This isn't about the Beatles

I started this page a loooooong time ago - I put down the background paint, put the gaffer tape around the edges, and glued down the heart and used rub-ons to spell out love love love. 

Then I stalled.

I loved the colours, but couldn't think of what else to do with it.  So it sat, literally, for a couple of years. 

Then a couple of days ago, I made the colours a little stronger with watercolour crayons, and added the black and white dots, and then the rest came pretty easily.  I liked how my last page turned out, so I did a couple of things the same - writing over the whole page in pencil and then using stamps to do the big lettering. I just used pencil crayons to fill in the letters, but they didn't cover all that well, so I ended up giving them a quick coat of white gesso first so that the blue/green would actually show up.  It was easy-peasy, just a little time-consuming (but meditative!) 

The finished product, I have to say, is a nice change from my usual angry pages!  But for the last few days I've been feeling pretty contented and relaxed.  I was a little worried that without the strong negative emotions, that my creativity would desert me.  After all, it has been my outlet for a long time. 

The good news is that I have a BUNCH of unfinished pages in various in-progress journals, so maybe I can dump out all kinds of happy emotions into some of them for a change.  Maybe the reason I couldn't finish some of the pages was because they were too positive, too pleasant, too sweet and light, and were meant to be filled with love and laughter instead of rage and frustration.  Well I guess we'll find out, won't we?

Until then,
Love Shelley!