Virginia's DID CJ

"You're So Cool" - a song from one of Virginia's favourite films, True Romance and one that means a lot to her as it was played during her wedding ceremony. I have seen the film but a long time ago so I looked it up and it was the final scene that stuck in my mind when you see the couple and their little boy, Elvis... I know Virginia and her soulmate have a boy and so I came up with the idea of a couple silhouetted at sunset to represent the happy ending of the film but also represent Virginia's own family.

I painted the sunset background, cut the silhouette out and painted over it black then cut the You're So Cool out on vinyl. I wasn't sure if it was too plain but I didn't want to add to it for the sake of it and nothing was springing to mind so I figured if Virginia felt it needed something else she could add to it herself :o)

On the back again I kept it simple painting it black and adding the film title:

I was about to sign it when I realised there were separate sign-in... a narrow escape 

Please avert your gaze if bad language should offend.....

It's Desert Island Discs time again and this month I have Sian's CJ to work in.

Right from the very beginning when Sian first published her list of songs, I was hoping that one particular song would still be available when the CJ reached me - and it was - woohoo!

Like Sian, I have certain songs that I love to play at volume when I am in a baaaaaaad mood, my angry songs, and this track by Korn is very much one of them.  In particular, shouting along to the chorus is a great stress reliever!

Trouble is, there's a rather rude word in there, but I checked on the Collabor-ART Facebook group to see if anyone would be offended by me posting it uncensored, and nobody said not to, so here goes, brace yourselves :) :

The main image on this page was a real labour of love - it's a hand cut, 4 layer stencil of the band's lead singer, Jonathan Davis.  I am beyond chuffed at how well it turned out and how much it looks like him.

(original photo by user Cliseu on deviantART)

For comparison, as I expect that most of you probably wouldn't know him from Adam, here's the reference photo I used:

Now I am trying to think what else I can use that stencil for as it was a lot of work for a single use!  I thoroughly enjoyed making it though.

On the reverse side of the flappy bit is an image from one of the band's live album covers that fit the space rather nicely:

It wasn't until I'd finished all this bit that I realised I was supposed to use that area for my sign in and thoughts about why I had picked this song etc, oops!  So instead I wrote all that stuff on the reverse of a tag decorated to match everything else, and I tucked it in behind my main page:

So that's my own page done, I hope Sian likes it as much as I enjoyed making it

Next stop - tweaking the previous entries

I didn't do something to all of the previous pages this time, only the ones where I had an immediate idea of what I wanted to add

To Pat's entry - the Wonder of You by Elvis - I added a quick sketch of a someone extending a helping hand, inspired by the lyrics "you touch my hand and I'm a king":

On Sian's own entry for the love song Butterfly by Lenny Kravitz, I gave her girl a heart.  Well for a love song she needs one, right?

And to Virginia's entry, for Snow White Queen by Evanescence, I added a coat of arms to her warrior queen's shield:

Roll on next month, I am enjoying this CJ so much!

Turn It Up Nigel and Sian Pair Journal (Nigels)

Here's some pages I've been working on in Nigel's journal:

I started out light-hearted...

A song for a sunny day...

Then I went decidedly darker after discovering my two favourite songs of the moment, Pierce the Veil's "King for a Day" (fab video if you get chance to watch it!!) and Fall Out Boy's "My Song's Know What You Did In the Dark" (ooh another fab video esp if you're a fan!!) which I'm not sure I've finished yet. Who knows, that's the joy of PJs yes? :)

I am playing the two bottom songs loud as we speak - hopefully Nigel will be pleased :oD

Sian xx

Pam's Desert Island CJ: Smooth Criminal

So I can't sew, I've never worked with fabric, I don't own a sewing machine and when I received this I thought HELP! :o) It is gorgeous though... and a couple of ideas sprung to mind first of all printable canvas then transfer paper was suggested to me. Tesco only had transfer paper so I went with that! I'd already decided what I wanted my page to look like and I'd created it digitally so I had something to follow. It turns out transfer paper is fab!

I love smooth criminal and I love music played with classical instruments (Metallica's S&M album springs to mind!) and I love cellos (Apocalyptica hello!) so this was an obvious choice for me. I hope it's not too papery for pam (thank you mod podge!!!) I managed to use some ribbon as well under the title after painting it red. So here it is:

As Pam doesn't like MJ the only reference to him is the hat hanging off the cello but it seemed to me to fit my theme of a smooth criminal with bullet holes and blood drops. Pam describes the song as exciting and sexy and I hope this page goes some way to representing that.

Thanks for looking :o)

Attitude pair journal (Nigel and Sian) and Sarah's DID CJ

I realised recently after looking at other people's posts on here that I've been approaching the pair journal thing all wrong, I've been doing a full entries then passing it on when really this is an ongoing project that can go on as long as Nigel and I want it to and so I don't have to complete anything, instead I can just play and add stuff later! To this end here's what I've been up to in my Attitude journal posted off to Nigel this morning:

To be continued... Nigel feel free to have a go :o)

And then there's Sarah's gorgeous CJ. I was going to go for Just Like a Pill, then it changed to Fight For Your Right and then I settled for Present Tense. For me, it's the reasons people give that swing it far more than the song and whether I like it or not and that's what I based my LOs on for this song:

I wanted to do a shadow of the past so I found this monster image online and then copied it in pencil, cut it out and painted it black the eyes are red paint. The background is blue, maroon and black paint. I wanted the flap to open so I cut it off and reattached it at the side then underneath I added an acetate panel and inside I put strips with words on like lost, angry, loneliness to represent the past that Sarah talks about in her journal. There are blank strips for anyone to add to if they want and then it can be sealed if Sarah wants to leave the past where it belongs.

On the back I wanted the opposite of the darkness so painted yellow with rays. Sarah used the image of her tattoo in another CJ we were in together and did you know if you google certain words the image comes up :) that's how I got it anyway. I added the rest of the lyrics of her favourite lines in the rays using a pink pen.

Once again I created the same flap opening on the opposite side, this time I put strips in with hope and finding strength and then I left the rest blank for others or Sarah to define her own present which as she says is joyful and happy. 

I hope this goes some way to representing how Sarah feels about the words in this song... oh and I've since signed the outside bottom flap bit but took the photo prior to doing this. :) Sian x

DID CJ

Finally catching up on blogging my CJ entries - I'm afraid I ended up doing two very quickly due to the amount of time I have had sitting around recovering from surgery - so here they are

First is Sian's - I chose this song not having heard it before and loving it- I have since downloaded a couple of albums :)

I have a thing about trees- they tend to signify growing (of course) and also in this case the many things that women are 'supposed' to be- the lyrics of the song making it clear that she won't be pushed into any of them

and on the inside a lonely female figure juggling all the different aspects of herself- I deliberately left this quite sparse so that people can add whatever things they think they are juggling :)

I'm afraid i did this one when i was still a bit high on morphine so I forgot to add to the other pages :( (that's my excuse anyway)

Next I did (apparently in the wrong order) Pat's

I'm afraid I only managed to add a little bleeding heart to this page

 My own entry was on Norah Jones' song 'Come Away With Me' - I've always loved this song and felt the flock of birds and the dream-like colours would suit it. One line mentions flying over the yellow grass so I dug out my old flower press to find  some grasses I pressed a couple of years ago- I hope they survive the various postings :)

And this is where i have been sitting for the past 2 months while I recover from surgery :D

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.

Sian & Nigel's Pair Journal

Here's my latest entry into "Attitude" which is my half of the Nigel/Sian Pair Journal. Attitude is what is says - a journal filled with examples of people or events that kick ass!

I have a suffragette memorabilia pack which I used for these pages. I admire the courage of these women and am grateful today for what they did back then! Nigel should receive it soon :o) TFL - Sian 

Tainted Love - Nigel's Desert Island CJ

I chose Soft Cell's Tainted Love for Nigel's CJ as I had an immediate vision of a tattered heart from love that had been taken from it's new and pure state to a battered and tainted state. I used paint and gesso and heated it to within an inch of it's life until it was bubbling and bursting and hopefully it's achieved the look I was after.

Close up you can see the dimension and texture created by the heated paint. The background stamp is Tim Holtz from Mixed Media. Hope it's ok Nigel :) - Sian

Desert Island Discs x2

I sometimes struggle to get to Post Offices, and bless her Sarah did a grand job of chasing me...so I decided to set to work immediately on the two journals I received from Virginia - Pat's and Sian's -

so this means I have a whole month and a second month in which to post - or I may mail on both to Sherry on the 2nd Jan...then again, life might happen and who knows when things will actually get done?  I do know Sarah is a perfect Hostess and things will be kept Tickety Boo.

Lots of images for Pat's ( will you still love me tomorrow) page.

 I heard Graham Bonnet sing this at Monsters of Rock...When I worked on this piece I 'heard' a different story,  the obvious one- reminiscent of the transience of one night's love, gone by morning, but remembered forever- But also thoughts of how we may become insecure about the feelings of our lovers as we age,

will you still love me tomorrow? - direct to page watercolour portrait of an aged lover with collage  added

the last image is of the pages I did for Sian's journal, I shall be surprised if she doesn't know which track I chose!!!!  As per her request the style is journalling so there are more pages and many hidden extras that you won't see until you get it...

Donna Louise Rodgers.

Desert Island Discs - Karen's CJ

Hi everyone. I've blogged my entry for Karen's CJ.

I chose the song Bird Gerhl and instead of duplicating the full post I shall just leave a link here for it:

Bird Gerhl

Thanks for looking

Sian :o)

DESERT ISLAND DISKS - SIAN'S JOURNAL

Evening all, I've been on a roll this week and received Sian's journal which I should have from the 1 December from Pat as it was more timely for her to send it early.  Another gorgeous journal, this one in separate pieces, I had a difficult job picking the track as there was such a good selection and Sian's journal is so heartfelt and honest, I felt incredibly privileged to take part in the journal.

I chose Snow White Queen by Evanescence as it was one of my favourite tracks from the selection and this is what I did.

A 'typical' art journal layout from me, including some of the lyrics, using acrylic paints to finger paint.  Since photographing I've also added  three small (tiny) red hearts to the shield and a little bit of inking through a mask. I did think about putting words inside the shield but wasn't sure which ones and this is off to Donna next so thought I'd leave it in case someone else can come up with something thus adding to the artwork in our collaborative way.

In line with the idea that this circle journal is a collaborative affair I decided to add some elements to the inner pages of the two previous pages, in keeping with the layout's already completed.  I hope this 'addition' is OK.

These colourful hearts I add to Pat's layout next to the lyrics

and the butterflies to Sian's pages.

 I'm going to send this journal to Donna, together with Pat's in the next day or so along with my pairs journal, that way Donna can work on them when she's ready.