Lisa's Book Page Art - Round and Round the Garden

At first I wondered, "where can I find a nice poem that I could reuse to remake another poem within it", at first I did struggle, but then found a small book that my auntie had given to me when I was a little girl, this little book had a simplistic instructional side to it, re how to create a simple garden with cute, quaint drawings alongside, and the other function, a poetic pathway scattered throughout. I decided that it would be okay to take a page out to use it as a contribution to Lisa's journal, I no longer wanted that little book to not be seen and not be heard, it needed to be remembered, appreciated, it needed to serve a purpose again.  So I chose a poem that spoke to me, and then began to let the creative juices flow, I hope you like what I have done Lisa, I really had fun doing it, thank you for the opportunity :-)

Preparing the pages:

I used the Chromacryl Gold acrylic as the colour base, and then waited until the pages dried before painting on Jo Sonja's Decor Crackle, I waited until this dried and then went ahead with the gold again, I did four layers of each.

Next, I added a rose gold colour and a dark teal acrylic from the Jo Sonja collection, waited for it to dry and then added Decor Crackle again, I did three layers of each. I used a very small rounded chrome tool to add the rose gold and dark teal spots.

At this point, I was feeling anxious that it was looking a bit kindergartenish. I took a breath, and I took a small break, to decide on my next move. I flipped through one of my favourite magazines called: 'Flow', and chose a cool background picture for the poetic paragraphs to sit on top of, I felt it was perfect for what I needed, I felt like it suited the whole theme. I then chose to find a poem. This was fun, because not only did I get to choose a poem, I then had to pick out words and let them relive a different purpose than first intended for them. Lisa, I have to let you know, I really love this concept. I wanted to choose words that didn't rhyme, I wanted the words that I picked to help the person reading them to be re-imagined in a totally different way than when first thought of.

After choosing the words, I needed to think about how they would be presented. I felt like using a green prismcolour pencil to colour in the whole cut out, then I used a black thin pointed marker to block out the words. After the marker dried, I used a fluoro green highlighter to make the words that I had chosen stand out. I then cut around the paragraphs and stuck them down with my favourite glue '450 Quick Dry Adhesive', why I like this particular glue is because it does dry very quickly which allows me to move on to my next exercise without having to wait a very long time.

Around the paragraphs, I used a gold marker. I wanted to add some wildlife, so I chose to use black and white birds from a Kaisercraft ephemera pack called 'Everafter or 'Everlasting'? I'm not completely sure if that is the name as I no longer have the plastic packet. I loved the fact that they were black and white, it was a nice contrast between the busy colours. I felt like they needed to be surrounded by something, so I chose the gold ring for the two birds at the bottom of the two pages, and two individual wooden flourishes to surround the birds on the top page. I wanted a raw material on the page but I didn't want to overdo it, so the flourishes were just enough without being too over-sized. I liked that they had the appearance of being perhaps old black and white photos, garnished in a frame. I love buttons, so I had to get a button in there somehow, again without it being too over obvious, and so I felt it belonged on top of the golden ring.

Lastly, I needed to think of something for the flap attached to the page, I had a bag of confetti tissue paper that I thought would be perfect, I felt like it added a bit of dimension and it looked playful. I used my dry adhesive to attach the pieces, and then used clear tape to contain them within the space. I wanted something tangible associated with the heading of the paragraphs: 'Colours', I felt like it made sense.

Again, I'd like to thank you, Lisa, for this opportunity, it was so much fun. I cannot wait for you to receive your journal back and post pictures of all the pages that everyone will be contributing, it's going to come together so wonderfully. You have thought of everything, and I love the resources you have added to the pocket on the back cover, it's such a great idea, I wish I had of thought of it too.