ACP:2 Yellow + F

... yeah, yeah, yeah... this is a late late blog post.. (I thought about moving straight onto April and not completing March's letters but I felt I'd be letting myself (and the project) down if I didn't keep (roughly) to the schedule... (I'm cutting myself some slack here...) but I'm back on it so here we go..

this is yellow's final outing (I've had a word with April and its very accommodating of March's yellow's intrusion into its month (April has a very gentle colour - you'll be introduced to that very soon...)

The second letter for March is F... lots of lovely options for that - and I went for 'feathers' - it was a close call between that & Fabric & Felt - but I didn't have any yellow fabric so that put a stop to that option (and yes, of course I could've painted or dyed it but this letter was late already so lets not complicate things any further...)

aaaaanyhoo I had a plan:  Feathers + yellow paint + papers creating a journal page about feathers.  I find them interesting.  Individually they are such gentle, soft, fragile items but put together can have such strength and give such freedom...

I have 2 sets of feather dies - and I wanted to use the smaller ones.... could I find these dies??
NO. I. COULD. NOT.....
would other dies 'do' in their place?
NO.THEY.WOULD.NOT! ....
It was one of those situations where a substitute is NOT going to be good enough/won't work! (I might've had a frustrated mini 'where are the dies, I've looked everywhere' meltdown at this point while creating what started out a such a simple plan)...

So, after what seemed like hours of unsuccessful searching, I created the page without the feathers - with F now being represented by FRUSTRATING, FIND, and FATIGUE !! it became a page about how I felt at the time of creating, not about the original subject matter.... I like that!

Its a page in my 6in spiral bound journal....  I rollered Slate Fresco Finish around the edges after rollering the paint onto an alphabet foam stamp - love the size of this stamp...

Next I added a wash of yellow watercolour (enjoying working with watercolour paints at the moment)...

then I thought what this page needs is a sprinkling of the new PaperArtsy Infusions - I chose 'Golden Sands'.. then I added a couple of strips of patterned papers....  I like the amount of white space still remaining..

I added the words 'Find!!' (because I reeeeeeaaally wanted/needed to find those dies), 'Frustrating' because NOT finding them was exactly that (lol), and 'Fatigue' because that is what I have and I can't deal with the (not really a)(self-imposed) drama of trying to finish a journal page/project blog post! (Not really life or death is it!)(or rocked science) lol
The die cut gears are there because my gears just don't go round fast enough when I'm fatigued.

I quite liked the page like this... not too bad.... but its missing something... and do you know what that is???

FEATHERS - it is missing FEATHERS.. lol (like a dog with a bone! I just can't let it go!)

So I got out the dies I could find (Sizzix, Tim Holtz - cut and emboss feathers) & die cut two.. coloured them and attached them to the page...

.. and now I really like the page...  and the feather dies that I could find and used turned out to be better than the others because they have texture and detail....

This was a lesson for me - to use what I have and make it work - not waste time & energy trying to find the 'perfect' missing item - the page turned out well in the end - and now has meaning on a completely different level.

Thanks for stopping by

x

PS  remember the mustard trousers from my previous blog post? They've arrived, and they're lovely!! Now I just need to be brave enough to wear them! :o)

Yellow....

... is creeping its way into my wardrobe...

I've had this scarf for a while & I love it - can be matched with lots of colours and I thought this was the extent of yellow in my wardrobe... no block yellows - but I do have prints with yellow in.. (I found myself eyeing up a yellow cardigan in a shop a few weeks ago... turned around for a second opinion: hubby just raised his eyebrows- needless to say it went back on the rack lol)

Then I remembered these cute capri 'holiday' trousers which I bought last year but never wore because we didn't have a holiday! lol but they will be in the suitcase this year):

and I just ordered these trousers - which are 'mustard' but that fits under the 'yellow' umbrella...

... ordered online so I have no idea what they're like in real-life - will keep you posted lol  I'm thinking that with a black tshirt or a crisp white shirt they'll look cute... I'll let you know. :o)

so my conclusion is this: I'll wear yellow as long as:
a) its matched(toned down lol) with black (because, as we all know, black goes with EVERYTHING! lol)
b) its not near my face..
c) and is worn in summer...

not very scientific, and not hard'n'fast rules obviously, but for me this is the wardrobe approach to yellow   :o)

aaaah sigh - if only I could carry off this outfit (or had the occasion for it!)

or these swimsuits (gotta love 50s fashion!)

this outfit is right up my street! grey and yellow - CUTE!  I love a little cardigan!

(these images were found on pinterest.com)

Final yellow project is coming soon... (honest it is - April's colour is getting ready/impatient for its debut on the 1st!) (this year is whizzing along isn't it!)

xx

ACP:2 Yellow + E...

... this post is brought to you by the letter 'E'.... Here are my colour choices for this letter... fresh and springlike....

There were several options for this letter - when I look back at the list I obviously had favourites that I'd asterisked....

I found a bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs in the fridge (that were Hubby's apparently) so, purely for reasons of this project of course because E stands for Eggs,  I picked out the yellow ones - took the photo... & because they smelled soooo good I ate them (only the yellow ones, not the whole packet!)

Don't judge me - I didn't like to see them go to waste! lol (very tasty they were too - but you didn't need me to tell you that did you lol)

I didn't just use this project purely as justification for eating chocolate, I had my cunning plan (mentioned in the previous post).  I had a project in my head that featured a big butterfly but we have passed the 'B' point... hhhhmmm what to do..... ENTOMOLOGY!! study of insects - which, loosely talking, a butterfly is one of these! (in my books anyway!)

A 5x10in board canvas..painted and stencilled with Fresco Finish paints and decorated with a bespoke butterfly and die cut seed heads..

E stands for Embroidery - machine, hand and faux (simple stitches), Entomology and I was going to include embossing to give the wings texture but I was so carried away drawing and paper piecing the butterfly together that I forgot! :o(

I really enjoyed making this project - I especially like the canvas itself - so fresh - I almost wanted to keep it without the butterfly and seedheads - but then its not nearly yellow enough. :o)

Thanks for stopping by - I'm feeling a little lonely working through this project by myself - I'm thinking of a way of having you join in as and when you'd like to... I'll let you know when I've come up with a plan... I like 'a plan', almost as much as I like 'a list'!

Take care..

x

PS  There was a bit of a glitch with the link to my 'not so mellow yellow' Pinterest page but its now fixed so you can feast your eyes on the loveliness of yellow HERE

ACP:2 March's colour is...

.. YELLOW ..

Well hello March!

Come on in, you are more than welcome here so make yourself comfortable - I am going to smother you in yellow this month!!

Those of you who visit here often will know that I am not a fan of yellow...  so my aim (challenge?!) this month is to fully embrace this sunny, optimistic, versatile colour. 

While I'm thinking about all things YELLOW I'll also be considering techniques/themes beginning with E & F.  Lots of options for F but not so many for E so I've come up with a cunning plan (not so cunning that you'd pin a tail on it and call it a weasel, but cunning all the same!)... its more a cunning use of language maybe...  a way of getting around a problem.... all will become clear later in the month... (and on the list below, the beady eyed among you may have noticed lol)..

I've created a 'not so mellow YELLOW' board on Pinterest containing all things yellow - from chicks, eggs and flowers, to wellies and scooters.  You can see it HERE

Thanks for stopping by....

xx

Yellow!....

... as in:
1. BANANA Frog Project of the day.
2. a colour I don't 'like'
3. the colour of the page I made for LSNED - Day 15

All the stamps used on the above page are Banana Frog - from the 'circus stories' and 'all about... journaling' sets.  I'm telling you this because Typepad wouldn't let me upload ANYthing over on the BananaFrog blog where I would normally put Banana Frog projects and information. ggggrrrr.

Yellow
I'm not a big fan of yellow.... - I don't wear it, I don't decorate with it and on the whole I don't craft with it... but this week (and last week come to think of it)(lol) I was in a phenomenally bad mood - seriously bad mood but I still had to make a page for my LSNED scrapbook - making a bad mood page didn't seem like a very positive thing to do so I set out to create a page that was so ridiculously sunny, bright and perky that it would be the polar opposite of my mood.  This is how the yellow page came about... it may be the only yellow page in the whole album - we'll have to wait and see...
I like how it turned out - threw on some of my favourite things (Buttons! couldn't resist).. and the page has sort of worked in relation to my mood: the colour is so not me that it makes me smile.
Who knew. lol