Last DID Entry for Nigel.

This is my last entry for the Desert Island Discs circle journal and I'm going to miss it each month. The last song remaining for Nigel was Read Em and Weep by Meatloaf. The songs all have meaning for the individuals and I wanted this song to reflect the journaling Nigel supplied to go with the song.

I started by gessoing the pages and then using texture paste and a brick wall stencil. I colour washed it with Granite Dylusions spray. The title was cut using the Cameo with SU paper.

The entry itself was inspired by the line about the rooms all being empty so I found some room plans on the internet and some silhouettes of a man and woman. I embossed them with a Kasiercraft script stamp and then put them facing away from each other to reflect the song lyrics. I hope Nigel likes it.

As this was the last stop there wasn't a lot to add to any of the other entries but I was inspired to add my Tim Holtz dancing lion to the entry about Radio Luxembourg. Virginia had added a wooden crown saying God Save the Queen and when I saw it the lion was the perfect accompaniment.

Thank you all for the great work you have created on my CJ I love it. Till the next time.x Sonja.

Waving goodbye to the desert island.....

I finished my final entry in the DID CJ today, sob, so sad to see it end, it's been great fun!

Here's my entry for Sonja - I had no choice of song as there was only one left, Mr Brightside by the Killers, but thankfully it was a good one to work with - cheers for not leaving me a stinker, guys! :)

For the front of my page I took inspiration from the cover of the record itself:

and cut a copy of that great silhouette to use as a mask

Crying out to be used on the old gelli-plate, it was, so that's just what I did with it:

On the back of the page was an envelope, which I cut open to make two flaps which could open out to reveal a large page inside:

The above incorporates some lyrics from the song

And this is what the flappy bits look like closed:












Front view with the back opened out:

This was also my final opportunity to 'tweak' some of the other prior entries:

To Sian's Hotel California, I added a glow from the streetlight and a little bit of highlighting atop the word 'hotel':

To Pam's I added a border around the letters in the word "youth" in a paler red, just to help the word stand out

And to Virginia's I added a red oil pastel 'aura' around the band on the front of her page:













And also a little wooden gun on the envelope flap on the back, to go with their name:

Th-th-that's all folks!

I hope that our next CJ will be as much fun - it's not too late to sign up for that one if you fancy it, there's one spot left....

I'll be blogging again over the next day or two as I got some lovely mail art from Sonja on the Mail Art Trail this week, that I just need to take a photo off - until then, tara.....

Waiting For The Rain - Karen's CJ

This is my entry for the penultimate Desert Island Discs CJ.

I had Karen's CJ and the song I chose from the two that were left was Waiting For the Rain by Manfred Mann. When I looked the lyrics up online the line "Look at you hiding from the rain" made me think of this stamp from Unity. I really like her and use her at every opportunity so she was the basis of this entry. I stamped her on some MME paper.

I glued down some book pages as the base and then lightly gessod over the top. Next I used some Liqutex paint thinned down. I used the Hero Arts Blue Neon ink with a chevron stamp for more texture. The doily was sprayed with Mr Huey in Sunshine and the other stamps are from a MME set I have. The butterflies rub-ons are Bo Bunny. Finally I wrote out two of the lines from the song that had caught my eye. It's now with Nigel for the final entry and I have Nigel's here to complete. It's been a super CJ and I'll be sad to see it end. 

Sonja's CJ

Only two songs left so I chose Amy Macdonald- I've not really heard much of her stuff but I really really liked this one, specifically the lyrics when i googled them- they spoke so much to me of what I encounter in my work when young people are misunderstood and everyone thinks their generation did or knew better

"Maybe if you were some spearheaded guy

I would listen to what you have to say

But you're just some incapable figure

Thinking you're bigger than me. but you're not

Yet you don't know a thing about the youth of today

Stating your opinion and making it ring in my head all day

And you say,

'My children weren't the same'

'My children's children they're the ones to blame'

And you say

'In my day we were better behaved'

But it's not your day no more...'

So I went for a graffiti thing which made a good excuse for buying another mask :)

I used carving paste to push through the mask to do the wall on which I did my little bit of graffiti - it takes an age to dry and don't even think of using a hair dryer or heat gun! (I did experiment first)

The back depicts what Sonja felt about the  song and why it is in the CJ , which I thought was a nice contrast to the front 

Desert Island Discs for Sian

This is a bit belated as I sent the CJ away at the beginning of the month but I'm slowly getting out the bit again and normal service is resuming hopefully.

This entry is based on the song "That Day" by Natalie Imbruglia and was one I hadn't really heard before. It is important to Sian however and I wanted to do an uplifting entry for her plus I'm really liking yellow at the moment.

This is the title page with the song lyrics and I used some Maya Mist and Dylusions sprays with a vintage doily I have. The stamp is a Unity Brave Girl one. 

This page I layered down book pages and texture paste using a Studio Calico mask. I then sprayed the same colour combination through the doily again. The line that inspired me was about sitting in the sun and I imagined getting strength and warmth from it. I'm still drawing heads as well so I thought it was fitting to have her facing my sun. The hair is a combination of Neocolors and Sharpie poster paint pens. The alpha stamps are Studio Calico while the rest are VivaLasVegas and more Unity Brave Girls.

I hope Sian likes it and it satisfies her brief. We're on the home straight now and I have so enjoyed the journals. TFL. Sonja x

Desert Island Discs - page for Sonja

There were only three songs left, I chose

'The Boys of Summer' by Don Henley.

I didn't think I knew the song, until I heard it - I just

hadn't known what it was called or who it was by!

I printed out the embracing couple and stuck them

onto the background which I painted with acrylics - there's

also a little bit of stickles around the moon and on the water,

but you can't see it here.

Here's the back

I had to use an image of a woman wearing Wayfarers

because of what Sonja had wrote :)

The background is sprays inks and another

silhouette of a solitary man this time.

Hope this fits the bill Sonja.

I didn't have time to add to any of the previous entries

this time, but they are all looking great.

Sonja's CJ is now on it's way to Pam

 

Someone Like You DID Entry

Hey Collabor-Artists here is my entry for Pat's DID CJ this month. I chose the song Someone Like You  by Adele which I loved.

I sprayed the background with Dylusions sprays first and then did some of the ghosting technique with a letter stencil. I stamped some background stamps with black Stazon and a Navy SU ink. The stamps were a Chinese character one, a Kaisercraft butterfly one, a VivaLasVegas one and the Unity Brave Girl set I thought fitted the theme of the song.

I have been inspired by some of the previous entries to do some freehand drawing and have been doing heads and shoulders mostly. No faces yet as I'm not happy with them but it's coming. I used some Sharpie poster paint pens and Neocolor crayons to do the head. I actually think the lack of a face fits the theme of the song. The couple on the other side are a Silhouette cut on the Coredinations cardstock which I distressed around the edges and then put some of the song lines on with my trusty Dymo.

I have to admit to making no additions to the other entries this time as I couldn't see how I could add anything else to complement what was there. I wondered if it's because we are in the final stretches of the CJ. I was on a roll so I have finished Sian's CJ entry as well, I'm feeling pleased with myself. It's great seeing the CJs in the last stages and seeing what everyone has done.

Rebecca and Sonja Pair Journal

Here is my amazing pair journal back from Sonja. I love what she has done with my backgrounds and odd bits that I had started. There were also notes inside to explain her thought processes for some of the pages which was a beautiful touch.  A big thank you to Sonja too for sending me the photos as I forgot to take any of mine before! Here are some of the pages.


For this one, I started out with just a bird cage die cut, some silver paper and some sheeet music tissue paper so not much to go on. Sonja gave it a beautiful blue wash with slightly darker blue flying birds as the background, some embossed silver flourishes and silver and blue embossed bird images with a quote from one of my favourite writers, Maya Angelou, which ties it all together. I have no idea whether or not I will add anything to this as it's gorgeous just the way it is.



This page started as just a splodgy green and yellow page with some deliberately messy stamping. Sonja has enhanced this with a lovely quote and some subtle overstamped and embossed images, including a Stampotique (and I love those). some cirle motifs which remind me of dandelion seed heads and a butterfly. It looks like the Stampotique girl is finding her path. It has real depth in the flesh which doesn't come out too well in the photo.

This is a page that Sonja started (hence the plain before page at the top). Lots of lovely tone on tone misting, inking and stamping  with another quote. I can see myself having loads of fun playing with this page.

The only thing linking my before pages was the monochrome feel. I wasn't really sure where I was going with this, so I just left it to see what Sonja would do with it. Beautful spraying through a mask (I so want Sonja's stash!) and the action firgure with "keeping it real guys" really made me smile.

Again, another blank page from me which Sonja covered in Scottish one pound notes partially painted over and with crown rubons jauntily placed on the heads. Love it, especially as my partner is Scottish!

And yet another blank page to start with. I should add that there were some pages I did that Sonja didn't add to so you'll get to see those next time I'm sure. Fab inky sprayiness with black chevron embossing and a couple of magazine images. I already have some ideas for this but I am so reluctant to cover up the wonderful background.

This page started with just a bit of torn kraft down one side and Sonja has transformed it with a superbly textured brack wall effect and a fab dynamic start to the right hand side. I can see me going all street art on this.

On this page I was just playing with a new stamp  and just repeated it in a range of colours. Sonja has matched these colours really well with some patterned papers and introduced some straight lines and points to what was a rather too swirly page. Love how she has overlapped the two while still keeping some white space.

And finally, for now at least, a lovely paper background with the same Stampotique girl and crown that appear on some of the previous pages with a light touch of a chandelier and florishes bits, leaving plenty of room still to play.






Huge thanks to Sonja - this has really inspired me to up my game for the next round.  Cheers, Bex.

Sonja's CJ Crisis and Big Thanks to Sami

Thanks for the junk Sami - my favourite is the invisible whale, which is going to feature in a collage with the lovely sail boat...the selections of buttons were 'wow' and I have put the journal fodder into its new home where it has snuggled right in with the rest of my junk, hope your baby is behaving...

I have also done my circle journal page for Sonja - which has had me paranoid and dithering...

Having managed to reduce my work week to 30 hours,  suddenly and following unavoidable events I am now working 45 hours a week and I am temporarily covering alternate weekends too, so time in my studio is combined with eating drinking, socialising playing with my animals and 'home' life is generally centered around the few hours I get away from work,  I multi- task all the time so that it feels like I do more than 'just' work

 always always I find time to do art., everyday, always

I brashly told Virginia a bit of delay in receiving the CJ wouldn't be a problem, I could catch up,  forgetting I go away soon for a while, and that I would have to have it done by today, ready to post on time,

any hoo, in the journal it says- no food no drink , no smoking and no pets near the journal,

well the no smoking wasn't an issue, but I couldn't leave the CJ out in my studio (a real risk of contamination by pets, food and drink) so I had to do something rapidly whilst banishing all the usual activities that occur in my studio everyday,

and at the same time as banishing the usual routines I would still need to find time to eat and drink in my hectic schedule.

In the end I decided I just wouldn't have time to do anything other than a paper collage .  As soon as I had finished it I got really paranoid and wrapped it up quick ready for posting in case one of the animals got near it, or food or drink was unleashed in the vicinity by a family member using my studio whilst I was out at work... ha ha ha,  then ....

I  REALLY Panicked because I have been burning the baby books and I am convinced Sonja's book is going to smell of the paper smoke....anyway I just finished it off quick and packed it up pronto hoping for the best.

unfortunately it means I haven't done any collaborations on the other pages, but I thought better be safe than risk damage?

Anyway - hope you like it Sonja, and I'm really really sorry if there is pet hair, crumbs, or lingering smell of burnt journal when you get it back.  I know there won't be wine stains because I never miss my mouth....

Have you got the new Killers album?  it's AWEsome 

DonnaLouiseRodgers

DID Virginia's CJ Wanted Dead or Alive

This is my entry for Virginia's Desert Island Disc CJ . She had mount board squares for each entry to complete and then her song list. I chose Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive as I really like that song . Her songlist was very good even my DH commented on it when I had it in  the car.

My inspiration for this entry was the fact that the movie Young Guns was inspired by this song. It and the sequel were some of my favourite movies in the late 80s and early 90s. When John Bon Jovi was told the song had inspired the first movie he offered to write the title song for the sequel and it then expanded to the whole soundtrack. 

I prepared the background with Distress Stains and Neocolor II crayons. I then stamped the road and the grass with various stamps (a Glitz Roller one and a magazine freebie one) for a bit of texture and movement. The corrugated paper was coated with more Neocolors and the lolly stick for the sign was coloured with Distress Ink. The title was stamped with a Studio Calico alpha set and the sign is an EK Success punch.

The tree is an Inkadinkadoo stamp with charcoal embossing powder. The image is Emilio Estevez from Young Guns.

I made some additions to the other entries.

First up was Virginia's entry Roxette The Look. I clear embossed the image using a chevron mask.

 I also outlined the title with my Sharpie paint pen.

I coated Pam's entry which was Pink's Glitter in the Air with Studio Calico Mr Huey's in Blizzard and Gold. The image doesn't do it justice but it really shimmers.

Sarah had done Creed's One More Breath and I added the Unity Brave Girl bird stamp and embossed them with charcoal.

Finally I added some 7 Gypsies stamps with a flourish and some words to Donna's entry which was Santana's Smooth.

I'm really enjoying this CJ. See you next month with Pat's CJ. TFL.x

Rebecca and Sonja pair journal - part 2

Since Sonja has so kindly posted pics of her before journal here I won't repeat the pictures, but just show you what I've done with those pages. Some of the bits shown below are new pages as I rearranged the book before scanning it in!

I hope you like them Sonja.  I have really enjoyed doing this, and I will try to reduce my reliance on black ink for the future! Looking forward to seeing mine back and getting this one back in a couple of months.

Cheers for now, Rebecca

Pair Journal Rebecca and Sonja

This post has been an epic as I have been fighting with Blogger and my photos for ages. I was in a rush to post the journal and I took my photos upside down as the light wasn't great. Now it's not normally an issue. I just rotate them in Picasa, save them and then upload them but for some reason Blogger is rotating them back much to my annoyance. My DH eventually cracked it for me so thanks to him.

Rebecca and I are swapping journals and I currently have her one here with me and I'm working away on the pages. Once I got started I was fine but it was a bit intimidating at first to actually start work on someone else's pages.

This is my cover.

This page is a stencil with texture paste, inside of an envelope with washi tape and a Hambly rub-on.

Adirondack paints and some paper glued down then coated with gesso for texture.

Some vintage pages with watered down Liquitex paints.

The remains of a Jenni Bowlin alpha with an image I had from a magazine.

More vintage papers as well as some 7 Gypsies tissue paper covered with stencils and a mix of Adirondack inks and Dylusions.

Final page is some She Art papers I had.

I currently have Rebecca's journal and I'll post some photos of what I've done to it when it's finished.

Sonja.x