Lots of layers

This page started out quite plainly. I had a few bits of paper with circles cut out of them left over from another page. I stuck them randomly across the spread and left it.

For no particular reason I gelli-printed lime and purple across not-quite-the-middle of the page. This left a large margin blank, so a bit of green paint was applied with a baby-wipe.

Hmm. It wasn't looking promising. The colours weren't my usual mix and they were still starkly separate. But no matter. A few more layers and they started to come together - sprays and oil pastels and more sprays and stamping and gelli-printed greaseproof paper (which gave a great grungy look as it was a ghost print from black) and inks brushed on and bubble-wrap prints - and now I was loving it.

So much so that I didn't want to cover it all up!

So I thought about the layers and the depth of colour and richness and it made me think about life. Each layer, looked at alone, was nothing special. But as they merged together and interacted with one another a beauty emerged. And that is how it is in life. There are some things that happen to us that are ugly, some that are mundane, but when they are joined with all our other life experiences, they can become beautiful. I don't think this page would have pleased me so much without the dark parts of the gelli-printed greaseproof paper. They add a certain something. And when we live through difficult things but refuse to allow them to overcome us, we emerge with a luminosity that is easy to see.

Embrace the layers of your life and allow them all to add to the beauty that is you.