Let’s Dance in the Rain

Well, what a day!!!!! With my inspiration all fired up I prepared a mixed media page for the blog only to realise when it was all done and the blog written up, that I had used another butterfly theme.  I do love butterflies and have many, many butterfly stamps and dies but we’ve had a few butterflies of late so that particular page is on the back burner for a while, but lookout for it because it’s a really lovely page .  So out with the inspiration again.

 Today’s page started out as a mop up page in my small 7” x 5” journal. 

I have a few journals and if I’ve got left over ink or paint I use it up in my journals.  Every so often, well quite often, I’ll page through my journals and when creativity strikes I might add a little something, like the drips, and white flowers on the bottom right had side of this page.  At the time I had no idea in mind, just added the drips. I might even added the doodling white flowers at the same time.

Most times I have an idea of what I’m going to create,  but there’s no guarantee that I won’t get side tracked and end up with something totally different, and today is really no different, I had a plan and it didn’t work out, but hey, I’m glad it didn’t because I really like how it turned out in the end. I’ve been waiting for the last of the Gauteng summer rains to come and each day it clouds over and I’m convinced that today is the day, but so far no rain. This got me thinking about one of my favourite sayings, “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to dance in the rain”.   I have the stamp, but this time I wanted something a little different so I printed it out using my computer and Microsoft Word.   

I inked up a background stamp with Cobalt Blue Archival ink and stamped onto the page [being careful not to stamp over the white flowers], to create the illusion of rain drops.

I stamped the word “life” at the top left hand side of the page using black Archival Ink and my new Tim Holtz Block letters Alphabet foam stamps, then glued two small strips of torn Gelli print vertically below, and glued the words “is not about waiting for the storm to pass but learning to” lining them up so that they started on the torn gelli print strips so they had something to anchor to.

Then I stamped the word “dance” below again using the Tim Holtz Block letters Alphabet foam stamps and finished off with the typed words “in the rain”.

I was going to use my Tim Holtz Umbrella Man stamp but he didn’t fit in the space, and he also didn’t do anything for the page.  It looked bleak and dreary so back he went into the stamp drawer.

I have this really lovely Stencil Art Stencil, Birds in a Row, which has a variety of different birds and I traced a bird shape onto a scrap of colourful Gelli print and fussy cut it out.

 I added an eye to the bird using my Black and White Posca pens.

I wanted some quirky legs and shoes so used the Stampotique Originals - [9047] Fleur Belle stamp to stamp the long legs and shoes, using Black Archival Ink.  I coloured the shoes with Bubblegum Dylusions ink spray and fussy cut them. Sorry but I didn't take a pic.

I drew an umbrella onto another scrap of Gelli print and fussy cut it. I only stamped it with the same background stamp right at the end and also didn't take a pic. 

I layered the bird up making sure the umbrella was behind the wing before gluing her down.  She also didn’t fit in the space too well, but I’m happy with her having one foot on the “e” and the other on a flower. She really does look like she’s dancing.

I outlined all the flowers with a Black Posca Pen and I think the page is done.

Well that's my art for today.  See you next time!