inspiring music

my front cover

contract and participant list

I started out with sponging blues and blue greens over the pages, which had been gessoed.  I then added darker blue and wiped some away with a baby wipe through a stencil. I think I should have missed this step as I think it's now to dark, I tried to push it back by brayering  gesso over it to lighten it up.   Meanwhile I made a motherboard of pinks yellows and oranges, with stamping to texturise it.  With this I stamped out the flowers and stamped the words out.  With what was left I free hand cut the "the line of the song" correct name is the 59th Bridge street song by Simon and Garfunkle, this is the one song that will always get me out of a dark mood and make me feel better

Creatures of Whimsy

My new theme is chosen to go with this cute and quirky little journal from mama's stash.

Is is quite small and mama must have received it from an art friend years ago and not used it. 

Some of the pages are vey lightweight so I have done various things to beest them us. If you are using collage maybe chose one of those. The centre pages are all heavier. 

I did a page for mama. This one is all out of her stash, omgoodnes she had so much.

For my page I wanted to honour our beautiful bush and bush creatures.

There is a sign in sheet at the  back along with a contract and sending  order. I hope you all enjoy playing.  

Australia - Janie O'Brien's theme.

I used an A5 'art' journal from Officeworks which cost $7.98 for this round. From memory the brand was either Quill or Derwent. The paper is 120gsm. There were about 70 pages and I removed enough pages from the centre of all sewn signatures to leave me with 30 pages. I then stuck every 2 pages together which finally left me with 15 pages of approx 280gsm.

My first piece if from an Albert Namatjira painting which I love. It is a mixture of collage papers and paint and pen. I start with a background of colour stratas, then collage pieces, and finally paint and pen.  There is also a Peter Allen extract and an Arthur Boyd one.

My second piece is about magpies - who are a passion of mine. The background is made up of indigenous art torn up and stuck down, then a layer of thinned geeso mixed with a matt sealer to tone down the bright colour a little. Finally some fussy cut friends, being themselves. The poem at the top left about maggies is by Judith Wright, bottom right an extract from Wikipedia.

Rebecca-lee Round 8 Journal spread.

I am super excited to be part of this round 8 Journal swap.

My theme is Gypsy Soul. This theme to means Freedom to be whatever you wish. To just be the kind of woman you deserve to be. To dance like no body is watching, to walk in the rain and jump in muddy puddles, to follow her heart, no matter what. She think too much and feels to much. Empathetic and considerate of others needs as well as her own.

My journal is A4, so double A4 page spread once open. I choose this journal for its price and quality. However i'm not expecting a double page spread, this would be unfair to those who only have an A4 spread in total. For whomever is working in my book please feel free to turn the book on its side and work it as a landscape spread or as a portrait spread. This Gypsy soul Journal is all about what makes your inner Gypsy sing. 

I didn't take progress pictures but i used a brayer for the background and edges, acrylic free hand painted lady. I used a collage of flower napkins for her hair and floral embellishments. I'm super excited to see how everyone interprets this theme. Let go and feel the freedom of your Gypsy Soul.

Sass' Bohemian Floral - Round 8

Giday, I am so excited to be involved in this Round 8 of the Australian Art Journal Swap Group...

Bohemian Floral is my chosen theme. I chose this as I have always had a fascination with all the freedom, beautiful nature, colour and bling that brings this theme together... so please, lots of colour and bling (as in metallic paints and the such) and flowers... I have put a description of Boho on the first page of my journal if you are having trouble with what it is all about...

My journal is A5, so A4 opened up... I have only done a temporary cover on it because the cover I have in mind might not hold up to the rough handling of Australia Post and might end up to be super chunky... I forgot to take many process pics, but I do have a couple.. I will try harder for the rest of the spreads...

This is my finished spread... Bohemian Floral... 

I started off by collaging using the rich colours of Dan morris' Grunge Marble and some music paper... I then scrapped on some homemade gesso with a store card to tone it down a bit.... Using the same paper as above I made some flowers using the Tim Holtz Alterations die cuts and a Sizzix die cut supplied with my Big Shot machine... Some random stamping was next... 

 Some doodling on the flowers...

It took me some time to come up with a composition that was pleasing to my eye when placing the flowers on the spread after I finished doodling on them... 

Once I was happy with what I had and it was all stuck down, I did some more doodling and outlined each piece with a Stabilo pencil that I then smudged with a water brush...highlighting each piece...

Liquid Pearls from Ranger was next... adding this to the flowers and leaves... then I added the Ebony Black from Nuvo Crystal Drops to the two top corners of the page... 

Scanning the net I found a quote that I liked very much and 

thought it matched the Boho feeling very well... 

"Let whatever You Do Today be Enough!"

Hope you all enjoyed my little post. I am excited to see what you all create for me in my journal... Hugs and Blessings Sass...  23.02.2020...

My 80s Journal!

Ahhhh... The 80s.  Who doesn't have fond memories of this decade?!

I was a teenager in the 80s, growing up in country South Australia.  So the 80s to me brings back memories of high school, first loves, fantastic music, great movies, and fabulous fashion!

My journal is about A5 size - compact, but big enough for a good spread.  It's made from 225gsm watercolour paper so will stand up to most stuff! 

Here's my back cover - apologies for the sun glare, it's bloody hot outside today!  Wham! was a big favourite of mine growing up, and I loved George Michael's ethos - CHOOSE LIFE.

The 80s came with a lot of quirky designs - here's my take on one of them.  This pattern is on both my front and back inside covers, and was made by sponging acrylic paints into squares, using scrap paper as borders.  I then made a few masks (circle, triangle, square), and sponged different colours into them.  Then added weird squiggles.

My journal instructions!  Pick something you loved from this decade and let loose!  Please don't forget to sign your work!

And my double page spread - Pat Benatar was an amazing singer and I just loved the costumes and drama of her song Love is a Battlefield.  

Great verse for empowering women - and a lot of her songs were about strong women. ✊💜

And the full spread!  This was done in watercolours and brown Pitt pen, with some Perfect Pearls added to the background for some more shimmer.

I'll be sending this journal off to Janie at the end of the week, for the start of its journey around Australia.

Enjoy the trip everyone, and Happy Arting!

Cheers, Lisa xx

Robyn's Flowers Journal

This is my Flower Art Journal for round 8

Time for Tea with Jenny

Life is like a cup of tea... to be filled to the brim and enjoyed with friends.

Time for Tea conjures up all kinds of ideas... but eventually I nailed one down and started making Sharon a pot of daisy tea. The Tim Holtz Paper Dolls dropped by to help :)

I've made it with quite a few layers, not always happy with each one but it eventually turned out ok. Bright, colourful, full of sweet elements.

First thing I did was take the pages out of the ring binder and glue down some pretty doilies with a gel matte medium.

I then dragged the pages through puddles of Distress Oxide Ink (Squeezed Lemonade and Iced Spruce) on a craft mat but it seemed to stick to the paper rather than spread out. Nice colours but not quite the marbled background I envisioned.
Moving on, I sprayed both Distress Ink Stain (Twisted Citron, a gorgeous lime green) and Distress Oxide Sprays (Mermaid Lagoon and Cracked Pistachio) to the pages and it seemed to liven it up! I finished off the background with Distress Oxide Spray in Fossilized Amber (earthy yellow).

Once the inky background was dry, I gathered a couple of my fave Tim Holtz stencils (ZigZag and Blossom) and added their patterns using Dylusions acrylic paint (Mushy Peas and Calypso Teal) and an ink blending tool (foam applicator).

The next layer was made with the Finnabair Paper Texture Paste (it dries like homemade paper) and Tim Holtz stencil (Lace), spread with a plastic spatula.

An overview of the page so far...

While deciding what to do next, I stamped out a Darkroom Door teapot (set called Time for Tea), cups, spoon and teabags with black Ranger Archival Ink on white mixed media paper. I was toying with the idea of a colourful teaset... but I think the simple black and white is best.

Now the plaster was dry, I added Ranger's Gloss Transparent Texture Paste through the Tim Holtz stencil, Flourish, letting each section dry before adding more beautiful swirls.

This photo (above) is of the texture paste drying, with spots of Nuvo Drops scattered around.

The teapot was made 3D with the help of an Action Wobble... being adhesive backed help hold the Tim Holtz Idea-Ology paper flowers and little teabag strings in place too.

I coloured the flower centres in yellow ink and drew daisies onto the teabags. I was going to use real teatags but they were too big.

The rest of the elements are butterflies, daisies and roses from a pack of Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Botanical Layers, washi tape (more butterflies!), and a pair of Tim's Idea-Ology Paper Dolls.
The silver spoon is stamped using silver watercolour paint, then coloured some more with the same paint to darken the silver paint.

The final touches are a sticky note stamped with the quote, more butterflies, dribble of honey, glitter (sugar) on the spoon and another paper lace doily along the bottom.

Its turned out to be a pretty floral Spring-like page in the end. Thanks for reading :) Hope it makes you smile!

Happy Creative Day!

:)

Jenny