Quoth the raven....

It's catch up time with my circle journals. I have two here that I have had since before I went to Canada, and another two on their way to me.

I got this one done the night before last though, and the other is half done (various bits of paper drying as we speak), so I'm getting there.

The stamp for this one is this fab blackbird / crow / raven / starling / who knows (any ornithologists out there want to enlighten me? :)) I can't find this one online so not sure who the manufacturer is, I might have to ask Annie (whose CJ it is) as I wouldn't mind getting hold of this stamp myself.

Anyway, let's hope Bill Oddie rings me up and tells me it's a raven - because otherwise my page doesn't make much sense lol

As soon as I saw the stamp I thought "gotta be Poe", and it gave me a chance to play once again in my fast-becoming-favourite palette of red, purple and blue, with a generous side helping of black. Maybe I am having some sort of goth episode, which would be cool as it would give me an excuse to listen to All About Eve again. In fact I'm going to do that right now, and maybe a bit of Gimme Shelter (the Sisters of Mercy version)....and then ooh! ooh! Salvation! I used to love them! Their cover of 'Strange Fruit' was brilliant. I wonder what happened to them?? ..... off to download some music.....

Back :) Wayne Hussey is crooning Like a Hurricane, and I feel 20 years younger :) (it'll be the Nephilim next ...where's my self raising? :D)

Now, where was I???

Ah yes, my CJ entry .....

Ummm - so yes, I went with a take on Poe's "the Raven", in which the bird in question famously repeats the words "never more" over and over again until the poor bloke telling the story dies, or goes mad, one or the other - I was never quite sure what "And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted - nevermore!" meant.

I used perfect pearls and distress ink reinkers for the background - you can see the shimmer a little better in this close up - but no photo can really capture it properly:



The moon was stamped with pearl acrylic paint, and the tree (somewhat influenced by a fab Green Pepper Press stamp, but a lot simpler) was hand painted with black acrylic and highlighted with a stardust gel pen. The "clouds" are white chalk ink applied with a sea sponge.

The raven was stamped on white card with black ink, and a little white gem was added for his eye, then I cut him out, leaving a tiny border for emphasis, and covered him with a couple of layers of clear UTEE.

The word "nevermore" was put together using Cricut design studio software and cut on my bug - and painted with pearlescent lilac acrylic - you can see it better in this close up:



This was a fun CJ to work on, even if it did end up costing me £16 in download fees....Flowers In Our Hair by All About Eve playing now.....blimey this one takes me back :)