Pages

Monday 17 February 2014

O is for

Now I am starting week three of my daily posts and apart from a little hiccup over the weekend, I am managing to keep up. The wheels on the bus are going round faster and I'm driving with only one hand on the wheel!

I appreciate that this side of the alphabet is littered with difficult letters but I am not going to let that be an excuse. So while we are still on the easy ones 'O' is for 'Open'. You can ask an open ended question, have open house or work in an open plan office. How about an open mike night, or why not go to the school's open day and letting the kids play in the open air is really good for them. For me the word open signifies honest. From a young age I was told you had to be open with people as in 'open and above board' and now in my adulthood I understand the meaning behind my grandmother's words.

If you are open and honest with people they learn to trust you and you earn respect. Given that our society seems to breed alot of mistrust from the Government (expense scandals etc) downover perhaps adopting an open policy would be no bad thing.

Open is an important word in our art too. We need to be open to new ideas and open up to creating our own opportunities and possibilities.

Today's artwork is a tag I made quite some time ago, once again from my dual handed period!

This tag was originally posted on the Chocolate Baroque Design Team blog and it is amongst some of my most favourite pieces of artwork. I hope you enjoy revisiting it too.

The Sunny Sunflowers and leaves were all stamped onto self-adhesive labels, coloured with Promarkers and then cut out. Instant stickers!

The tag itself has been covered with dictionary paper and then  lightly painted with white acrylic paint and inked with a Tumbled Glass Distress ink pad. Finally I added a selection of paper flowers, pins and gems.

One of the DT members was at my workshop last Saturday and she complimented me on a project that had been published in Craft Stamper adding 'you should do more blue flowers'. And d'you know what? I agree; after all colouring flowers blue is being open minded... right?

See you tomorrow







7 comments:

Doreen said...

Fab words of wisdom once again,love your tag...Beautiful colours.xxx

vinny said...

You`ve caught up and now I am behind in comenting ! all the last three tags are stunning. I think those sunflowers look fab in blue x Lavinia

jackiescrafts said...

What a pretty tag and you have shared some wise words about "open" too
Jackie x

Sarah said...

Wow, I love this one Lesley; the blues are really beautiful and work surprisingly well with the sunflower stamps! Sarah x

Paula (PEP) said...

Those blue sunflowers look brilliant in the corner & I love the way the pins & gems add to the little dots of pollen centres. I rather like these blues too. I was skeptical when someone suggested art journalling to me but starting to experiment with acrylics was the carrot & I began……..I never imagined that I'd end up finding freedom to draw …….. being open to new things also helps one to decide what not to pursue.
Paula (PEP)

Paper Creations by Shirley said...

Gorgeous Lesley, I love the colour and the beautiful flowers. I hope you are doing well, you sure are productive :) Hugs, Shirleyxx

Linda Simpson said...

This is gorgeous and love the beautiful flowers.
Hugs
Linda xxx