Layout in Lisa's Summer Themed Journalby Wendy

This was a bit of a challenge for me, having moving and packing on my mind and really no inspiration to be found. Then after we settled into our new home, I was watching a bit of the ol' telly one night and started to doodle on some pages which is something I normally do when programmes are boring and found myself drawing a surfer and whammo...I found the layout I wanted to do in the summer themed journal.
 Living on the coast, our summers are wonderfully hot and if you drive on the ocean road you are always seeing dozens of surfers doing their thing, riding the waves and I really enjoy watching them.
The background I wanted to keep abstract but it didn't quite turn out how I envisaged it, so it ended up a little abstract with the waves I painted. But overall the outcome seemed to come together and I was pleased with the finished layout. Thank you.

Jan works in Jenny's Ocean Life

This is a nicely made journal with lots of interesting bits added and interesting binding.
I really liked the monochrome cover and so wanted to stick to a fairly monochrome theme. Of course it got a little out of hand.
Then disaster struck! I had primed the pages but obviously not well enough and so when i went to town with ink and water etc etc I found it had leaked through to the other side of the page...heart in mouth... then as I had left a page in between it wasn't on anyone else's work. Phew. Thank goodness.
I am always a little afraid when working in others journals of this exact thing happening and usually wrap all the pages firmly in plastic and masking tape while I am working in a journal.
Soooo.. Jenny never fear all is good, I just had to glue another page over the ink splodges.

I adhered some gauze on to the page and did stamping and doodling. I found a lovely poem and glued that down.
Hope you like it.

Jan does Rachel's Garden of my Imagination

This is a lovely little journal crammed full of lovely pages. I decided to do a fairly calm, un-busy page... but then of course my usual nature kicked in and it did get a bit more on it than I intended.
Here it is. I have also included for Rachel a book mark that i got in Suzhou in China. From a wonderful little street in the old town with lots of books and journals and art, I could have spent all day there. Hope you like it.

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.

Joan's guest spot in round 2- Life as I see it.

This journal belongs to round 2 but came to me because of a big of a mix up with Gail's round 2 and round 3 journals.  Anyway after some discussion, it was decided I would work in this one, rather than the round 3 one.

I used a piece of water colour card that was gelli printed, then added some more paint and ink spray to create the background.  Tissue transfer created the owls and other birds.Added some washi tape in middle, bottom of left page and top of right page for texture. I  glued some circles of pattern paper on the pages, and using textured paste and stencil, added some texture on top. The beautiful dream catcher embellishment is by Kerry Fellows. I drew a couple of flowers and highlighted some of the owls ect with white gel pen.  Added some white paint for interest.  Added the typed quote.  I rather liked how it turned out, but I really need to start using some other colours rather than blue and green in my pages. As all the tags Gail had enclosed were used, I created my own to fit in with Gail's and the page.

Hope you like it Gail.

Deb's Inspired by Pinterest

Have just finished Deb's Pinterest journal, will send in next couple of days