D&V: The second pairs posting UPDATED

Not sure if we should add the to the original posting, but I'm sure Sarah will exercise editorial rights if necessary!

There is a little bit of back story to the pairing of Virginia and Donna (otherwise known as a serious bout of D&V).  I know, like everyone else, if you are an organised committed person you are conscious of the very moment when you have taken on too much.  And then you take on some more. Happily.

So Virginia was persuaded to pair up with me, in part, I think, because I tempted her with the 'rule' that each time we journal in each others and our own journal, we work for ONE HOUR ONLY.   The theme = an hours art a day keeps the blues away.  Virginia also added her theme ' anything goes' ( so I took that to mean I could break the one hour rule)... ha ha...I LOVED working on Virginia's journal, I added started, created and just lost myself in Art.  For three one hour sessions, know I confessed and Stopped, and we will swap again soon. My other commitments are still met - just with a little more haste!

Neither of us has a 'finished' page yet - glorious.

No pressure to finish, no pressure to 'work' for more than an hour and suddenly I want to work on it all day and have a picture of what some finished elements might look like.  And then of course, when V works on these pages some more I will get all new ideas...so here are the pages I have worked on in Virginia's book, some are added layers, some are newly started pages (texture diamonds/cat tissue/butterflies/gorillas)...and some inserts (front face tag, fairy page, gorilla tag)

 here is where I stopped when the alarm went off to say - the hour is up missis, go do the dog walk....

Donna

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Donna my journal is looking awesome, I was giddy and excited to see what you'd done on it and I completely agree immersing myself in the art, with the no need to 'finish' a page rule just works - this really is 'collabor-art' at it's most fun! , it means each time we see the art work we can see how to enhance, to play to add with no hassle, no worries of whether it's right or wrong just to play and enjoy the art experience.

I like Donna tried to stick to the one hour rule, but blame a phone call mid-hour for running over, probably totalling about an hour and a half (maybe two hours) in total.

Donna's journal reached me in an already 'tactile' state as she'd add fabric to a page - ooh I love fabric just don't work often enough with it!  Donna had started her book with a hand stitched page so I extended the piece - not finished - just started!

The page

That was the catalyst, I added a thread running through the back of the stitches on the page above, enhancing the 'back' of the stitches, then I set to with paint as a starter - hexagon's came to mind, then I added a vintage image - I almost put the word "Does my Bum look big in this" but thought I'd leave it to see how the journal starts to develop.

 More hexagons, music, paint

 Circles

 Vintage story book pages

 The pages as a whole

 It's amazing how little elements can start to develop the pages

 Because Donna had already stitched in her journal - I felt able to add some of my 'signature' hand stitching, bliss!   This page is only 'just started'

 This page had been started by Donna with charcoal, I added inktense pencils then used water to blend, the back of the cross stitch page on the left, then a simple mask to start to add the depth.

 And there we have it, sheer and utter bliss to just play and let your imagination flow.  So many ideas firing in my head - I'm sure Donna is the same, can't wait to see how she develops this journal and can't wait to see it again.

Virginia