Jez and Karen - Pair Journal

Firstly, I must apologise to poor Jez for having me as a swap partner!  This stupid thing called life keeps getting in the way of me doing 'fun stuff' but hey ho! better late (ok, very late) than never !!

Firstly, the pages that Jez did in her journal, I have added only small bits to as they were lovely as they were (but that isn't the point of this is it, lol )

The 1st page reminded me of water, so I added some seaweed and some Stampotiques in the form of a mermaid and 2 Octopets.

Next I added some paisley flourishes in red and a bit of number tape down one edge.

Next up, I added a mask of a bird and inked that and added a small bit of cameo tape and also a cameo necklace to the girl.

I only did 2 backgrounds in Jez's book as she made the book herself and it doesn't have as many pages as a bought journal so didn't want to use up all her space !  The 1st one is ok-ish but I have absolutely NO idea what I was thinking with the 2nd one ... feel free to gesso over it completely Jez and do something else lol!!

I will do a post with my journal in a sec ....





COLLAGED POSTCARDS - LOUISE'S BACKGROUNDS AND JEZ'S FINISHED CARDS

COLLAGED POSTCARDS - LOUISE'S BACKGROUNDS AND FINISHED CARDS

Beautiful colours on Louise's backgrounds.  Having seen the cards posted so far, these are rather tame - still I did enjoy the challenge of trying to fit something appropriate into those striking shapes.

Postcards via Pat

 The backgrounds before..........

................and after

Incoming Mail Art from Jez

Woohoo!!!  Look at this amazing postcard that was on my doormat tonight when I got in from work.

Thank you Jez, it's brilliant! All hand drawn.  I bet my postie loved it too!

It's big - about A5 size - and really sturdy - puts my little flimsy postcards to shame :)

(and no, Donna, I haven't forgotten I owe you one, will get on with it this week, promise)

Here's the back:

Thanks again Jez, I really love it

JEZ AND KAREN - READY TO START PAIRS JOURNAL

I've made a start with 3 or 4 basic pages in my pair journal, just starting points - my mind went blank when I was faced with the empty pages, so I hope they take us somewhere. I've made up a digital collage of the pages so far:

The front cover is temporary until I can think of some way of 'tootying it up'.  I found that my photographer daughter, Zoë, has a nice little binder, so I was able to make my own journal using some fairly reasonable watercolour paper.  I love the Chinese couple, but don't know where it can go to next.

On the inside of the back cover (bottom right image) I added a pocket for small items for 'swaps' if Karen feels this would be a good idea.  I hope to post it to her on Monday, and look forward to receiving hers.

Art in the post!

My first piece of art from the mail art trail - by the very amazingly talented Jez - its awesome! thank you, was a lovely surprise to come home to after work yesterday.The details in the drawings are amazing, every time I look I see something new. It has been my life long ambition to ride a camel (yes I realise this is a kind of lame ambition!!!) and when we went to Petra in December last year my chance came.... however my hubs and son didn't want to, so I had to miss it. I guess it gives me something to look forward to when we visit Egypt next year.... maybe haha! Until then - I now have my very own camel!

HELLO FROM JEZ

Hi everybody

I'm so pleased to have been accepted into this group, even though I feel like a beginner at school again.  Everyone's work is so great and so inspiring.

I'm Jez, and my blog is   http://jezartjournal.blogspot.com, which I call Butterfly Mind because it suits my mind these days as I flit from one idea, style or experiment to another.

I reckon I must be the oldest member at 77, but I hope that won't put anyone off collaborating with me.

I am, of course, retired and enjoying retirement and old age as much as any other time in my life.  I gave up selling my work some time ago, and now paint and collage and blog simply for my own enjoyment and to experiment with new techniques.  I never realised how much fun blogging would add to my life, and I treasure all the lovely people I have 'met' through the blog.

I love painting postcards and sending them to friends, and look forward to doing a postcard swap.

The children with clock faces, all at different times, is my favourite postcard.  No wonder they're late for meals.

I'd love a ride on the back of a Harley, but the idea doesn't go down well at home.

A couple of weeks ago I made a little series of cat postcards like these:

The next one is just an experimental journal page in acrylic:

and finally, a journal page including a little collage:

Looking forward to getting involved,  Jez