Pam’s journal

These words of wisdom were given to me by my grandmother,
who I always thought was a very wise old lady. 

I am sure she didn’t think them up but I don’t know who said them first, so I can’t give them credit. 

It was a lovely journal to work in, so I hope you like it Pam

Robyn’s journal

I have always fantasised about growing wings and flying! 

Thanks Robyn for being able to bring that fantasy to life, it was fun! 

I am sorry I didn’t take more photos but I get in the zone

 and before I realised I had finished it

Annabelle's Art Nouveau

I had to do a bit of research for Roz’s journal 

and I am not sure I got the style right

 but I had fun working in it anyway. 

I hope you don’t mind Roz if it’s not quite art nouveau.

 Here are my process pics. 

I sketched my girl, spent some time trying to get the hair right 😊

Then I added collage and finally the words.

Lisa playing in Annabelle's Egyptian Journal!

Annabelle's journal is a lovely A4 affair with 300gsm paper, and all the entries in it look great!  I love how peeps can come up with so many different ideas for a theme.

I had an urge to use teabags, and something to do with hieroglyphics.  I'd made a hieroglyphic piece last year for the 52 Week Illo Challenge I was in, and used teabags in that too.

So I
actually
remembered
to take progress
pics this time!

First step was to collage the teabags onto the journal.

If you haven't tried playing with teabags yet, I really recommend having a go - the colours that you get from the different teas are beautiful. 

and each teabag is different! 

If you'd like to have a go, all you need to do is have a cup of tea (or just steep some teabags, if you're not a tea drinker). 

Once you've finished your tea (or give it 5 minutes if you're just steeping), squeeze the excess liquid out of the teabags and leave them to dry out.  I just stick mine on a plate in an out of the way spot in the kitchen, or leave them in the sun if it's a nice day.

You can apparently dry them out in the oven, but sometimes if they dry too quickly they can become a bit brittle, and tear when you're extracting the leaves.

Once dry, either cut the top off, if it's a crimped style, or remove staple or thread if it's not, and empty the tea leaves.  I don't mind if some leaves remain, as it adds texture.  Open the bag out fully.

Adhere to your journal using matte gel medium.  Because the teabags are porous, you can just actually put the teabag down where you want it, and paint the medium over the top.  Easy!

 Next I added some lines
down the page with a
water activated pencil. 
I just like the colour and
interest that it gives.

Then I sketched in my design
and outlined it all with
a Uni Pin fineliner pen. 
These are great because they're waterproof.

For my next step I firstly
watercoloured the design
in Payne's Grey, and then
highlighted bits with my
trusty Uniball gold pen.

Take care with these pens
because unfortunately
they're not waterproof!

I felt that the gold didn't really stand
out enough, so I then outlined
everything with my General's
charcoal white pencil. 

These pencils have a really
nice feel, and you can water-
activate them too.

I added some words to the left of the
spread, sealed it all with gloss gel medium,
and I was done!

Here is a closeup, and the
full spread!

I found all of these images on Pinterest, so they're probably all from different eras!

Nevertheless...




The main pic is of the god Heh, spirit of the million years. 
The birds represent Horus,
the falcon god.

Hope you like it Annabelle, it was fun putting all the different elements together!

Cheers, Lisa xx

Walk Like an Egyptian with Pam.

What a challenge!  A long, long time since I studied Egypt at school and all I could think of was Cleopatra and she looked a lot like Elizabeth Taylor. So what to do?  Head off to my favourite resource, The Children's section at the library.

Librarian was very helpful and we found heaps of illustrated books for me to draw inspiration from. So now down to work.   

First I played with the background to try to emulate a sandy desert. Used gesso through wavy stencil, various colours including yellow ochre, raw sienna, pale beige. Added some blobs with a Lindys dabber.

I centred the map of the Nile River and added my embellishments, inspired by my library book.  I also carved a stamp and used it.  The eye of Horus, lotus flower and rabbits.  Added an Egyptian border on edge of pages.

 Some close-ups of parts of the pages.

The completed spread.  I hope Annabelle likes it.  I am happy with the outcome. Egypt is full of dreams, mysteries and memories.