Thursday 8 August 2013

Shades of summer

Hi everybody!
I am happy to say the big heat wave has broken, and it is now fresh and cool - lovely!
It will warm out again at the weekend, but not with extreme temperatures, just normal summer days - that's fine with me!

I have been working on a lot of stuff this week which I can't show yet, as it's being made for something I can't talk about yet, so we will have to wait. But I did manage a journal spread for PPF, hosted as always by Eva and Kristin. I am also linking to  AJJ - squares,  Colour this quote at Artists in Blogland,  'Seize the Day', and Journal Journeys - what summer means to me. I am also linking to Out of a Hat creations - things beginning with 'B' - blue; and to the Three Muses challenge - circles or squares
I have used my fave summer colours here - aqua, turquoise, blues and greens, and pale yellow. I colour washed the background and then used a CWS stencil to add the squares and rectangles in the background. The next layer was made by using the ink pads to stamp squares in greens and blues. Then I used a small template to draw squares of different sizes with a fine liner in black. I added more colour to some of the squares by colouring them with pastels. Then I took scraps from one of my wonderful boxes - parts of holiday photos, painted scraps, pieces of images and patterns, and cut them into squares. I pushed them around till I liked the way it looked, glued them down, and finished! Well, not quite, I added a few coordinating embellies and a quote from Bill Gates.
'Seize the day', is, for me, an invitation to use the day to create something, then no day is perfect for me when I have not been creative.








I hope you all seize the day to do something good for yourselves, then we can't be good to other people if we are not good to ourselves! Take care, have fun, and thanks for coming by.

62 comments:

  1. Val, this is absolutely gorgeous - love the colours, and the little pictures, so pretty! Hugs, Sarah

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  2. You've used the wonderful day! Your page is lovely. Thank you for demonstrating to us the path of development so beautiful. I love your page!
    LG Barbara

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  3. wunderschöne seiten,gefallen mir seehr gut.

    glg jeannette

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  4. Delicious page, Valerie. So much to look at. Very rich in colour and content. The quote by Bill Gates is so very apropros. As usual, I'm in love. hugs, Donna

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  5. Die squares sind wunderschön kombiniert auch die kolorierung ist super, gefällt mir sehr gut.
    LG Anja

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  6. I have a B word to add Valerie BEAUTIFUL. mADE ME FEEL COOL AND VERY HAPPY SEEING THIS AND THANK YOU FOR JOINING IN AT THE hATTERS.

    lOVE cHRISSIE X

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  7. Beautiful pictures, beautiful composition in blue! Best regards!

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  8. So true about goodness starting with ourselves.
    Bill Gates quote is excellent too along with your wonderful creation here...
    you used squares brilliantly!
    oxo

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  9. Wonderful painting! I like very much Your squares and especially the structure of painting.

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  10. How mysterious - you will share with us soon?
    Beautiful - the colours, the collection of images you gathered and the composition.
    The bedsocks are still in use. At least, for the moment anyway, the hot water bottle(s) remain in the cupboard!
    Wishes
    Lynne

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    Replies
    1. It's cooler here but NOT yet reached bed-sock level!

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  11. Lovely collaged piece Valerie

    Thanks for joining us on Out of a Hat Creations this week

    Sam xxx

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  12. I love it! So interesting and I wanted to see each square and not miss a one. Sounds like you are up to some fun stuff... can't wait to hear!

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  13. Oh, wie schön, das ist mal wieder Inspiration pur. Ein tolles Werk.

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  14. Wonderful Valerie! The individual parts are interesting and all together is is truly a beautiful creation. So happy you are getting a little relief from the heat!
    sandy

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  15. Fabulous colour palette, Valerie, beautifully expressed and I love that quote. Glad yo seized the day.

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  16. love those aquas, someone's feeling cool!

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  17. Oh Valerie .. das ist einfach toll, wenn es Musik wäre - es wäre eine SERENADE für mich.

    ZAUBERHAFT ---

    lieben Dank für dieses Glanzlicht zur Art Journal Journey!
    xxx Susi

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  18. B for Beautiful Valerie it is very unique and I love the colours. Thanks for joining us at OOAH. Hugs Sandra XXX

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  19. Beautiful collage--I'm a big fan of that color palette, too! I can't wait to hear about your "mystery" project!

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  20. I love the depth you achieved with the various layers of paint and collaged papers that you used. Blessings!

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  21. Beautiful page, loving the colours and all the wonderful pieces of the collage. Also wondering what you are planning, sounds like its going to be very interesting.
    Yvonne x

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  22. What beautiful squares you've given us to see! Thanks so much for participating in our challenge this week!

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  23. total schön, absolutes Sommerfeeling!!!!

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  24. Valerie, this is amazing. I love all the blues and greens, one of my favorite combinations, of the squares. The Bill Gates quote is great to use in this.

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  25. This quote defines our era...wonderfully true...and such beautiful art to present it!! Love the aquas so beautiful!! Good job!! Fun summery piece! We still have heat...it's not my friend...glad it's cooler there!

    Hugs Giggles

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  26. Love this project.... interesting quote. Not quite sure how I feel about it! but as always I love your art :)

    Glad you are a bit cooler now....

    Karen x

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  27. This is gorgeous - beautiful colours and images and a great quote.
    xxx Hazel.

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  28. Great wuote, it's so true too isn't it. Lovely work. Really like your color choices and your collage elements. xox

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  29. Gorgeous work, just love these!

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  30. Oh, I love all those squares! what a great idea! The colours are so nice and summery, and that quote is great. Have to write that down ... ;-)

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  31. Great work! I love how the squares pull the whole piece together. The quote is perfect! HPPF

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  32. Love how you did your journal page with all the squares. The colors are beautiful and work together so well. Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving such nice comments. Happy Creating!

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  33. Love the stenciled background to this piece, and the soft color choices! HPPF!

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  34. Dear Valerie, I like new, bright colours in your art works and all variations of blue. Keep creative. Have a happy PPF!!

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  35. Very eye catching work and scrumptious colours.
    Sue x

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  36. Hi there! Hope you are doing well. This is a wonderful piece. Lots of depth and beautiful color. Love that quote by Bill Gates. I remember back in 1988-89 there was a program you can use on the Commodore computer and it was called Quantum Link. It was like you were in a room alone and then when visitors came, we were able to communicate like this: typing. What I'm doing now. I would type something to someone and then they would type back and we'd have communication going. Sort of like a chat room. It was fun and yes it was global.:) Take care friend. Great work as always. I admire all your artistic feats.

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  37. I just love your work. These pages look amazing my friend.

    Hugs~

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  38. Stunning, Valerie. Love your Shades of Summer.

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  39. Wow....what an amazing piece of work!!!
    Love how it turned out.
    You are so brilliant and talented!

    Happy Crafting
    Tracie
    http://homeofthepurskey.blogspot.com

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  40. Your blues all shout summer to me! Love it!

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  41. Wonderful page, love that you have shown close ups too :)

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  42. I do believe we are being teased, but excited to see the surprise! I have to say I really find the collaged squares quite appealing to the eyes! I love this! Enjoy your more summerlike weekend! Hugs!

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  43. This is stunning and I love the quote, so very true to us bloggers isn't it. All over gorgeous, so cleverly put together with a masters eye! ~Diane

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  44. Beautiful Blues for our theme this week Valerie, the quote is so true, thanks for joining the Hatters this week
    Janet x

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  45. Beautiful Val... love the idea of the squares... and the colors are gorgeous...

    Jenny ♥

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  46. Gorgeous--love the soft, soothing color and all the intriguing little bits...a beautiful piece!

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  47. Beautiful, I love how you used the squares to make this page and the colors are fabulous. All the little bits work so well together. Great quote too =)
    xx Monique

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  48. All your squares and colours and pictures come together so well here, the result of a lot of this way and that, I suspect. I like it very much.

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  49. Thank you for explaining. It is so beautiful, artistic and creative. I could never have guessed at what you did to come up with it. Blessings, Janet PPF

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  50. So wunderbar wie all die kleinen Bilder so viel interessanter wirken mit all den vielen Quadraten im Hintergrund! Eine tolle Idee und die Stimmung auf dem Bild ist ganz klar Urlaub, Sommer, Sonnenschein :D ♥ Conny
    http://piaromsartjournaling.blogspot.de

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  51. Pretty and fresh as a summer morning, lovely work! <3

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  52. Ooooh! Gorgeous! Gorgeous! And so inspiring! I totally want to do a collage like this now! xoxo

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  53. This is my Artists in Blogland visit for Show and Tell Saturday. I love your piece that was featured. And this one is incredible too! Love the square idea.

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  54. Oh my gosh Valerie - what a beautiful composition. You did a fabulous job!

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  55. love this series! So pretty!

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  56. gorgeous colors and shapes here. You certainly "Seized the Day" and made something beautiful.

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  57. This fits Beautifully with the challenges what great ideas. Thank you for joining it with Journal Journeys Dawn xx

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  58. So so pretty, You definetly have an eye for color. Very summery I love them.
    Ive also just joined Art journal Journey.
    Come visit and follow some time:)
    www.sonyasmixedmedia.com.au

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  59. Valerie, das sind tolle Seiten geworden! Die Farben sind erfrischend wie ein Sommermorgen. Ich freue mich, bald wieder zu Hause zu sein und auch mal wieder kreativ zu werden.

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