Janie's "Simply Whimsical" Journal page June 1 . 2017 "My world"

Tree (as Spirit) is ready

I have been making my Tree journal
 for the next round of the Australian Art Journal Swap
 that I run through our facebook group
 the Australian Art Swap Group

I am a passionate tree lover 

and see trees as sacred and have so many ideas
 of pages to do on this theme

My journal is made using Stonehenge print making paper for the signatures - this is my favorite mixed media paper ever and I usually use it for any hand made book binding I create, and I used some repurposed Arches heavy weight water colour paper for the covers. I wanted a really heavy strong cover as I knew I wanted to include a "tree" 

 The tree I wanted to include I found in a local street it is an actual branch but resembles a whole tree and has been flattened by being run over by cars but was still so beautiful I saw it as a metaphor for life, so often we can be run over but we do still have a real beauty.

ROUND 5 : JOURNAL MADE AND READY TO ROLL!! Wendy Mason:

I have spent the past five days getting my round 5 journal ready to send out for another exciting adventure. While deciding what I wanted to make, I came across the lace covered envelope that was sent to me by Faye in a recent flowish journal swap and I knew I really wanted to use this as my cover. It is sturdy and flexible and light wieght, and would be great for traveling around our beautiful country to other artists.

 This is what the fabric covered envelope from Faye looked like on the outside.

This is the inside of the cover also showing the cardboard strips for the spine

I cut the size I wanted, 7inches by 9 inches which to me is a comfortable size to use. Then I grabbed my bronze acrylic paint and brushed it over the outside cover...I was in a 'bronze' coloured mood...LOL

 I had to strengthen the spine so I cut two rounghly 1 inch strips that I used to place on the inside and outside of the spine. It wasn't staying glued with the wet glue I had on hand so I ended up sewing the strips together using my old but working sewing machine and even though a little crooked, it turned out fine. I also painted the strips in bronze to match the patch painting I had on the cover.

 Sewing the two strips on for the spine wasn't as hard as I first thought it would be. I just took my time and went slow so I didn't break the needle.

 I was very happy with the way the outside cover of my journal was looking but for the inside I wanted something a bit different, so I glued down a heap of magazing words onto a piece of paper and then photocopied the word covered paper in black and white.

This is the sheet of paper I used to glue down the magazine words then photocopy

I then used black paint to paint around the edges of the inside cover.

And then used double sided tape and a glue stick to glue down the photocopies on the inside front and back cover of my journal...I liked it a lot and it was different.

Once happy with my cover I ripped the 130gsm pages, 7x9 in,  for the journal and used a basic phamphlet stitch with three holes and using organza ribbon to sew them in to the cover.  As you can see in the picture above.

I am very happy with the look and feel of my journal for Round 5 in our Australian Art Journal Swap and I look forward to seeing and working in all the other journal in this round. Thank you xox

WENDY'S PAGE IN NATASHA'S GODDESS JOURNAL

I was looking at all the wonderful amazing layouts already done in Natasha's Goddess journal and giving myself a bit of a hard time as to what I wanted to do that would even compare to the already fabulous pages, so I did quite a lot of thinking and then a bit more....then one night when I was sitting on our balcony looking up into the amazing sky, I started wondering if there was a 'moon goddess'. Hmmm..., there should be, so that's when I did a little research and what do you know, there definitely was moon goddesses.

When I started my page I tried to capture the stillness of the night and the solitude of the full moon just sitting there being as glorious as it could be. I gessoed my page and used the shades of blue I could find in my stash, drew a huge circle on the page and I was set to bring my page to life. To get some shading over the moon I used a sponge and some vintage ink and it looked pretty cool. I painted my mixed blue background but it wasn't what I really wanted, it just looked like a full moon over the ocean so I ended up using some black acrylic paint to darken around the edges of the page which to me gave it a more mysterious stillness effect. I really liked the way it was shaping up.

This is my background done....

After I felt completely happy with my background, I actually left it for a couple of days to give me time to decide on what to do as my focal point for my Goddess. I was so thrilled when I was flicking through an old magazine and I found this rather large image of a lady and lo' and behold, I had my focal point, well, my symbolic Goddess. I splattered some white paint on the background and then used a tacky glue to paste her down. She was just the right size to fit on the right hand side of the pages and she looks like she is gazing down at the moon. When I was pleased with my layout I then remembered that I had to paint the flaps of the pages that folded down and up....then I was finished.

I added a small tag Natasha had provided and on the bottom flap that turned up I wrote 'Goddess of the Moon'...leaving out an actual name added to the mystery of her.

Natasha's journal is now on it's way back to her and I'm sure she is going to find all the work done in it amazing just as I did. Thank you and Have a great day! xox

Round 3- Creatures of the Bay. By Deb Stephens

 Round 3= Deb's entry in Joan's Creatures of the Bay Journal 

 

Hello again! Joan's Journal was so interesting as it was an old photo album that had been recycled into an art Journal. There were many pockets protecting our journalling and also heaps of magazine cut outs and maps etc that we could use with the theme. There was a strong recycling theme going through but Joan said we didn't have to stick with it and to just have fun so I did.

I am a little mermaid obsessed, and so I thought well they could live in "The Bay" too right?

so I got some gesso and some background colour down. I originally wanted spirals in the background in blues, but I didn't get the results  I wanted so I smudged it all with baby wipes. while it was wet I pushed pieces of Tulle into the page.  I had a trim that looked like roses on tule and I thought they looked a bit like underwater weeds so I put them onto the edges of the pages.As I am very impatient, I got my heat gun out and started drying, but then the tulle started to crinkle up and shrink and burn and I LOVED it! I had a few Beachy type embellishments from a swap years ago and decided to put those in as well. 

I them put some embossing paste over a stencil and dropped some midnight sparkle coloured embossing over the top of it... Instructions said "wait till it dries before heating".bahahhahahah...Me? Wait?? Heatgun attack! and it Puffed up beautifully to give the page more texture.

My little mermaids are layered stamps and the Queen of the Bay is a Prima/Julie Nutting doll stamp. I stamped her on one of the pages from the back of the book , cut it out and then attached sequences to her tail. I then glued her down onto the page. 

I used my really old dymo labeller to punch out the quote and then stuck that down too. I love how some of the mini mermaid tails lift off the page. I hope you enjoy this Joan! Happy Crafting everyone!

Round 4 and Round 5 are coming.

It is very exciting over at the Australian Art Swap Group with us all getting ready for the next round of our Art Journal round robin.

Positions are filling fast and there are some fabulous themes being considered. To keep the circle tight and length of swap manageable we are slitting into 2 groups Round 4 and Round 5 

I am going with
TREE
 because I am a tree lover
I lover their beauty and their meanings
i love there space in our world
I love the sound of the wind in their branches
I love the life cycle of deciduous trees
I love the promise in a seed
I love to get my hands in the earth and grow trees
I love to watch them grow
I love to climb them , sit under them, look at them.
I love trees

There are also a plethora of clever and lovely art journal pages online about trees to inspire my fellow artists.