Lisa's Round 3 Journal...!

I have been watching the progress of everyone's journals for the past year since I've been in this group, with great interest!  But also some trepidation - what beautiful work; what amazing ideas; what gorgeous imagery.  I've been much more comfortable doing ATCs than journal work, but finally decided, what the hey!  Or as the kids say, YOLO!  You never learn if you don't try.

So I decided I'd like to make a journal, rather than purchase one.  I have a Dylusions A4 journal which I just love, so decided to make mine A4 too.  

I had watched a few YouTube videos and thought I remembered what to do.  Last night I was home alone (bliss!) as the hubby and kids were down the beach (I had to come back for work, sadly!).  Surely it would only take me a short time...!  

Anyway, I discovered I needed a refresher because it just wasn't working for me.  A bowl of icecream, a glass of wine, and a few videos later, I worked it out!  

I've used 5 signatures of 3 pages each, with good quality watercolour paper.  Probably too many pages, but I'm thinking that I'll use the first and last pages as inside covers.  I have cardboard for the cover, and am considering covering it with some heavy calico I have, which I can then paint.  The problem with A4 size is I don't have paper large enough to use for the cover!

Back down the beach tonight for New Year's Eve, so might get a chance to make the cover on the weekend.  

My theme is Summer - it's my favourite season.  I'd much rather be hot than cold (though 39 is a bit much today!); I love the beach, and swimming in the ocean; I love the long days and warm nights; Christmas holidays, and getting together with family and friends.  

I'd love to see what Summer means to you, and am excited about my journal making the rounds, and getting to contribute to everyone else's journal!

Happy New Year to everyone! xx

Round Three - Ros is Making a Start!

This is my first journal swap!  I am excited!  I have chosen the theme “Maps” as it was my intention to fill a journal with map goodness this year.  When the event popped up I thought it a perfect opportunity to meet my intention in a collaborative manner. 

I am inspired by Jill Berry’s book Personal Geographies. Berry uses and encourages others to create maps as a tool to self-discovery.  We use maps as a means of finding our way to a location or finding our way around a location or gathering knowledge from a map. Most people know their way around their local shopping centre and wouldn’t need to have a physical map.  For me, the mental map comes into play as I enter the centre and track my way to the coffee shop, the Ladies (loo), the supermarket and back to the car. If someone asks me where something is in the centre my mental map comes into play and I can send them in the right direction.

It is the same for most things in our lives.  I know where everything is in my house (most times!) as it is embedded in a mental map.  I don’t know where everything is in my son’s room apart from the things in the most logical places.  I would need either a map to navigate his disaster zone or ask him and he could refer to his mental map to send me in the right direction.

So consider your personal map of Self. If you were to map your whole life it wouldn’t squish onto one page of a journal but aspects of your self could fill a page.  If you are grumpy when you get up of a morning you could map ‘your grump’, map ‘your hopes’, map your ‘good mood’, your overflowing washing basket, your pantry, your art supplies.  The list of things you could map about your ‘Self'' is endless.

I had intended to use an A5 Canson illustration journal for the project but was worried the papers would not stand up to media other participants may wish to use. The suggestion of using loose leaf was made in conversation in the Facebook group and I immediately knew by going this route my problem was solved.

A hunt though my hoard uncovered some perfect loose leaf surfaces to work on and they will travel around in a small box and when they return from their journey they will be kept in another box from my hoard. Included in the box will be an assortment of hints and tips to help or inspire you to complete your contribution. 

You do not have to divulge very personal information about yourself. You can expose a facet of your ‘Self’ you don’t mind sharing. You can use whatever you have to map yourself, collage, paint, draw, write, photographs.  

Jan's Page in Wendy's Flower Journal

This is a wonderfully colorful and bright journal. Just as Wendy wanted.

I found a lovely quote from Eeyore and thought it very appropriate as my garden is always full of interesting weeds!!
I used neo colour 11 pastels and some stamps and drawing.

I enjoyed this page and just realized this photo is a still in progress.. i added a few more bits to it and then forgot to take extra photos.

Hope you enjoy weeds too Wendy!

Jan's page in Natasha's Goddess Journal

Wow Natasha what a beautifully made journal, I love the cover and the work already in the Journal from Roz and Robyn.

I wanted to keep the really clean, clear style that the journal is presenting and this is a bit of a challenge for me as i am a bit of a messy art journaler.

I chose a Celtic theme due to family connections and enjoyed looking up some goddesses from that realm.

Brigit was a Celtic goddess who as years went by was adopted by the church and she became a saint. I made a St Brigit Cross for Natasha.

Roz's pages in Wendy's Flower Journal

Robyn's art journal - Gails page.

I have finished my double page in Robyn's Journal

I hope she likes it,  sending of tomorrow

Wendy's Page in Jenny's Journal

My layout in Jenny's journal is finished and waiting to be sent on at the end of the month. I really enjoyed working in Jenny's journal. 

I used gellatos as my choice of medium and the colours turned out how I had envisaged it in my mind, first time ever...lol. 

I hope you enjoy this layout, I think it turned out wonderful. I really wanted to add quite a bit of texture on this layout, so I have used the modeling paste quite liberally all around the pages. Also used the modeling paste for the sea urchin, sea horse and coral. To make the sea weed pop a little I spread modeling paste and then pulled a fork thru it. I just love the effect it had.

 Here I have started to add colour to the page.

Showing a close up of the textured sea weed.

 I used a very small holed mesh here and put modeling paste thru it. I think it ended up looking like fish scales. So cool. The blue button type things are melted pony beads (I think. I got them in happy mail.) and I made them into jelly type fish.

 This is the final layout. I hope you like it Jenny. I loved doing it.

Roz's entry in Natasha's Goddess Journal

Round 3 of the Australian Art Journal Swap

The artists are rapidly gathering for the very exciting third round of the AAJS, These journal swaps are co ordinated through a facebook group called
The Australian Art Swap Group where we have many fun swaps not just travelling art journals, it is a warm and vibrant art community so do come over and say hello if you are interested in what we are doing. 

Whilst our artists are still creating their books and deciding on themes and formats I can share some of the fabulous themes emerging - Enchanted, Dance, Maps, Aphorism, World Travel, Steampunk, Abstract Art, Emotions and Marine Animals are all being considered.

We have artists all over Australia so our journals really do go on a journey, numbers are capped at 12 and we send out monthly so all going well it does not take much more than a year for them to make their trip and you can follow along right here in the blog.

We have one spot left for round 3 so be quick if you are interested or let us know over on our FB group and you can go on the waiting list for round 4.

Wendy's page in Sharon's circus journal

I had a lot of fun doing this page in Sharon's beautiful vintage Circus journal. Although, I never went to the circus as a child, I did see a huge elephant in their parade down our main street when I was younger. I was in absolute awe of it's size which is why I have based my page on the elephants, the gentle giants of the circus.

Jan's page in Robyn's Garden Journal

A wonderful and tactile journal with great fabric and crochet embellishment.
I didn't find any fairies at the bottom of the garden but just looked out my kitchen window and found a restful picture that changes with the seasons.

I did some collage, stamping and stenciling.

Hope you like it Robyn. Was fun creating it.

My entry in Robyn's Garden Journal

Ocean Life by Sharon Williams

I had the daunting job of creating the very first image in this album. Jenny chose to send her journal to me before she had even done her own spread. Fear of the white page reared its ugly head for a day or two but then after getting my act together I started to look through my collection of ocean images and then the page sort of made itself.

This looks like a weird way to begin but this old biological science text book is my favourite source of images. It is 100 years old and is written in Latin. 

I have a great scanner linked to my laptop and I scanned this in at 600 dpi and 2x resolution to create the base image. My scanner can mirror image things easily so when used in image transfers they come out the correct way around. 

I love line drawings and am truely inspired by museum exhibits. I have combined my image with a quote from Jules verses "twenty thousand leagues under the sea". 

I hope it reminds people of the naturalists of old where everything was new and exciting and their greatest thrill was collecting a new specimen and documenting all they could observe.

The completed spread runs over 2 double page spreads to accomodate the cutout fish head image

Reverse side with second transfer and Jules Verne quote. 

Ocean Life ... In the Beginning

Hello :) I'm Jenny of 'Art by Jenny' (an arty treasure shop). I'm a lover of all arts and crafts, especially anything with colours and or textures! My current faves are watercolours, crochet, art journaling, mixed media and of course, ATCs :D Just need more time each day! lol Don't we all?

My journal has left for its journey around Australia now (Sept) and the following pics are of its creation.

Stonehenge 250gsm paper and silk paper thread was used to make the pages. When they come home I'm planning to use the backboard of this paper pad for the cover. If I remember to keep it for the next year!

Stitched and ready to attach to the other folios. 

I haven't done my actual page so decorated the title page but it didn't leave here too neglected of art!

I also used Tim's groovy tissue tape to stick it all together. 

Dyan Reaveley mentioned in one of her videos that this stuff is archival and once cured, is super strong. And of course, we can paint over it :)

So that's my journal... the first one I made from scratch and loved it!

Can't wait to see everyone's journals as they arrive, and mine when it returns too!

Happy Creative Day!

:)

Jenny

Jan works in Tattered, Torn and Treasured

This lovely journal arrived while I was in Vanuatu and was eager to get home and get some time to work in it!

Had some 'me' time over the weekend and had some fun playing with stamps and stencils.

I followed on the key theme from Roz's front page and that gave me my inspiration.

I'll have it on its way to Gail soon. Just need to sit with it for a bit to see if it tells me it is finished=).

Wendy 'Enjoys' Lee's journal

I worked in Lees' journal today. It was so exciting and scary all at the same time. Lee's journal 'Enjoy' is absolutely beautiful and it was my privilege to work in it.
I thoroughly did ENJOY myself. 

It has a bit of texture on it, a corner pocket made with hessian, tissue napkin and my beautiful made butterflies. I called it....'Stronger, Braver, Smarter'....I hope you 'enjoy' it Lee.

Sent Journal to Jan  Friday 18th

Gail works in Faces and Figures for Jan

Here is my double page in Jan 's journal,

Faces and Figures.

 I hope she likes it.

Tattered Torn Treasured is ready to go

My journal is ready to be posted tomorrow...just have to write something about the topic.
Sorry to take so long Jan.
 Here's the cover and 1st page

Round Two. Welcome to the Circus

I have always loved the circus. 

When I was growing up, the circus and carnival used to come to town every Summer. I think it is partly the memory of the anticipation and sheer wonder of it all that fuels my enjoyment of all things circus today. 

In order to further wallow in these memories, I have chosen vintage circus as my theme for round two journal swap. It is only a small journal with two signatures and a pocket at the back. I have put some 'admit one' tickets for everyone to include on their page.  Either use it in the background or somehow really creative. 

Please keep the colours a bit muddy in the vintage theme. 

Feel free to draw or collage or both. 

If you are stuck, check out the early part of the movie "Water for Elephants ". I love that film. Sad but so beautiful. If you are not movie fans, think of the strong man, the merry go round or the prancing ponies.  

I even love clowns. 

I hope you have fun

Sharon

Ready to go

Here is my book
The cover is boringly traditional I am afraid so

it's up to you to make sure the inside sings!...........................

Tash's Entry in Reniet's "Laughter in the Face of Pain" Journal

Hi everyone,

I am the "Hitchhiker" who was picked up along the end of this journal's journey, after a visit to Louise's, led to an invitation to contribute a page to this touching journal. I must say, I have felt truly honoured to be allowed to make a contribution in what is my first travelling journal and it was lovely to see everyone's entries along the way.

I was very touched by the backstory to this very personal journal and I wanted my page to be a celebration of light overcoming darkness and of survival.

I loved the quote by Josh James Redbook, which is exactly what I wanted to express in this page:

"Laughter is the Evidence that we are still here, the proof that our tragedies will not define us forever. Laughter is the language of the Survivor".

My page depicts Faith among a field of colour; happy, laughing and blowing the bubbles which have pushed the darkness away. I think anyone who is a parent can remember a time when their little one expressed immense joy and laughter at the simple act of blowing bubbles. This was the joyous scene that I wanted to encapsulate. Those simple pleasures that we all want to retain forever in our minds and hearts.

To Reniet, Faith and her family, I hope you enjoy this page as much as I enjoyed making it for you and may I wish you all Love, Light, Joy and Good Health.

Tash Daly

Faces and Figures is ready to be launched on its journey around Australia.

Well I have made another journal. It is a pretty simple one. 

Just some watercolour paper made up in to two signatures and stitched together with a Kraft card cover(an old drawing from a Tafe course I did over 11 years ago, great recycling!)

Here is the cover. it is 19 x 26cm so will not be too bulky or expensive to post. It has an elastic to keep it closed.

And here is a page inside.

I have created two pockets on the inside cover and included some stencils and masks that you can choose to use or not. Have fun!

Flowers is ready to travel..Wendy Mason: