/* */ Beulah Bee

October 30, 2014

Treats


The image I used for this tag shows a little girl dressed up in costume and I'm pretty sure it wasn't for Halloween but instead, illustrates the Victorian obsession with fairies.

The following explanation came from a book review on Amazon:

Clap if you believe in fairies! The Victorians did, writes Carole Silver in Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness, but she's not exactly talking about Tinkerbell here. Silver prefers the more gruesome and treacherous species of fay: changelings and vampires, brownies and goblins. The Victorians took these creatures very seriously, indeed, and according to Silver, this belief tapped into some of their society's most fundamental anxieties. Fear of physical deformity, of women's sexual power, of racial or class difference: these were the true bogeymen that haunted the Victorian imagination, and they responded with a flood of art, literature, and theater that portrayed these imaginary creatures with equal measures of fascination and horror.

Now days, Halloween has become an extremely popular holiday and rivals Christmas or Easter with its enthusiastic decoration and celebration. Is it because we suffer from similar anxieties?

About my tag: A cutting from Tim's Wallflower paper stash was used for the background. I love the lithographic quality of this paper and brought out some of the details with Gelly Roll pens.

I further embellished with Stickles which I store upside down to keep the thick solution close to the tip and always ready for use.

A light touch with colored pencils helped to tint the little fairy's dress and provide a shadow for her to stand on.

I'm linking this post to the Monday blog challenge at Simon Says Stamp where this week's theme is treats. Happy Halloween, everyone--I hope it's full of sweets!

October 25, 2014

Splatters for Andrea


A recent post by Andrea Ockey Parr has inspired the creation of this tag made by stomping various Distress Ink stains on a piece of glossy paper. I used a black Gelly Roll pen to outline some of the splatters, turning them into shapes resembling flowers and added an image of my great Aunt Ada, some stamped dragonflies and a bit of washi tape to complete it.

I am always inspired by Andrea's creations--her work is full of whimsy and color and she often uses mediums in an unconventional way.

She never fails to make me smile and she leaves the BEST blog comments.

Thank you, Andrea!

October 17, 2014

O Karma, Darma

Click to enlarge
O Karma, Darma, pudding and pie,
gimme a break before I die:
grant me wisdom, will and wit,
purity, probity, pluck and grit.

Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, kind,
gimme great abs and
a steel-trap mind, and forgive,
Ye Gods, some humble advice--
these little blessings would suffice
to beget an earthly paradise:

make the bad people good--
and the good people nice;
and before our world goes over the brink,
teach the believers how to think. 

This poem, by Philip Appleman, is what I inscribed on my journal page (in case you can't read my handwriting).


I started the background by using a variety of paint colors with a stencil by Simon Says Stamp called Gingham/Pure Sunshine. I added the bird cage, tree, bird and people then started filling-in blank areas with a variety of stencils and stamps.

I often use poetry as inspiration for a journal page. Sometimes I start with the poem and sometimes (as in this case) the poem comes at the end.

As I printed the lines on the page, I was thinking about how our schools no longer believe it necessary to teach penmanship and wondered when poetry will meet the same fate.

I'm linking to this week's challenge at SSS where the theme is "the letter O" which is the first word of this poem (from New and Selected Poems, 1956-1996, University of Arkansas Press).