Amanda's Galaxy

 My final journal to complete in this round was Amanda's Galaxy. I was really looking forward to this one as I knew it would be real fun to do. I hope you enjoy it Amanda. I believe it is better in the flesh than these photos. I found it particularly hard to photograph, possibly because the background was so dark.  

This picture is the triple spread I completed. I attached an extra flap on the right hand side, as I wanted my little story on the closed side....I made this with torn collaged elements of planets and stars. The main point of interest is the 'shaker' planet of Saturn. With all the loose glittering stars under its 'dome.'

Here are the universes. One the left hand side middle right, if you look carefully, you can see two stars which look as if they're nearly colliding.

Here is the story I just loved about the 'colliding' suns which is on the outside of the flap I made.

Right hand side

Left hand side

Sharon's Tea Time journal

This is a lovely little journal and a fun topic. However as I'm at the tail end of it's journey, all the usual topics such as High tea, Mad hatters tea party, Japanese tea ceremony have been done. I didn't really know what to do. 

Sharon very kindly supplied some tea bags to go with the journal. So I challenged myself to see how much art I could do while drinking a cup of tea. 

Using some left over torn pages from another project and a cup of Lemon and Ginger tea, I laid down the background. 

Next day with one pair of scissors, the remains of an old childrens book, ( unfortunately it had lost it's cover so I can't attribute the work), glue and a cup of Camomile, Honey and Vanilla, the main character came together. 

Third day, one more cup of tea, Earl Grey and it was all done. 

So no more "I haven't got time to create " all you need is the time it takes to drink a cuppa tea. 

Thank you Sharon.

Mother Earth - Gaia

I have discovered that it is more difficult the further down the list of recipients you come. I would think of something then remember, "Oh, so and so did that already.' No matter, it just made me think harder.
I started with the concept of Gaia as Mother Earth. Next, I read lots about what Gaia means. Then, I found my focal image...the pregnant everywoman about to give birth to the Earth.
I love this image as it can symbolise the birth of a child, an idea, a theory, an art journal spread. And, this year I've been 'pregnant' with so many ideas and techniques to use in the various journals that have passed through my hands.
I began with gesso, then some stencils, followed by lots of sprays...metallic mostly as I really wanted a cosmic feel to my pages. I discovered an acetate page from Kaisercraft's Stargazer collection and used it on one of my pages to symbolise the universe. This, together with the image of a pregnant Gaia helped to complete my spread. The word 'precious' is included as it pertains to Earth and every living creature on it.
Louise, I know this has been a very difficult time for you. I hope you will see my spread as a tribute to your wonderful mum, Pam, who was one of my mentors. Let's be kind to each other and protect our Gaia xox

Robyns World of Fashion Journal Australian Art Swap Group round 7 By Meg Atkinson

Belle Of the Ball

By Meg Atkinson

This Month I received Robyns World of Fashion journal. beautifully put together. And wonderfully Pink ( one of my favorite colours!)

I Started the page by gessoing it first then collaging with floral magazine pieces .

Then i Stencilled some florals with texture paste and let dry overnight.

Next step i sprayed some Rose Quartz Dylusions around edges and dryed off.

I love Collage pictures with paper, so used a trusty heart shape punch to punch out an assortment of Music and textured papers to make the dress.

I warmed upthe page around the edges with some distress ink , Black soot and around the edge of the dress, finishing her off with some embelishments and letters.

Our photos never seem to reflect  the true fun of our pages.  Its always a delight to receive a travelling journal to view everyones beautiful projects!

 

Who Am I?

by Lisa for Sallyanne

Sallyanne's A4 size journal is a great chunky thing that she's going to love when it gets home!

Her theme is "Who are you?" which can actually be a daunting thing to journal about.  Pam's entry is now especially moving, as she's no longer with us 😢💜.

A few years ago I'd done a self-portrait as part of a weekly drawing challenge I was in, so I decided to recreate this piece but make it a bit smaller.

As usual, I forgot to take enough progress pics!  Jenny always puts me to shame!  My usual medium is watercolour, but for this journal I opted for acrylics.  I have stacks of stencils so wanted to use them in some way. 

So I ended up using all the colours!  😁

Afterwards, I thought it was a bit loud, so used another favourite stencil to add some white over the top, then spritzed it with watercolour.  Also added some white Molotow pen to make it whiter.  Can't please me!

Next I watercoloured strips of paper and wrote bits of trivia on each one, about myself.

And on the right hand side, I also added my little self-portrait, doing some of my favourite things - reading a good book, drinking a glass or three of chardy, and eating M&Ms!  Don't think wine and M&Ms really go together, but not letting that stop me.

So here are all my bits of trivia!  

Family - I've been married to Scott for 25 years and we have 2 kids - Riley, 20, and Mel, 18.

Home - Scott's family have always been in Melbourne, but I moved here in '91.  Before that I lived in Pt Pirie SA, Newcastle NSW, Golden, Colorado USA, and Mt Isa Qld.  We moved a lot with my dad's work!

Art - I've dabbled in different arts & crafts all my life, but it's only in the last 5 years or so that I've been happy to call myself an artist.  I love using watercolours and doing collage with teabags that have been recycled.  I try and make art every day!

Sport - When I was younger I played netball, softball and tennis.  Arthritis in my knees put an end to my sport, and I had a partial knee replacement almost 12 months ago.  Now I try to walk regularly!

Smells - I love the smell of brewed coffee, vanilla and orange.  In the supermarket, I love the smell of the tea aisle and shampoo aisle!  I hate strong smells like petrol, textas, oil paints, some flowers, and lavender!

Community - I'm the secretary of our local cricket club, the membership secretary of the netball club, and life member of the junior footy club.

Work - I've been in banking since I was 16, first with Commonwealth Bank, and now almost 17 years with Bendigo Bank!  I do Home Loans and other consumer lending.

Travel - Scott and I have been to Vietnam 4 times, the last in Sept/Oct this year.  We've met many wonderful people there.  We've also been to Cambodia and KL, and will hopefully go to Thailand next year!

Pet Hates - Rude people, people with no manners.  Please and thank you are important!  I also hate incorrect grammar and spelling!

Beliefs - I've never been religious.  I believe in treating people how you'd like to be treated.  Kindness goes a long way!

Music - I'm an 80s girl and believe this decade to be the best for music!  Love INXS, Cold Chisel, Fleetwood Mac, Human League, and new stuff - Ed Sheeran, Chainsmokers, Cold Play, Miley, Birds of Tokyo, James Blunt.  I love to sing in the car.

Food - Unfortunately I have a sweet tooth, especially for chocolate!  And caramel, and M&Ms... I try not to buy blocks of chocolate because I will eat the whole block...  My willpower is poor!

Books - I love to read and do it most days.  I prefer real books and have way too many.  Fave authors?  Diana Gabaldon, Stephen King, Melina Marchetta, JK Rowling, Justin Cronin, Anita Shreve, Geraldine Brooks.  

Movies - I love going to the cinema but Scott doesn't - Mel and I usually go together.  Love Harry Potter, Avengers, rom coms, thrillers but not horrors, lots of genres!

Left - left handed and proud of it.  One day we'll take over the world! 🙌

Hope you like it Sallyanne - happy arting!

Cheers, Lisa xx

Inspired by Nature

Janie's Book of Nature is such a wonderful book of textures and colour! I found a sheet of beautiful rice paper from Stamperia featuring two hands inspired by Michelangelo's Creation of Adam that seemed perfect for this theme.

I trimmed it to size and glued it down with a gel matte medium using my trusty flat wide paintbrush.

Once the gel medium was dry, I mixed a small puddle of watered down white gesso to use as a wash over the background areas of the rice paper to calm down the contrast of the printed words.

For this page, I thought I'd have a play with Tim Holtz's White Collage Tissue Paper using Ranger's black Archival Ink and a few favourite stamps. The idea was that the paper would disappear into the background and leave the printed image behind.

The birds, quote and grunge spatters are all from the Tim Holtz Stamp Set "Urban Tapestry". I love the typographic style of this quote. It says :

"The creative is the place where noone else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and venture into the wilderness of your intuition. You can't get there any other way, only by taking risks and by not quite knowing what you're doing. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself."

After stamping onto the tissue, heat setting the ink and trimming to size, I then coloured some areas on the back with white pencil. The white would help the reversed and outlined words show clearer on the background.
Gesso would do the same thing but pencil doesn't crinkle up the paper or need drying time.

I used matte gel medium to glue down everything, both under the tissue and over it to seal all the edges.

The birds were also stamped onto tissue paper and heat set before being trimmed and glued down with the gel matte medium.

All the branches were stamped straight onto the page with black Archival ink after the birds were dry.

Above is a closeup of how the tissue paper blends into the background. Sometimes. If you're not looking for it, you can't see it...! lol :) Still a fab technique for collage when you don't feel like cutting around every single feather, beak and foot.
Colour was applied to the birds using watercolour pencil (red and brown) and a waterbrush.
Being a translucent tissue, I was able to flip one of the birds to face the other way (perched on the hand facing left) without losing too much detail. Then coloured over him with black pencil to give his feathers more definition and darken the image.

The birds needed something to hang around with, so I stamped more branches in the black Archival Ink, then some spatters of grunginess in black and stonewalling in brown (Tim's background stamp "Slate and Stone").
The brown Archival Ink was only applied to small sections of the stone background stamp and pressed onto the page without an acrylic block, to give it a more rustic appearance.

Black Archival Ink was used for all the beetles and ants from Tim's stamp set "Entomology". They're crawling all over the place!
I coloured the beetles and some of the ants with brown watercolour pencil then once dry, I drew on the white highlights and gave them a covering of Ranger's crackle medium.

The bees were stamped onto tissue paper using the black Archival ink, dried with the heat tool and then had their bodies coloured with yellow pencil on the back of the paper. After being glued onto the page with gel matte medium, I painted their wings with an iridescent medium to make them shimmer.
Their black stripes were enhanced using black pen and highlights drawn on with white gel pen.

Above is a closeup of an ant after the crackle medium had dried. The quote was made into a wallhanging with nails drawn on with black pen and brown pencil.

Lastly, I blended in a tiny smattering of blue ink around some of the edges of both pages.

Thanks for reading my blog post! Hope it made you smile!
:D
Jenny

In Meg Atkinson's Bucket List Journal I chose to illustrate through travel posters the places I would love to visit.

On my computer, I resized all the travel posters  to fit the double spread. I sprayed the background with metallic ink and glued the posters into a pleasing composition, leaving some tiles blank for quotes etc..

right hand page

left hand page

The Paper Tree

This is my page in Lisa Jones' Book Page Art journal. Layered 4 book pages together and cut out a tree. Girl on swing is a stamp I stamped on book page and coloured it in. Bunnies, bird and shrubs are book page images. Flower blossoms and leaves are punched from book paper and background is book Paper gessoed and coloured with ink. I also made a boo boo and did it upside down. Sorry! Hugs Robyn

Bridal Fashion

When I received Robyn's wonderful journal I really found it difficult to decide on what to do. The countries that fascinated me had been done. Then, as we had been having so many weddings in my family with another to come early next year I thought...why not?

Fashions in wedding wear have changed over the years so I chose that as my theme. I wanted to use lots of fabric to highlight bridal fashion. 

First, I gessoed then I lay down some lovely white fabric and overlayed that with lace.

Next, I arranged four pictures  from the 1950's/60's/70's/80's with the final representing today.

Inbetween the pictures I placed some lovely appliques. I also created three rolled roses using wedding fabric.

Robyn I hope you like my contribution. xox

The Galaxy Song

My galaxy art journal page ... by Jenny for Amanda

As some of you know, my first attempt ended in disaster after smooshing gesso through a stencil and stuffing it all up... I thought the background was so pretty before I did that. Lesson learnt, use either a foam blending tool with such runny gesso or use thicker gesso...! Or use paint like I'd normally do...

This was actually all watercolours... started off as a wash using blue, then add some purple. Then reverted back to my fave techniques of putting paint to the craft mat, spritzing with water, placing paper onto the ink and lifting upwards trying not to slide. I applied blue, purple and black each separately, drying inbetween using the hot air tool. Then I splattered all that black everywhere and sprayed the edges with water... then waited for it to dry again.

I made such an incredible mess on my mat, on my hands, over the paper! It was so awesome :D

The idea was that the galaxy of stars and spirals would then go diagonally across the page from bottom left to top right, with some of the Galaxy Song words weaving in and out of the stars.

Ah well... the next attempt turned out ok in the end. It was created on the back of the first sheet of paper so Amanda has both versions!

Starting on a messy page, Tim Holtz Distress Spray Stains came to the rescue!

I sprayed the whole page with water, leaving it dryish in the centre (the water and ink blended towards the middle anyway which was fine, just trying to keep it lighter).
Started with Peacock Feathers (blue), then some Candied Apple (red) and splash of Dusty Concord (purple). Then around the outside, some Ground Espresso (dark brown).
I then placed another sheet of paper over the top, lifted off again then. Before it was dry (I had plenty of time as it was so soggy! lol), I sprinkled a sparkly white embossing powder, imagining that it could be visualised as distant stars.

It took a few minutes to dry with the help of the heat tool... mostly drying from underneath so as to not blow away all the powder. This pic is me waiting for the ink to dry showing close up of the embossing powder looking like star dust.

Once mostly dry, I used gel matte medium blended through Tim Holtz Layering Stencil "Falling Stars" to recreate the Milky Way. I made a bit of a mess but put blinkers on and kept going. I think next time I'd use a white paint or ink instead of a clear gel so I could see where the stars appeared!

Anyway, more embossing powder was scattered over the whole page and tapped off. I heated the page from underneath as well as on top as before. You can see I should have waited a bit longer for the ink to be more dry ... I've created a few huge clusters of stars, but they're so far away that they look squashed!

Check out the beautiful colours that are created from layering the inks. Sometimes they don't appear til they're dried completely.

I've featured a song from Monty Python's Meaning of Life... its been flying around in my head since the swap began... The Galaxy Song. Its right at the end of the movie :)
The lyrics were borrowed from the internet, restyled and printed, then sliced into strips.

The first and last paragraph I left straight, but the rest was glued down as if following the Milky Way across the page. I used Dylusions Glue Stick and scissors to stick one or two words at a time, weaving and waving as it went.

Once all the words were stuck down, I used a white gel pen to add a shooting star, few spiral galaxies,  filled in some stars and add the title in groovy starry lettering.

Then decided that I should emboss the lettering as well... so dragged out my embossing pen and wrote over the lettering, added the powder and heated it. Also added a slight shadow with a black fine felt tipped pen.
Then I simply had to draw in vintage fridge... at the beginning of the song, Eric climbs out of a fridge to sing the song to Mrs Brown. Totally looks like a real one hey? lol :)

Being a song all about time and speeding lights, I drew a pocket watch flying across the page...

And added a tiny little mini Earth on the bottom right hand corner...

All finished. It was also going to have a tape measure but I don't know how to fit it in without covering the words. Must be the fastest page I've made but I like it and enjoyed making it. I hope you like it too!

On the right hand side are the legals :) I'll have to find the musical version of this song so you can all have it spiralling around inside your heads too! lol :) I love it, one of my fave songs, along with the Butterfly Ball by Roger Glover, Rainbow Connection by Kermit the Frog and Movin' Right Along by Kermit and Fozzie.

Happy Creative Day!
:)
Jenny

Galaxy Song by Monty Python ... Songwriters John Du Prez / Eric Idle. Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group.