And also using more stepped pages...

As I said in the previous post ,back in April I was writing about using the Strathmore Journal workshops to make stepped pages and fold out pages, so I have had some pages with the backgrounds waiting to be used since posts in April and June... as another part of my Art Journal Every Day challenge.. 


so this time I have been using the set of stepped pages.

Back in June I made these backgrounds and borders for the stepped pages I made for Strathmore Art Journal papers Workshop 2.


I have re-posted the pictures here which show how I added the borders and used  acrylic washes and sequin waste to make  a series of backgrounds.


But then I was not sure what to do with them, so they languished ...

Then I was thinking about memories and how to exorcise - or learn to live -  with difficult past events.

And also thinking that I want to try to combine poems I have written in the past with my current art journalling.

The result is some dark, confessional pages...

Our first baby was stillborn and a year later we had a beautiful daughter, but then 3 years later we  had another daughter, but she was also stillborn at 38 weeks.

Then 6 years later we had our first son and 22 months later a second son - and it was at that stage that I was able to write about what had happened, so these pages are the poem that came out of a kind of acceptance of what had happened, because what else can you do?

I had my miracle family - we had our three beautiful children - but there were still little ghosts in the shadows of the babies that might have been...

But I had shut it all away so the poem is all about that sealing of experiences - and unsealing them.

Then the final spread is about Openings and Moving On, with some journalling about where I am today... now that the children are all grown up and now that we have grandchildren..

Making Stepped Pages - Strathmore Workshop 2 - Start Where You Are. Instructor Linda Blinn

In Strathmore Workshop 2 “Start Where You Are”  the instructor  Linda Blinn showed how to make stepped journal pages:

“ go to the front of your journal and cut the first few pages vertically in varying widths to create stepped pages as an entry into your journal. Cover these pages with decorative paper as shown in the photo or art them up with collage and paint” 

I made these stepped pages ages ago but had not got around to doing anything with them, so first I added some edging borders.

Then using Pam Carriker’s “Art at the Speed of Life” ideas for acrylic washed backgrounds and the sequin waste (also known as punchinella  in the US I believe, when I took it for a character out of HarlequinJ ) suggested in her Strathmore Workshop 1 I made a set of backgrounds for future use.

Because the stepped pages reveal parts of other pages I have tried to use some complementary tones.

This  means that the interesting glimpses of the other pages edges adds to the effect and makes the pages more interactive.

I used the sequin waste strips to make a banded effect by stippling along the edges of the strip as well as through the perforations.

The last of these spreads also uses the back of the fold out page in my night and day spread, so I have  used the same tones to give me a panoramic background to decorate.