed my life .

"To me this craft is the perfect combination of art,

 photography, beautiful paper,

and glorious words.

I especially love to choose some elements, 

cast a spell and see what happens, to create a dream and follow it through.

 Subtle shadows, light and color are all ingredients for casting the spell.

  I am inspired by colour and texture …which I weave into my works

I love to include stitching, chipboard, journaling, muslin, 

fabrics, metal elements, inking, masking and texture paste..

Getting messy brings out the kid in me

Mark is always in my heart and Art Journaling

 is a wonderful and powerful way of keeping his memory alive .

I made a promise to myself to honour his memory

 by living my life to the best of my ability"

For this particular journal I chose 4 colors of the chakras

Orange, Yellow, Blue and Blue.

why may you ask ?

Orange 
is the color of emotion. passion, pleasure and health.
Yellow
is the color of self-esteem, self-worth, confidence and personal power
Blue
is the color of self expression, nervous system, communication, will power and creativity .
Brown
is the color of transformation.. being grounded and in touch with nature.
releasing the old/detachment and beginning the transformation into a new state of awareness .

MY COVER 

Memories Documented 

 I have created lots of layering and texture. 

The layers represent my grief and pain.
I find by journaling and creating my heart is healing little by little .

The metal, spark plugs and cogs - Mark's motor bike 

The numbers represent the years of my journey

The Graphic45 pen-nibs are for my journaling.

Materials used 
Art book /We R Memory Keepers
All the chipboard is from Dusty Attic .
Golden texture paste

Tim Holtz
 Distress inks and sprays/metal name plate/tissue tape/collection stencils
Graphic 45 nibs / metal plate

Golden texture paste
Prima patterned paper
Kraft paper

"Write to yourself " 

Make the next book you buy an empty one

fill its pages with the thoughts. feelings and stories from your life

written words can capture a feeling forever.

record JOY and a decade later you can read it over and feel 

THE HAPPINESS

 you felt on that particular day.

"Record despair and one sad day you can read it once again

 and know that you can RECOVER just like you did before ".

Being a student of your own history you can design a better future.

capture in words your life's journey

before TIME steals away it's lessons.

I love to use the ring bound journals .

they are very sturdy 

and also makes it very easy to 

change and rearrange my pages and pockets.

 Lots of pockets with tags, holding memorabillia and journaling .

above is a shot of some of my pages in this journal .

TUTORIAL 

A step by step to create one of my tags found in this Journal .

Firstly Gather the ingredients for the Tag 

Graphic45 black tag

Distress crackle paint

Distress rusty hinge spray/tissue tape 

Versa color turquoise ink

Stencil

Golden moulding Paste

Pallet knife

A quote and paper.

Complete the tag with more distress ink to create richness and depth

add crackle paint and string. .

thanks so much for looking at my work .

I hope I have inspired you to have a play with an art journal 

they can be on any subject / theme you choose .

happy scrapping and 

warm hugz to each of you xoxo