Wanderlust 2024 - weeks seventeen to twenty-four - Writing

We started this theme with a patchwork of all kinds of writing.  I really enjoyed this and used a photo of my Granny aged around eight as a focal point.  We added words which we had stitched too.

The next week was lettering with a paintbrush.  I used a waterbrush as for some reason, I seem to get a better end result.  We did lots of practise for this one, using different paints and pens.  The lettering is much more effective in real life, with a lot of shimmer - sadly it looks a little flat here.

Being bold with our writing was the next lesson.  Underneath this black paint is a whole page of writing using swear words - we were told that this is a good way to get people to loosen up - especially if the  whole thing is going to be covered up!  We were encouraged to using big swoopy writing, no gaps, and move our whole arm while we wrote. It was a very freeing exercise.

Underneath this page is more of the loopy writing, which was dictated to us. There is no swearing in this one. We had to write one way and then cross the writing, so that even though I know what I wrote did make sense, it is quite difficult to make it out.  I did enjoy the loopy writing and you might notice it appearing now and again in future pages.

We used stencils, pens, gel plate, stamping to create the next page, in my favourite blue/green colours.it also features my favourite numbers.

This page was based on a stage of our life although mine ended up being all about the garden in April/May with alliums.

Lists were the focus here and I took the opportunity to crate little cards with the lists of some of my favourite books, films, food, plants and music.  I used some of my gel prints stash to cover the pockets and cards.

I 'cheated' somewhat with this page. We used brush pens to create the background smooshing and then to draw the wreath.  We were then shown how to create lovely brush lettering.  I did try, but wasn't happy with my attempt.  I wasn't surprised as with many things, you do need to practise, practise, practise.  I decided life was too short and I wasn't particularly desperate to learn, so I used some brush lettering stamps instead.  I was very happy with the end result.

The last page for this theme was the 'artful musings' and we were given prompts, together with a collage sheet of images to choose from. The prompts were:  Use a watersoluble pencil to make marks and activate it with water; Spread inks/watercolour on a page and blot or move it with a paper towel; Add a little black; Add a collage element (for me it was the owl on a branch and the mushroom); Yellow; Extend your collage element (I extended the branch and made a tree); Use a skewer and ink and make a fine pattern; Add some words; Turn the composition upside down and add something to it based on what you see upside down; Use something on your desk as a stamp (mine was the base of a glue stick which gave me the red circles).  Considering I had no idea what this would turn into when I started, it looks a bit like a rather abstract forest to me. 

Next we move on to Printing - I am really hoping this will be right up my street!