A Page for My Mom

 Hi everyone. I hope your weekend was a good  one. 

My weekend was busy as on Saturday since my husband's family had a holiday get together. It was mostly so that his Mom could have her kids and most of her grandchildren together, since with the speed she is going downhill, one never knows about next year, or even next month. Sadly it wasn't one of her best days, but it was fun to see everyone though, and there was lots of good food too.

Today I have another page for Jo's challenge at Art Journal Journey. Her challenge is snowy winter, and right now we have some light snow coming down. Luckily, it is not supposed to be anything more than flurries. 

 I must say my sadness over losing my mom has been turned into some good art mojo. Not that I want to be sad or troubled all the time, but I do hope my art mojo keeps up. Smile.

My page began with this chipboard violin I found in my stash.

After I finished using my snowflake stencil and some light molding paste one day, I took a clean sheet of watercolor paper and flipped my stencil upside down so the side where I had been applying the paste was now against the paper. I took a damp rag and cleaned off my stencil onto the paper. I didn't know how that would work, but once the molding paste leftovers dried I noticed a couple of snowflake impressions. I took some turquoise and dark blue inks and rubbed them over my page to finish off my background.

I added some various bits and pieces, including the chipboard violin that I colored, a sleigh made from a die that I "found" back in the late spring while redoing my spare bedroom, and some other bits and pieces. I had to really glob on the ink to hold down the ends of the felt ribbon, but since the dried glue gobs are evenly balanced, it works.

After years of lack of use, my mother's violin has dried out and  has seen better days, but as it was one of her favoured possessions, I have kept it for her. She even named it Susie.

Back in her youth, my mother played in several local orchestras. Even though some of her violin case stickers have worn away, there are still a couple that are interesting in themselves.

She used to tell the story about this music festival because she had to sleep in a funeral parlor for the days she played there.

And this next sticker is back from her college days.  Once she graduated from college she started teaching. One thing she was always very proud of is that both myself and my brother went into teaching, which was her career. Once she started teaching she also met my Dad, and after that happened, her public playing violin time started to disappear.

That's all for me today. Thanks for visiting my blog.