A long overdue Pair Journal update

It was a real race against time to get this to the post office by lunchtime today - but I have sat on Shirley's poor journal for long enough and I was determined to get it sent back to her before I disappear on my hols - I made it with about 5 minutes to spare :)

I have only made a couple of little tweaks to existing pages this time around as I was short on time, maybe I'll revisit them next time the book comes a-calling

I added some colour/shading to the little houses on the Home page:





and various bits and bobs (washi tape, oil pastels, stamping) to the texturiffic Love page:

Shirley had started this next page with a wonderful fiery background - so I added a phoenix, some stencilling and the word Rise:

The next page is half size as we have now got to the end of the front side of the book.  The word I pulled from Shirley's pocket-o-words was Life, and my mind went off on a tangent thinking of artificial life and hence the 1s and 0s in the background and the wireframe tree:

I then flipped the book over and added a couple of new backgrounds to the backs of a couple of the pages already completed:

This first one was gelli plated, with a sneaky spray paint border to hide the fact that the double page was just a little tiny bit bigger than the gelli plate :)

And this one made use of some of my old Basic Grey letter stickers - some left on there, some used as masks and removed

I look forward to seeing where Shirley takes these two springboard pages

And I leave you with a look at Shirley's entire book as it stands so far - to give you some idea of scale, it is 8" tall and more than 10 feet long!  I had to stitch together this photo in Photoshop from 11 individual shots:

Please click on the pic to see it more clearly....

It has been a pleasure to collaborate on the front half of this book, and I'm sure we will have just as much fun with its 'backside' ;)

Pairs Journal - Sarah and Shirley

It has been quite a while since I last worked on Sarah's Journal! Due to illness I have not been able to get into my craft room very often since last October. Luckily the pairs journals have no time constraints on them and Sarah has been very patiently waiting for me to get active again. It has been a bit of a slow return, with only 30 minute visits to my desk being allowed at any one time! Hopefully this situation will change over the coming months.

Here are the pages I have been working on:

Sarah did a stunning painting on this page, therefore, I treated the page with caution making sure I did not get any unwanted paint splashes suddenly appearing on the page. These do happen to me occasionally!

On this page the colours Sarah had used and the circles she had placed on the page just called out flowers too me. Now this caused me a bit of a dilemma as at the beginning of doing our journals together Sarah had said 'no flowers please.' Although I know Sarah meant no pages looking like someone had sneezed flowers onto the page, I was aware of the request but no matter how I tried I just HAD to do flowers. I tried to think of something else but the flower idea stuck! So I have warned Sarah she was getting flowers anyway but also said she could always gesso over them if she felt the urge!

The next 4 pages are completely mine and they are now waiting for Sarah to add her creative art to them.

This page has a mix of dreamy colours to match an image I have had for a while.

On this page I used a new technique to me that I learnt at a class with Any Skinner using paint, alcohol and perfect pearls. Goodness know how that fish appeared!

I loved this image and just had to use it. The background was not the original one I had started out with as we are getting near the end of the first side of the journals pages it is getting a little bit heavier and when I picked up the journal to carefully move it for the background to dry it split slightly on the fold! So I had to do a slight repair and collage some papers onto the background. in the end I was pleased

with the result.

This page is a page in its raw form with some colour wash already for some more art to be placed on it.
I hope it has been worth waiting for Sarah...it will be in the post this week. YAY

Shirley's pair journal update.

Sorry it has been a while since I last posted here but I have at long last got around to doing so.

I have added a flower rubon to the corner of the page that Sarah painted this great lady on.

She really sang to me when I opened the page!

On the reflections page I placed a moon using various colours of Treasure Gold. 

I also added in the seahorses and water plant.

Sarah gave this page a lot of texture so I added more by using a texture paste for the word 'Home.'

Collaging on the houses and adding the flowers across the page.

Following on from Sarah's textured page I used a thick gesso and corrugated card stock to give my 'Love' page lots of depth.

Using a weathered wood technique that I learnt at an Andy Skinner class I created an icy looking background and added the baby angel image.

Finally I have produced this background using lovely warm colours.

I did intend to add some stencilling and stamping to it but having my right arm in sling slowed me down. I am sure Sarah will work her magic on the page and hopefully have some fun too.

I will be getting this into the post to you this week Sarah.

I have your journal sat on my desk ready to do but not sure exactly when that will be as the problem that required me to have a sling is still there. I am hoping to see a consultant this week and get things sorted!

Sarah's pair journal update

It's been a little while since Shirley and I have swapped journals, we've both been really busy recently.  But I thought I'd spend a few days getting mine ready to swap again this week, before I get stuck in to the Desert Island Discs CJ

So here's how it looks now, I just love this accordion journal because I get to see everything all at once, sensory overload! :)

My additions this time around:

I added the little worm to the apple - Shirley was humming and harring about adding him, but I think he's super cute, so I took the plunge

Then I went from this:

to this:

(I'm nothing if not predictable :) )

This next page you've seen before, as it was what I made with my Mystery Gift goodies:

Next I painted this lady (in the style of Marion Bolognesi) - am interested to see where Shirley takes this page:

And last of all, a new background for Shirley to use as a springboard....

I'll be popping this in the post later on this week....

Pair Journal update

I've been a busy bee this week getting Shirley's pair journal ready to post back over to her, as am off on my hols early Saturday morning and didn't want to delay its progress for another week

The first thing I did was to add some bubbles to Shirley's diver lady - I was concerned that I couldn't see any evidence of breathing :)

Next up, I used Shirley's gorgeous collaged background as foundation for my singing lady's face:

And then I did a new page from scratch for the word "reflect"

Last up is a background for Shirley to build on:

It will be in the post tomorrow - looking forward to seeing where it goes from here


PS I know I promised you all that a new Circle Journal would be going live this week - it's looking more like the week after next now, sorry, purely because I want to run my ideas past Virginia first as the concept for the CJ is hers, and I can't get hold of her, perhaps she is on holidays too .... and I won't have much in the way of internet access while I'm away, so will get it sorted after the Bank Holiday

Sarah & Shirley pair journal - round 4

This stage has been done a lot quicker than the last one for me, I have a busy August so thought I would get organised especially has I had a couple of ideas as soon as Sarah's lovely journal arrived. I just love the fact that there is no pressure of time -scale to get these done. Just the freedom of having fun.
Sarah's oriental page was beautiful and I know she loved it but I could not resist popping the Koi carp into the water and adding the eternity rubon.



This page was done on Sarah's gorgeous background. The apple and hand just went together along with 'Nothing tastes better,' which definitely goes with Forbidden fruit! What I could not decide was if this naughty caterpillar needed to go on the page too ... so I have placed him in the pocket at the back of the book and thought Sarah could take on that decision for us. Especially has I kept placing him on and off the page!


This page was done completely by me but I am sure Sarah will be able to add something to it.
Finally I started a background ready for Sarah to create her magic on.
Like I say a quick turn around this time, made even quicker by a husband who saw the package and has already to posted it for me!

Have fun Sarah.

Sarah & Shirley pair journal - round 3 part 2

Between us Sarah and I have a lot of colour happening in our journals, I just love the way the pages work so well next to each other.

Sarah's Mystery project sticker page did not need very much added to it at all.

I swiped some white paint to the right of the page and put the word Strength on top using a rub on. A man with 2 pairs of arms must be pretty strong, I also gave him some swirls at his feet and a heart.

Sarah's background was perfect for these ladies, they have been lurking in my box of cut bits and bobs for ages.

This page I collaged some torn out pages from a book I have, I just loved the faces peeking through the layers of paint.

Did you notice this little fellow peeking out?

The next page has lots of texture. I used builder's scrim and a pulled apart serviette below lots of paint and then stencilled and added more layers.

Finally this page is in its very early stages, with torn up book pages and paint. I had to stop there as I had already done more on the previous page than I originally intended to do!

I will be in the posting the journal to you tomorrow Sarah.

Have fun adding to any of the pages.

Sarah & Shirley pair journal - round 3

I love my book already :) :)  and we are barely getting started!

So, here we go again, this is my second time working in my own journal

First of all, I tweaked my original first page as it looked a bit plain, by adding some little label stickers that I had "splatted" on with distress stains:

Next another minor tweak, this time adding a bit of black outlining and an orange harlequin pattern to Shirley's "eye for colour" page:

Then I added straw blown seaweed and a school of fish to one of Shirley's gorgeous backgrounds:

Next, this photo of two geishas paddling is from the 1920s and has been sat in my collage pile for a while waiting for the perfect time to use it, I love it:

And last up, the beginnings of a page for Shirley to run with:

I'll pop it in the post tomorrow or Tuesday, Shirley

Shirley's Pair Journal - an update

I've been busy beavering away in Shirley's "one word" journal this week - and here are the fruits of my labours

First a couple of minor changes to Shirley's existing pages - I added some rub ons to the intro page (above)

And a deep sea diver to the "words" pocket at the end of the book (below)

Next I got a bit carried away on a page that Shirley had started for me, and turned this:

into this:

Next up, a page to illustrate the word "balance" - I've left plenty of "white space" on this one for Shirley to add to if she gets the urge:

This next page was supposed to be just a background....but then I decided it was the perfect home for the mask I used to make my "Mystery Project" stickers last week, so I stuck him on there.  I've no idea which word this page conjures up - I'll leave that decision to Shirley!

And finally, a background started off with some spraypaint and a stripey paper bag....who knows where this will end up?

This collaboration thang is FUN!

In the post to you tomorrow, Shirley ....