Who am I? for Sallyanne.

This month I have the pleasure of working in Sallyanne's art journal, titled 'Who Are You?' Now there's a question that has a million answers.

I really like this AJ.  Not sure if it's hand made or not, but although it is A4 sized it is very light.

And so............  As you all may know, my health took a serious turn for the worse earlier this year.  As a person living with cancer the disease becomes the total focus of all around you.  The appointments with health professionals are all consuming and it is very scary.  I must add here that I am doing very welSo my decision was to describe myself thus.....I am NOT my Disease!!.  Here is what I did.

 For the background I did a lot of writing about how I felt about the entire thing.  Lots of angst, some paint and gesso.

Next I added my flower.  I wanted it to be very definite and a focal image, so I used a little pointer that I learned from Jenny James.  I gessoed it first.

On the other page I used a stencil to print my words. The journalling is still showing through.

I continued to work on my flower, it needed to be very brilliant, plenty of paint and several colours.  Red, orange, black.  Some stamping to list the things I am.

Some details.  Includes stamping and finished the flower petals with some Viva gold to pick up the texture.

The finished spread.  I do hope you are happy with it Sallyanne.

 

Janies Haiku

Pam's Haiku page I always knew would be a challenge. I had a vague idea about what haiku poetry was and where it originated from. Little did I know then, I would end writing not one, but two for Pam.

I became so absorbed in creating this illustration, I completely forgot to take any pics of its development. I had the idea of something tropical and balmy to escape to from the cold winter of Montefiore - where Pam lives - so I penned the attached haiku. After a number of attempts I ended up with the two attached and my illustration then started to evolve. I first found a palm tree from a Kaisercraft paper and another paper by K & Company with a design that looked like waves. I ripped them to fit the page. I then painted a sandy foreground, some sea, and the sky. I then started to stick down my collage elements; first the tree, then the waves. I found suitable doors on Pinterest and printed them off. The hibiscus came from Kaisercraft Collectables: Paradise Found or Island Escape collection. The last thing I did was add highlighting with metallic mists and paint, and dimensional effects which don't show on the photo. Pam, I hope you like my art and haiku - made especially for you.

As it's hard to read the haiku on the art I'll print them here for you to read:

The doors open wide

My imagination is set free

It floats waiting

Perfume lingers still

Flowers in unexpected places

A balmy day

Nurturing our Nature

by Lisa for Janie

Lucky me, two journals to complete this month, as I'm going overseas in a couple of weeks!

Janie's journal is a lovely little Dylusions-style journal in A5 size, and the paper is yummy.

I really love native trees and flowers, so ummed and ahhed about what to do for this journal.

I was scrolling through Pinterest when I discovered these absolutely beautiful bouquets full of native flowers, that just begged me to draw them!  The one that my page is based on is by Grace from Swallows Nest Farm in Tassie.  I'm really not sure if she's still trading; their FB page says the farm was up for sale earlier this year, but gorgeous flowers are still being posted on their Instagram page.

I'm hoping Grace is still making beautiful flowers for peeps somewhere else!

I do prefer to see flowers in situ, but would certainly make an exception for something like this! 💜🌸

This was quite a simple page to do; I drew my bouquet in pencil, then added watercolours, and outlined it all loosely with a fineliner.

And voila!

My scribble reads: I'm not big on cut flowers; I prefer to see them in the garden, but the sight of a posy of native flowers is a joy to me!

And yes, I know proteas aren't Australian natives.  But they're related to banksias and waratahs, so that's good enough for me! 😊

Enjoy Janie!

Cheers, Lisa 

Time for High Tea!

by Lisa for Sharon

When I heard Sharon's theme - Time for a Cuppa - of course I thought of using teabags in my page as I am wont to do.  However, when I received the journal and looked through it, and thought about it - shock horror - I didn't use teabags at all!

I came up with a different slant on things.  And of course took bugger all process pics - sorry peeps!

So firstly I collaged both of my pages with different vintage-style papers.  Sharon's journal is a two ring journal, making it easy to remove pages to work on.

Next I drew my page elements on good old cartridge paper.  I like this paper because it's a touch thicker than photocopying paper, and it's easy to cut out.

Then I coloured all of my bits using Derwent Inktense pencils - I love how soft and easy they are to use compared to the Derwent Studio pencils.  My daughter and I argue about these pencils constantly; she prefers the Studios and says 'Blend, mum!  Blend!'  It probably depends on the paper you're using, but I'll still pick Inktense any day!


Next I stuck everything down using matte gel medium, and added a sparkly chandelier.  And looked at it, and thought, it just needs something else.  So I added lots of words to do with High Tea.  

I love a good high tea; I think it's one of those things that you don't do very often, so it's always special!  If you've never had one, I highly recommend it.  Especially if they serve champagne! 😍






On the left hand page I wrote High tea is my kinda tea!

And here's my finished spread -  hope you like it Sharon! 💜

Amanda's Galaxy Journal

I really had fun with this, I love anything to do with space exploration, for eg: astronomy, ufo's, event horizon's, intersteller, rocket ships (lunar modules, international space station), our history of space evolution, obviously the apollo moon landings, (even though all Apollo missions did not make it to the moon), as you can see, everything, everything to do with space space space.
So when I had the opportunity to dive into this journal, I knew it was going to be fun and exciting.

You may notice an obvious similarity here: Circles haha, obviously for me it was a no brainer, I wanted to do the solar system, and that would obviously need to include spheres, similar to my circles/spheres in Meg's bucket list journal.

I went to my A4 printer paper stash and grabbed about 3 to 4 sheets and glued them together for stability. I cut two A5 size pieces of cardboard to add sturdiness to the working surface, it worked really well.

Firstly I painted black gesso all over the whole area, once I did that, I quickly used a glitter duster spray bottle to spray dry 'Ranger distress glitter dust', in the colour 'vintage platinum', for star light effect.  I then waited for the gesso to dry before adding more work. By the way, the circles I used are the Sizzix framelits 8 piece die set.

I began with the sun, and then tried to place the planets as they are in our solar system. I would call this more of a caricature representation of our solar system. I wanted to add a bit of comedy to the whole thing by drawing and colouring in a martian from the toy story movie series and also drawing a ufo. I wanted to add the USA rocket ship to represent the many launches into space. I know the placing and sizes of some of the planets are off scale but I think you all know what I am getting at. Lastly, "Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft" is a song by Klaatu, originally released in 1976 on their first album. The year following its release, the Carpenters covered the song, using a crew of 160 musicians. The Carpenters' version reached the top 10 in the UK and Canada, and charted at number 1 in Ireland. I thought this was an appropriate song to include, I loved listening to it as a youngster.

Anyhow, I hope you like it Amanda, thank you for this awesome opportunity, it was sooooo much fun :D

Meg's Bucket List Journal

Today I will be blogging about two different journals, unfortunately I didn't get around to blogging about Meg's buck list journal until now, my apologies.

My idea was to present a small bucket list in individual circles. I have plenty more things on my bucket list but I decided I would like to add pictures or a character along with bucket list label. I wish now I had of added more.

World Fashion with the Australian Home Journal of 1938

Many moons ago, Australians used treadle sewing machines, flannel fabric and buttons made of shells to create pyjamas and nightgowns for their children. Plus the most adorable bunny slippers!

For Robyn's theme of World Fashion, I've used an original page from the Australian Home Journal magazine, published in 1938. Amidst cries of  'oh no, you didn't' and 'why didn't you photocopy it' from my historical fashion loving Mum (retired dressmaker and designer), I cut up all the elements of the page including the children with their captions and mini-me pattern overviews. Its not like I've used a page from her collection (yes, she has this one and omg, no way, I'd never do that).

Besides, its beautiful paper, worth preserving in a wonderful art journal.

All the illustrations are so beautifully drawn. The wonderful very fine paper has aged in colour to a greyish tone but isn't as brittle or as fragile as some paper of the same era.

To get started I found a pink sheet of scrapbook paper that would compliment the pink journal as well as the era of the Australian Home Journal page I've used.
Torn and put back together using a matte medium gel. I then used some washi tape in similar tones... pink, green with roses and stripes - and all seems to suit a pjs theme well :)

Just for a change, I only used 2 different colour acrylic paints... Finnabair Art Alchemy Sparks in Butterfly Spells (such a pretty pink) and Finnabair Art Alchemy Metallique in Ancient Coin (gold).
Using the Ranger Ink Blending Tool (with round foams), I blending through 2 stencils from Tim Holtz, Lace and Flourish.

Once the pink paint was dry, I threw on some white paint by dipping my splatter brush into a bottle of white acrylic paint and flicked it everywhere.

While the page was drying, I coated the sewing machine shape with the Finnabair Metallique Ancient Coin gold paint using a brush.

I used up the rest of the paint in the brush over the page, dusting gold everywhere, breaking up the pink and washi tape background.

Its a sewing machine, therefore it needed a spool of thread and to look like it was in working order.
Using my trusty Tim Holtz Craft Pick (sharp pointy awl type tool), I poked a hole in the top of the machine, about where the eye would be.
I've wrapped a length of cotton quilters' thread around the spool, threaded it through the eye to the back, and laid it along a strip of glue down to the needle.

While waiting "patiently" for my sewing machine to dry, I dug around in my jar of lace and glued a piece to the page.

Using my Tim Holtz Scratchy Tool (its a retractable tool with a mini wire brush), I scratched up the end of a strip of Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Ruler Ribbon... a fabric tape measure to use in crafts! Its not accurate for measuring but looks really cool :)

The Ruler Ribbon was attached using matte medium. The sewing machine was glued to the page using double sided tape at first, but then also added matte medium around the needle and spool.

The sewing thread was covered in matte medium and placed over the page in loops. Luckily it took ages to dry because it needed moving a few times to make room for the banners, captions and illustrations.

All illustrations, captions, mini patterns, paragraphs and buttons were glued to the page using the matte medium. A couple of pieces were torn in half but they survived!
I love these illustrations, they remind me of the kids in Enid Blyton's stories like Famous Five and Enchanted Wood! Check out their little slippers, so adorable.

Thanks for reading! Hope it makes you smile too :)

Happy Creative Day!
:)
Jenny

Bee Dance

 

These are my pages for Jenny James Bees Knees Journal hop you like it Jenny 

Gaia Mother Earth in Louise journal

Gaia - From the Greek word "yaia", a parallel form of y2 (ge) meaning earth.

In Greek mythology, Gaia was the mother goddess who presided over the earth.

Divine Mother, holy one.

Bless us with your grace.

The warmth of a summers day, life-giving rain. 

The winds of change, the perfection of a snowflake. 

Divine Mother, bless us with your grace. 

Swirly background created with acrylic paint and fingers. I love finger painting. 

Then she started to emerge, I had originally thought about creating her with collage, however, once I had the paints out I decided to keep going. 

Now the tricky part, what to do on the other side of the spread.

Went for a mandala, so I had something to write around. 

Added a few butterflies and all done. 

It was an absolute pleasure to work in Louise's journal. 
I hope you like it. 

"Melissa's Journal -Under the Sea by Meg Atkinson"

Receive Melissa's beautiful hand made Journal- pictures don't do it justice!

I Started my entry using some sprayed and stencilled pages and decided to do an underwater view through an old diving helmet..... except in very bright colours

I wove some strips into the bars to create the look of a porthole and then proceded to fill it with fish

I stamped on sprayed Journal pages then cut the Sea animals out

Ending up with a porthole filled with bright creatures

and a bit of Glossy accents to finish the page off