And the Stay-At-Home CJ is ready for the off.....

A big thank you to everybody who is taking part in the Stay-at-Home CJ, I have now received all your backgrounds and made all the colour copies.

These will be posted out this weekend, in the meantime, here's a thumbnail of each one, and due dates for each completed page:

•             30th September 2013 : Lou’s background – theme ‘for the love of trees’

•             31st October 2013 : Carmen’s background – theme ‘beastie’

•             30th November 2013 : Pat’s background – theme ‘steampunk’

•             31st December 2013 : Sarah’s background – theme ‘song lyrics’

•             31st January 2014 : Virginia’s background – theme ‘Shakespeare’

•             28th February 2014 : Pam’s background – theme ‘innocence and experience’

•             31st March 2014 : Sami’s background – theme ‘mermaid tales’

•             30th April 2014 : Gill’s background – theme ‘art in my heart’

•             31st May 2014 : Katie’s background – theme ‘cogs & wheels & rust’

I can't wait for the first big reveal!  Have fun, all :)

UNEXPECTED MAIL ART FROM DONNA

A while ago (actually an absolute age ago), I was the lucky recipient of one of Donna's mail art pieces, not because I'd added my name to the mail art list, just because she wanted to send me a piece, I adored her typewriter stamp that she'd created!  Awesome stuff - thought I would share it, I love mail art - thank you Donna!

WELCOMING HOME MY DID JOURNAL

Finally got around to photographing my DID journal that arrived home recently.  This will be a photo heavy post, but wanted to say thank you to everyone who contributed and who added to previous art - it's a beautiful collaborative project.  My only sadness in all of this is that Sarah's journal was lost in this process, hopefully the new Royal Mail proof CJ will prove not only fun but prevent this happening again! 

FINALLY - VIRGINIA'S EXQUISITE CORPSE

I know I know I've taken an absolutely age (and a half) to get this posted.  There was a reason honest, firstly was the dilemma over which way some of the pieces went (I kid you not), one piece in particular worked well two different ways, we were confused, anyway eventually I decided that as it was my Exquisite Corpse then I would have it the way I wanted (despite protestations from said hubby and said 12 year old at the time).

Then was the 'how to frame it dilemma' which caused weeks and weeks of soul searching as I really did want to show it off to it's fullest, so here we are with a final unveiling!

Fanfare please...

The roof section is Pam's, the next section down with the bright Gothic window is Katie's piece, the next piece down is Rebecca's and the bottom floor was mine,

And the reason why we've taken so long is that I didn't want the beautiful stained glass elements to be lost, so look what hubby did for me!!!

And this is how it works, an open doored frame which was originally a pin board, with mirror card and led lights.

Up close detail, the ground floor

 The stained glass windows that Rebecca had done, and all that checker board, so much detail (lights off on this bit)

 Lights on to show you the detail of the stained glass

 And the little tiny dots along the top of the spikes, so much work!

And Katie's fabulous brick work, again so much detail!

 Pam's cobwebby roof space

Thank to everyone who contributed and I hope you'll forgive me for taking a while to blog it but I'm sure you'll agree it was worth it!

Sherry's Cj

I've finished work on Sherry's CJ, and composed a new challenge for us to make a JunkKey together in a circle group.

The photos of Sherry's  CJ page and the bits I have added to some of the other entries are posted here now, the challenge I'll post later,

 added wings:

 added colour and charm

 added beading

 added beading

 added beading and charm

I will post it Monday to arrive Tuesday Sherry unless you email me better dates for you to receive this gorgeous journal back... 

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.