Sami and Sue pair journal update

Here are the latest pages that I have done or added to in Sue's Journal.

 Sue had used pattern paper on this page and had stuck in the envelope pattern. I added the rusty scissors, the dolls head, the gruesome blood and the skull faces on the 1950's housewives.

 I used a stamp of a dressmakers dummy that I had made a while ago and added the dolls heads to the top (Sue loves doll heads!) I also added the words which I printed on the computer and the quote on the back of the ruler (which Sue sent me) which I attached with tape measure washi tape.

 On this page I added the castle, the cloud and moon and the bat

 This was one of my pages and Sue added some brown paint. This time round I added some more words using letter stickers and the stars, using a stencil.

 Sue sent these beautiful wings so I used them with a piece I cut from a magazine and some red tissue paper. I printed words onto masking tape using my printer. On the right hand side i painted with acrylics then added postage stamps that Sue had put in the little envelope on the page and then I added some prints I had done with my Gelli arts plate.

 I used washi tape to attach them on one side only so that they can be lifted up.

 I added 'cracks' over the dolls head that Sue had stuck down. I then found some 'creepy' doll pictures to add to the right hand side. I added some rub ons and the flyer from an event I went to in October called 'park of the dead'. Sues theme for her journal is 'Alphabetical' so I decided to just write about the event to fill the rest of the page.

 Sue had added the ravens to this page so I added a piece of poetry by Edgar Allen Poe printed onto tissue paper and three black feathers.

 Sue sent some fab skull serviettes so I used one of them on the left hand side, stuck down with gel medium. The starts were from a stencil. I stamped little skeletons onto tickets for the right hand side and added a rub on and thickers for the wording. 

On the left hand page I stuck down some remnants from some Gelli art prints and added the backing from some alphabet stickers. The image of the woman in the test tube I cut from a magazine and the rain drops are the little left over bits from the letter stickers. I added some little bird rub ons to Sue's page on the right.

Sue's journal is full now so we have agreed to finish this project. It has been great working on someone else's pages and seeing someone else's work 'in the flesh' as it were. I was really scared to add anything to Sue's pages to start with but once I got into it I really enjoyed it and it has been a great learning curve. I thoroughly recommend taking part in one of these pair journal collaborations!

Sami x

Purely collaged postcards

Sorry If the recipients have not received these yet, but I had to post today as I knew I wouldn't have time the rest of the week. I am hoping that people got them today as they were posted on Thursday.

Here are the beautiful backgrounds I received from Carmen

I especially love the fungi on this one!

 And the braille paper on this one.

And here is what I did to them

I found this hard, it took me so far out of my comfort zone I didn't think I'd get back again! I don't use a lot of collage and have never done purely collage before. I so wanted to just give it a spritz with a bit of spray ink or doodle something with a paint pen, they just didn't feel finished to me! I also didn't know if I was 'doing it right' but having now seen everyone else's I have a much idea of what it's all about and don't feel I was too far off the mark!

Sami

Sonja Collage PostCards

I received these two backgrounds from Nigel which were great to work with. I ended up with two different pathways one whimsical and the other a bit bleaker. I have to confess to have a total senior moment and not taking any photos of the completed pages. I'm hoping Lou and Jez come to my rescue with pictures. I also managed to forget to sign them as well so I'm hoping my blips are over. The first one I used Grazia magazine predominately and I loved the end result. It's a bit whimsical and quirky and the head reminded me of Evil Edna from the a children's show in the 80s. I also used a Hey Girl line as I have loved some of these on Pinterest. In fact once I started I enjoyed the process of cutting and fiddling around with images. I really ended up going with the flow and letting the images guide the process.

The second card made me think of Banksy and Big Brother at first and I went looking in my National Geographic collection and ended up with some images of poppies being farmed from Afganistan. I attached the image of the farmers hand to the figure and thought it looked surreal and just right. It definitely has a different feel from the first card.

I'm hoping this makes more sense when Lou and Jez add the completed pictures. I enjoyed this challenge a lot and have loved seeing some of the other cards. They have been really inspiring.


Here is the card that Jez received:

Desert Island CJ Page for Sonja; PJ Page for Nigel

Hi there, killing two birds with one stone here...

First of all Sonja's Desert Island Disc CJ. I was thrilled to see that Hotel California hadn't yet been picked as it's one of my all time favourite songs. For Sonja this brings back memories of lying in the back of her parents car watching the orange lights of the autobahn in Germany pass by overhead so my first thought was to use the dingy orange lighting and a street lamp as part of the LO as I like to incorporate people's meanings but also it seemed to me to fit the tone of the song about the seedy underbelly of California. Here's the LO then I'll explain what I did.

I inked the background then added the lamp and LA skyline. I drew the Hotel California and created a sign with smallprint to use that classic line, you can check out any time you like but you can never leave. I created the No Leaving sign digitally. The bird stamp seemed to fit well with the theme too. 

Sonja has put an envelope on the back of her 6x4ish pages so I decided to use it rather than painting over it. I recently won some Jenni Bowlin papers which include some bank receipts so I used one to make a receipt out as if someone had checked into the Hotel California - hopefully you can read it.

I covered the envelope and flap with Anna Debrowska-Pecocka paper (my favourite), added Sonja's journaling and then stapled the upper part of the receipt to the flap with my name and the date etc on it.

Ok so onto my Pair Journal with Nigel... his PJ is called Turn It Up and one song I love to listen to LOUD is Chop Suey by System of a Down. I haven't necessarily finished with this song yet but this is what I've got so far:

Anyone whose seen the video will know that the guitarist is covered in black, well, doodles really lol hence my black painted lines over the background of red paint and ink which I dripped quite a bit to represent blood. I focussed on the line I cry when angels deserve to die (for now) and cut some sissix wings on magic card that has silver inside when you file it. I embossed them in a music folder then scratched the surface, covered them in blood - red ink spray - then broke one of the wings, painting more blood on the break. Finally I painted when angels deserve to die and dragged the paint down over the words angel and die. 

IMO, this song deserves more time so I hope to do more on it, may add more layers to this page and create more unless Nigel tells me he hates the song and bans me from making more lol.

Pam's desert Island discs

I have to start by saying that I struggled with this. Partly because I don't normally use fabrics, but mainly because I don't have much fabric. Luckily my granddaughter uses fabric in some of her art, so I managed to borrow some scraps (apparently the technical term is off-cuts). She even let me use her machine to sew the background to the base -  scary!

There's some fantastic songs on Pam's list, and it was a hard choice, but eventually I went for "El Tango De Roxanne" which is familiar and unknown at the same time. Plus, I'm a sucker for a tango :)

Flo's collaged postcards

I've now heard word from both Vicki and Nigel that their postcards have arrived, so here they are blogged before I forget :)

These were the backgrounds I received from Jean:

and

And this was what they looked like once I had done my bit:

and

I didn't realise until after that second one was finished that I had inadvertently left the word "crap" by the umbrella lady's face - oops! :D

Like a lot of you I found this project a real challenge!  The hardest bit for me was not being able to use a pen or pencil to add a bit of a drop shadow to my people, or to grab an ink pad to ink the edges of the card a tad....

It was fun though :)

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.

Desert Island Disc - CJ Pages for Pat and Sian

I received the two journals for Pat and Sian 

at the same time and having now completed 

pages in both of them, have today sent them

onto Pam.

First up is the page for Pat.

'Isn't She Lovely' is the song I chose.

I did a bit of spraying, inking, doodling

and masking.

The central heart is cut from a book page

and Mod Podged to give it a bit of strength.

The words are stamped onto seam binding.

Hope Pat likes it - by the way Pat, I love your

cover for the journal - and if I remember rightly,

it was made from the leather scraps I sent you

in the mystery parcel?  What a brill idea, love what you did!

This next one is for Sian.

I chose a song called 'Cut' which I'd never

heard of before.

I found an image on google of a couple arm in arm

which I cut out and used as a stencil/mask.

The cuts on the arm were made with an versamark

pen then heat embossed.

 My interpretation is for both Sian and her husband

and I hope you like it Sian x

Irene's collaged postcards

Hi all

I'm blogging these postcards for Irene as blogger is giving her a hard time

Here are the bases Irene received from Pat:

and here they are in all their finished glory:

ooooh, saucy! ;)

Purely Paper Postcards

These great bases from Sonja are now winging their way to the recipients.

             

   Before

and After

Before

and the After

Enjoy

Desert Island Discs

This month I have had Nigel's pages  The top two have little additions - a little bit of ink and some stamping

.....and the disc I chose from his list is Vienna by Ultravox  I enjoyed listening to the various tracks Nigel has selected while I worked   Vienna is a favourite of mine and I have created a page with various inks and stamped images  Looking forward to seeing the end results

Postcards via Pat

 The backgrounds before..........

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

KAREN'S DESERT ISLAND DISK - CJ - AN UPDATE

Evening all, well as we all know from the Facebook group (well unless you're not in it in which case this might be news), but we've been discussing the fact that many of the Desert Island CJ's currently doing the rounds aren't really being added to in a collaborative way, and I've been the first to put my hand up and say - "I didn't want to ruin it" but in keeping with the collaborative spirit I've bitten the bullet with Karen's journal (being brave obviously) and set to adding to the three pieces already contained therein as well as creating my own.

So here goes, fingers crossed Karen will actually like the additions

This is how I received the layout and whilst Karen was mighty dismissive in her original post I loved it!  My worry was adding to it (this is the fingers crossed bit)

Here is the layout following my 'alterations' - yes I know they are subtle, I've added a tissue paper stamped heart and cross on the upper left and bottom right (half a heart each side).

I've add a stamped Midsummer Night's dream stamp over the top of it, not that you can read the words I just like the swirly writing!

 And I've added two metal crosses to the bottom of the page on the lace.

 Next up Sian's page which is lovely and again I wondered how I could add to it!

I've added some clear stamping around the edge and the heat from the heat gun has brought out the additional inks that have been added on it's travels as you can see.  Apologies for the poor lighting - it's late but I wanted to get the post done!

 Up close you can see the enhanced inking and the embossing around the edge, fingers crossed Sian likes the additions and Karen likes how the journal is progressing.

Next up the fabulous layout from Pat as it was received, already a gorgeous piece of art in it's own right

 And the finished item (again apologies for the darkness of the photo!)  By now I was getting braver, so I added three pink eyelets to the left hand side, threaded with organza ribbon, then threaded some gold wire through and some gold beadwork!

Then I added some gold mica to the roses on the top left and bottom right

 And finally added some glossy accents

 to both roses.

And then we come to my addition, of the tracks in the journal this is the one that has a personal connection for me too which is why I chose it.  I've intentionally left mine 'simple' to help with any future additions as the journal goes on it's travels and as it's off to Donna next I know she will love adding to this one!

The layout overall, double gelli print pulled background, foam stamps for the title, hand cut symbol, clear embossing music stamp on the symbol, tissue paper top left and bottom right and stamped image top right and bottom left corner.

 Up close the music stamping

 Up close tissue paper and gelli-print

 And finally the stamping on the edges.

I must admit I had great fun with this journal today and intend next month on working on the 'done' layouts as soon as it's received so I can add to them as I go along whilst considering what I'll create in addition.

I hope you like it Karen and I hope all the contributors up to now feel I've 'added' to the journal!