It is almost Autumn!!

As I'm writing this blog it is pouring with rain outside and is starting to feel a bit nippy. That means it is nearly Autumn!!

As soon as Anna posted a sneak peak of her watercolour Fox from this months Patreon and Mrs Brimbles Sticker Club, I knew exactly where he would go! My latest obsession - I have many, I am one of these people who become consumed by new things and spend hours researching it - is traditional or perhaps I should say more traditional forms of book binding. I have just finished learning the Kettle Stitch technique and so made a textblock with Tomoe River Paper (yes I jumped on that bandwagon too!). I had a rummage about in my random bits drawer and came across some very autumnal looking ribbon which was wide enough to cover the spine of my journal. Perfect!

Now just to make the inside as beautiful and autumnal as the outside!

Pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin! Completely inspired by Anna's watercolour pumpkin I decided it would be the perfect opening for my new Autumanl Art Journal.

I'm really pleased with how this little one turned out! I'm another to jump on the Tomoe River Paper bandwagon after hearing so many good things about it....especially the crinkle! It certainly takes some getting used to as the water and paints don't necessarily behave how you expect them to. I saw it mentioned on one of Anna's posts in the Mrs Brimbles group about being more reserved with the amount of water and paint, so I followed that advice.

I began with a base layer of watercolour and slowly built up the colours. I decided to just get stuck in with it and forgo sketching or swatching. I just went with what happened and moved forward from there. The result is certainly not the traditional watercolour style but I'm happy with it :) would certainly recommend giving the paper a go. I really saturated it with water when I painted the foreground, to the point where I thought it would struggle to maintain it's stability as paper. But to my surprise it withstood it and has dried with such a lovely wrinkle. My heart is now all a flutter when I turn the pages.

Moving away from the art stuff I've been busy back journalling since the weather has started to turn. I find my creative journalling can be quite cyclical, I tend to quieten down over the summer months, I journal and document less only to suddenly pick up again with such ferocity by Autumn. I'd love to know if anyone else experiences similar patterns in their creativity?

I began with creating the background with watercolour, splodging it about not too carefully. I left the paint quite concentrated and then washed over with water and let the pigment settle where they chose. I was aiming for enough colour to provide something to look at but for it not to be so strong it became the focus of my page. The photos are a little hodge podge and from over a couple of days but to me all signify the onset of autumn, misty mornings, long walks and seasonal house decorations.

At first I wasn't sure about adding the gold washi, I restricted myself to using it in a couple of places as often I have little restraint and have tendency to go overboard with sparkly things. I was aiming for just enough to compliment the warm earthy tones of the orange background - hopefully I did that!

I carefully cut out the Anna's watercolour animals from the collage sheets as I wanted to use them like emphera pieces - it was more fiddly than I thought it would be but totally worth it! I did however chicken out of trying to use my craft knife on the deer - I think she would have ended up antler-less!

I spent quite some time fussing around working out the placement of the photos and the other bits and bobs. It's one of the reasons I now tend not to stick everything down straight away as I have commitment issues and end up pulling them back up again. No more sticky glue marks or torn paper! Eventually I settled on what you see now :) 

That's all from me for this week, thank you for reading!

I hope you are all are looking forward to Autumn as much as I am!

In a bit guys x

You can also find me on my Instagram and over on my own (neglected) blog