The Bees Knees by AJ

OMG Jenny your journal is soooo big...

I admit I was overwhelmed, at first. 

So, how to create a spread that would fit with your cool theme?

 I began to muse about my childhood and how I loved to sit out in our backyard, studying the bees as they flew from flower to flower. Then, I considered the concerns about bees dying and the catastrophic effect it would have on our world.

My collaged pages reflect these binary considerations...the beauty and innocence of childhood and the mature adult reflections. 

I began by using gesso then collaging a series of torn pieces from very old children's encyclopedias.

 Next I sprayed using some Dylusion inks, Crushed Grape and Tangerine Dream. 

Trying to manifest the adult scientific approach I hand drew a bee with a 'magnified' drawing of its' knees'...a little humour intended. 

To show childhood I used a really pretty illustration from a children's book about

Heidi...I just love how it captures the carefree days of innocence and curiosity.

 I filled the page with flowers so that the colours would contrast with the adult page.

I love your journal Jenny and I found it a challenge...I hope you like my spread. xox

World Fashion - the Vietnamese Áo dài

by Lisa for Robyn

Robyn's journal is a cute little fabric covered journal with the theme of World Fashion.  Other entries include dress from Australia, Japan and the Netherlands, so I thought, hmmm, what can I do?

And then I remembered the lovely pics I'd seen of my Vietnamese friend Shinegi, when she and some friends had dressed in the traditional áo dài. Scott and I met Shinegi when we were in Hanoi in 2017, while strolling around Hoan Kiem Lake. She struck up a conversation with us, and a few days later, we all went out for dinner together. Shinegi was a uni student at the time, wanting to improve her English. Scott and I are going back to Vietnam later this year, and will catch up with Shinegi again!

Shinegi is in the yellow áo dài.

I didn't take any progress pics of my spread... oops.  Firstly I drew pics of two of the girls, coloured them using Prismacolour pencils, and cut them out.

Then I found some Asian papers and tissue paper, and collaged them on to the page.  The pics of the girls were added to the right hand page with matte gel medium.

For the left hand page, I also collaged with different papers, then added the word 'Vietnamese' by reverse cutting the letters from another page.  I strengthened the paper first by gluing a layer of cartridge paper to the reverse, hand-wrote my letters and transferred them using baking paper, and cut them out using a scalpel.  Luckily no messy cuts!  This page also has info about the áo dài, which is pronounced ow zye.

And here is the complete spread!  I like how all the coloured papers work together with the drawings of the girls.  I hope Shinegi and her friend like my drawings of them! 💜

I hope you enjoy this little spread Robyn, and hope that peeps learn something about the Vietnamese national costume!

Happy arting! 

Cheers, Lisa xx

AAJS7 Sharon's Pages in Melissa's "Under the Sea" Journal

Hi Everyone

 

Here are the pages I created in Melissa's Under the Sea journal - always a great theme to create for!

 

 

Wait til you see this fabulously created journal by Melissa - it's amazing and it's big LOL!!!!!!

 

I initially had a different idea of what I was going to do but then I decided to change tack and create these pages.

 

I started by covering the pages with Gesso and added some muslin cloth scraps and sticky mesh with gel medium.

 

 

This next step is where I strayed from my original idea LOL!!!

I decided to do a Conservation - Pollution comparison of what each scenario would be "Under the Sea" and as you can see I have two contrasting coloured pages.

 

To the "conservation" side I added some white paint through a stencil to look like the waves and froth of the sea.

On the "pollution" side I added dribbles of black paint from the top of the page - could be an oil spill!

 

To finish off I added some "fishes" to each page - nice ink sprayed colourful healthy fish to the left hand side and some skeletal fishes to the polluted side.

Plus I added little tiled letters for each page as well!

 

 

 

Hope you like what I have done Melissa and it's a bit of a reminder to us all!!!

 

Sharon :)



Sally-Anne, here I am in Cairns where I live, out floating on the Great Barrier Reef. April 2019.

1. No elaborate photos this time to describe how I made this. It is basically a patchwork of shots of the Reef with fancy cut corals, turtle, fish and of course the mock-up of me in a tyre. Unfortunately, we don't get out there that often; it's expensive, but I'm saving my 5c pieces; LOL.

The Fig Tree

If you are ever looking for me 

and there is a magnificent buttress rooted fig tree nearby, 

check there first. 

There can be nothing that says nature to me

 more than a fig tree,

 it embodies the essential divine feminine energy of earth for me. 

My page is quite simple 

and meaningful to me,

it is textural and was fun to play in.

Totally unplanned. 

These are my supplies plus a green and a brown marker.

Megs "Time for a Cuppa"

Time for a cuppa

Sharon's lovely Art Journal arrived and thought who would love a cuppa

Well, of course, the Queen came to mind and so did a Dina Wakley Stencil

So started off using Gesso and Texture paste to lay down some background texture, Used Colour Blast  Colour paste for the Queens face in Snow White so she Glimmers. Then added some layers of rice paper 

                                            

Decided to find a Cup regally fit for the Queen. And sticky taped a piece of old fashioned Bake paper onto a piece of thick copy paper and printed my own homemade rice paper.

Then decided she needed a crown and a lovely quote.

Then shaded around the page with a mix of Golds and Black to add depth 

Don't usually go down the grunge path of dark colours.  We tend to be overcritical of our work so decided to stop and leave the page where she is

Hope you enjoy her 

Meg 

Meg's Bucket List with Pam. AJ7

This was a bit of a test for me as I face some serious health issues.  It made me think about things that I don't normally.  I came to the conclusion that bucket lists are really a list of goals in life that would better suit a younger person.

My life these days is pretty quiet in my small country town, although a hair raising trip to the Big Smoke snapped me out of my inertia :).

So this is what I came up with. My daughter has been playing with my art supplies while she was here and was smooshing distress ink through stencils for a very nice effect I decided to try that

.

Then I drew my bucket and decided little birds could fly off with my wishes.  I wrote my wishes along the flight lines and added some journaling and called it done.

A close up of the birds and wishes.

Amanda's Galaxy Journal

This is my page in Amanda,s Galaxy Journal

 I did the star  face 

in Photo Lab Pro and put it all together in Scrapbook Max

  it's a digital program I bought

 hope you like it Amanda xxxxx

AASJ7 Sharon's Pages in Sallyanne's "Who Are You" Journal

Hi Everyone

 

Sharing my completed pages in Sallyanne's Journal!

 

 

I did find this a difficult theme because I am a fairly private person and I hate having my photo taken and so on LOL!!!!!!! But I managed to get them done!

 

I started by adding a thin layer of gesso to the pages and then sprayed with colourful ink sprays because I LOVE bright colours so that is something about who I am!

 

 

Next I added strips of washi tape to both pages - I used some gel medium to help them stick down properly because as we know some washi's are not overly sticky!

 

Next a thin layer of gesso to tone down the colours of the washi tape. Allow to dry and my background is ready. and I have to say this is one of my favourite background techniques so another thing about me!!!

 

Next thing about me is that I love dogs so I printed out some digi stamps by Vera Lane Studio - whose Design Team I am on - more things about who I am!!!!!!! Also printed out the wording using a scrabble tile type font. Printed on Kraft coloured paper - always love the effect of kraft with colour!

 

Well took the plunge - LOL had a selfie I thought was okay but used a photo app to turn it into a sketch look and printed out on some fibrous type paper to blur the image even more ha ha!!!!!!! Because the paper is soft and fibrous it was easy to tear around my image to add to the journal pages.

 

 

Added the digi stamps, computer generated wording and my pic to the background pages and there you go!!!!

 

 

Sallyanne also has a tag with each of our names and addresses on so I decided to "decorate" the back of the tag with another dog image for fun!!

 

 

Hope you like what I have done Sallyanne!!!

 

Sharon :)



My Entries in Robyn's World Fashion Journal

I did 2 double page spreads in Robyn's journal and of course I chose Japan. The first spread is Traditional and the 2nd one is Young Street Fashion. There were so many weird and wonderful images that I just had to choose some to showcase.
I started my first page with some home-made spray inks that have some subtle glimmer. I had the paper doll images saved on my PC so I printed them out with the accompanying words. I stamped over the inks with a cherry blossom background stamp and added a die cut border top and bottom. The word "Japanese" is from The Graphics Fairy.
The 2nd page has a background of Pixie Powders mixed with diluted PVA glue - one of my favourite things!! I printed the images on photo paper and agonised over where they should be placed. The borders on the top and bottom are done with borders from a napkin and the side borders are die cut pieces that I have had for ages. The wording I did in Photoshop and printed them on photo paper.
Hope you like these pages Robyn.