My Aphorisms Journal is home to me

My round 3 Aphorisms journal is home to me. 

Thank you to all you wonderful artists for helping fill my little journal....I love it !!!!

 Thank you Louise for hosting the swap. xox..

Thank you all!!

Aphorisms as I see them.

Wendy's journal is a delight.  I love the feel of it, it's very light and very colourful.  Thank heavens for Prof Google, as I had never really heard the word before.

So armed with all the knowledge I could gain from said Prof G I set to work. I decided to base my work on being kind and so, here it is.

While I had Wendy's journal I decided to photograph the other pages to share as not every post gets blogged.  I will include names where I can read signatures.

Cover and Wendy's spread.

Not sure who did the Picasso.

                                     

 This is Robyn's cleverness

This spread is from Gail Bourke.

Can't see a name on this luscious spread.  It is wonderfully detailed and textured.

From Lisa Griffin-Gledhill

This lovely piece is from Rose Bosse/ Rose/ Possum.....not sure which name :)

Lisa Jones has worked her magic.

Some lovely work here from Joan Mannix.

Lisa J - Working in Wendy's Aphorism Journal

I know I keep saying this, but I'll say it again: I've discovered I love working in art journals!  Particularly other people's because I have a guide on what to do in them.  In my own, I fluff around looking for inspiration...

Wendy's journal is hand made and about A5 size.  To be honest, before this I'd never hear the term 'aphorism'.  I learnt that it's a witty saying or proverb.

I decided I wanted to do a saying that I've used before, so came up with that old classic that's dished out when you've just had a break up: You'll be okay; there are plenty of other fish in the sea!

This was quite simple in execution: sponged background with circles dotted on for bubbles, painted mermaid and some grasses and fishies at the bottom.  Outlined the writing in Micron pen and filled in with paint plus dots from a silver pen.

and a closer up look at the mermaid: 

Hope you like it Wendy; it was a quick one but lots of fun to do!

Cheers, Lisa

Aphorisms - Joans pages.

This page is a copy of a page I created digitally some years ago.  I always loved it, so I wanted to try and create a similar page in real life.

It started off with a dried babywipe I had used to wipe off a brush.  It was a mixture of blue and I thought it would make a great sky.  Using gesso and mod podge I stuck it on to the page.  It covered about two thirds of it, which was great. The texture created by it was wonderful and it was open to all the mediums I used on it.   Using dyes, acrylic paint, gellatoes and distress ink I then coloured in the bottom third of the page, to represent grass.  I then stamped and drew and painted some flowers in the background on both sides.  Collaged some paper fussy cut flowers and then some commercial flower embellishments on top.  I stamped and stenciled a few bits of text and patterns on background for texture.  Added tree, angel, bird, lady and clock, some more dye, and white paint and for further texture a strip of little flowers on a transparent background at bottom of left page.    I used transparent type letter stick- ons for the phrase and outlined them in white. Not quiet as elegant as my digitally layout, but pleased with it anyway, hope you are too Wendy.

Round 3 - Debs Addition to Wendy's Aphorisims Journal

Aphorisms- we are all loving being able to add quotes or sayings we love to our art work and this was the perfect opportunity for me to add one to a journal. I do tend to overthink things and try and be a perfectionist when being arty farty, when sometimes the simplest and easiest option is best. I have always loved the carefree style and colours of Picasso and the fact that he appeared so blase about his works sometimes irked me! Simple is HARD!

So I started with water colour paper I taped off then drew a face with angular lines through it. Looking on Pinterest for common facial features Picasso used, I picked my favorites and added them to the portrait. I then used water colour paints, Posca Paint pens and a black sharpie to finish off.

  

  I then added black acrylic paint to fill in the background of 2 pages of the Journal.                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                          

After the paint dried, I trimmed my portrait and stuck it down onto the first page. I then used Tim Holtz Marquee alphabet thinlit dies, to cut out the letters that formed my aphorism out of bright card stock. I used Matt gel medium to stick them down with and then covered the whole page with more Matt gel medium.

                                                                                                                                                                     At the very end when it had all dried, I used Black Onyx liquid pearl drops to create some texture on  each of the letters. It was something out of my comfort zone but I enjoyed it all the same.

       

Round 3 Wendy's Journal - Aphorisms

Well, here I am once again and again I have changed my mind at the last minute with the journal I made. I had one near finished and decided I really wanted to keep it for myself (have you ever liked something so much that you just didn't want to part with it...lol)...so in the last couple of days, I managed to whip up another smaller journal to send on it's way around Australia.

This was the outcome...It is a manilla envelope journal with one signature that has 12 double page spreads. Background has been done with distress dabber paints and then stamped with a script stamp using stazon ink.

 This is the inside front cover which shows the definition of an aphorism. I have also done the first page with an aphorism from Hippocrates which says.." Life is short and Art long".

 Here is the inside back and as you can see it is rather plain as the inside front. I'm hoping all you lovely ladies will jot down a little info about your 'arting life' on the inside front and back covers.

I chose the theme of APHORISMS...which is a 'big' word for proverbs/sayings. I'm wanting you to feel free to do any style of background you wish on the page and place some aphorism on the page. There are millions of aphorisms out there and I'm going to love having my journal sent back with your favourite saying in it. Thank you all! Wendy xox