Thursday, January 29, 2015

labels

Last week I went to a meeting at my sons school about the requirements to go from kindergarten to elementary school. Afterwards I was a little annoyed, to say the least, about how everyone needs to be the same, otherwise you get a “label”.
I ventilated these feelings on this page.




I started with gluing down pieces of cardstock that I first ran through my embossing machine, I used a leaf embossing folder and a cloud one.  The leaf one is really deep edged, it almost is a die, someone any advice on how to use them because the paper seems to be cut in some places? 



Next I added some random stamping. 



Followed by some color with my Inktense pencils, green for the grass and warm hues for the sky.



Time for the focal point.
A while back I received a wonderful beautiful carved stamp set from my google+ friend Tina Van Eick, it consisted of an intricate tree, a bird and a sun. I was waiting for just the perfect project to come along and this was it. Because I believe that kids are like trees, they need a firm base to grow and lots of time. Every tree is different and grows and develops at its own pace. 



I stamped the tree on a separate page, colored it with Inktense pencils and cut it and glued it to the page. It was easy to stamp and such a stunning result, I’m glad I finally got the courage to use the stamp and definitely will be using it more in the future. Then I stamped a whole bunch of different sizes of butterflies and cut them out and glued them around the tree, they resemble the cycle of caterpillar and transformation in beautiful creatures, just like us humans. I added some shading to let them stand out more and found a quote that I transformed a bit, it originally said:
I am unique, I am special, I am me which I changed in you are unique, you are special, you are you.

Because that is the message I want to give to my son.

14 comments:

  1. Isn't it great how we can vent our frustrations through art? Love the embossed background and the way you put the whole page together!

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  2. Vicky, it is a wonderful page, even if it comes from frustration. (Zeg, welke school is dat? Is het een stad school? Mijn is in de Steiner vanaf peuter, elke kind heeft haar of zijn eigen individu en is gerespecteerd door de leerkrachten. Nu gaat hij al van lagere naar middlebare.)

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    1. thx ruth, luckily we have our art to ventilate, then we don't crop things up :-)

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  3. This is a most wonderful message to give to your son ! Too bad the teachers are not as unique and special as they should be teaching your son! Good luck!

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    1. Thx Jackie, I must say I am still very happy with the school, my son loves going so that's the most important. But I think it is just a general tendency that nowadays everybody needs to perform along a certain standard and otherwise you need to find help. I think they are overcompensating from decades of ignoring problems. Maybe in time things will level out.

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  4. What a fantastic page! Your colours and all elements are beautifully coloured. Teachers should be encouraging uniqueness and individuality not 'sameness'! Conform to the rules yes, or there would too much unruliness in the class, but do not stifle a childs own being.
    You are a wonderful mum to give this message to your son in a beautiful work of art. ((hugs)) :o)
    ps - I had a similar problem when I used a die/embosser. I added extra padding in the sandwich and it was better next time with embossing only. It wasn't as deeply etched but there was no cutting. :o)

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    1. thx, I will try the extra padding, but am not sure whether this wil fit through the machine then.

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  5. Terrific page, and a strong message for your son, regardless of the frustration that generated it.

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    1. thx Win and absolutely even without this trigger this is a message we should give all of our children.

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  6. He will treasure this more than you know. Lovely work. I love the way you surrounded the tree.

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    1. Thx Dana, maybe the butterflies needed to be a little more colorful for them to stand out even more, art is a continuous process of imlprovement, lesson learned

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  7. He will treasure this more than you know. Lovely work. I love the way you surrounded the tree.

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