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.

Annabelle's work in Jennys Grimm Journal

I have had so much fun creating in Jenny's Brothers Grimm Journal, I hope you can guess my fairy tale!

I started out by putting texture paste down to create my tower, I then roughed in the rest of the spread,

I continued to work on the spread, adding my prince.

Then it was time for the text.

And now this journal is on its way to the next person

Just Janie in Annabelle's journal

Janie's page in Annabelle Reid's journal. 

I have given a brief overview of my procedures under each picture. Annabelle, I hope you enjoy my art, cheers. Your journal is called Just You and the piece of art I've created is a collage  which I love doing and represents my love of the whimsical.

This is the beginning. Annabelle has provided A4 watercolour sheets with an A5 flap. First I spray the page with walnut frosted in, then stamp selected images and lastly, stick down torn Australiana papers. Click on images to enlarge.

I have previously selected images from my stash and fussily cut them out. I scatter the images onto the page and begin to make a careful selection and placement for them. These are changed around for a while until I'm completely satisfied with the result; then I stick them all down. Lastly I use black and white inks to enhance some of the images, then I apply a spray lacquer.

Panel 1

panel 1 part 2

panel 2 (underneath the flap)

panel 3 (top of the flap)

Entire image with under flap showing. Click on image to enlarge.

Wendy's Layout in Janie's SIMPLY WHIMSICAL

Before I started work in Janie's Journal, I thought to myself how far I have grown when it comes to working in another artists journal. I remember my very first swap and the feeling of being so very nervous that I would make some sort of mistake in that person's journal. Then I looked down at the blank page in Janie's SIMPLY WHIMSICAL journal and couldn't wait to start experimenting...lol.

I gave the page a light layer of gesso and have wanting to try the 'streaking' or dragging effect for some time, so why not now! I can always paint over it if it doesn't turn out. After the gesso dried, I used a paint spatular to drag a few colours from top to bottom and bottom to top to get the streaking I was hoping for. Not quite happy with the way it was going by using the spatular, I ended up using a dry hard bristled brush and found this gave me the more smudgier look, which is what I was looking for. I then used a few stencils using the same paint colours that had already been placed on the background.

When I was happy with the background, the whimsical feeling arose when I thought about using some of my 'skatter cats'. I had recently used a few of these cats in another journal and as I save all my templates of anything I draw,,,yep!...too easy...I grabbed my skatter cats, gave them a bit more colour with some watercolour paints and they were ready to be placed on the page. I used a tacky glue to adhere them and then went round the cats with a wash on white paint and then highlighted then with a black watercolour pencil. The final touch was to write the word 'FRIENDS' above the middle skatter cats and my simply whimsical layout was finished. I really enjoyed just playing in Janie's journal and hope you all enjoy the outcome as well. Thank you.

P.S. I have also included the video below, if you would like to watch the whole process.

HAVE A GREAT DAY !!!!!

COLLEEN'S PAGES IN PAM PARKER'S JOURNAL

INSPIRED BY TEESHA.

It's such an honour to be the first to work in your beautiful journal Pam. 

Pam's pages are quite large & I used the first pages, which had a large flap as well. So I decided to use each page separately & do 4 individual pages.

I npainted all the pages, &, put borders, that I'd cut from magazines, around the edges. Then on Page 1 I used a cut-out of a motor bike. I cut the bikie's head off & put a deer head on, added an eye for the headlights. Added some texture paste circles & stencilling.

I added lots of doodling & some stamps along the borders. I wrote the words:- Born to be free, Born to be wild, Born to ride.

On page 2 I used a cut-out of a beautiful woman with a tall lacey hat, & then put a chicken in her hair.

I then replaced her face with another, added doodling & stamping & a bird on top of the hat. I printed & cut out the words, which say :- I think I have OCD (Obsessive Chicken Disorder) Little voices in my head keep telling me, go get more CHICKENS.

On page 3 I used a picture of Steve Irwin holding a very large lizard. I replaced the head of the lizard with a really "cool chick" wearing sun glasses & stamped some frogs & words

A bit more stamping & doodling & some striped hats & this was done.

On page 4 I used two cut-outs with superman shirts on & proceeded to doctor them. Changed their heads, legs, & the outfit on the larger one. Cut a skirt from a piece of colourful paper & added those gorgeous boots.

More  stamping & doodles & a pretty heart hanger on his arm & striped stockings on the girl.

The words say:- Deep in their hearts most wish to be understood and cherished.

 I enjoyed working on these pages so much, & I hope you like them Pam. And, yes, I had to put some chooks in. 😉

Lesley's Homage to Art

LESLEY ALEXANDER'S PAGE IN LISA JONES'S ART JOURNAL..JULY 2017.

I was excited to be the first person to paint in Lisa's art Journal. The theme of Lisa's Journal is Homage to art.The artist I decided to pay homage to was BANKSY even though it is not really known who BANKSY actually is ( there are a lot of suspicions ) he is quite famous for his street art.

I started my page with some torn papers..

followed by the use of lots of stencils and acrylic paints to randomly fill the page.

I then drew my circles and gave the rest of the page a light covering of white gesso, I used gesso instead of white paint because I wanted it to be more translucent .

I then used my favorite BANKSY stamps to fill the rest of the page.

1. 
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
     

• I also decided I would do a matching tag for each page that I do as an extra for the owners of each journal for them to use some other way .
  
  
• 
  Thank you Lisa for sharing your awesome with us.

Jan is Empowered

My first page in the new round is in Lesley's lovely Empowerment Journal. It is quite a large journal and this is a bit of a challenge. The spread is A3 landscape.
At first I did some layers and stenciling. Trying not to muddy the colours as I often end up doing in my enthusiasm.

Then I added the elements I wanted to feature and set to work. I originally wanted to use the slogan 'Empowered Women Empower Women' but that was already on the back of the journal so I dug through my stencils and found a relevant Dina Wakley one. I still ended up losing some of the vibrant colour but I am fairly pleased with how the page came out.

Hope you like it Lesley. It will be on its way to Pam next week.

AAJS5: Silhouettes for Roz...

Hi Everyone!

So excited to be the first to work in Roz's "Silhouette" Journal.

Lately I've been making a lot of bright coloured creations and I've done it again LOL!!

Roz's journal is landscape and each page is A4 size so a nice big area to create on! AND she has secured pages with elastic so you can actually take them out to work in!!

So being the first I decided to nab the middle opening page and decorate the whole thing in one go - so much fun!

I started with some bright acrylic paints and a brayer and added "blobs" of colour and rollered out to cover the page. Then used one of my favourite stencils and used all the same colours as the background to cover the entire page with a light sponge through the stencil.

I had ordered a pack of stamps from Ebay "Dina Wakley" and I thought they were my style of Silhouette and perfect for how I wanted my pages to look so I used all 3 stamps from the set to stamp along the bottom half of the page.

I wanted the whole page to be connected - not 2 separate themes - so I found a quote I liked and using some large alphabet stamps added the quote to cover the top half.

To finish off I used black paint and a credit card to make a lined border around the whole thing and added some sparkly gems to both pages.

I am really happy with how it turned out - hope Roz likes it!

Looking forward to getting another journal in the round next month to create in!

Sharon

AAJS Round 4......Favourites.

I felt very honoured to be the first visitor in Jan Mullane's lovely journal.  Jan has done an excellent job making her journal, which is a comfortable size to both work in and to post onwards.  Her art work is very special.

For my spread I decided to try out a background I had seen demonstrated by a FB friend.  I used dylusions paints, stencils and stamps.  My intentions were to take step - by - step photos....but I forgot!

My focal point is dandelions, made by using a snipped toilet roll insert and a delicate touch.  They turned out OK.  I did the centres with bubble wrap and then some perfect pearls.

My quote says:  When you look at a field of dandelions, you can see, 100 weeds OR 100 wishes.
I hope it pleases you Jan, always remembering that we all make very different art and that is part of the joy of being part of such as this.

My page.

The quote

Close up of dandelion.

Believe AAJS5 - Wendy's Word Journal

I got to work in Wendy's Word Journal to kick off Round 5.  I chose the Word Believe and a fairy came to mind.  I decided to play with some of my new stamps from Carabelle Studio and Distress Oxides for this spread also.

I started by Painting my background with a mix of acrylic paint colors.

Next I used my Distress Oxides with a Circle Stencil from The Crafters Workshop and a little bit of mark making with the Union Stencil from Stencil Girl.  This was followed by some stamping around the edges and a few circles.  This was the first time I had played with these Carabelle Stamps.  My fairy however also from Carabelle has graced a few projects before now.

I stamped out, colored and cut out the fairy and stuck her down.  The Inktense Water Color Pencils used to color the fairy were also used to color in my stamped word Believe (I think this was a Rubber Dance Stamp).

I wanted to keep things simple, but felt something was missing.  A bit more color perhaps?  I took out my yellow Posca Pen and added a touch more color around the stamped borders.  I still felt a touch more magic was needed and thought a touch of shimmer was the perfect touch for a fairy.  I smeared and smudged it around the fairy and stamped circles.  The last finishing touch was some stamped butterflies using stamps from Darkroom Door.

Diving Deep

Its funny how art imitates life and life imitates art,

I have been delving deep into trying to understand me and searching for things that might be hidden, lurking in the deep, aware too of the association between the element of water and our emotions and my affinity for water and my emotional state of late.

Lately I have had mermaids swimming up from the deep in different art works and the first art journal I received in round 5 of the Australian Art Journal is Danie Mays  "Ünder the Sea"

I had no idea of what I would do until I started, that is often the way I work, I know many like to consider and plan and research and funnily enough that is also how many live their lives. I find I operate on a different system I work instinctively and intuitively and trust in the outcome without having to understand every step. I just let it happen.

I started with a sketch and I wanted to work with collage, texture and paint. I stamped some background layers knowing they would be sunk deep into the work along with the collage elements I added. I always use words in my art journaling, somewhere in the piece - I found an old sheet I made years ago with some good words so they became part of the collage and I wanted shimmer so I also added small pieces of aluminium foil. 

It was hard to hold down the fibres I used in her hair and for the kelp strands so I started adding tissue paper, then she wanted to go out by the pool, she is a mermaid after all-

 we found a sunny spot to dry that layer.

That is one of our cats-

Domino

on the other side of the pool stalking his territory.

My next layer was using transparent colours, transparency is a real thing for me right now, in trying to know myself and expose more of me to myself as much as others and also in my art work

- there it is again, life imitating art.

I painted her ocean out by the pool in the sunshine, its winter here right now and quite cool inside the studio. 

Next it was time to pull it all together, I painted her, and painted the kelp forest she is swimming in, I added some glitter too, that is not something I do often but she called for it and used gold and green to to find the kelp. I outlined the leaves and the page border with pens. 

Here she is all finished-

She has a few more elements - some animal companions and some beautiful rocks in her transparent watery colours and a 5 petalled white flower.

I added the quote by Anais Nin

"I must be a mermaid.... I have no fear of depths a great fear of shallow living"