Art Journal CJ continues....

....and we are nearly there with it, despite a few sticky moments and delays. This CJ was "Nursery Rhymes" and belongs to my friend Helly who is a CJ virgin. I had a few ideas but as I know her quite well I decided to go with a blackbird pie!!

 I hand drew the pie and use a bit of a bird stamp I have to stamp the blackbird peeping out. The background is watercolour crayons washed over and then I hand wrote the first line of the rhyme...

Inside are my four and twenty blackbirds; a feat of multiple masking! All was coloured in with watercolour pencil or crayon before attaching the pie lid with a brad. It has turned out rather similiar to my Berkeley Square hasn't it?

Normal service resumed....

It's official....I LOVE Pinterest!! And, I guess like lots of other people, I pin stuff on there with all good intentions and then forget about it! Well as part of the Learn Something New Every Day class by Shimelle we were challenged to actually learn a new technique that we may have pinned there for future reference!

 I'm sure this is a pin many of you will recognise but in the complete absence of ANY creative muse this is what I went with. Step one was to draw everything then colour in all the squares using oil pastels. Then scratch into the pastel...

 .. wash over with watercolour in a browny colour until you get the right amount of grungy.

 Next paint in the tree trunk using acrylics and add the concentric circles, mine are a bit wobbly!

Lastly add gold highlights and circles. Great fun to do and something I may expand upon in the future.

I don't know if I am the only person having difficulties with Blogger at the moment? When I try to create a new page I have no little boxy bits to click on tho do all the functions that I could previously! Like insert a picture etc. I also used to upload from Picasa quite often too but that seems to have also removed the "load to blog" button! Can anyone help? In the mean while I will see what happens as I try to show my next altered art CJ entry.

Art Journal CJ

I have had neither the time or the inclination to be creative for some time now. But this CJ continues....just about and this month's entry was "Now is the Time". Well considering that this is meant to be Summer and all we seem to have had in the main is rain, that was my somewhat obvious inspiration! THis is a slightly different rendition of something I did previously in my own Art Journal that I rather liked.
So let's hope this CJ can get back on track as it all seems a little de-railed right now

Art Journal CJ No 4

The next Art Journal CJ had the theme "Places". There were entries on Paris, Egypt to name a couple but really home is my favourite place so I set off to do something for that using fabric. I began by spraying some plain fabric with Glimmer mists...

...next I added a home,

...and a sun (which my daughter says look like a cobweb!)

...and a few flowers

before finishing with a quote and fixing into the CJ.

No, I don't know why it has turned round! It's all the correct way on my PC so I think Blogger is having a moment....

Art Journal CJ

It's been a while but finally I have got around to doing the entry in CJ no2. This one was entitled "Inspiration" and didn't come with any stipulations or instructions.

These pages just emerged really! My inspiration often comes from a colour, so I did this page using bits snipped from magasines and articles about colour as well as paint charts.

More commonly my inspiration will come from a desperation to get something finished on time! I rarely have time to just sit and let the creativity just flow so working to a deadline seems to suit me. When I saw this image in a magasine I thought it was just what I needed so this page evolved around it!

Note to self.....don't use glimmer mists in the garden when the hens are out...

Art Journal CJ

So I received the first CJ and the theme was "Vintage Memories" Lovely theme this one and I chose to make a page about my Nana. I printed the photo of her onto fabric and stitched it to the page with a small amount of wadding behind it. 

I journalled about her. She was a very private person so we can only guess as to how true this may be. But my Mum felt that this was a strong possibility!

Finally I added another photo of her playing leapfrog, on the sign in tag.
I know this is a very personal page but I hope the owner of the CJ can still enjoy my vintage memories!

More art journal!

Yes I know, no journalling for aaaaages and then two at once, bit like buses really! However let me explain... When I scrapbook I have a bit of a thing about DLO's....all my pages are DLOs so they "match" and when I did the left side of my journal I found myself thinking that I should have spread it over a double page. I decided that the umbrella stamp was too small so I just did the one side. When I showed it to the children Jasper responded in his usual manner, with a useless piece of information, which was that rain falls at 7mph.

Ok I thought, a page round this idea would "match" my previous rainy page and so it evolved! I drew the raindrop first then used watercolour crayons around it, added some dictionary definitions of rain related words and some scraps of blue paper. I gessoed over the lot and flicked H2Os over it before writing in watercolour crayon all over it. The words are the lyrics to April Showers from the film "Bambi". I lightly washed over the words and finished it off by writing Jasper's interesting fact in the raindrop! 

Art Journal

Over the Easter hols it was Jess's birthday and she wanted lots of art bits and bobs for her Uni course. I drove to an Art wholesale place (Seabrights) and wow!!!! Lots of lovely books and pads and paints and stuff! So for Easter I bought all the children an A4 book to do things in. It would have been foolish not to buy one for myself....

....and now it is my art journal!. These song lyrics have been going about in my head for a few days. They are from the Rhianna song "Umbrella"...not that I like her version, I have been listening to a version by The Baseballs. I knew I had this nice umbrella stamp that I haven't used yet so off I went. BG is watercolour crayons, Distress Inks through a leafy stencil, rain cut from easter egg wrapper and flowers from scraps! Turned out to be quite a suitable page for our current weather!

Art Journal Complete!!!!

Look at me go! Shall I polish my halo now? Another project finished. Week 51 was all about the tree. Real or artificial? Heirlooms or traditions; stamp some trees. BG was painty and then I stamped a fir tree in white paint before journalling in a Sharpie. Looks like I need a new one as it's a bit scratchy!

The final week....52! We had to say whether we had achieved our goals set in week 1 and use less than 10 words. Found this little trumpet and I felt I deserved a mini fanfare for sticking with it, although it was never a chore!

Then did two covers, painty, stampy and embossy! I wanted them to reflect what would be found inside.

And here it all is; a bit fat for the binder wires but I wanted it done so it had to do!

Now I have a rather exciting little project in mind.....will tell you about it tomorrow!

Nearly there with the Art Journal!

Week 48 was all about "Wisdom. Are you wise? What words of wisdom can you share? Include a stamped owl". Luckily I do have an owl so I just did a bit of masking, stamped him and coloured him in. Then I sat and thought about my best bits of advice; how I try to live my life.

Week 49 was about traditions. "Do you have any Christmas ones? Use festive colours and stamps". That felt a bit odd using red and green in January! Nice bit of glitter on the holly berries and a few key words to show our traditions.

Last one for this batch is Week 50, just two more to go. This was about "Toys; what did you have and play with? What did you always want? Do you still have any of them? Use vintage image". No stamping in this and I hope the 70's images count as vintage enough! I do still have my Sindy and my Tiny Tears in the loft!

Art Journal Weeks 44 and 45

The challenge continues with Week 44..."Inspiration- What inspires you?Are there certain times or places that you are more inspired? Include some inspirational words/pictures" I have to say that if I ever need inspiration I turn to the internet and sites like Blogger, Pinterest or good old Google. I also look in books a lot. I particularly like Pinterest because I can put all those things I find whilst I am surfing, in one place to find again later! Week 45 was about Patience "Are you patient, what in particular drives you potty? Use contrasting colours eg calm/angry". I think, for a redhead, I have a long fuse. I am a slow burn kinda gal! Things will mount up and mount up until POW! I blow! But once it is out of my system I am fine, calmness restored. And what makes me really see red are my children bickering, in fact ANY bickering; answering back, and that can be at home or at school; arrogance, a most unattractive quality and one that makes me see red instantly, so much so that I would not bother to continue a conversation with somebody who was arrogant! Lastly is meaness, I don't have a lot but what I have I share whether it be time or money etc and I don't like to see others keeping to themselves. Fortunately I am blessed with generous friends and family!

Art Journal Weeks 42 and 43

I have taken my time to do Week 42 because I couldn't decide what I thought! It was all about "Coincidence, do you believe there is more to it than just coincidence? Do you have any stories of coincidences? Include some numbers". I just couldn't make up my mind....

Week 43 was about being sociable. "Are you sociable, do you prefer large or small gatherings, can you do small talk? Can you amuse yourself, do you like your own company? Include an invitation". I always thought I was a social animal and hated to be alone with just myself, particularly as a child. But as my days have become crammed full with being a wife and mother to 4 I crave time alone. Now my lot are growing up I get time alone and I love it...just as long as it's not toooo long, a day is enough at a stretch. And I am much more choosy about socialising; I prefer to pick who and how I socialise. Life is too short to spend time socialising with people I don't know /like! Right, it's official; I am a Grumpy Old Woman!

No invite in this however...I couldn't work one in and I was in a painty mood. I also have a social gathering to attend today that I am unsure about so I think that is swaying my choices.

Art Journal Week 41

This week was "Films; What was the first film you saw at a cinema and who with, favourite film, include some film meomorabilia". Well I wasn't quite sure whether the first film I saw was Dumbo or Snow White. I have very clear memories of going to the cinema to see Dumbo and joining the queue but being sent home when we reached the front as that showing was full and then having to go back later for the next showing. I also remember going to see Snow White and ducking down behind the seats because I was scared when I saw the witch! So I Wikipedia-d both films and discovered that Dumbo was re-released in '72 and '76 and Snow White in '75 so from that I deduced that my first film was Snow White! We lived in a cul-de-sac at the time and I went with a girl who lived down the road called Fiona Avery....I won't say she was a particular friend because she was bigger than me and I remember she pinched me REALLY hard one time when I was playing with her. Still I had the last laugh because she poked her fingers through our back gate (after being told not to), and was bitten by our rather anti-social, uber protective, dog at the time!
Anyway I digress, fave film is really any of the three Baz Luhrman Red Curtain films; Strictly Ballroom, Romeo and Juliet (the one with Claire Danes and Leonardo Di Caprio) and Moulin Rouge. In the end I plumped for Moulin Rouge as I just ADORE Ewan McGregor.....swoon!!!

Art Journal Week 40

Yes it is Week 40! This week we are thinking about "Birthdays-do you celebrate/remember them? Have you had any memorable ones? Use a candle on your page." Well at my messy play session at Gilly's on Saturday I did this pinky pink background using shaving foam and cosmic shimmers. I borrowed the candle stamp from Gilly (bless her-I think we thoroughly ravaged her stash on Saturday- sorry) and rescued the cupcake from wrapping paper in the bin! Mounted it on card and added some glitter to it and the edge of the page and another one in the bag! Just 12, yes really only 12, more to go!

Art Journal Week 39

Bit late with this one but I couldn't quite decide what to do. Our theme this week was " Are you extravagent? What is your biggest extravagence, use something extravagent". I had all sorts of try-outs for BG but in the end I painted it gold and then embossed the central panel. My extravagent bit was the fancy ribbon with pearls on. Then I was stuck with how to journal!! So this one is definately "less is more". I guess my other extravagence is my Doc Marten boots; I have three pairs so far...

Art Journal Week 38 (I think!)

This was last weeks but I have been doing my LSNED so I haven't had time to blog it yet! Our prompt was "Are you Lucky, material or otherwise, use a lucky charm". Great excitement as I got to do a B/G using a technique I learnt at Ally Pally with Glimmer Mists and cling film. Then I stamped over it with my new brick stamp and I had a nice rub on that had the word "wealthy" that I crossed out. How could I say I wasn't lucky with all these things in my life; I certainly never win raffles or competitions but where it matters, I consider myself very lucky.

Art Journal Weeks 36 and 37

I bet you thought I had abandoned this art journal didn't you? Well I haven't and am still managing to squeeze it in alongside LSNED. Week 36 was about Risk. "Are you a risk-taker? What is the greatest risk you have/haven't taken? Use a technique that you rarely use". I chose to swipe alcohol inks on glossy card for my background leaving me with a slightly unmanageable surface to work with! I was completely uninspired by it so I just wrote lots instead.

Week 37 was about laughing. "When did you last laugh and what at? What makes you laugh? Do your friends think that you are funny? Use a smiley on your page"

So a page about laughing had to be pink with some stickers; stickers make me smile, and some very accidentally inappropriate ones made me REALLY laugh this week!

Art Journal Week 34

Still keeping up with this! This week was "Dreams; do you have them? Do you dream in colour? Can you remember them? Do have recurring dreams? Include some clouds on your page." I DO dream, quite a lot but I only ever remember the horrible ones! There are 3 main ones I remember; one when I was a teenager I was walking through London and it was deserted. There had been some sort of incident and there were no people about just lots of smoke and black sacks. The second one I have quite often and my teeth crumble whilst I am lying in bed and as I try to spit the bits out they just keep on crumbling; the third one I am walking into my shower and a man steps out and attacks me......I wonder what a dream analyst would make of that little lot?