Tag Archives: #LayeredPages

Creativity Takes Courage

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“Creativity is a great motivator because it makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting.” ~Edward de Bono

Here are pages I worked on this past weekend in my Mixed Media Art Journal. I’ll be adding wording on the pages to the left and might leave the brighter color pages to the right, blank. Creating these pages was so calming and freeing. I love the abstract feel to the one on the right and I used acrylic paints and added water to them to give a watercolor look to them. The pages on the left are colors that remind me of the ocean and the butterfly represents a new beginning as I have said on previous posts. I tend to use butterflies a lot in my journals. -Stephanie Hopkins

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(Images may be subjected to copyright. All book reviews, interviews, guest posts, art work, photos and promotions are originals. In order to use any text or pictures from Layered Pages, please ask for permission from Stephanie Hopkins.)

 

Novels on the LP Radar

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The Preserve

I hope everyone had a great weekend! Today I’m sharing three novels that are on my radar and will be watching closely. I’m extremely interested in the premises and loving the covers!

The Preserve by Ariel S. Winter

Atria Books

Mystery & Thrillers

Pub Date 03 Nov 2020

Description

The critically acclaimed author of the “bold, innovating, and thrilling” (Stephen King) novel The Twenty-Year Death and the “brilliant” (Booklist, starred review) novel Barren Cove returns with a dark and compelling mystery set in the near future.

Decimated by plague, the human population is now a minority. Robots—complex AIs almost indistinguishable from humans—are the ruling majority. Nine months ago, in a controversial move, the robot government opened a series of preserves, designated areas where humans can choose to live without robot interference. Now the preserves face their first challenge: someone has been murdered.

Chief of Police Jesse Laughton on the SoCar Preserve is assigned to the case. He fears the factions that were opposed to the preserves will use the crime as evidence that the new system does not work. As he digs for information, robots in the outside world start turning up dead from bad drug-like programs that may have originated on SoCar land. And when Laughton learns his murder victim was a hacker who wrote drug-programs, it appears that the two cases might be linked. Soon, it’s clear that the entire preserve system is in danger of collapsing. Laughton’s former partner, a robot named Kir, arrives to assist on the case, and they soon uncover shocking secrets revealing that life on the preserve is not as peaceful as its human residents’ claim. But in order to protect humanity’s new way of life, Laughton must solve this murder before it’s too late.

The Preserve is a fresh and futuristic mystery that is perfect for fans of Westworld and Blade Runner.

Someone Like You

I absolutely LOVE this cover and thought about using it for my cover crush series. Isn’t it stunning and so fitting for the premise. I give the cover a five star rating!

Someone Like You by Karen Kingsbury

Atria Books

Pub Date 05 May 2020

Description

Science raises questions only love can answer in this moving and thought-provoking novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of “heart-tugging and emotional” (Romantic Times Book Reviews) life-changing fiction.

One frozen embryo. Two families with life-long secrets. And a guy who never planned to fall in love again.

Maddie Baxter West is shaken to the core when she finds out everything she believed about her life was a lie. Her parents had always planned to tell her the truth about her past: that she was adopted as an embryo. But somehow the right moment never happened. Then a total stranger confronts Maddie with the truth and tells her something else that rocks her world—Maddie had a sister she never knew about. Betrayed, angry, and confused, Maddie leaves her new job and fiancé, rejects her family’s requests for forgiveness, and moves to Portland to find out who she really is.

Dawson Gage’s life was destroyed when London Quinn, his best friend and the only girl he ever loved, is killed. In the hospital waiting room, London’s mother reveals that London might have had a sibling. The frozen embryo she and her husband donated decades ago. When Dawson finds Maddie and brings her to Portland, the Quinns—her biological parents—welcome her into their lives and hearts. Maddie is comforted by the Quinns’ love and intrigued by their memories of London, who was so much like her. Is this the family and the life she was really meant to have?

Now it will take the love of Dawson Gage to help Maddie know who she is…and to help her find her way home.

The Templars

I never get tired reading about this history! Should be interesting. -Stephanie Hopkins

The Templars

The Legend and Legacy of the Warriors of God

by Geordie Torr

Arcturus Publishing

History

Pub Date 03 Apr 2020

Description

Shrouded in myth and conspiracy, the history of the Knights Templar is little understood. Geordie Torr pulls fact from fiction, revealing the astonishing tale of this military-religious order that dominated the politics of the medieval Middle East.

Initially created to protect Christian pilgrims to the Holy Land in the wake of the First Crusade, the Templars soon became an institution of incredible power, possessing wealth and influence throughout the courts of Europe. Yet just two centuries later they dramatically fell as its members were accused of heresy and burned at the stake.

Set against the dramatic backdrop of the wars between Christians and Muslims, this illustrated book brings to life the legacy of this secretive order and the characters who defined the era.

 

Cover Crush: Hush by Dylan Farrow

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Trust Your Heart

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A Thrust Your Heart EditedCreating this page was more about having confidence in my art journey. To trust my process and growth in creating from the heart. Trusting myself to be authentic, and to reach further in my exploration of art.

I thought adding the image of the people Kayaking was perfect because that is one of my favorite water activities, which I rarely get to do anymore and its fitting to the background image.  -Stephanie Hopkins

 

“Artists are people who make art. Art is not a gene or a specific talent … Art is the unique work of a human being, work that touches another … Art is who we are and what we do and what we need. Art isn’t a result; it’s a journey. The challenge of our time is to find a journey worthy of your heart and your soul. “ -Author Unknown

(Images may be subjected to copyright. All book reviews, interviews, guest posts, art work, photos and promotions are originals. In order to use any text or pictures from Layered Pages, please ask for permission from Stephanie.)

Curtain Call

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A Curtain call EditedI really enjoyed creating this art journal page with just using paper from a book, stencils and inks for the background. It gave me the perfect medium to journal my thoughts for the day to the upper and lower corners of the page using a Tombow Black Marker. The image in the middle is an ephemera tag I made a few weeks ago and I thought it perfect for this piece. the “Curtain Call” wording seemed fitting for my thoughts that day. Below is a quote I found online with the phrase. -Stephanie Hopkins

“Hurried and worried until we’re buried, and there’s no curtain call, Lifes a very funny proposition after all.” -George M Cohan

(Images may be subjected to copyright. All book reviews, interviews, guest posts, art work, photos and promotions are originals. In order to use any text or pictures from Layered Pages, please ask for permission from Stephanie.)

Happy Mail Haul

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A Master PictureLast week I received another package in the mail from Lisl and I would like to share with you all what she sent me.  Most of these items-if not all-are thrifted. I think her state has better donated items to use for mixed media projects than my state does! I am so thankful and over- whelmed with gratitude. A big thank you and virtual hug to Lisl. I can’t wait to see what mixed media projects I create using these cherished items. The book, “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books,” is to read and I started it already and really enjoying the story thus far.

Even though Lisl thrifted these items well before the virus outbreak in the states, when the package came, I left it outside-hidden-in the direct sun for a couple of hours. Then I sprayed the outer box before opening it up to take the contents out. I put them in a bag and brought it on the house. Doing all this I wore gloves. Then I took pictures of the items and put them back in the bag and didn’t get them out for a couple days. After putting everything back in the bag, I sprayed the area of the floor I used to display the items. During these times we are asked to take theses precautions during the quarantined.

 

I pray that everyone is being safe. My heart and prayers go out to the people we have lost and to the families of the victims of this awful virus. -Stephanie Hopkins

Mixed Media Art Tags

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Normally I don’t blog twice in one day but I wanted to share these creations with you. One of my favorite mediums to create are my own backgrounds and pattern paper. Last night I made new Mixed Media Tags using my watercolor pattern paper for the background, Tombow Markers, Tim Holtz Distress Inks, rubber stamps, clear stamps and watercolor paper. I created the back ground a while back and use it for various projects. You can use these tags for jouranling, add to gift bags, cards and mixed media art projects. The colors look more vibrant in person. The camera on my phone is not very good. I need to start using a camera, me thinks. These tags are going to a friend who commissioned me to make tags using my papers. She did want a washed out look to them so I had to change things up a bit. A challenge I enjoyed doing. -Stephanie Hopkins

Artsits Tags with watercolors

“I do tend to use watercolors – I love the splatter sort of thing you can do with watercolors.” -Mini Grey

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(Images may be subjected to copyright. All book reviews, interviews, guest posts, art work, photos and promotions are originals. In order to use any text or pictures from Layered Pages, please ask for permission from Stephanie.)

Cover Crush: A Saint from Texas by Edmund White

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Cover: I like the simplicity of this book cover and the sketch-like drawing of the image. Cover layouts doesn’t always have be heavy-if you will- or bright with contrast to make a statement.

Premise: Two sisters from humble beginnings and decades of life changing experiences and what they make of it sounds intriguing.

Stephanie Hopkins

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A Saint from TexasA Saint from Texas

by Edmund White

Bloomsbury Publishing

Pub Date 04 Aug 2020

Description

From Edmund White, a bold and sweeping new novel that traces the extraordinary fates of twin sisters, one destined for Parisian nobility and the other for Catholic sainthood.

Yvette and Yvonne Crawford are twin sisters, born on a humble patch of East Texas prairie but bound for far more dramatic and tragic fates. Just as an untold fortune of oil lies beneath their daddy’s land, both girls harbor their own secrets and dreams-ones that will carry them far from Texas and from each other. As the decades unfold, Yvonne will ascend the highest ranks of Parisian society as Yvette gives herself to a lifetime of worship and service in the streets of Jericó, Colombia. And yet, even as they remake themselves in their radically different lives, the twins find that the bonds of family and the past are unbreakable.

Spanning the 1950s to the recent past, Edmund White’s marvelous novel serves up an immensely pleasurable epic of two Texas women as their lives traverse varied worlds: the swaggering opulence of the Dallas nouveau riche, the airless pretension of the Paris gratin, and the strict piety of a Colombian convent. For nearly half a century, Edmund White’s work has revitalized American literature, blithely breaking down boundaries of class and sexuality, and A Saint From Texas is one of his most joyous, gorgeously written, and piercing works to date.

Cover Crush banner

(Images may be subjected to copyright. All book reviews, interviews, guest posts, art work, photos and promotions are originals. In order to use any text or pictures from Layered Pages, please ask for permission from Stephanie.)

 

 

Be Brave, Believe in Yourself

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A You Be Brave Mixed Media Page IIYou Be Brave

“I am my own biggest critic. Before anyone else has criticized me, I have already criticized myself. But for the rest of my life, I am going to be with me and I don’t want to spend my life with someone who is always critical. So I am going to stop being my own critic. It’s high time that I accept all the great things about me.”
― C. JoyBell C.

This page I created is to remind myself to continue to be brave. Never give up. Have courage. Be strong always. Believe in yourself because you are loved. -Stephanie Hopkins

 

(Images may be subjected to copyright. All book reviews, interviews, guest posts, art work, photos and promotions are originals. In order to use any text or pictures from Layered Pages, please ask for permission from Stephanie.)

Cherish the Moments

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A cherish the moments pageThis is an art page from my art journal that I created this past Saturday. I was in a mood for cool colors and a simple layout. Yet it expresses cherishing moments in our everyday lives and brought me to mind of a quote by John Adams.

“Let us tenderly and kindly cherish therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.”

This quote is so fitting to the moment of creating this piece and for my love of reading and journaling.

Also, I took the time to look out the window and enjoyed the beauty of the day that the season of spring brings us. It is a symbol of new beginnings and reflection, in my view. We are seeing trouble times in our world at present and I hope with the social distancing we are experiencing gives us time to take a step back and think on what is important to us and if there is a change we need to make in our lives that going forward will bring that change.

I’m praying for us all and praying for the families and friends of the people we have lost due to the virus. My heart and thoughts go out to you all. Please be safe and God be with you all. -Stephanie Hopkins

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(Images may be subjected to copyright. All book reviews, interviews, guest posts, art work, photos and promotions are originals. In order to use any text or pictures from Layered Pages, please ask for permission from Stephanie.)