Purely Collaged Postcards

Mine are a little late in wending their way across the Channel but they have finally gone today. Hopefully they will make it to their new homes fairly unscathed!

Firstly, here are the fabby backgrounds I got from Jaz. Sorry about the wonky scan but it's the best one I have.

And here is what I did with them.

I really enjoyed doing this, even if it was a really struggle not to add just a little ink or paint!

Sherry's DIDCJ- Don't Stop Me Now

I have had another fabric CJ this month from the Desert island Discs CJ and it has been a learning curve trying to get good techniques to use on the pages. I chose the song "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen as the inspiration for this page for Sherry's CJ. I had the image from the Virgin Atlantic planes with the glamour girl on the side in my head. I found a Vargas girl image that looks a lot like the Virgin girls and I experimented with image transfer from acetate to Claudine's canvas. My first attempt wasn't great the image blurred and I think I was probably too heavy handed with the Mod Podge. I then tried some Satin Glaze from PaperArtsy after seeing this Youtube tutorial and it worked really well. The base is Liquetex paint on the canvas and it spread really well and coloured the canvas just right for the sky background I was aiming for. I stamped the Studio Calico clouds using Hero Arts Neon Blue ink and then stitched around some of them with grey thread. I got a new stencil that I used with some texture paste to give the effect of the clouds raining. The wave stamp is an Art Warehouse one.

Part of the theme for this CJ is collaboration and so far I have been too hesitant to alter or add to anyone else's page as I have had to work harder at the fabric CJs than I normally have to with the paper. I did decide to dip my toe in the water though and add a little stamping to Sarah's and Sherry's pages. For Sherry's I used a Studio Calico chevron stamp and some Cranberry Adirondack ink to edge the borders. I am pleased with how it turned out and think it has added to the page rather than detracting.

For Sarah's I added a PaperArtsy map relief stamp along the base of the page using black Stazon.

I am finally getting to grips with fabric as well and learnt some new techniques this month so I'm pleased with the pages. I enjoy the challenge each month of having to think creatively and produce a page for the various CJs as they arrive. TFLx.

Desert Island Discs CJ - Sonja

This is my entry for Sonja's Desert Island Disc CJ.  There were a couple of songs I would have liked to do but finally settled on Your Song by Elton John.  Sonja's notes say she remembers this song from Christmas time a while back and that she was heavily pregnant at the time.  It is also her son's song as she played it a lot when he was born.  I tried to draw a mother and baby but it was hopeless, so I had to resort to the trusty internet I'm afraid.  I found a perfect picture, it had a wintery background which can be seen through the mum and baby.  I coloured this in with a mix of watercolour pencils, neocolors and skin tone pastels. The background is neocolor II, sprayed with pearl cosmic shimmer, acrylic paint snowflakes and a tissue paper 'tree' -  I also added a line from the song, printed onto Safmat then stuck on.  Hope it is ok.  For the previous entries in the CJ - I didn't add to Sonja's but I added embossed stars to Nigel's.

Jez and Karen Pair Journal (2)

This is the journal I sent to Jez.  It was just a cheapo book from Asda (a complete rip off of a Moleskine) it has an 'eco leather' cover in grey so I decided to doodle on it, I left 2 spaces for Jez to complete if she wishes.

My background pages are a bit of a mix, I did a vintage one - which is not like me but I enjoyed it, I also did a Union Jack - I seemed to have a thing about them at the time !  I hope Jez has managed to do something with the pages :)

Jez and Karen - Pair Journal

Firstly, I must apologise to poor Jez for having me as a swap partner!  This stupid thing called life keeps getting in the way of me doing 'fun stuff' but hey ho! better late (ok, very late) than never !!

Firstly, the pages that Jez did in her journal, I have added only small bits to as they were lovely as they were (but that isn't the point of this is it, lol )

The 1st page reminded me of water, so I added some seaweed and some Stampotiques in the form of a mermaid and 2 Octopets.

Next I added some paisley flourishes in red and a bit of number tape down one edge.

Next up, I added a mask of a bird and inked that and added a small bit of cameo tape and also a cameo necklace to the girl.

I only did 2 backgrounds in Jez's book as she made the book herself and it doesn't have as many pages as a bought journal so didn't want to use up all her space !  The 1st one is ok-ish but I have absolutely NO idea what I was thinking with the 2nd one ... feel free to gesso over it completely Jez and do something else lol!!

I will do a post with my journal in a sec ....





Virginia's Desert Island Discs

Unfortunately I had to take a bit of a break before doing this one as I had surgery to recover from- but thankfully this gave me something to do while recovering :)

Taking to heart Sarah's entreaty to be more collaborative I have added a piece of metalwork to a couple of the previous pages - I think they work :)

Hearts appeared to figure a lot on the page so i thought why not have one that stands out?

The mask in the background was of a lovely clockwork theme- so I found some bits from an old watch I had taken apart- I do that a lot - just to add to the background a bit

This is my page for the song 'Glitter in the Air' by Pink

Looking at the lyrics and watching her sing it on You|Tube made me think of a few things at once:

The Circus

Feeling 'held' and 'balanced'

Hands

Happiness

Wonder

Overcoming fear

Brightness / colours

 These all came together in a kind of circus figure being held steady yet enjoying the moment - I hope that makes sense?

I was keen to keep the colours bright and 'happy'

I even had a go at drawing- something I hadn't done in a while- and I'm quite pleased at the result 

The hands are stamped and the background is a mixture of different masks roughly sponged over with emulsion from a DIY shop :)

Onto the next one :)

Collaged postcards - Nigel

Just a fleeting post before I rush off to the south coast.......

Original backgrounds by Vicki: