If you had three wishes....

....what would you wish for??

Is it tricky to narrow it down to three?  Or would you cheat and go for all encompassing ones like "I wish that everyone in the universe was happy and healthy"?

I scribbled my hopes and dreams all over the background of this page (and veered wildly off topic half way down, as I tend to do when I just spill the words out onto paper), and then covered most of the writing up again.  But I know what's under there, which is all that matters I guess.

Did you know, it's REALLY difficult to take a photo of your right hand with fingers crossed when you are right handed and your camera is heavy and unwieldy?  That piccie you see there took about 20 attempts!  Got there in the end though.

Supplies used on here: the background is Golden fluid acrylics and glimmer mist sprays with some overstamping with black and white gesso, and some splats of light grey acrylic ink.  The hand is my own, the candles were from a piccie on't interwebs.  The 123 stamp is by Paper Bag Studios, the letter stamps spelling WISHES are by Creative Imaginations.  The light pink border is hockey tape.  I think that's everything.  I don't know who made the embroidery floss :)


AJED: 27/365

His Dark Materials

What a fun circle journey entry this one was to work on!

This is from the Take Ten CJ, and the theme here is famous books.

I'm the seventh to play in this book so there were only 4 titles left to choose from, and I'm ashamed to say that I hadn't heard of three of them!

But luckily one of the remaining choices was Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, which is such a good one that I would have chosen it anyway I think, even if I'd had first dibs.

A quick how to:

The background is made from a paper napkin that I have been keeping for the perfect moment, and this turned out to be it.  It was glued down with gel medium and then sprayed with a couple of different colours of glimmer mist.  And then I painted in a few darker stripes on the right hand side.

Will, Lyra and her daemon were cut out and then painted with a white paint pen to make them nice and bright white.

I decided that they needed something behind them so roughly sketched a viaduct on some of my scrap paper that I use to protect my table when using spray inks and cut it out.

The airship and scroll (which features the passage from John Milton's Paradise Lost which inspired the title of the book series) were aged with distress inks and then glued down.

Three rusty iron stars finish it all off down in the bottom left.

Next month I have "Couples in Literature" (more books!  don't these people realise that I don't have time to read? :) ) - I have chosen Orpheus and Eurydice, wish me luck!

And don't worry, I haven't forgotten my ten minutes art journalling tonight, no completed pages yet to share, but here are a couple of backgrounds-in-progress:

The second one was made using this fab technique from the very talented Dyan Reaveley:



Clever, huh?


AJED : 26/365

Yet another art journal page....are you all getting bored yet?.....

...because I'm afraid I'm not! Sorry :)

This one has taken 4 days, not because it was difficult, but because I had a busy busy busy weekend, so my ten minutes per day really was only ten minutes.  And also because the page had no idea where it was going and I needed to give it time to figure itself out.

This is so liberating for me, making stuff without a hint of a plan, I love it!

So, on day 1, Friday, I just prepped the page with black gesso (my son Darby's suggestion, he saw me getting the white gesso out as usual and said 'why don't you use black gesso instead because Bob Ross likes black gesso' - so I did :)  ).  And I also painted the blue/green and reddy pink papers which would go on to make those chevron strips, and stamped spots on them in copper ink.

On day 2, Saturday, I stamped the 5 journalling blocks with white ink, and painted them roughly inside with blue and purple interference paints.  I also added the scribbled oil pastel border.  And I punched out all the chevrons for the strips and stuck them on. 

The page now looked like this:

And then I drew a bit of a blank....

The plan was to journal inside those blocks, but I had no idea what about....

On day 3, Sunday, we went to London, to the Science Museum, where we saw this fantastic display of sculptural casts of the same face showing different emotions:

Amazing aren't they!

I took photos of the 6 faces, and said to my other half that I might use them in my journal....and then he pointed out something I had completely missed....the journalling blocks I had laid out, with their metallic/reflective interference paint, looked like mirrors!  And these fab faces would look brilliant staring out from these mirrors.

This is why I call him my creative director, he always has clever ideas like that.

We got home late that night and I was tired, but I still did my 10 minutes, I printed out the photos of the 6 faces, and cut them out.

Then today, I finished the page off by sticking the faces down on their mirrors, outlining them with white pen, and adding all the writing and a few doodles.

I really like how this one turned out, it's definititely a different challenge starting with a base of black instead of white, but it's a fun one!

And it gave me a chance to play with two new toys, the chevron punch, and the rest of my POSCA paint pens.  Both toys that I will definitely be playing with again very soon.

Can't believe I haven't missed a single day of this yet - doing something creative, however small, every single day, is such a great feeling.


AJED : 24/265

AJED: 10 pages in 20 days, I'm on a roll :)

I can't believe that I haven't missed a day yet of working in my journal for at least 10 minutes - and that I'm averaging one completed page every other day - go me!

I had a lot of fun with this particular page, trying out all sorts of new techniques - like toner transfers with a Chartpak blender pen - and toys - like my fantastic new POSCA paint markers.

I also tried out an idea I saw on a blog somewhere - wish I could remember where! - of drawing a rough border with oil pastels before you start slathering paint on top - and then using a sharp blade at the end to scrape off the paint at the page edges revealing the oil pastel colour underneath.  It looks wonderfully grungy - I like!

Close up so you can see the toner transfers (under the orange paint) and the oil pastel border a little better:

The photo is one I took on Christmas Day last year when we (me, my 3 boys, my sister, my cousin and my 2nd cousin) went for a walk in the failing light up to Fortune Green cemetery.  I was kicking myself I didn't have a real camera with me, just my phone, which doesn't cope all that well with poor light.

But if anything, the lo-fi-ness of the pics worked in their favour:

And the "Don't Blink" title?  Well, that is of course a nod to the best Dr Who episode ever!

**edited to add - I just noticed that I forgot the apostrophe on "don't" - how awfully illiterate of me!  Luckily it was a quick fix: 


AJED : 20/365

So I've been stuck working from home today....

 

...looking after Connor and his poorly foot.

To be honest I'm no big fan of working from home, the remote connection to our work computers is slow and keeps kicking me out, I don't have anywhere really comfortable to sit and work for long stretches, and it's hard to concentrate with a small person complaining that they are booooooooooored, or hungry, or thirsty, or all three.

But there's one big plus, I have all my art and craft materials in easy reach during my lunch break - yay!

So today I had my journal page finished by 1pm :)

It helped that it was a quick and easy one - it was in response to the weekly journalling prompt set by Efemera over at UKStampers:

Your prompt word this week is.... Schooldays
1 Jot down 10 random things about your schooldays.
2 Use lined paper
3 Add some ink blots and doodle in the margin. 

I worked quickly without trying to make it look pretty, as I wanted it to be as messy and as "me" as a page from one of my old school exercise books, and I think it worked.

All the "I remember"s remind me of all the lines I used to have to write in detentions!

This was also a chance to finally use the set of teacher's tracing alphabet stamps that I picked up at a boot sale about 7 years ago and have never opened - they stamp horribly but as it's a messy page anyway it doesn't really matter :)

And - as I had already gotten my art journal every day commitment out of the way at lunch, I had the evening free to polish off a Circle Journal page.  Get me!  Mrs. super productive!

Excuse the rubbish photo of this one, the flash caught the copper embossing a bit too bright.

This is my entry for "brown" in the Colours CJ.  The temptation to do my layout on Mr Hanky the Christmas Poo was strong, but I resisted (after all, Christmas is so last month)

Apparently I have "coffee and cream" coming next month....so that would be more brown then?  Mr Hanky, anybody???

AJED : 18/365

Can you spot it? Nobody I've shown the page to so far has.....

So I'm still art journalling every day.....I don't think I've ever had any kind of resolution that lasted this far into January! :) 

This page is in response to the first set of prompts on the A Year In The Life Of An Art Journal blog....  the requirement to include a foot photo on the page gave me the opportunity to illustrate being 'different' in a 'different' kind of way....love it!

I tried out my new calligraphy fountain pen for the first time on the bottom bit of journalling, not sure if I like it or not, but then everyone hates their own handwriting don't they?

The photo above doesn't show the sparklyness of this one, as the background is 99% glimmer mists, gotta love glimmer mists, especially now that I've refreshed them with a pinch of perfect pearls to add a bit of extra shimmer.  This pic gives you a better idea:

AJED : 17/365

Another art journal page that didn't have much of a plan....

...and it seems that's the best way.

This one started off like this:

The face was from a brown paper bag that Connor brought home from a school trip to Bath.

I ripped it, stuck it down, gessoed over the lot, stamped a few black stars, and then thought "now what?"

I decided that the face looked a bit too much like Father Christmas (it's actually a Gorgon, according to Connor anyway, I thought they were female but what do I know?), so on a bit of a whim I made him into a sun.

Then I grabbed the first tub of paint that looked like it would go with the yellow - hot pink fabric paint, which dried a bit strangely over the gesso, almost like alcohol inks, kinda cool.

Then I sprayed the living daylights out of it with irridescent gold glimmer mists.  Just seemed like a good idea at the time.

Stamped journalling about how I can't wait for the warmth and the long daylight hours of the summer, and three gold eyelets, and it was done.

I love this letting-the-page-go-wherever-on-earth-it-feels-like-it thing, it's fun! 

AJED : 14/365

Definitely my favourite art journal page so far

This one had a mind of its own, I had no idea where it was going, I just came along for the ride :)

Maybe that's why I like it so much, I didn't have to work at it.

The background you've seen before, all I did tonight in my 10 minutes was finish it off.

I stamped the cool lil dude at the bottom first - he's a fantastic hand carved eraser stamp made for me by my incredibly talented friend Monika - because he fitted neatly into those triangle shaped holes (these were leftovers from when I punched the pennant triangles for the "thanks page")

Here's a close up - isn't it weird that even though they were both stamped with the same stamp, these two chaps look like they have very different personalities?

For no obvious reason I then got to thinking of my dreams, and how I can never remember them at all, but I am pretty sure they're really good ones.  Maybe these little chaps steal my dream memories?

The big bold title (which takes up the top one of my journalling blocks, so I had to write small to fit everything in to the other two), a couple of doodled stars and the jornalling itself finished the page off.

I think this is the way to go from now on, rather than starting a page with a plan for the finished product already in mind (which is the norm for my CJs) , I think I'll just let the art journal pages evolve on their own.  It's more fun that way, plus it seems the end result works better too.  Who'd a thunk it?  No plan is better than plan!

AJED : 12/365

Don't worry, I'm still at it for at least 10 minutes a day....

... but I had two art journal pages in progress at once over the last 3 days, so didn't have anything new to share before tonight.

The first up is this "thanks" page....I've journalled a whole bunch of things that I'm grateful for....something to look back at if I'm ever feeling low, to remind me just how awesome my life actually is!

I seem to have a thing about triangles and harlequins and pennant borders , they just keep popping up everywhere.

And I've also got this messy page in progress.  I've no idea what it's going to be about or where it will go from here, but I've thoroughly enjoyed working on the background (even if it did drip all over the rest of the book and spoil my past pages, grrrr, you can see some of the drips on the page following "thanks" in the book above.  Never mind, I can cover them up)

Look, more triangles!

AJED :  11/365

Project Zero - goal one ACHIEVED! whoop!

I know I haven't blogged properly about this Project Zero thing yet, I will write up the whole list of goals on here eventually, I just want to get the A-Z Year finished off first blog-wise (I have a mildly OCD-like need to do things in the right order :) )

But one of my goals is to start a daily art journal - which, as you know, because I've been blathering on about it all week, I did on 1st Jan - and it's still going strong - I haven't missed a day working in my journal yet, whoot!

I am planning to make a page in my art journal for every goal we achieve - so this is an art journal page about the art journal, which is slightly recursive (hence the page within a page within a page within a page theming, which was fun to do!)

This was the most enjoyable page to work on so far.  I had fun doodling the background with watercolour crayons and charcoal pencils.  And I also enjoyed carving the "Project Zero" logo stamp (down the left side) from an eraser.  I like the fancy sellotape border too.

So far this year I'm averaging one completed page every other day.  If I keep this rate up I'll have a full to bursting book by the end of the year :) :) :)

AJED : 8 / 365

It's a long time since I've been Crusadin'

A long while back, when the perpetually-bursting-with-talent Michelle Ward first started her GPP Street Team Crusades, I used to play along near enough every single month.  I was even lucky enough to win a FANTASTIC prize box once for participating.  I loved the challenge of each new crusade and the little community we had there.

Thanks to the Crusades I tried cutting stencils and masks, making hand carved stamps, paper casts, mail art and many other cool techniques for the first time.

But then my life got so horribly busy....and I just didn't seem to be able to make time to play :(

And would you believe they are now up to challenge number 47?!

And, what's this?  An art journalling challenge?  Hang about....I can actually do this one!!! in my precious 10 minute daily AJED slot!!  Result!

And the great thing is that I was thinking about doing a page to commemorate one specific amazing Christmas present anyway, so this fits RIGHT in :)

I love Michelle's idea of including the wrapping paper that the present was given in on the actual page.  I never would have thought of including this particular wrapping paper in an art journal as you can imagine, but I like that I get to keep a bit of the gift wrap with me.   And I like Michelle's use of the word "evidence" so I included that too (on some hockey tape of course, what else?)

The page is a bit OTT and not exactly fine art, in fact it's ugly as sin, but hey, it was fun to make!

So there it is, probably the only autographed (by the whole 2010/11 roster!!!) Canucks hockey helmet given as a gift this Christmas anywhere in the world in pink Hello Kitty giftwrap :) :)

This page came together over two evenings, so yes, I'm still Art Journalling Every Day! woohoo!

AJED: 6/365

I'm still Art Journalling Every Day!

Yes, I know it's only January 4th, but I've given up on daily commitments quicker than this in the past :)

The only thing I am failing dismally at is spending 10 minutes working in the journal, today it was more like 2  hours.

Hopefully I will get more efficient at this, otherwise the house will suffer - I have done precisely zero housework since getting in from work this evening.  Ooops!  :)

Not sure if I like this page or not.  I still like the zig zags from the hat out of the Christmas cracker.  And the doodled black writing with the white dots on is OK (that's a new thing for me, I promised myself I would try a new technique a week).

But the inked background just looks kind of dirty.  And it was bloody hard work getting sharpie pens to work over the gesso and inks. And the handwritten dates at the top and bottom just look ugly.

But this is the beauty of this journal, I can try new things, and if they don't work out, it's no biggie.  I can experiment like I would never dare to in a circle journal or something else that wasn't for me.   And for every experiment that goes wrong, hopefully another will go right and I will learn a great new technique :)

Happy journalling all.

PS What's it about?  Oh yes - Project Zero....101 Goals in 1001 Days....started 1st Jan 2011....due to end 28th September 2013....watch this space! :)

AJED: 4/365

10 minutes per day? Even I can find 10 minutes per day!

So - Santa brought me a lovely little pocket-sized Moleskine journal...

Well, that's not strictly true, Santa brought me some money, and with that money I bought myslf a lovely little pocket-sized Moleskine journal....and that's roughly the same thing isn't it?

So, I thought I'd use it to keep track of my 'Project Zero' goals.... more on that later....and also try my hand at regular art journalling, as I've only barely dabbled in it before.

My plan is to work in the journal every day - not necessarily to finish a whole page every day - some of my days are just too busy for that - but to at least do SOMETHING daily - maybe just prep some pages, slap down some backgrounds etc.

And then I saw a link on Nicole Maki's blog to Julie Balzer's "Art Journal Every Day" challenge, which basically said exactly the same thing - spend 10 mins a day working in your journal in some capacity - perfect!  Even I can find 10 minutes!

And so far this year that's exactly what I've done.

On January 1st, I gessoed up the first 12 pages in the book ready to work on.

On January 2nd I made the background for the page below.

And on January 3rd, today, I added the words, and the sun, and the little houses (I bought that new punch with Santa's money too :))

 

I'm really looking forward to filling up my little book over the year, in manageable bite-sized chunks.

Oh yes, and before I forget, I hope you all had a great Christmas (I did :) ), and Happy New Year everyone!!!

AJED: 3/365 

PS it seems that 10 minutes a day isn't nearly enough when you're having fun - I was just taking the recycling bins out and spotted an unused christmas cracker hat, purple, sitting on top of the recycle pile all unloved.... and well, I couldn't let it go to waste!  And so I've started work on page 2: