DONNA'S PAIRS JOURNAL

Well it has to be said that Donna and I really must be coming to the end of this journey with our journals because they are getting harder and harder to work on - why?  Because they are so full - here is Donna's journal from the top - see what I mean?

This time I added a church and a boat

 A tag

 Edged some words

 Added some doodling

 And some more gold ribbons

 Some wire and beading

 An embossed cog

 Some stamping

 And some more with a quote sticker

 Kittens and the words "Define Good" as the page relates to siblings and seemed quite apt

 Then paint, gesso, stamping, repainting the letters and black lining the words on this page

 And painted on the back of the final page, bit of oil pastels and some stamping

 Hope Donna likes the additions!

DONNA'S DID CJ - THE FINAL INSTALLMENT - WARNING HERE BE SPOILERS

Well I spent a lovely morning yesterday working on Donna's journal - it really is utterly gorgeous - in fact it was gorgeous before it set off on it's travels and now it's passed through so many collaborartists hands it's looking fabulous.  Donna picked the tracks for each of us and I had a Webb Sisters track which I hadn't heard before, it's a beautiful song but ever so sad.  This is how the journal arrived with me - isn't it gorgeous!

And from the top

And this is my entry to the journal 

and the back, done with gelli plate and stamps and what you can't see is bits of metallic paint 

 The inside I coloured some of the stars purple and hand stitched around two edges

 And some clocks which I colour blue and purple in line with the track

 Initially the inside was quite plain

 But then I added some lyrics

Then time to add to other entries in the collaborative way, stamped vintage photo and black on the back

And gesso on the front to tone down the vibrant paper and make the lettering pop, I also add a little bit of oil pastels

 A added metallic paint to the waves on this

 And gold metallic paint around this title

 I loved adding to the stamped harlequin in silver and then re-edged the diamonds with black liner

 on both sides

the lettering on this one felt a bit lost on the background, so I toned the background down with gesso, removed the gesso from the lettering and then used some oil pastels to make it stand out

 Toned the back down with the gesso too and then stamped

 Add a little bit of vintage photo around the edge and some oil pastels around the title

 A little metallic to the title

 Gesso and metallic around the heart and the edges and the title

 Bit of purple paint on the edges of this one to tone things

 And then some oil pastels around this

 Purple oil pastels around the insides

 A little metallic on this (that you can hardly see but is there honest)

And there you go, I won't be sending this until I get the go-ahead from Donna but it's all parcelled up and ready to go!

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.....

Virginia's CJ

 My page 'See you at the show' from The Long Road album from Nickleback depicted with acrylic paints

 Subtle additions to other pages mainly using paint and stencils - additions to front and back pages

....so now it's finished it can be posted home!!!