Lesley's page in Joanna's Journal.

Fairytales.

When I received Joanna's Journal it wasn't really a hard decision to work out which fairy tale I was going to do.

" Alice In Wonderland"

I started my pages by doing a small amount of zentangle patterns in the middle of each page.

I then added some color to the background using Distress oxide inks.

and then adding some acrylic inks for an extra splash of color.

I then made a mask of Alice and cheshire cat . I put down the masks and

brayered over the top with some dylusions paint

I then used a stencil to add the heart layer and added the quotes. I also collaged some 

book paper around the edges that I took from an actual vintage copy of

Alice in Wonderland.

"Not all who wander are lost"

"I'm not crazy, my reality is just different to yours."

I hope you like your pages Joannaxx

Lisa - Working in Joanna's Fairy Tales

Ooh what a theme.  There are so many hundreds, if not thousands, of fairy tales.  How to pick one?

Good question!  Mel still has her old book of fairy tales, so I went through that.  Nothing really grabbed me.  I thought about my favourite fairy tales, at least visually: Hansel & Gretel, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast.  I even thought about 'modern' fairy tales, and was so close to doing a page about Harry Potter!  But that could be another journal theme... 😜

I wanted something bright and colourful, so looked into foreign fairy tales.  The African tales were mostly about animals, and I remembered one about Babaji and the tigers which I liked... but it has many connotations of racism, so I didn't want to go there.  

In the end, some music kept popping into my head.  Not really a fairy tale; more of a musical.  But traditional and oft told, so I went with it - and thus did my spread on Peter and the Wolf.

For those that don't know the story, it's about a boy who lives with his grandfather in the woods.  His grandfather tells him not to go outside the gate, for there is a wolf who lives in the forest.  His duck does not heed this warning, and is promptly eaten by said wolf.  Alive, of course.  Peter's bird decides to torment the wolf, and while it's distracted, Peter climbs a tree, intent on catching the wolf!  

Miraculously, Peter does catch the wolf by lowering a rope around it's tail, and pulling it tight.  Sounds a bit unrealistic to me...  

Two hunters in the woods come upon Peter with the 'captured' wolf, and want to kill it.  

But surprisingly, Peter doesn't want to kill the wolf.  He decides that they should take it to the local zoo instead.  What kind of fairy tale is this, where no-one gets killed?  Well, unless you count the duck, but apparently he can be heard quacking from the wolf's belly... 😁

So here's the whole spread.  I gessoed the pages, then did the sky and grass in watercolour which was applied with a sponge.  It was then painted with Dylusions paints - I just love the luscious colours.  Then finished with black and white fineliners.  

Hope you like it Joanna! 💝

Cheers, Lisa

Joan's Fairy Tale

Joan's page in Joanna's Journal.

Joanna's journal is "Fairy Tales", anything from Disney to Grimm is how Joanna describes the content she is inviting participants to create a page on.  She also said that her favourite fairy tale was Snow White and how she favoured Maleficent the wicked stepmother.  In every version of Snow White that there is, the Queen has a different name, ranging from the original Grimm story where she was called Queen Grimhilde to the later versions from Disneyland where she was called Maleficent, so I will just refer to her as the Wicked Queen.  As I too have a soft spot for the Wicked Queen after playing her in a local production as a child which ran for about three weekends, so  I decided to do my page featuring the Wicked Queen.

I painted the background in blues and mauves and a bit of green at the bottom.  Using a stencil I painted some stars in the background at the top of the page.  I also used a stencil with textured paste to do some feathers on the right of the page as a background for the queen and I used a wall stencil with graphic textured paste from Finabar to represent the castle wall on the left page.    I then used some peacock features on top of the stenciled feathers to further embellish the area behind where the Queen cutout was going.  I also used a stencil to create some trees and deer on the page to represent the forest surrounding the castle to which Snow White ran away and where the Queen tells the huntsman to find her and cut out her heart.   I used three different books about Snow White to cut out a couple of versions of the Queen, the mirror and Snow White .   I cut the center out of the mirror and stuck some silver paper in the frame to make the mirror more realistic.  I stuck a small version of Snow White on it.  I then lightly painted some Inka Gold in white over the top of some of the textured wall.  I stuck the large version of the Queen on top of the feathers and the smaller version and the mirror on the left page.

I painted the Queen's dress and Snow White's dress with glitter.  I used Glossy accents on the Queen's  crowns, her amulet and the box containing the heart to give them a 3D appearance.
I then stuck a cut out verse from one of the Snow White books at the top of the left page.





I will be sending onto Lisa Jones on the 1st August.

Jo's Fairy Tale Journal

AKA better late than never!

I chose the theme of Fairy Tales for my Journal as it's not only a theme I personally like but I thought it provided a wide range of interpretations for the participants to explore.  I used 190gsm watercolour A4 landscape sheets and tied them simply so that the pages can be removed and worked on without having to worry about accidentally marking another page. The pages are nice and sturdy and should be able to withstand even the thickest mixed media works of magnificence.

My journals usually take months and months to complete as I start pages and come back to them over and over again over time to add layers and enhancements, so my Journal is pretty basic at this stage.  It will certainly be a challenge to have to complete a page fully in a limited time period, but it's a challenge I welcome.

I wanted the cover of the Journal to look similar to an old story book, again it's pretty simple as it will most likely be replaced with a different hard cover when it's returned to me.  It was a simple spray and blot of Lindy's Stamp Gang brown and turquoise sprays for the background with bronze metallic painted die cut page corners,  black gesso painted fairy gifted die cut and a Fairy Tale title die cut that I made from my silhouette machine. It's a bit messy but I quite like it that way. I'm not big on perfection, I much prefer to enjoy the process.

 Inside my front cover was again a simple listing of participants, the signed contract and a brief explanation of the Journal (basically telling you to have fun).  Again it's extremely simple as the whole front page will probably be replaced and this part moved and embellished much more over time.

The only page I was able to complete was a tribute to my favourite Fairy Tale of all time, Snow White.  It also was a shout out to the very misunderstood villains of these tales, whose back stories are wonderful.  Again, I used a combination of paints and sprays to create a vivid green background and painted a large layered die cut apple this same colour initially. I then added red paint to the apple and used a baby wipe to blend the two to create the apple colour.  On the bite mark of the apple I used a mixture of white, gold and green glitter to show the evil magic inside the innocent looking apple.  I added a quote from the Wicked Witch and lightly went around the words with Faber Castell Big Brush Markers for some shadowing.

 Finally, the back cover is of my favourite little naughty Fairy, Tinkerbell.    Once again, it was a mix of beautiful shimmery Lindys Stamp Gang sprays and painted die cut.

I'm really looking forward to my first ever collaborative journal and seeing everyones work. Thanks for letting me join in . Jo xxx