March Journalling

I've finished my journal pages for March with days to spare (that's a minor achievement for me at the moment!).  I created four pages, each with a separate theme around the word "dream", as instructed - with mixed results.  Not altogether happy with what I've done, but there you are, never mind - it's all about the playing with colours and words, images and inks, getting messy and losing myself for a short while.  I hope that, as spring is upon us and we head off into summer, I might lose some of the gloominess that's been hanging around for far too long and have some fun instead.

Dream Definition

On this page we had to add a definiton of the word "dream" - I know what I was trying to do with this page, add random images all over to illustrate the bizarreness of our dreams, where nothing is linked but then again it is - I used water-soluble wax pastels, inks, Glimmer Mist, stamps, Stickles, Dimensional Pearls - ended up far more fussy looking than I intended.  Plus I'd written all over the page as well and toned it down with some gesso, but still not happy with how it shows through - I don't like my writing (must do better next time!)

Dreams of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

We had to add the words Dreams of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow to our page and then write about something for each one.  I began my page with a coloured background using the water-soluble wax pastels again (a new acquisition that I'm enjoying playing with at the moment).  I adhered some torn out sheets from an old diary to the page and blended the edges with more wax pastels; I could then write about the dreams on these.  Added some stamps for illustration and a silvery moon with a sponge dabber.

The Dreamcatcher

Ali asked us to create a dreamcatcher on our page plus add an image to represent the dreamcatcher.  I cheated a bit (well, a lot really) as instead of drawing out or beading my own dreamcatcher, I dug out an old earring I had in the shape of a dreamcatcher (the other one has also been used in another art journal I worked on).  I've been wanting to use this image for quite some time as she looks to be such a wise old woman and thought this was the ideal page for her.  I love the colours on this page.

Dream Song Lyrics

We had to choose and illustrate some lyrics from any "dream" song we liked.  I chose these words from "Dream a Little Dream" by the Mamas 'n Papas as they kept going round and round in my head - seems this has been a popular choice for several others too.  I painted the background with acrylic paints and I've tried to keep it very basic to echo the Sixties style.  I'm much happier with my writing this time, even though my spacing was a little out here and there.

For April, we're going to be working on seven pages to illustrate each of the Chakra energies of the body, so that'll be a bit of a challenge!

Mia loves being in the spare room with me when I'm crafting or on the computer (actually, she follows me virtually everywhere around the house - no use me trying to hide from anyone, they've only got to spot Mia to know I'm not far away).  When she's not curled up on a cushion on the floor or rooting behind the computer after a ball of paper she's pushed underneath it, she's sat like this on the windowsill staring out and chunnering at the seagulls sitting on the lamp-posts and rooftops.  It's so funny to watch her.

Steamin'

I'm typing this with rather inky fingers (despite giving them a good scrubbing) as I had a session this afternoon inking up, painting and stamping on a set of tags to create backgrounds, which will be swapped out with other artists to add photos of themselves and quotes - eventually we'll all end up with a tag book each, it's called "Sisters in Art" and being run by Ali (who always has brilliant imaginative ideas for swaps) on her Yahoo group, VintageATC UK.  Anyway, I rather enjoyed myself and have decided I'm a bit of a fan of "tags" at the moment ..... I've also finished my three tags (Autumn, Daydreamer and Vintage Birds) for my own tag swap running here on my blog this month (check out the details in the sidebar as there's still time to join in if you fancy having a go)!  Have received a couple of sets already and they're lovely so I'm looking forward to seeing what the rest of you all come up with.

So ....... whilst I was playing with the tags this afternoon I remembered that I promised to put up pics of the "Steampunk" ATCs that I made a while back - so here they are, hope you like them, they're my first attempts at the steampunk style which is a style that I love and have seen some fabulous art created in it - just try googling to see what an enormous range of steampunk creations there are!

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Flying Machine

The Mad Scientist

The Time Machine

This Way Up

All the above ATCs are still in my possession for one-to-one swaps, but the three ATCs below are the ones I made for the Steampunk swap I was in so they've now gone to new homes.

Medicine Man

Time Traveller

Robot Punk

Thanks also for the lovely comments left about my Heaven and Hell pages, they're much appreciated.

A little bit of background journalling .....

I haven't done any journalling this past week or so I'm afraid, though I've got several ideas floating around in my head (just haven't had enough free time).  I did create a couple of background pages in my journal a little while back - Ali (click to link up to her online group) posted some instructions about some backgrounds she was creating and suggested we play along too.  The pages involved paints, paper strips, stamping, masking, clingfilm and stencilling ...... a whole lot of fun and I loved the way my pages turned out.  Now they're all ready to add some journalling!

I was going to show you a picture of the last journal page I created too, but just realised I haven't taken a photo of it yet - oops!!! - so it'll have to wait till another time.  Also haven't forgotten that I promised to post pics of the steampunk atcs I made so I'll add them some time soon as well.

The Bookmark Swap is now officially closed (yesterday) - the bookmarks received are fab, but I'm just waiting on one set coming in ...... I know it's on its way, just think the post office are playing slow at delivery.  So once the last bookmarks come in, I'll be swapping them all out - it's been fascinating to see which books have been chosen and there's a fair few I'll be adding to my own "must read" list I think!

Finally - it's the 1st August today, which means Dawn has posted her next challenge on her Journals Journey blog so hop on over to see what it is ..... you'll like it, I know I'll be joining in.

A Bit of Art Journalling

As promised, I thought today that it was time I posted up some of the art journalling pages that I've created over the past few weeks.  I've been using prompts posted weekly by Ali Brandist on one of my Yahoo art groups (I'm playing about six months' catch-up!) and find them a really useful starting point for my pages.  So here are some that I've made - as you can see, they're mostly quite messy and collagey, quite different from my sister, Lindsay's, journal pages, which are far more artistic.

Ali used her pack of Angel Cards to select a message for each of us - this was mine, appropriately to do with new ideas and inspiration, something I was most definitely lacking in at the start of the year.  The background was distress inks over gesso, dabbed over with a scrunched up paper towel containing mopped up copper Krylon ink.  I'm a big Klimt fan so I couldn't resist using this image from one of his paintings for my angel, with the addition of a stamped wing.  (The hand is my own). 

For this page the prompt was "Word Inspiration" and I took mine from an old fiction book - both the cut out words and the written words.  I threw everything at this background - gesso, inks, blended oil pastels, stencilled punchinella, stamps, H2O paints, then collaged with a gyspy image, wings, butterflies and finished with Stickles and Beadazzles.

The next two pages are a double spread - "Silence Your Inner Critic/Develop an Inner Enthusiast" ..........

For the "critic" page I chose acrylic paints and inks for the background in dark brown colours, with a dictionary definition of criticism and stencilled cogwheels.  The Victorian lady reminded me of a very stern, bossy great aunt from my childhood and Queen Victoria provided another disapproving figure.  I used Dymotape for some of the words, handwrote others.

By contrast, I wanted my "enthusiast" page to be full of colour and liveliness, so I used a colour palette of orange, deep blue and purple for the background; lots of images of people dancing and leaping for joy, and again, a dictionary definition for "enthusiasm" and Dymotape, stamped and handwritten words.  I rubbed Distress Stickles over the harlequin stamp and other areas of the page.

All of these pages were great fun to create - the hardest part is always making the first marks on a page, but once you get going, you just don't know where you'll end up.

Well, that took me a lot longer to type than I expected.  I've been playing a game of Tag with Mia downstairs whilst I was brewing a cup of tea.  It's one of her favourite games, she creeps up behind me and tags me on the legs, then runs away, so I've been chasing her around the house as well - she loves it, it's kind of scarey and exciting for her, but safe too.  She likes to hunker down and leap out at me or run round the sides of a room, hunting me while my back's turned.  So when I came upstairs to use the computer, the game continued with paper ball throwing - over the bed, down the stairs, then behind the computer, under my chair ....... till she's tired herself out (or got bored) ....... and I can finally concentrate on finishing this post!