Tuesday 26 May 2015

The darling buds of May

The weather over the bank holiday was much better here than forecast and I got lots done in the garden. We decided to get up early on Sunday, as Bear was staying, and I sat on the back door step with a cup of tea in the early morning sunshine. As I sat there I heard the humming of a big woolly bumble bee and watched him carefully going in and out of every single foxglove flower.

Such a great sight. Summer really is just around the corner.

Once Bear went home I decided it was finally studio time and I knew exactly what I wanted to make...some new pages in Jane's Journal. There were some fun challenges I wanted to enter and I wanted to reproduce all the gorgeous pink/purple tones of the foxgloves I had seen and even the buzzing bee. The scrap around the World challenge has a mood board to use and Crafty Individual's wanted some "music to our ears"I also needed a suitable quote to use. I started jotting down some design ideas, also using the challenges requirements and as it was a May holiday I immediately thought of the Darling buds of May....both Shakespeare's sonnet and the old TV programme. Yes my brain does work in the strangest ways. I had thought of using " The buzzing of the bees" as my music but I looked up the Darling buds of May on You Tube and came across the theme music...I had forgotten how sweet it is.... have a listen here It also made me realise how many years ago that series was on. It was actually 1992-93 and Catherine Zeta Jones looks about 15 in it! In it's time it was such a gentle pleasant show and it reminds me of long hot lazy summers.

With that tune in my head I also decided to look up Shakespeare's famous sonnet.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand’rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow’st.
     So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
     So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

 And of course the May that he is writing about is the May blossom of the Hawthorn but I wanted to also use the pun of the month of May. In Shakespeare' s time May was actually one of the summer months.
I opened my journal fueled with all my inspiration and selected some acrylics similar to those of the flowers. I wanted some texture and thought it would be fun to continue the theme of May so I tore some printed months of May out of my planner diary.I also added some old dictionary pages too in deference to Shakespeare's unique and wonderful use of the English language.
I also took my TH blossom stencil and added some texture paste through it.

  I then had fun dripping down watered down paints until I was happy with the background.

I also sponged some Archival ink through another floral stencil. I also added some splashes of ink
 Next was some stamping using my Claire's designs flower and Crafty Individuals bee and flower stamp; they are 2 of the great freebies that CI enclosed with my last stamp order from them.




 I also added some colour to the stamping using my Inktense pencils and some water.


To add the words "The darling buds of May" I decided to try my hand at writing it myself as I certainly don't have a stamp with those words on and I wanted something more natural than printing if off on the computer. I tried my hand at doodling for the first time last week and thought it was time to up my game!  Once I had written the words I added some other doodling with a black and a white pen. Thank goodness it worked out OK, it's always a moment of trepidation when you take up a pen and start drawing the letters freehand.

So here are my finished pages.

and some close ups

 You can see my lettering and doodles here...these bees are as busy as the ones on my foxgloves.
 Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......................
 I like the way the calendar pages are still visible through the layers.



I would like to enter my journal pages into the following great challenges;


Scrap around the world May mood board for their epic 2nd birthday event

 I was inspired to use the gorgeous pink and purple tones and colours, the flower buds in different shades (just like my flowers in my garden) and also the lettering .....I wanted lettering on my pages too...and the happy quote about life being celebrated.
I also loved the texture of the shoes  and the ice cream and cone so I added lots of texture to my pages.
My Journal is a Dylusions journal;each page is 5"x8" as required by the rules.






Little Claire's outdoors
Anything but cute  vintage garden This is a newbie on the block, do check it out!
The Craft barn holiday (May bank holiday)
Craft stamper take it make it; a stamp
A sprinkle of imagination anything goes The products I have used are Inktense pencils and Black Archival ink.
Crafty Individuals It's music to my ears. My CI stamps are the freebie bee and daisy.My music referenece is the theme tune to the darling buds of May which I then used as my quote.
That craft place shabby chic
The Artistic Stamper Journaling your heart out
Stamping sensations Flower power
Simon says stamp Wednesday stencil it
That's Crafty numbers up my numbers are all the May 2015 dates I used as my texture.
Mixed media monthly May flowers
A vintage journey spring colours
Country view scenic
Noor! UK May flowers
Art with heart mixed media mahem
Sweet Stampin birds and/or bees
Inspiration Journal  pasted
Crafty Calander Things with wings
We Love 2 create anything goes/mixed media

I would also like to link up to my friend Brenda of Bumblebees and dragon flies. This is not a challenge but a way of sharing our visual journals and she would love to see you here #21

Thanks for visiting me and I hope you all had a great holiday weekend too? I have today off as I don't work Tuesdays and my jewellery class in on half term......so what better way to spend it...yes I am seeing Daisy and my DD.....:0)

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x

40 comments:

  1. Awe Jane your journal pages are so beautiful, they definitely sum up the month of May ( in my opinion the best month of the year). I just adore your little bee stamp!!!
    Have a wonderful Tuesday with your girlies?
    V x

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  2. How gorgeous! Thanks for playing along in the Epic Event at SATW.

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  3. Another stunning art journal pages from you, Jane! I love your fabulous doodling, lettering and those white higlights there! Wonderful stencilling work and awesome stamp choice! Also, love the colours! Fantastic pages!
    Thank you so much again for joining us at Anything But Cute for our 'Vintage Garden' challenge!
    Branka DT

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  4. Jane, these pages are fabulous. I love all the texture. It seems that you had lots of fun to make it. Thank you for sharing your stunning art with us at Stamping Sensation.
    Eret x

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  5. Holy cow Jane, you've done it again...AND IT"S PINK!!!! I surely do love pink! I'm swooning over all these flowers, the white highlighting really makes them jump off the page! Love your doodling again, you are a natural at this!! I love that foxglove stamp, yet another item to add to my wishlist. You really knocked it out of the park (or garden, tee hee) with this one! LOVE! Sorry to bother you again, but what type of white and black pen are you using? You have inspired me to try my hand at journal pages, but I need to purchase some good products.

    Thank you so much for joining us at Anything But Cute for our 'Vintage Garden' challenge again. You are an inspiration! Hugs, Pamellia DT :)

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  6. I can certainly see the inspiration of those digitalis carrying through to your artwork Jane, just stunning. As are your digitalis, our are only just showing the slightest hint of colour in the top flowers.

    It's lovely to see you at Stamping Sensations challenge this month, thanks so much for joining in.

    B x

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  7. I just love the pink prettiness in that card! Also fun to see your big bumblebee dining on your foxglove blooms. Enjoy your time off! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  8. Fabulous page with amazing colours and textures, love the bees. My foxgloves are nowhere near showing any colour yet!

    Thanks for joining us at Stamping Sensations this month

    Joan

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  9. Gorgeous pictures of the bees and foxgloves, such a pretty sight! I can see how it inspired your page with all its textures, pretty colours and evocative words.
    Have a great week, Jane.
    Helen xox

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  10. This is a beautiful double page - great colours, stamping and musical reference! Thank you very much for joining in the Crafty Individuals Challenge for May. Jean x

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  11. beautiful - absolutely gorgeous use of colour - adorable work Jane. Hugs rachel x

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  12. Fab journal pages ... I love all the different shades of pink, so pretty! Thank you for joining in with the Craft Stamper Challenge ... good luck! Linda xx

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  13. Awesome journal page ! Thank you for playing along with us at the Artistic Stamper's monthly challenge !!

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  14. Oh wow! Such a stunning page I love the colours, stamping and texture...your hand lettering ios beautiful too! Thanks for sharing your art with us at Sweet Stampin' this week.
    Chris
    x

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  15. Brilliant journal layout and the shades and riches of your pinks all go so well together. Thanks for joining in the challenges at A Vintage Journey and That Craft Place. Good luck.
    Julie x

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  16. Oh Jane this is really really gorgeous fabulous journal pages thanks for joining us at Sweet Stampin hugs Sue xx

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  17. Another wonderful design and fabulous journal page with lovely shades of pink. Your doodling and hand written elements are genius and so well done! Awesome sauce! Thanks again for joining in our challenge at Anything But Cute! Hugz. ~Niki DT

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  18. Lovely page Jame, thanks for joining us over at The Artistic Stamper

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  19. Beautiful pages Jane. Lots of lovely photos. Thank you for playing along with the Crafty Individuals Challenge.
    Florence x

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  20. Gorgeous AJ pages Jane!
    Foxgloves always remind me of Scotland ;)

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  21. This is gorgeous!! I love it!
    Thank you for joining in our Epic Event at Scrap Around The World!

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  22. Such a beautiful layout. The details are brilliant. Love the colour too, and the wording. Thanks for joining us over at That Craft Place, Nicola X

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  23. Love everything about this! The masking (great stencils!) The misting and stamping! The title all of it rocks! All the best from SATW! :)

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  24. Oh my!! This is stunning!!! I truly am hypnotized by your work!!! Thank you for joining Vintage Garden at Anything But Cute!
    Samra DT

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  25. WOW! So creative! Love it!

    Thank you for participating in the Sweet Stampin’ Challenge!

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  26. what a beautiful page, great inspiration to us all

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  27. Beautiful journaling page! Your letter looks amazing! Thanks for joining us at The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge!

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  28. Beautiful pages! Thanks for playing along in the Epic Event at SATW.

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  29. Gorgeous art journal pages! Thank you for celebrating our May Epic Event with us at Scrap Around the World!

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  30. Beautiful journal pages Jane!
    Loving your garden flowers too.
    Joanna

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  31. Stunning pages, thank you for joining in The Craft Barn Challenge.
    Jane x

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  32. What a gardening delight! Love the pink colors and all the details in your journal pages. Thank you for sharing with us at A Vintage Journey.

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  33. Very beautiful! Thank you for joining our epic event at SATW!

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  34. GREAT job! Thanks for joining our Epic Event at SATW!!

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  35. Stunning!

    Love & hugs

    Jacquie J xxx
    http://jewelscardcraft.blogspot.co.uk/

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  36. Wow, fabulous pages Jane!!!! Sorry to have not seen your make before, I have been so busy these last days.. Congratulations for the win at CI once again! Well served.. Good luck for the other challenges too. Hugs, Coco xx

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  37. Ahhhhh I think this is just so amazing!! I love this journal page and gorgeous shades of pink too!! Thanks for playing along at Anything But Cute xx

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  38. I have a bit of a thing for texture and this is super. Love the colour too. Thanks for entering the challenge at ASOI this time.

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Jane x