JOURNALLING TAGS - A New Challenge

Today, according to the weather people last night, is the first day of autumn - not so sure myself, but there's definitely a freshness in the air and the sun has been shining wonderfully all day - it certainly feels like summer is sliding down into autumn and it's one of my favourite times of the year.  Anyway, it put me in the mood to come up with a new challenge swap for you all and this one is all about "Tags".

I'd like you to create three tags, approx size 3" x 5", each with a different theme :-

1)  Season of Mellow Fruitfulness (Autumnal)

2)  Vintage Birds

3)  The Daydreamer

The idea is that these tags can be added to your art journals (for those of you who journal) or used as gift tags if you don't, so please leave some plain areas on your tags so that the recipient can add their own journalling or words.  Please also lightly decorate the back of each tag with paper, inks and/or stamping and include your personal info around the edges, so there's room on the back of the tag for more journalling if desired.

Usual rules apply - tags to be with me by 30th September and please include an SAE (large letter stamp/sturdy envelope) for returns.  Email me to sign up and if you have any questions.  I've added the details of this swap in the sidebar too. 

Hope this challenge swap appeals and I can tempt some of you to join in!  Look forward to seeing what you all come up with.

Flying without Wings

It's almost the end of the month and, with a spot of cheating, I'm just about in time to post a pic of a "fairy" page I've created to add to my 2011 Art Journal, so meeting Dawn's Journal Journeys challenge theme of Fairies for August.  I say cheating because I actually made the page some while back for a round robin swap which as sometimes happens didn't materialise.  I've really been short of time this month for making much art at all and the "fairy" theme kept slipping away from me.

However, when I re-discovered this page (during a tidy up) I thought it might just fit the theme - at the time "Flying without Wings" was playing on the radio, hence the words I added to complete the page - hope it fits the bill ! 

Looking forward to seeing what Dawn has in store for us in September!  Go check out her blog (link above) if you fancy having a go at her journal challenges.

Bookmarks

Apologies for not posting so regularly recently, there's been a lot going on, but hopefully I may have a little more time now to "blog" and "art".  Anyway, I'm sure everyone must have received their bookmarks by now so I thought it was time I put up photos of them all - a lot of these book titles were new to me so will be added to my reading list.

Bobbie Eccles - Front and Back 

Chris Bedford - Front and Back 

Joanne Parkin - Front and Back 

Sheila King - Front and Back

Sonia Jones - Front and Back 

Sue Jenneys - Front and Back 

Sue Horsley - Front and Back 

Hope you enjoyed browsing through them - and for those who took part in the swap, hope you enjoyed the challenge of creating something a little different from my usual ATC ones.

A Journal Page

Whoo, I've just had a marathon session printing off lots of old family photos from the computer, so before I packed up for the day, just thought I'd show you a picture of the last journal page I did (courtesy of Ali's prompts).  This was created a few weeks ago and the theme of the page was "LOVE".  I chose to use one of my favourite pieces of poetry (a Shakespeare sonnet) as the focus of mine.

My feet have hardly touched the ground for the past few weeks, so much has been going on (family wise), but things may calm down again shortly so I'm hoping to be able to concentrate a bit more time on my art journalling before too long. 

Anyway, just a short post today ....... catch up with you all again soon!

Look at these Beauties ......

,,,,, that landed on my doorstep yesterday morning.  I was involved in a Journal Envelope Round Robin on the Vintage ATCs UK Yahoo Group - we each coloured the backs of four envelopes any way we liked, I used acrylic paint dabbers, and sent them on to the next person in the RR, along with a tag and couple of images for each envelope.  Each person added to the envelopes with stamps, the chosen images plus any extras, embellishments, collaging, etc, and finally they were returned home to us.

Mine are just absolutely gorgeous, I love them ...... the idea is to add them into our journals, write on them if we want as well as having the insides as pockets for secret messages or photos, or anything else we fancy.  Right now, though, I just can't imagine "spoiling" them with my scruffy handrwriting ! 

(Pic of same envie below, with tag on top)

My envelopes were decorated by three American artists (Jeannie, Marita and Gina) ..... they did a fabulous job, didn't they?  Everyone loved creating these journal envies and we're planning on doing it again before too long. 

(The Bookmark Swap is now closed, all sets arrived safely and they're all now ready for posting out tomorrow - so watch your letterboxes, ladies, for something nice dropping in.  Thank you all for taking part).

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.

My Lovely Chunky Book ..... with thanks

Sorry not to have posted sooner, but life is very hectic here at the moment, with little time for any crafting, journalling or blogging.  However, last week I received a lovely and unexpected surprise, from Sheila and hand-delivered to me by my sister Lindsay.  Last year Sheila decided to host a chunky book swap, having previously joined in the one that I ran - I signed up but unfortunately had to drop out when I realised, primarily for health reasons, that I wouldn't be able to complete the number of pages required.  So you can imagine how surprised and delighted I was to receive a book after all ...... everyone had kindly created an extra page for me so that I wouldn't miss out!

The theme I chose for my book was "Heavenly Bodies" and these are the pages in my book ........

Sheila's page

(Sheila also did a wonderful silvery textured front page and a back page for the book)

Gez's page

Lindsay, my sister's page

Elaine's page

Hilda's page

Cheryl's page

Joanne's page

Zoe's page

Sonia's page

Karen's page

Thanks, girls, you all did wonderful work - I love my book !