A Little Detour for Rachel's Journal.

I received Rachel's journal in error.  I was totally entranced by it as it is so very beautiful. I am not part of the Round 2 circuit, but it begged to be added to.  So I asked Rachel's permission, as it was due back to her, if I may work in it. And she kindly said yes.

I am going to Grafton next week to attend Louise's workshop, to try and learn something and to support her new venture, and she indicated that she would also like to add to Rachel's journal. So instead of heading home to Victoria, it will be travelling north with me.  When Ms L is done it will head back to Rachel and I am sure she will be extremely delighted with all the wonderful works it contains.

So to cut a long story short, I only have a picture of the finished spread, because it was not my intention to blog  :)

Background is sprayed with Lindy's Stamp Gang spray and then I have added collage, Gelly Rool pens, stamps and embossing and stickers.  I do hope Rachel likes it.

Lisa J - Working in Natalie's 'Emotions' Journal

Natalie's journal is a nice A4 size binder, though when I received it, I didn't actually know whose journal it was - sorry Nat, your instructions have gone missing along the way!

A check back through the blog showed what Natalie was looking for in her journal.

I decided to base my pages on the green eyed monster - envy, greed, jealousy and all those other unpleasant emotions.  Sometimes the grass does look greener on the other side of the fence, or we try to keep up with the Jones' (easy for me, since I'm a Jones!), but a reminder now and then to look at the positives in your life and be happy is always good!

I started with a gelli-printed background with some collaged bits and some stamped flowers.  

On the right, same background, then I painted a green eyed girl on it.  The writing in the background is the lyrics to Jesse J's 'Price Tag' which I thought went well with the theme.

And both pages:

I enjoyed doing this spread, hope you like it Natalie!

Cheers, Lisa

Joan's page in Nathalie's "Emotion Journal"


In this journal I decided to created a page about RAGE. I thought it would be a fun to do and also I wanted to change it up a bit and use colours I don't normally use when I do journal pages.  Being an redheaded Irish women, I know how to do a good rage on occasions.

I love the quote  "Heav'n has no rage like love to hatred turn'd / Nor Hell a fury, like a woman scorn'd." which comes from a play called the  Mourning Bride, so my page is based on that quote. 


The background is painted in red and yellow and I tried to create the illusion of flames just like hell is usually depicted. I had also put some texture on page using a zig zag stencil. I printed out two pictures from the internet. The face of the lady screaming I printed almost a A4 size, (this journal is very large) on to a thick white vellum sheet and then applied hot wax to it, to give it a more natural skin colour.  I was really pleased the way it turned out and the transparency of it allowed some of the colours from the page to show through also, which resulted in a nice red splotchy face, just as it would if  she was in a rage.  I cut out some coloured paper strips and placed them on her head to represent flames and then put a kettle and painted steam on top.(Letting off steam)  I then pasted some casino and potato chips on both pages to appear as if she was spitting them out (Spitting chips).
I put the other picture on the  page with a few strips of paper behind (sticking it to the man).  I printed out a copy of the quote in red and in a circle and then glaced it with yellow gelato and red around the edge.  The only letters I could find were plastic domes, so I used them to spell out rage in two places, small ones on the chips and larger ones as a header. Used a chalk marker and white gell pen to write the sayings on kettle and page.  Sprayed the pages with a decoupage varnish, which gives it a really nice overall finish.   This was really fun to make and I achieved my aim of using colours outside my comfort zone.   Hope Nathalie likes it.

Layout in Lisa's Summer Themed Journalby Wendy

This was a bit of a challenge for me, having moving and packing on my mind and really no inspiration to be found. Then after we settled into our new home, I was watching a bit of the ol' telly one night and started to doodle on some pages which is something I normally do when programmes are boring and found myself drawing a surfer and whammo...I found the layout I wanted to do in the summer themed journal.
 Living on the coast, our summers are wonderfully hot and if you drive on the ocean road you are always seeing dozens of surfers doing their thing, riding the waves and I really enjoy watching them.
The background I wanted to keep abstract but it didn't quite turn out how I envisaged it, so it ended up a little abstract with the waves I painted. But overall the outcome seemed to come together and I was pleased with the finished layout. Thank you.

Jan works in Jenny's Ocean Life

This is a nicely made journal with lots of interesting bits added and interesting binding.
I really liked the monochrome cover and so wanted to stick to a fairly monochrome theme. Of course it got a little out of hand.
Then disaster struck! I had primed the pages but obviously not well enough and so when i went to town with ink and water etc etc I found it had leaked through to the other side of the page...heart in mouth... then as I had left a page in between it wasn't on anyone else's work. Phew. Thank goodness.
I am always a little afraid when working in others journals of this exact thing happening and usually wrap all the pages firmly in plastic and masking tape while I am working in a journal.
Soooo.. Jenny never fear all is good, I just had to glue another page over the ink splodges.

I adhered some gauze on to the page and did stamping and doodling. I found a lovely poem and glued that down.
Hope you like it.

Jan does Rachel's Garden of my Imagination

This is a lovely little journal crammed full of lovely pages. I decided to do a fairly calm, un-busy page... but then of course my usual nature kicked in and it did get a bit more on it than I intended.
Here it is. I have also included for Rachel a book mark that i got in Suzhou in China. From a wonderful little street in the old town with lots of books and journals and art, I could have spent all day there. Hope you like it.

Lisa J - Working in Wendy's Aphorism Journal

I know I keep saying this, but I'll say it again: I've discovered I love working in art journals!  Particularly other people's because I have a guide on what to do in them.  In my own, I fluff around looking for inspiration...

Wendy's journal is hand made and about A5 size.  To be honest, before this I'd never hear the term 'aphorism'.  I learnt that it's a witty saying or proverb.

I decided I wanted to do a saying that I've used before, so came up with that old classic that's dished out when you've just had a break up: You'll be okay; there are plenty of other fish in the sea!

This was quite simple in execution: sponged background with circles dotted on for bubbles, painted mermaid and some grasses and fishies at the bottom.  Outlined the writing in Micron pen and filled in with paint plus dots from a silver pen.

and a closer up look at the mermaid: 

Hope you like it Wendy; it was a quick one but lots of fun to do!

Cheers, Lisa