Thursday, January 25, 2024

Aprils Showers...Not January Snow Squalls

Hi everyone. Happy Thursday!

We are into the last 7 days of January. It always surprises me how fast January goes. When I think about January I always think  it will go on and on, but it never does. The same is true for March. But like many months, they both end up flying right by. (And sometimes February, though it's the shortest month ,seems to drag .😒) 

 My journal page today is for my calendar theme at Art Journal Journey and is based on a quote that I think many of you know.  But before we can have April showers, we have to finish both January and March. (And obviously February too.)


If the February and March go by as fast as January has, April will be here in a blink of an eye. 😉

This page took several work sessions to get it until I liked it. The main problem was that my background was a bit busy, and on my first attempt, my flowers were too light and didn't stand out off of that background. However, the trick was to paint the old flowers pink and then  re-die-cut flowers in red so they stood out more. 

Then I added some pink flower shaped sequins as well as putting a red confetti foam flower in the center of each sequin. That made a big difference too. 

My calendar theme runs through the end of month, and I'd love to see you there. 

I also have a tag for Michele's challenge at Tag Tuesday. This time the theme is Marie Antoinette


I was excited when I saw this challenge.  Back in 2008, my daughter, my husband and myself went to Paris for a few days. Some place during our sight-seeing, I came across a magazine all about Marie Antoinette. It's a high quality art magazine with lots of fantastic photos; so even though my original plan was to make a Marie Antoinette journal, and even though I have YET to make it, the magazine still looks brand new. I made some copies of some items from the magazine for my tag. I wasn't yet ready to cut up the magazine because I will one of these days make that journal. (And it might even be sooner now that I pulled out the magazine for this tag-😀.)

To make my page I first attached a copy of some  French print Then I cut the image of Marie A. to  fit my tag. I did a bit of inking and also used some watered down blue paint on the edges. I sprayed some white lace with some blue ink and added that. I also added some bling to the lace. The words are also cut out of a copied magazine page, and finally I used an old paper punch (I think bought  this punch for a journal I made when I came home from Paris) and gold paper to make the fleur-de-lis. 

That's all for me today. 
 







 

16 comments:

David M. Gascoigne, said...

Marie Antoinette is a historical figure who has become a part of the lexicon the world over, yet essentially did nothing to justify it, except utter one memorable sentence. My amazing sentence has yet to come! Cutting her up might be a symbolic gesture with great meaning given her association with the guillotine. Get your scissors and go to it. Be sure to cut off her head! All the best - David

Angie's Recipes said...

April will be here very soon :-) The page looks so bright and beautiful.

Iris Flavia said...

That is a very beautiful April-page, I´m, impressed! But please, February till March I wish to crawl! I wish for rain, beautiful summer-rain (not likely)...
I love that little bird. And the flower in the center!
Oh, Paris. Sooooo long ago! I was 14! Bet you saw a very different Paris from what I saw!

CJ Kennedy said...

January showers today to melt the snow. Your page is sweet and I love the ducks. MarieA looks like she could use a piece of cake. Stay dry today

Tom said...

...we had January showers yesterday.

Jeanie said...

Seven days! I have to read fast! (Barbra took up a lot of time -- both reading and then finding videos and such as I was reading along!) Love your pieces today.

Valerie-Jael said...

Lovely page, I am looking forward to April showers, too, better than this crazy month we have had here! Great tag with MA, too, I need to find my stamp with her! Hugs, Valerie

Christine said...

Lovely page and tag!

Aimeslee Winans said...

We went to Paris in 2004 and also got some cool stuff about Marie at the Basillica St. Denis where she is buried, hope I still have it in my scrapbooking boxes. But since then I've gathered even more since my favorite actress of all time Norma Shearer was the original Marie in the lavish 1938 MGM film. Lovely tag, the lace and sequins are great touch. Your page is lovely and the honeycombs on bottom layer peek through for wonderful texture.XOX

Neet said...

A bit higher up and you might have done the "cut off her head" thing! Love your Marie Antoinette tag.
Also love your page for your journal for AJJ. Those flowers look amazing, I thought you had done embroidery around them. An absolutely delightful colourful page for April when spring is just coming in (well here it is) although we always associate it with showers (April showers bring the flowers) which linked in in my head to your little ducks paddling along.
Thanks for a lovely month, pity I had to stop as I had coloured some pages ready to do more (evidence two posts ago on a Wednesday).
Hugs, Neet xx

*Vicki* said...

I'm in love with all of the layers you've achieved on your page! I can see that thinking of the calendar theme has also got you thinking of the months and how they are longer, but yet shorter at the same time! LOL The flowers and chicks make me smile! Your take is gorgeous! Love that lace border!

Gillena Cox said...

Lovely calendar and tag

Much♡love

Divers and Sundry said...

Fancy!

We'll start getting flowers in February. Spring will be here soon.

pinky said...

Beautiful art journal Erika. I love the colours you went with. Oh wow you really aced this challenge. I was totally stumped lol. How cool to still have your fancy magazine in tact. I can understand why you didn't want to cut into it yet!! Thanks for sharing your talent with us at Tag Tuesday!
Pinky

Michele said...

i love the richness of color and design with your marie submission to tag tuesday -- thanks for playing along! your journal page is beautiful too! xo

Sandra Wright. said...

What a fabulous Tag for Michele's theme at Tag Tuesday. It's gorgeous.
Thank you for joining in with our challenge x