Any more takers for our slightly early "Secret Santa"?

Hi all

It's closing date today (although I won't actually be assigning partners until the weekend so realistically you still have a day or two) for the first Collabor-ART Mystery Gift Swap

This is a low cost, low effort, high reward, and much-fun-to-be-had kind of project - so can I interest any more of you in having a go?

I hope so, as with all these things, the more the merrier!

Introducing myself - Palma

Hiya!

I am excited to be part this. I would just like to thank Sarah, for organizing this for me and thank Vicki, for agreeing to be the other half of the pear pair  ;)

My name is Palma and I live in Italy. I'm a stay at home mum and I eat ,drink and sleep all things arty.  I do all kinds from altering photographs to assemblage. I go through phases of trying out new and different things. My recent phase is with fiber art . I am just learning to do this. I can't master my sewing machine so I sew everything by hand.
I am also a colour junkie! 
My true passion is painting and in particular painting faces.

Here are a few images of the many things that I've created:

A journal page for a CJ swap.

A fabric prayer flag

Pastel portrait of Frida Kahlo

Steampunk box


Well, I can't think of anything else to add except that I am excited to begin and Vicki, sounds like a really lovely person :)

MAIL ART RECEIVED FROM VICKI AND BOO HISS TO POSTIE

Oh finally I've managed to photograph the gorgeous mail art received from Vicki - now before you see it I have a feeling that Royal Mail have managed to get in on the arting action by adding a very deliberate and large letter P with a circle around it on the mail art, they only needed to ask if they wanted to get in on the action I tell you!  But I suppose this is the joy of it being open to the elements as it travels through the system isn't it!

I adore the quote on the front and the general feel of the card, simply fabulous - thank you Vicki!

Now whose not joined in the mail art front for a bit - come on keep it going I made 36 mail art cards in the summer and I need to start using some of them up!

Pass the painting 4?

First off, apologies for the delay with this,

I've had to deal with some personal issues that have completely overtaken any artwork.

Thankfully I'm now on the track to recovery,

so normal service is about to be resumed.

When this arrived it spoke to me.

It said "Marie-Antionette said let them eat cake".

But actually she said "Qu’ils mangent de la brioche".

Well she would, wouldn't she, 'cos she was French. 

Although it seems that she never really said it, but why let the facts get in the way?

I'll get this in the post tomorrow and will try to keep up in future.

Running: Desert Island Discs circle journal

THIS CJ IS NOW FULL

Next posting: Monday July 1st










Where is my book?   Last updated 30th July 2:25pm

• Flo’s “My Soundtrack” journal – still MIA and under investigation by the Royal Mail - but its substitute (the "junk key") is now HOME 
• Sonja’s “Lost” journal – in transit HOME to Sonja, posted 30/7
• Nigel’s Desert Island Discs – with Sonja
• Karen’s Desert Island Discs – posted 30/07
• Sian’s “Pieces Of Me” journal – in transit to Karen, posted 3/7
• Pat’s Desert Island Discs – in transit HOME to Pat, posted 29/7
• Virginia’s Desert Island Discs – in transit HOME to Virginia, posted 25/7
• Donna’s “Dessert Island Slipped Disc” :) - with Virginia
• Sherry’s fabric Desert Island Discs – with Donna.  Received by Sherry 13/08 :)
• Pam’s fabric Desert Island Discs – in transit HOME to Pam, posted 22/7

Original post:


I think it's time for our first circle journal, what do you reckon guys?

All credit for this CJ goes to Virginia, who thought of the Desert Island Discs theme....

Host: Sarah (Flo)

Maximum number of participants: 10

First posting: Thursday 1st November (and monthly thereafter as close as possible to the 1st of the month)

Format:  Anything you like as long as it adheres to the following three guidelines -

1)      Room for 10 people to contribute – this can be anything from the traditional book with pages for 10 double layouts, to 10 bits of fabric which will be sewn together into a quilt or wall hanging at the end, 10 bits of bunting to be strung, 10 matchboxes to decorate and fill, feel free to use your imagination

2)      Some kind of sign in mechanism so we can figure out who did what

3)      Not too heavy or bulky – postage rates are on the up and up – let’s be considerate of the costs people will incur

Theme:

Your 10 Desert Island Discs – songs that you associate with different events or periods of your life – songs that really speak to you or that you just plain love – songs that define where you have been and who you are now

The idea is that you will provide the list of songs – along with a little note as to what each one means to you / why it was chosen – along with your CJ – and each person along the way will choose one of the songs and illustrate it / produce an entry inspired by it in some way.    

As an added bonus, if possible, it would be great if you have the technology to copy the 10 songs to a CD or memory stick and send it around with the CJ, so that we can listen to your choices too.

And this being Collabor-ART – the twist is that as the CJ passes around the circle on the way back to its owner, future participants may add to or enhance your entry in some way if they wish, as well as working on their own.  And in turn you can add to any entry that came before your own. Which should be fun :)

Before signing up, please read the list of monthly requirements below to be sure that you will be able to comply:

• Post (by signed for recorded delivery, in a waterproof jiffy bag or box) as close to the first of the month as possible
• If you are not going to be able to post on time please let both the host, and the person you post to, know ASAP and give them a revised post date that you can definitely stick to (see email list which is sent to you regularly for email address details)
• Edit this post below every time you send or receive a CJ with the following details:  which CJ you posted/received and the date you posted/received it.  I will hunt you down and nag you mercilessly if you don’t comply, it’s easier just to do it, believe me :)
• Stick with it for 10 months!  (obviously if something totally unexpected happens and you need to back down, that’s fine, we will be able to work around unforeseen problems, but please don’t sign up if you already KNOW you have a major life change planned part way through this CJ that will disrupt your ability to take part)

Posting order:

Flo à

Sonja à

Nigel à

Karen à

Sian à

Pat à

Virginia à

Donna à

Sherry à

Pam à back to Flo

Please update below when you have posted and when you have received a book:

First posting date, November 1st:

Flo: posted my own book to Sonja 1st November

Sonja:... posted to Nigel 1st Nov. Received Flo's book 2/11.

Nigel: Posted to Karen 5th Nov, rec'd from Sonja 5th Nov

Karen: Posted to Sian 5th Nov. Received from Nigel 7th Nov.

Sian: Posted to Pat Fri 2nd Nov Received from Karen 6th Nov

Pat:  Posted to Virginia 1st Nov received from Sian 5th NovPosted toVirginia 20Nov (off on hols):)

Virginia:  posted to Donna 2nd November received from Pat 3 November 

Donna:...posted to Sherry 1st Nov received from virginia 5th dec ( arrived 3rd  but had to go get it from PO)

Sherry:.... posted to Pam 1st Nov.   Received Donna's record box 5th Nov

Pam: Delivered own book to Flo. Received Sherry's book 02/11/12. Received Donna's box 13/11/12



Second posting date, December 1st:

Flo: posted Pam's CJ to Sonja 3/12, has received Sherry's

Sonja: Posted Sarah's CJ to Nigel 27/11. Pam's arrived 5/12/12.

Nigel: Posted Sonja's CJ 29th Nov. Rec'd Sarah's 30th

Karen: Received Sonja's from Nigel 30/11 Posted to Sian 11th Dec

Sian: Posted to Pat Monday 10th December.. Rcvd Nigel's CJ from Karen 12th December

Pat:  Received Karen'scj 15 Dec

Virginia:  Received Sian's CJ from Pat 21st November Posted both Sian's and Pat's Journals to Donna 29/11/12

Donna:.received from V - (sorry my son signed or it last week only just updated site 07/12) mailed to sherry today ( I feel very bad sorry it is late)

Sherry:  Posted Donna's CJ to Pam 12th Nov.  Received Virginia's from Donna 10th Dec..

Pam: Handed over Sherry's CJ to Flo 7/12, has received Donna's

Third posting date, January 2nd:

Flo:  posted Sherry's CJ to Sonja on 28th December, received Donna's (AMAZING!) CJ 7/1

Sonja:  Sherry's arrived Sat 29/12. Posted Pam's CJ to Nigel 31/12/12 but it won't leave PO until 3/1/13.

Nigel: Posted on 9th, has Pam's CJ 

Karen: received Flo's CJ from Pam, Posted Sonja's on 15/1
Sian: Posted Nigels CJ to Pat Fri 4th Jan first class recorded. Rcvd Sonja's CJ 16/1

Pat:  Posted to Virginia 3rd Jan , received Nigel's Sat 5th Jan

Virginia:  has already done her posting (Sian's journal) for this month, received Karen's CJ 5th Jan

Donna:.posted both journals (Sians and Pams) that I received from Virginia on to Sherry, I have no journal coming from Virginia in January and so will not be posting again until I receive the next journal  (? Feb)  I think that means my next posting date will be March? I have worked in four journals so far so I think that is correct...   Virginia currently has Karen's CJ and will pass this on to you beginning of Feb, and then you post it on beginning of March - so you can have a rest for a bit :) )

Sherry: - Posted Virginia's CJ to Pam 02/01 and rec'd Sian's and Pat's 03/01 (from Donna)  (Sherry, you are due to post on Pat's CJ on 1st Feb and Sian's on 1st March)

Pam: Received Virginia's CJ 3/1, passed Donna's CJ to Flo 7/1


Fourth posting date, February 1st:

Flo:  posted Donna's CJ to Sonja 25/1/13, received Virginia's and Sian's from Pam 9/2

Sonja:   Donna's arrived 26/1/13. I posted to Nigel today 28/1/13.

Nigel: Received and posted 29/01/13

Karen: received from Nigel, passed CJ to Sian's mum 12/02

Sian: Posted Sonja's to Pat 1/2/13. Rcvd Sarah' CJ from mum today :) 16/02

Pat:  Posted Nigel's to Virginia 30/1/13 received from Sian 2/2/13

Virginia: sent to Donna 31/1/2013 received from Pat 31/1/2013

Donna:.  has already done her Feb posting received from virginia 

Sherry: - sent Pat and Sian's journals onto Pam 24/1/13 

Pam: received Pat/Sian journals 26/1, handed over Virginia's and Sian's 9/2

Fifth posting date, March 1st:

Flo:  posted Virginia's CJ to Sonja 27th Feb, received Pat's CJ from Pam 28th Feb

Sonja:    Posted Donna's CJ to Nigel 28/2. Got Virginia's CJ 2/3/13.

Nigel: Posted to Karen 25/02, received Donna's 01/03

Karen: Received from Nigel 26/02 -  posted Pam's 5th March to Sian

Sian: Posted Sarah's CJ to Pat 1st recorded on Friday 1st March. Rcvd Pam's CJ 8th March

Pat:  posted to Virginia and received from Sian 1st March (and the cd now)

Virginia: Posted Nigel's CJ to Donna 1st class recorded on Friday 1st March  Received from Pat - Sonya's journal 

Donna:. posted next day delivery singed for 4th march - received Nigel's CJ

Sherry: has already done her March posting.  Received Karen's from Donna 5th March..  

Pam:  hand delivered Pat's CJ to Sarah 28/2

Sixth posting date, April 2nd:

Flo:  has posted Pat's CJ to Sonja 27/3 and has already received Sian's CJ from Pam

Sonja:  Pat's arrived from Sarah 28/3/13. I posted Virginia's to Nigel 28/3/13. 

Nigel: Received from Sonja 02/04, posted to Karen 02/04

Karen: Received Donna's from Nigel 03/04, handed Sherry's to Sian's mum ! (02/04)

Sian: Posted Pam's CJ to Pat 1st class recorded on Wed 27th March.

Pat:  Posted Flo's CJ to Virginia 27/3  Received Pam's 28th March

Virginia: received from Pat and posted to Donna 6/4

Donna:. received from Virginia 8th April

Sherry:   Posted Karen's onto Pam 20th March. Received Nigels from Donna 30th March.

Pam:  has already done her April posting.  received Karen's CJ from Sherry 21st March


Seventh posting date, May 1st:

Flo: posted Sian's CJ to Sonja 25/4, received Karen's CJ from Pam 2/5
Sonja: Picked up Sian's 27/5.Sent Pat's 1/5.
Nigel: Received Pat's 02/05. Posted Virginia's 01/05. Postie brought it back today as it's too big for work postroom. Will post again tomorrow. :(
Karen: passed to Sian Has Virginia's
Sian: Posted Sherry's to Pat 1st recorded on 20th May / Received Donna's lovely box on 11th May
Pat:   Posted Pam's 25/4  Received Sherry's 22 May
Virginia:Received Pam's Sent Sarah's 1/5/2013
Donna:posted Sonja's to Sherry 2nd May
Sherry:- Posted Nigel's onto Pam 10th April.  Received Sonjas. Posted Sonjas to Pam 15th May.
Pam: received Nigel's, handed Karen's CJ to Sarah 2/5



Eighth posting date, June1st:

Flo: posted Karen's CJ to Sonja 28/5, received Nigel's CJ from Pam 29/5
Sonja:  received Karen's CJ 1/6 and posted Sian's CJ to Nigel
Nigel: Posted to Karen 20/05 received Sian's
Karen:  Received Pat's (early)
Sian: Posted to Pat 1st Recorded 30th May. Rcvd Virginia's 12th June
Pat:  Received Donna's from Sian  3/6 posted to Virginia 3/6
Virginia:  Received Sherry's DID journal 5/6/2013 sending the circular fabric journal tomorrow gulp
Donna:  does not have a CJ to post this month as Sarah's book is still MIA, under investigation by the Royal Mail - however JUNK KEY has been posted to and received by - Sherry 31st May
Sherry: Has received the Junk Key ( Sarah's Sub) 31st may & will add to the assemblage....
Pam:  hand delivered Nigel's CJ to Flo 28/5, received Sonja's


Ninth posting , July 1st:

Flo: posted Nigel's CJ to Sonja 28/6
Sonja:  Got Nigel's CJ 29/6. Posted Karen's to Nigel 3/7/13.
Nigel: Posted Sian's 03/07/13. Received Karen's 08/07/13
Karen: Handed Pat's CJ over to Sian's mum 16th July
Sian: posted Virginia's CJ to Pat 1st recorded 1/7/13. Rcvd Pat's CJ 17th July. Posted Pat's home 29/7
Pat:   posted Donna's to Virginia 29/6 Rec'd virginia's 2/7 Posted Virginia's home 25/7
Virginia:  
Donna:  posted by me and recieved by Sherry, I have also recived form Virginia thanks guys...updated 16th July sorry for the delay in giving the update
Sherry: Posted Pam's to Pam 22nd July.
Pam:  hand delivered Sonja's CJ early July


Tenth and final posting , August 1st:

Flo: posted Sonja's CJ home on 30/7, I have also received my "junk key" home which is fab, thank you Donna et al
Sonja:  .My CJ arrived home 31/7/13 and I sent Nigel's away 31/7/13. Thank You.
Nigel: Posted to Karen 30/07
Karen: 
Sian: Posted Pat's CJ home 29/7
Pat:   Posted Virginia's home to her 25/7
Virginia:  
Donna:  
Sherry: Posted Pam's home to Pam 22nd July.
Pam:  has hand delivered Sarah's 'junk key'

Some more pages for Pat's Journal (from Lorraine)

playing around with paints, stamps and doodling..wanted fresher colours than I have used before

 vintage images from tissue paper added on top of stamped and painted layers

journalling in the layered heart with lots of scraped paint and doodling..these are all unfinished for Pat to add her own bits and pieces or just enjoy as they are...

Pass the Painting

Received Effies pass the painting this morning from Leanne...so imagine this painting with a thick black painted border added by Leanne (my camera somehow deleted the before picture that I took!!)

and this is what I have done as wanted to add an extra turquoise and vintage layer to the top as I know this is one of Effie's favourite colours .still plenty of space to add further focus layers I think.

Irene and Effies pages

Some more of the pages in my little book; it is getting quite chunky now with so much to look at.I love the elements that Effie puts in, then I have great fun adding to them.  It is all just right up my street and I have huge amounts of fun "looking"for little bits to stick in our books. I have an ever growing pile of stuff that might just come in useful!!!

This is on it's way to Effie and i'm really really looking forward to adding to her book.

And I must apologise(again!!)for my rubbish pics and post on this blog. If anyone is ever around my neck of the woods and would like to show me (or poke me in the eye) how I should be doing this, I'll ply them with G&T's!!!!!

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

Pass The Painting

...don't know if this is in the right place but here it is...the latest layer, I moved the hearts, sanded some bits added a painty border and the text.

Pass the painting

I thought she was too pretty to be a wall flower so I 'Klimt-ed' her up a bit so she stands out at the dance!

This is in the post to Leanie today.

Sami x

Attitude

Well since my last post my trusty old(ish) desktop has died a sad but overdue death. Fortunately a few months ago I had the foresight to buy an external harddrive and had most of my stuff on that. As well as that every time I seem to have tried to upload any pics my camera batteries been dead so I'm well overdue with this post but here it is...

My latest entry in Attitude - my contribution to a pair journal with Nigel:

Warning: explicit:

As someone mentioned Nigel and I seem to be very well suited in this pair journal. I was thinking that Attitude was turning into a strong female CJ (which is fine) but wanted a broader view of attitude and Nigel emailed to say he was going to go off on a tangent this time! I also scraped some paint on the next page for him to add something too as we've not done anything on each other's pages yet.

Looking forward to getting Turn It Up again :)

Sian x

Archived : Mystery Gift swap

SIGN UP DEADLINE : NOW CLOSED FOR SIGNUPS
POST DEADLINE: 21st SEPTEMBER 2012
REVEAL DEADLINE: 19th OCTOBER 2012

So, Collabor-ARTists, who fancies doing a little Secret Santa swap .... in the height of summer?  (Yes, I know, it's constantly raining, but trust me, this is all the Summer we're getting, so make the most of it!)

We're all skint thanks to that pesky recession, so the budget for this one (excluding p&p of course) is zero, nada, zilch

Your gift for your swap partner is to be gathered entirely from your own stash - kind of a "one man's trash is another man's treasure" thing....

But of course we don't want you sending actual trash!  Please gather together NICE art/craft supplies that you can spare and you think your partner would love:

eg - rubber stamps that you don't use any more
- ink pads or paint colours you accidentally bought a double of
- embellishments you have too many of
- tools you thought you would use but don't
- papers you have multiples of

(second hand or partly used items are fine as long as they are in good condition and still usable)

And pop them all in a box along with one handmade item - a card, ATC, bookmark, bag charm, pin cushion, tea cozy, whatever you fancy making (hint to my partner, can I please have a lifesized hand knitted replica of the spaceship Serenity from Firefly, or a fully operational TARDIS, thank you :) )

The twist?  (because this is a collaborative art community after all) - when you receive your mystery parcel, you have one month to make something using at least three items from your gift, and post a photo of it on here, along with a photo of all the lovely goodies you received.

So - who's in?   (just edit yourself onto the list)

1.  Sarah (Flo) - posted and received (love all my goodies!  it's like Christmas!)
2.  Virginia - posted and received oh and I agree it's like Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3.  Carmen - received and posted
4.  Sonja- posted and received  
5.  Pat - sent and received
6.  Lou aka Posh Scot - posted and received
7.  Leanie -
8.  Sherry - posted
9.  Donna 'i can crochet a tardis' Rodgers - posted and recieved
10. Michelle Webb - delivered and recieved
11. Effie - received

PLEASE UPDATE THE LIST ABOVE TO INDICATE WHEN YOU HAVE POSTED AND RECEIVED YOUR RESPECTIVE PARCELS

Sign up deadline is Friday 31st August.

At that point I'll pair everyone up (NB you won't be sending to the same person you receive from, so it will all be a surprise) and let you know the identity of your giftee.

Then you will have three weeks to check out their blog, etc, and work out what they might like, and then go shopping in your own stash for items to make up their mystery gift.

The other relevant deadline dates are up at the top of this post.

Hello

Hello Collabor-Artists! My name is Sonja Wright and I'm mostly known as Wrightboysmum on the various forums I frequent. I'm not that keen on having my photo taken but I do have one from Jubilee Day at work where we wore tiaras all day.

I'm really pleased to be able to join this group and create art with like minded peeps. My favourite thing is to be messy and inky and my work are used to me appearing with inky fingers that takes days to disappear. I live in Aberdeenshire with my long suffering husband and my two boys and I have always done something creative probably to make up for the fact that I really wanted to go to art school but being good at science mean't I actually ended up working in a laboratory. Still not sure how that happened but it did. These days I predominately scrapbook and art journal and I have different approaches to them and they don't really meet in the middle. I love inks and gesso and stamps on my art journal work but it very rarely appears on my scrapbook work which is fairly graphic and linear. I blog here at The Secret Life of a Scrap Stash Collector and these are my current favourites from my work.

I know Sarah through UKScrappers and circle journals and I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone else as well. Sonja.x