Mon's entry in Roz' journal

Roz' beautiful journal has the theme "Oriental". I dove right in without a clue of where the pages would lead. I first added two "doors" to give me more space to work on. The pages evolved with different layers and materials and stitching.

It is a kind of an Asian fusion page reminding me of Chinese wedding cabinets, Japanese kimonos, Chinese Cheong Sams and lanterns.

The doors open to reveal a lotus pond with free machine embroidered Koi made from vintage Japanese Kimono silk fabric.

 

I first collaged these pages with an old Chinese Feng Shui Horoscope calendar pages...

 

 before painting on top.

I really enjoyed working in Roz' journal.

xoxo

Jan completes Momento Mori

Well, this was a bit of a challenge as everyone has found when confronting this theme! It is very good to make us think outside our comfortable box....Once again a great altered journal. The cover is awesome.
I went with "Choose Life", it felt pertinent to my life. I also loved the book we were altering as the 1000 paper cranes has special significance for us. When Andrew was in ICU his friends stayed up for days making 1000 paper cranes and brought them to the hospital, he has it hanging in his room now. They are beautiful and a great reminder - momento mori - but choose life.
Here are my pages.

Lots of layers

This is mostly the page that was in the book it was too beautiful to cover up completely.

My daughter made this crane for me.

I really enjoyed working in this journal.

Mon's page in Pam's "The Music Is You" journal

Pam's beautiful journal titled "The Music Is You"was one I had an idea of what I would be doing in it for a long time.
I love Samba music, it lifts my spirit and makes me happy so I knew I'd be basing my entry around that. But I had no preconceived idea of how I was going to go about it.

It started out with a pencil sketch of a Samba dancer and then days passed before I started painting the dancer. I then added various Samba instruments before adding the writing.

To finish it off I put on some lovely Brazilian Samba music and started on the dots with toothpicks and various kebab sticks. This proved very relaxing and meditative.

I used pencil and acrylic paints.

 

The Coffee Ritual by Sharon

It was a real pleasure to work on such a beautifully made journal.  Monika even included a small gift for all of us and the instructions on how to connect to our creative source from Wendy were a great find.   

Grimoire seemed to epitomize what it means to work on a round robin.  Our individual styles shone out from the pages and I hesitated to begin.  I wanted to create something worthy of such a journal and it took quite a bit of inner lecturing to realize that I am simply what I am and it was pointless to try to be anything else!

Surprisingly the month passed and I still hadn't begun.  

I knew exactly what I wanted to do.  It should be based on the Shakespearean rhyme 

"Double, double, toil and trouble"

It should have beautiful symbols and fonts, layers and an image of

coffee brewing but I got stuck on paraphrasing the Shakespeare.  I simply hadn't the time to sit quietly and come up with anything.

This is where the spirit of cooperation came to the fore.  My good friend Tam simply went "that is easy" and wrote my words for me in no time flat.  

So with no further adieu:

"Hubble, bubble, boil and bubble,

For a brew on the double.

Grind your beans with midnight power

and cast them measured

or taste will sour.

Let them steep while you seek the bean

that has also been made by the chocolate Queen

and cast in bars of flavour and taste

Then pour your coffee with out due haste."

I began with a layer of vintage book pages.

Then started to layer up the page with symbols from the internet (nice ones)

then aged the page and before I knew it, I had finished.

I hope people realize how much time artists spend thinking about the task at hand.  It isn't always easy but I wouldn't have it any other way.