as Angus Young almost said, Black is Back!

Almost a year ago today, I finished work on a new circle journal - blogged here - and this week it came home to me - so good to see it again, full to bursting :)

Without further ado, here are the fantastic pages that everyone else from the Altered Colour CJ added to my book:

In the temple of lovelovelovelovelovelove .....those lyrics take me back to my uni days - lots of dry ice and arms waving :)  Gorgeous page!

I love that dancing skellie stamp - he has such personality :)

I'm sure I have that text background paper somewhere, will have to dig it out, this page has reminded me how much I like it

There's so much I love about this one, where to start?  I am not usually a fan of flowers but this one with its black lace and leather is just stunning.  And I really like the metal mesh over the Sabs logo and the witchy woman photo.  Fab!

I like the way that book page has been cut into a kind of cityscape - I can see myself nicking that idea!

This page is just gorgeous, the photo doesn't do the details in the background justice, sadly

The black on black embossing on this page is so effective!  Difficult to photograph though.  And I love the quote too.

And finally:

The parcel opens to reveal the lyrics to Welcome to the Black Parade by My Chemical Romance - another great song.

Thanks to everyone who took part - I love my not-so-little black book :)

I know pride's a sin, but, sorry, I'm proud of this!

I actually painted something, from scratch, that looks roughly like its subject matter! yay me! :)

So....this is a circle journal entry for the Blue CJ in the colours circle - my last contribution to this particular circle, now I just have to sit tight and wait for my own book to come home.

As I'm the last to work in this book, most of the obvious takes on the colour blue had already been nabbed, so I was wondering what to do.....and at the same time I was looking to up my participation in Marit's Summer Camp - an online community I have signed up to for the next few months.

One of Marit's prompts revolves around producing a piece of work in three parts - a triptych.  This reminded me of this Octopus painting, by "Plantation Design", that I had seen on Pinterest.

Fab isn't it?

I do hope they don't mind me taking inspiration from their design, it's not for profit after all, and I am not for a second taking credit for the idea.  Please don't send your copyright lawyers after me, plantationdesign.com!

So, anyway, I drew up a sketch that fitted the dimensions of the circle journal:

(sorry for the bad photo)

And then transferred the basic design in plain white paint to a dark blue painted background:

An unintended but cool effect, the white paint crackled over the waxy ink mixture I had used to stamp the circles on the background, serendipity :)

Next I played with different ways of painting in the little suckers on the pus's tentacles, in the end I settled for stamping little circles with the end of a mechanical pencil:

And then it was just a case of adding some shading:

and finishing off the tentacles, and then it was all done:

Sorry this is a bit image heavy....but hopefully it's interesting to see how it all evolved.

All that was left to do was slice the picture up into three parts, and machine sew around each section.

They were added to a bubbly background (another technique from Summer Camp), and a stamped title finished off my CJ entry:

I love it! I really do!  It's such a nice feeling to be genuinely pleased with something I've made :)

Here's a close up of that bubble background:

And here are the pages in situ in the completed book:

That's it, I'll stop boring you with octopus photos now! :)

None for ages, and then two come along at once....

I think there must have been a hold up down the line on the Colours CJ I'm a part of, as I haven't had a book for months....but then this week I got two at once - Turquoise and Blue - these are the last two books I am due to work in and then I'm all done with this particular circle.

I finished Turquoise today, and Blue is well on its way. It's always kind of sad when a circle comes to an end, but I'm looking forward to getting my own book (Black) back soon.

Turquoise is a lovely gemstone and one I like to use in jewellery - especially with copper - so my page is about the stone more than it is about the colour.

I made a pair of earrings to go with the page - I do hope the CJ owner Jane has pierced ears :)  And attached them to my sign in tag through little eyelets

Here's the page and tag together in the book:

It's a pity you can't really see the background clearly in these photos, there's all sorts of things going on there, tone on tone stamping and glimmer mists and stuffs....but you will just have to imagine those bits :)

Off to finish Blue...... catch you later alligators......

Hmmm....a red journal....I wonder, what can I do for red......?

It was a bit of a no brainer for me, this one.... of course this red themed journal was calling out for a tribute page to the fantabulous Red Hot Chili Peppers :)

This has taken a few evenings to pull together, lot of stamping and tearing and glueing and gessoing and painting and cutting and waiting for things to dry....plus I had a night off creative endeavours altogether on Tuesday to go and see the fab Ed Byrne on his live stand-up tour, so I'm afraid I've been slacking on the Art Journal Every Day front again.

But I figure this almost counts, as it's in a circle JOURNAL after all.....?

The photo of the boys on the left forms a pocket for the tag (we were all asked to include a tag on our pages to sign in, and also to explain what red means to us)

Now you've had a close up, 10 Scott Mills points to the first person to identify the writing in the background....

The chilis and the tag were made in the same way, lots of stamped images on heavy watercolour paper, torn into small pieces and reassembled.  Then the whole lot was gessoed over and cut into chili shapes, and then they were painted with a couple of different shades of red and green paints, and outlined with a black paint pen.

This was one of those slightly self indulgent layouts, but I happen to know that the owner of this CJ, Ally, has impeccable music taste, so I think she might be ok with the subject matter :)

Guns n Roses up next, plus a John Frusciante canvas of mine is the current guest post over at the songs in my heART blog - it's all music this week!  Rock on!

Another CJ entry, this one crept up on me a bit....

I realised last night that I had overlooked a CJ which was due for posting today.  Oops.  I should have been working on this one ahead of the Orpheus and Eurydice one which isn't due for another week, but I got them round the wrong way.

But never mind, thankfully today was a Teacher Development day, so I'm home from work, and Connor has been happily amusing himself with an inflatable tyre all day (don't ask!).  And due to this little stroke of luck, I was able to get the CJ done and in the post just in time :)

This book is in the "colours" circle, with a manila theme.  And the format that the book owner has asked us to follow is to complete our entry on the right hand side of a double page spread, and then use the left hand page to sign in, with a photo of ourselves and some facts.

So here's my take on the manila colourway.  The background was inspired by a recent article in Craft Stamper magazine, a technique they called "paper blending".  I've used this kind of torn and gesso'd background in the past, to be fair, it's been around a while, but the article did remind me of it.

The main image (isn't she great? she's a stamp by Invoke Arts) and the title words were stamped onto paper from a lovely pin striped manila envelope that I brought home from Paris the other week.  And a little bow finished it off.

On the left side I used the same background, a sepia toned and scuffed-up photo of yours truly, some metal letters that I have had sat in the cupboard for YEARS to spell out my nickname, Flo, and some more of that pinstriped envelope to write my little autobiography on.

This was a fun entry to pull together.  And it was lovely to be able to photograph it outside in the daylight, I love days off :)

I think I get red next, which I'm really looking forward to, as it's one of my favourite colours.

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

Watch out, the bogeyman's about!

It's time to work on the "Colours" CJ again - and this month's colour scheme is "lime and mint green".

When I told my other half what colour was coming up, he said "so, basically, bogey green?", and from that point onward I couldn't get rid of the urge to do my page as a tribute to Fungus the Bogeyman :)

I loved reading that book to my eldest boys when they were little - Fungus is the coolest!

The layout itself is fairly simple - Fungus was printed out on canvas:

There was liberal use (again, I used it last month too) of my favourite punch - the Martha Stewart "dripping goo" border punch, not just for Halloween, folks!

The background was made with Daler Rowney pearlescent acrylic inks (love them love them love them) and various stamps.

And Fungus's name was cut in a font called "shlop" on my Cricut, and covered with Diamond Glaze.

I pounced some dark olive ink through the stencil left by the Cricut before sticking the letters down, so that they would have a bit of a shadow, making them look a bit more 3D.

 

and that's about it.

I really enjoyed putting this one together, can't help having fun with bogey green :)

from orange to blue....

...that just about sums up my change in mood since my last blog post.  Since October 15th when I uploaded my "orange" page, it seems that what was left of the summer sun has disappeared, and we're left with cold, wet days and dark evenings, bleeuuurghhh.  I don't like winter :(

That aside, here's my entry in the blue journal in my current colours CJ.

I wanted to do something a little different in this book, and as someone who uses computers constantly for both work and leisure, an homage to the dreaded BSOD - blue screen of death - seemed appropriate.

I hope it sums up the sick feeling I get in my stomach as that blue screen appears when I'm in the middle of something desperately important that I haven't saved :|

I wanted to stamp all the text in the background, but none of my white inks were co-operating, so I had to handwrite it instead.  Hopefully that doesn't spoil it too much.

 A quick how-to:

• the background is blue acrylic paint scraped onto watercolour paper with an old credit card
• the computer text is written with a Ranger Inkessentials white pen 
• the gloopy stuff at the top is cut with a Martha Stewart border punch 
• the gravestones were cut freehand from navy textured card
• the skulls were stamped with midnight blue Stazon onto light blue vellum, cut out, and then made into stickers with a baby Xyron
• the title letters are MM chipboard, painted and then given a coat of clear UTEE

Mint/lime green next, looking forward to that one, I like green.

Einstein a go go

I found myself with some free time this weekend, so I thought I would break the habit of a lifetime and complete a CJ layout WEEKS before it is due - I'm now very smug!  This must be what it feels like to be one of those efficient, organised people.  I very much doubt it will last :)

Anyway, this is for the Colours circle - and, in case you haven't already guessed, this is the grey journal.

I was a bit apprehensive about this one when I saw it in the list, what could I do with grey????

I didn't think I had many grey inks, for a start, but on closer inspection I managed to find 5 different shades :)  People have been known to tell me I have too many inkpads.  I wholeheartedly disagree - only 5 shades of grey??? rubbish! :D

I tinkered with the idea of doing a layout on Greys - the Roswell aliens - but then Jay came up with the "grey matter" idea, and I preferred that....mainly because it meant I could do yet another CJ entry about my mate  Albert :)

We really are friends, you know - I met him earlier this year at Madame Tussauds - here's the proof:

He didn't say much, but we got on like a house on fire :)

So - I had a title - "grey matter matters" (yes, I know it looks more like grey matter mattress on the finished article, I maybe could have picked a better font!) - and a concept - science and brains and my mate Al.....  it was just a case of putting it all together.

I dug out a plate of Club Stamp science themed stamps that I have had forever, and a tiny brain stamp which was one of the very first stamps I made myself on my Imagepac machine years back.  And some Tim Holtz dots for texture.  And those 5 ink pads :)  And some embossing powders.  And I just got on with it....

The background was made by roughly smooshing the famous 5 inks across the page in stripes using cut and dry foam, and then over stamping (and embossing in places) the various scientific stamps and the dots and brains.

The title was cut on the Cricut, and the capital letters were highlighted with Platinum stickles - bling bling!

 Albert himself was set over a painted backdrop (because the photo I had cut his shoulders off, and also I fancied crazying up his hair a little more :))

This is the best photo ever of Einstein :)  Doesn't he look like he would have been a great laugh to hang out with :)

So that's black, pink and grey done, I think it's blue next - I'd better get my thinking hat on....

Caroline laughs and it's raining all day

I'm showing my age with this one :)

This is my entry in the pink journal in the Colours circle journal that I've recently joined.

Pink is very much NOT my colour, but I do like the Psychedelic Furs song, off of the 80s, called Pretty In Pink, so that was my inspiration here.

In the song, Caroline is a bit of a tragic figure, so this rather bedraggled looking Stampotique girl seemed perfect.

I've pretty much used every bit of pink stash I could find on this layout....I didn't have much....like I said, it's not really my colour!

But the DCWV Rock Star stack came to the rescue, along with some ancient Christina Cole papers, and some lovely Urban Bling sparkly "P"s :)  I also found pink micro beads and seed beads, pink wire, and some pink gem brads.  So they all went into the mix :)

I couldn't resist adding a smattering of black too, I was aiming more for emo girl than girly girl.

Hopefully the book's originator Emma will like my rare attempt at pink :)

...turned my world to Black

Phew....I am SO glad to have finally finished this new CJ!

I know it doesn't look like much work has gone into it, it's a lot simpler than many of my CJs, but I feel like I've been working on it forever!  It's already one day overdue for posting I'm afraid but there was just problem after problem with this one so it took lots longer than anticipated.

I'm so pleased it's finished that I'm going to blog it tonight so it's all done and dusted, despite the fact it's the middle of the night and I really ought to be getting some sleeeeeep.

This is for a colour themed CJ where each participant picks a colour or colour scheme for everyone else to work in.

My chosen colour is black.  Wannabe gothette, me :)

Please excuse the rubbish photos, black on black is pretty hard to capture, especially at night.

Above is the front cover.  The word is cut right through the cover of the book, which you can probably see better on the photo below:

or this one of the front cover from the reverse side:

Here's the intro section - nothing fancy, just a few non-rules, and the many dictionary definitions of black, which make interesting reading.

And here's my own entry in the book, based on one of my favourite songs of all time, Black by Pearl Jam:

The heartbroken chappy was masked with a handcut silhouette, and sponged over with interference paints, which are a tad more subtle in the flesh than in the photo.

And finally, here's my sign in, I've asked for a photo of the other participants, I hope they don't mind (I've made it clear it's optional) - so only fair I should stick my own mug shot on there.

I've been hoarding that velvet harlequin paper for longer than I can remember.  It's finally time to put it to use instead of just stroking it and telling it how pretty it is :)

So that's another book sent off out into the wide world.

I look forward to seeing this one again in around 10 months time.

PS, this was the result of spray painting the front cover on an old bit of lining paper - just call me Banksy :) :) :)