journal swap

my self and a few friends are starting a journal swap......never done one of these before and i have to say i'm a bit worried about producing work in other people's books.....but you don't know till you've tried something!!!
 we were each made a book to work in-i chose to have a book 4x6.....very different size to work in for me!!!

i saw a project in craft stamper by jaine drake in which she used bits and pieces on a page to give texture and fancied having a go at that so used the technique on the covers of my book.

so i went through my chipboard box and ribbon stash and chose a few bits. i tried painting them with white gesso but it just wasn't covering so i had to use white acrylic paint-which only took one coat.

then i added a bit of colour and stamped onto white tissue with a script stamp which was then put onto the butterflies.........not really sure if i like it or not but it was fun trying something different :)

all covered.

i started my art journal last year with milliande and thought it was about time i decorated the cover!!
i had intended to use some decopatch papers that were left over from doing letter's with leigh at last years retreat-i tried it but the papers and glue just peeled of,so then i turned to acrylic paints because in my experience they stick to anything!!
i started with a gesso base.....



then i used eco-friendly paints in tomato red,pomegranate and ocean. then dry brush some white gesso over them. i used a foam swirly stamp in the corner and white rub on letters,which i then drew round in black and put some dots on the letters. as you can see i've got 2 front covers-this is because i don't work in order in my book-i just pick it up and open it which ever way it is:)



for the edges i got some cream broderie anglaise and sprayed it with adirondack color wash spray in cranberry and then stamped with a script stamp and black memento ink,then used some fancy yarn to stitch it onto the cover (i'd made the hole for stitching with an awl before i started painting it!)

christmas journal page

i did this page the other day......can't believe how many products i used on it LOL
gesso,neocolors,adirondack colour washes,washi tape,basic grey letters(from many years back!),glitter rub-on (also from many years back!),acetate overlay (that too is from many years back!)wording stickers (.....),father christmas sticker (.....)....bit of a theme going on there LOL

dandelions....

kaz's prompt was.... 'I'm going a bit different with this one. No quote, but this time I'd like you to use book pages or any type of print - it could be a mag or newspaper page, text stamp or text paper. Then I'd like you to do flowers on the page. You could doodle, stamp, cut pictures of flowers. You can use the text as the base of the page or for the flowers.'

my text is my written text and i know dandelions aren't what you would think of when you think of flowers,but if they were hard to grow then the quote would make them so!!! iyswim LOL

bit more journalling..........

more prompts from kaz..........
'I'm not weird,i'm limited edition'



and
'If only mosquitoes sucked fat'

more journalling........

while looking at suzie's blog i was inspired by her 'take flight' page......this is mine...not liking the lettering though-couldn't get any of my pens to write clearly where i'd put glue!!



kaz has given us another prompt to use over on bubbly funk 'i used to have an open mind but then my brain fell out'!!

SMILE!!

over on bubbly funk kaz has set us a fun challenge for art journalling.
we were to use this quote 'life is short so smile while you still have teeth' good quote i thought and thought to myself 'i can do this!' well while i was trying to think of something to do everyone else was coming up with such great ideas and i was in danger of getting left behind! i just couldn't get my own ideas coming and was very tempted just to copy!!
kaz suggested googling,so thats what i did....... 1st i thought of a skull with a pasted smile on it-life being short and ending up with a skull!,and smiling-but i thought that was a bit morbid LOL,then i printed a smile and coloured it bright red with inktense pencils and while doing this i was thinking 'that looks like the jokers mouth!'....so i searched for a picture of him and went from there......not sure if the page is worth all the worry about but it's done now hehe.

september quote.

janice set us a little challenge this month to use the following quote
"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky."
Rabindranath Tagore

i went for a jounal page........



i painted onto the page and then while the paints were still wet,and with a wet paint brush i merdged the colours together....while still wet i drew 'clouds' with the end of the brush....when dry i used a posca pen and drew next to the lines and put some little swirly type thingys in them!!

sounds like i did alot but not alot to show LOL

WOW!

another journal page:)

love is in the air

it's our 20th wedding anniversary today so i thought i'd have a go at doing a page for it:)

Awkward!!

i've used one of my pages i did at the retreat-the one with the 3d paint:)
i saw this picture in one of shannon's old magazines and i just knew what i wanted to do with it:)
some day's i feel really awkward......

Bubbly Retreat.

Last weekend a few of us from bubbly funk went away for a crafty weekend-which was fab. It was lovely to see everyone again.It didn't take us long to get settled in and it was like it hadn't been a year since we last each other:)
I managed to get a few bits done over the weekend,all of which i'm plaesed with:)

Kaz and Karen gave us some ideas and tips on doing journal pages-think i might carry on with this-it is rather addictive!
I also raded Di's chipboard bag and used some of her croco paints to make a wall hanging-it just needs something to hang it with!
I finished a beading class that Paddy showed us last year-i managed to work the basic stitching out but needed Paddy to show me how to make it into a point.
and Leigh showed us how to do decopatch-that's the 'LOVE' letter's!
I also did a few beading projects:)

Milliande day 7

I have to say,I really, really like this page:)
The others i've just 'done',but this one i really enjoyed doing.....i think it's more me!!

Milliande day 3

I'm doing well-i've just finished my day 3 and i haven't missed a day yet LOL
Day 3 had us making a print block-i made mine from mount board and i used watered down acrylic paints to print with. I tried 'neat' paints but they were so sticky it was leaving a layer of mount board on my page!!

Milliande Art Journal

I've been working on Milliande's art journal challenge for the last few days....she's on day 10 and i'm on day 3 LOL.......she's been challenging herself for the last few years to journal each day in January,in 2009 she managed to do 12 days......in 2010 she managed 29 days..i wonder if she'll manage the whole month this year-more to the point-how far will i get,at this rate i'll be doing them in february!!!
so here's days 1 and 2.
i'm working on making some printing blocks for day 3 at the moment:)