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.

Twinkle twinkle in Amanda's galaxy journal

There is no easy way from the Earth to the stars. - Seneca

Big topic, with so many possiblities. I really didn't know what to do, I had so many thoughts and ideas. 

Decided to just start. 

Laid down the usual acrylic wash in blues, purple and a little red. 

Then the fun part, flicking white paint all over the page to create a star filled galaxy .

The journal is full of colourful planets and aliens and a little whimsical, so inspired by the cover of a children's book I saw at the library and the first nursery rhymes most of us learn, l made a start. 

The little astral boy slowly took form, surrounded by lots of stars and planets. 

Dancing through the galaxy, is he sleeping or just day dreaming, I don't know. 

But as he plays in his imagination he asks, Twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are?

And there you have it, all done in a blink of an eye. 

All yours Amanda, enjoy. 

A Haiku for a Lunar-tic

One of my ongoing obsessions has been with the moon. I share a Moon Goddess tattoo with my daughter which shows just how obsessed I am.

When it came to Pam's wonderful Haiku journal I had to do a spread honouring my love of all things Lunar.

I began the process with gesso, papering with music and book pages then some stencilling with model paste, circles to echo the moon...now to build. 

I really wanted to try to capture a full moon rising over the ocean, one of my favourite things to watch. I chose my acrylic paints and began doing some layers. I had masked a circle space for my moon beforehand.

Once I was happy with my sky and ocean I began on my moon...lots of greys, white and some blue. To create a sense of a sparkling lunar reflection I added some silver Liquid Pearls to my spread.

 Lastly, I smudged graphite pencil around the moon and the haiku piece.

The Haiku is not my original...it somehow disappeared. It took me a while to consider what I wanted to say. Having taught many Year 8 students during my teaching years all about Haikus it was time for me to come up with one of my own.

Historically, Haikus are about reflecting on the fleeting moments in Nature which help the poet to consider one's life-based reflections. As I had recently lost my father, his memory became an inspiration for the result. I hope everyone enjoys my artistic and literary attempt, but especially Pam xox

Magic

I had bought a Fairy digi pack which I was longing to use so I decided this was the perfect project. 
I gessoed the pages, then started to add blotches of paint. I wanted to try to create a magical night sky...the sort that Fairies love. 
I next added a stencil to create the sense of a garden...the sort that Fairies frolic in.
I then overlayed it all with a metallic blue to give a shimmer. I tore my images and placed them on the pages. It was really starting to come together. 
I had researched various poems about Fairies but there was one that just stuck. It was a quote from W.B.Yeat's poem, The Land of Heart's Desire. I felt it worked well with the images I had created.
I still felt more sparkle was needed so I added glitter and then used a brush to flick even more shimmer from some Tattered Angel's Glimmer Mist. Finally, I Mod Podged the spread.
I hope my layout takes you out of this, '...dull world' for a short time.

Looking up to the Galaxy!

by Lisa for Amanda

Okay, wow.  This is the quickest I've ever done a journal page!!! 

I received Amanda's great Galaxy journal yesterday, checked out all the fab pages in it, and thought about what I could add.  For some reason, my mind kept jumping to the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy but I didn't go there!  Lots of fodder for another journal page though maybe - love these books and movies!

Then I started googling pics of stars and galaxies, and found some epic pics in Unsplash.  If you've never heard of Unsplash, it's full of amazing photos taken by peeps, on every subject, and all are available to use for free and without copyright.  Perfect for arty inspiration!!!

I found a gorgeous photo by Greg Rakozy of a wondrous night sky, so used this as my inspo.  Here's a sneaky peek.

No process pics!  I used a piece of 300gsm watercolour paper which I will glue into Amanda's journal, since I wanted to use watercolour.  First I used a thick black Pitt pen to draw and colour in the ground and the silhouette of the girl.  The beauty of these pens is that they come in many different sized tips, and they're waterproof.  So no worries about the pens bleeding or smearing!

Then I got out my watercolours and used all the colours 💜💛💚.  I dropped some salt on, but didn't really get the desired 'starry' effect.  So added more watercolour!  

After my watercolour was dry, I gave it all a spray with matte fixative, so I could add gel pens on top.  Then it was dot time - lots of dots.  First, black around the edges, two different sizes.  Then my trusty white Signo, then silver Signo and a bronze pen left over from my Creative Memories days.

Lastly, more black dots using a fine point Pitt pen.  Added a great quote that I found on Pinterest: 

Look at the stars, instead of the dark.

And then I was done!  There's a link to the original photo I used here .  

Hope you like it Amanda!  I had real fun with this one. 😍

Happy Arting!

Cheers, Lisa xx

It's a busy place under the sea

I was looking forward to creating a spread in this journal as I share Melissa's sea obsession. I grabbed all my blue paints...cobalt, cerulean, ultramarine and a light blue metallic. Using these with a dash of yellow to add some green I tried to create a sense of the many blues of the ocean...going from light to dark to mimic swimming from the surface down.

I was really happy with my sea so then I sat down and drew all the creatures I wanted living there. I used a mixture of coloured pencils and crayons to create the mermaids, cuttlefish, starfish, jellyfish, whale, sea ferns, various fish and the sperm whale...the sea of my imagination.

Thank you Melissa xox

I'm a tree...in Sallyanne Scholefield's journal 'Who are you?'

Gosh, Sallyanne's journal is the biggest yet!

 Who am I?

 Good question, but tricky. 

I love metaphors so I choose that of a tree to symbolise who I am.

I also want to explore texture more in this spread so after using white gesso on both pages I add some collage of plants and tissue which I want to provide a textured base.

 I also use wallpaper to create a large tree (me) and a smaller one (my family), this adds even more texture but it needs some colour. I use Ranger's Distress Oxide Inks to do this.

I'm not totally happy with it but I keep going,

 adding leaves to the tree and those falling to show that I'm in the Autumn of my life. 

 I use texture markers to add lines of definition to the leaves and tree trunks...much better.

As text I write my thoughts on watercolour paper in a fine black marker, rip them into lines then outline them in dots with highlights for the words themselves. 

Very pleased. Oh, and there's a sketched selfie too. 

Hope you will like it Sallyanne. xox

Galaxy with Pam May 2019.

Amanda's Galaxy art journal is developing well and becoming very pretty indeed.  I had some thoughts about what to do and my mind went back to a favourite subject which includes some traditional Indigenous knowledge.

 The story of the Emu in the Sky is part of the traditions of many Indigenous groups and as it changes it indicates differing seasons and gatherings, one being the gathering of emu eggs.

And so.....may I present to you, The Emu in the Sky.

The beginning.

On the job.

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