Hello everyone, hope you are having a good week. We had a long weekend here for the May Bank Holiday, which I was so looking forward to but unfortunately I didn’t get to enjoy any of it as I haven’t been very well and ended up being poorly over the weekend and carrying over onto today. Apologies this post is so late but I wasn’t able to function earlier.
As you know, I am Guest Hosting the May challenge over on Art Journal Journey this month and my chosen theme is…
Language!
You can find a nice list of ideas about language inspired pages in my introduction post just click here.
For today’s post, I decided to make a French language inspired page. French was the second language I ever learned and I loved it. Everyone seemed to hate French class but I loved it! I also had a very scary French teacher that struck fear into everyone, but I loved French so she seemed to like me for that. At one point my French teacher wanted me to become a translator! My French was so good, that I used to think in French and then make mistakes in English as I would write French words instead of English words and they would be marked as spelling mistakes. I never really believed that I could have a job as a translator, it was something that seemed so beyond anything I could have dreamed of, and very exotic, so I never went any further with it. I often wonder what would have happened if I had chosen that path. Maybe in an alternate universe there is another version of me who is doing just that!
But meanwhile, we can look at this page and dream…
There are lots of stamps on this page including a Paperartsy stamp of this very elegant aristocrat, several Tim Holtz stamps, and some French language stamps. Some leftover diecuts and scraps of paper, a teabag tag, and some word stickers.
I started with a watercolour stamped background using some Jane Davenport crayons. I like them for this kind of thing as they are very soft and creamy. It looks messy when it’s wet but nice when it dries.
I have more than a few French language stamps including this cute one from a French company and then also this Paris skyline stamp from Tim Holtz.
I covered my background with the stamps, using a grey Archival ink which might be called Watering Can. I don’t have any more process photos this time, due to not being well and this was a fairly quick process, except when it came to the part where I had to choose which elements to keep on my page – there were more! My page was actually going to be a bit different but I couldn’t make it work and had to stop trying lol. So instead, here are some close ups of all the little word stickers I added in the frames…
Also on the background are a few smaller Tim Holtz stamps that are in French script and a smaller French dictionary stamp.
Some Paris postmark stamps from Tim Holtz and then I wrote La Vie Est Belle across the top of the page, which can mean Life is Good or Life is Beautiful.
All of these little diecuts were already in my stash, leftover from other projects but just waiting to be added to this one and made useful. I just needed to paint them all black, or in the case of the teacup, gold.
I decorated my little teacup with lots of gold and a crown, and wrote the words Ma Tasse de Thé which means “My cup of tea”. I guess tea has been on my mind a lot over the last few days as I have been drinking a lot of milky tea, which is something I only have when I don’t feel well. I can’t remember the last time I drank tea this way but it has been a while, and I have been drinking multiple cups of the stuff, at least it’s decaf though!
I hope you feel inspired to join us at Art Journal Journey this month. Language is all about communication, and I would love to see you communicate using language on your pages, in whatever form you choose. I have a lot of ideas for language-inspired spreads to share with you over the course of this month, so do keep checking back if you need some inspiration or ideas, or even just to say hi! I can’t wait to see what you do with this month’s theme and I will be dropping by to see all your lovely creations.
Let me know what you think in the comments. As always, thanks for reading!
Ingredients
My handmade art journal, Jane Davenport crayons, black and gold acrylic ink, paper scraps, gold pen, lots of stamps, black stazon ink, watering can archival ink, stabilo, teabag tag, variety of leftover diecuts, glue,
Challenges
Art Journal Journey – Language – May Challenge
Country View Challenges – We Will Always Have Paris – May Challenge
T Stands for Tuesday – also joining in since it is still Tuesday (2 hours left!)
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Beautiful pages with great stamping!
Thank you for joining us at Country View Challenges this month!
Evelyn xx
Sorry I am so late in commenting – by now I hope you are feeling much better. It is dreadful when you feel ill, are ill and you have obligations to fulfill. However, you have certainly given us a beautiful page in your journal.
You have some beautiful images and I think your scenic one is the same as one I have bjut strange as it may seem I like the teacup the best of all. Why I don’t know as I would not have thought it was me at all.
Interesting to hear about your French at school. Mine was so different. We had a good teacher one year and I did quite well but after that we had a male teacher and he used to ignore our questions and so I gave up. I would love to be able to speak languages, I have a friend who is a translator. She earns mega money with her own little agency translating for businesses alongside her husband. See, you could have been so rich!
Hugs, Neet xx
this is a beautiful imaginative journal page! I love your artwork!
This is fabulous, beautiful colours and I love the French stamps. Thanks so much for joining in with our challenge at Country View Crafts, and have a very happy week, Sue xx
Lovely! I really enjoyed getting to watch your process as you built on the page, watching each layer energy. What a great theme you chose!
I love your wonderful French language inspired journal page and all the details on it. We had a French teacher who from day one would only speak French to us. day one was very basic, she just wanted to know our names, lots of laughs later we got it. Some things are never forgotten. Thank you for another super inspiration page for your AJJ theme.
Yvonne xx
a lovely journal spread Elle, and a perfect tie to both T Stands For Tuesday and your theme at Art Journal Journey!
Love the tea cup. Tres elegant. I hope you feel better soon. Happy T Day
The crayons certainly do make a great background! This fabulous French page. I must look out my Paper Artsy stamps. The cup of tea looks lovely but it’s still coffee for me!
I wish I spoke French fluently, I can speak it quite well but have to listen carefully for replies and often make mistakes. When in Carcassonne a few years ago I felt that I was really struggling in an Information Centre – I had explained that I didn’t speak French very well. I was very flattered when the assistant’s colleague told her that she thought I spoke good French….and then we all laughed when I said Thank you in English! Belated Happy T Day, Chrisx
A beautiful page Elle!
Hope you’re feeling much better today.
Alison xx