Please avert your eyes if bad language might offend....

I've just realised that I blogged this CJ entry over at Collabor-ART but not on here....

So 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!

Desert Island Discs circle journal - Crazy Little Thing

It's circle journal time again - and what a joy to take my turn with Donna's most excellent desert island disc box:

Isn't she a beauty??

The premise of this CJ is slightly different to most of the others doing the rounds - instead of a book with pages, we have a box with little file folders for us to fill - and instead of choosing a song to "artify", Donna has done the choosing for us.

This worried me a little to start with, but as it turned out, the song I was allocated - Crazy Little Thing Called Love by Queen - was exactly the one I would have chosen for myself from what was left on the list, so all's well there.

Working on my entry kept me amused over a snowed-in weekend, I've had a lot of fun with it.

Here's my file folder / envelope thingy:

I've given Freddie some sparkly jewels in his crown, they suit him :)

Inside the envelope:












The brown outer wrapper with the hearts on comes off to reveal my "crazy little thing called love" in all his glory:

Cute isn't he, in a slightly demented, evil-looking way :)  I drew him in India ink with a nib pen and coloured him in with watercolours.  There's Diamond Glaze on his eyes to make them nice and shiny but you can't really see that in the photo.

This part opens up to reveal some stamped lyrics from the song, and my little sign in tag/disc

<--------














And on the back, a stitched double heart:

And here's all my bits together:

Like I said, it was an enjoyable one to pull together

But the fun didn't stop here, as this isn't just any old circle journal, this is a COLLABOR-ART circle journal (please don't sue me, Marks 'n' Sparks!) - so that meant I also had free licence to play with all the previous players' work..... I love this part :D

I added a "USA" button to Donna's Blondie entry, to go with her I <3 NY sticker:

For Sherry's tribute to a song by 'Louise and the Pins'?  What else but some colour co-ordinated safety pins?

<----

And finally, I couldn't resist adding a literal Primal Scream (aaaaaarrrrggghhhh!!!!!!) to Pam's rendition of the band's logo:

Top 2000 Blog Party

I've had so much fun playing along with Marit's Top 2000 Blog Party this year

I was hoping to submit an entry for each of the seven days, but I ran out of time :(

Here's what I did get done - complete with links to each day of the party, so you can see what everyone else got up to too:

Day 1: December 25th #2000-#1840

#1953 : The Kinks - Dedicated Follower of Fashion

Day 2: December 26th #1839-#1518

Day 3: December 27th #1517-#1202

#1372 : Robbie Williams - Rock DJ (you might have seen this one on my blog before as I did it earlier in the year)

Day 4: December 28th #1201-#890

#995 : Ralph McTell - Streets of London

Day 5: December 29th #889-#574

Day 6: December 30th #573-#270

#330 : Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street 

(peeps from Collabor-ART will have seen this one already as I multi-tasked and used this for a circle journal entry over there)

Day 7: December 31st #269-#1

#123 : Jimi Hendrix Experience - All Along The Watchtower (this one will only make sense to fellow Battlestar Galactica fans)

Next year I'm hoping to play every day!

Rocking Your World Friday week 24

Week 24?  Gosh, we’re almost half way through the year!! Time is as ever flying by shockingly fast.

And on that note, the first thing I am grateful for this week is these RYWF posts … It’s so easy to get to the end of a year, and think “what did we do this year???” and forget half of it.  I am really looking forward to sitting down (with a bottle of Magners, because I don’t really do the wine thing) on New Years Eve and re-reading all of these posts and re-remembering what a brilliant time we have had.

So – where were we?

Work last week was crazy busy, so for once I was grateful of a client meeting in London last Friday, just because it got me out of the office for the day.  The meeting was up on Oxford Street and there were still union jacks everywhere from the jubilee celebrations, it looked nice and festive.  Oh and right next door to where we had our meeting there was a little kiosk selling the BEST cookies ever.  So that was a nice change of a day.

On Saturday I spent most of the day making pom poms for international yarn bombing day – it’s very relaxing, pom pom making, I can recommend it to anyone :)  Here’s the full story

Sunday brought the highlight of my week – in fact one of the highlights of my year.

But before we get to that, can I just say that I want to chuck out a big chunk of gratitude to one thing – the WEATHER.

Yes, I know you will now all think I’m mad, as it feels like it has rained non stop for weeks.  BUT there hasn’t been a single thing that we have planned so far this year that has been ruined by bad weather.  We’ve been so lucky.  Yes there have been plenty of wet days, but these have been the days we planned to be mainly indoors anyway, so it didn’t matter.  So thank you to the weather by rocking my world by always playing nice when we’ve need it to.

So yes, Sunday was a case in point.  Because that was the day we went to the Download rock festival.  Thursday and Friday at Download had, by all accounts, been awful, constant rain, ankle deep liquid mud, it quickly picked up a new nickname:

Saturday the rain stopped, but apparently that just turned the liquid mud into something akin to quicksand and people were getting stuck in it left right and centre, and worse, injured : (

But Sunday?  Our day?  The mud was all dried up, and it was glorious sunshine all day!  I don’t know which one of the pantheon of ancient gods I have appeased, but I’m grateful for the personal good weather service :)

We had a FANTASTIC day – so many great bands to see!  The only disappointment for me was that I missed the Dropkick Murphys set as it clashed with Soundgarden :( But as I’ve seen the Dropkicks countless times before and have never seen Soundgarden, Chris Cornell & co won that clash hands down for me (Jay went to see the Dropkicks though, so at least one of us saw them)

The bands I DID get to see were:

(deep breath)

• DevilDriver
• We Are The Ocean
• August Burns Red (we had never heard of these before but they were excellent)
• Anthrax (I've been following this lot for, ahem, almost 30 years (god I’m so old) and I still love them in general, and the wonderful Scott Ian in particular, to bits)

• Shadows Fall (BEST dreadlocks eva!)

• Black Label Society (only watched one song)
• Sebastian Bach (screechy awful noise, watched less than one song)
• Lamb Of God (who I enjoyed a LOT, more than I thought I would)

• Shinedown (who were really good although one of my friends thinks the singer was miming….)
• Refused (Swedish dork-punks, excellent)
• The mighty mighty Soundgarden (no relation to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones :) ) – Soundgarden were the main reason I was there and they definitely didn’t disappoint.  CC was in fine voice and they played a great set.

• Rise Against - only saw half their set which was a pity but we have seen them a few times in recent years, ......

.....  and we didn’t want to miss any of…..

• BLACK SABBATH – the headliners.  Who, sacriligeous as it is, I wasn’t overly fussed about seeing until a week or two before the gig when it kind of hit me that I was going to see Black Freaking Sabbath!!! :D  Pretty much without whom, none of the other music I love would have ever existed.

Ozzy might be 63 but he can still jump! :)

All in all a great day soaking up the sunshine and world class live music in equal measures

(NB all the live pics above are half inched from the festival's website, I didn't get that close! :) )

On Monday I was grateful for the ability to work from home, as I was really not feeling up to the trek to the office after about 3 hours sleep and the long drive home.  So let's hear it for technology!

On Tuesday I had a loooong day as had to drive back up to the East Midlands for a client meeting late in the afternoon in Nottingham which meant getting home late.  That's not such a good thing, but the mileage I can claim back on expenses is :)

"most played" on my phone

I spent the evening updating the music on my phone - as my new (ish) phone has a whopping 16 Gb storage, yet I have just been listening to the same old same old stuff that I could fit onto my old 4 Gb SD card.  Download (along with one of my fellow circle journal artists reminding me how fab the first Disturbed album was) gave me the push I needed to get around to taking advantage of all that extra space, and fill up my phone with TONS of great music.

I've been pretty much permanently attached to it ever since - even walking around in town with my headphones in which I haven't done in years, I'd forgotten how surreal that is - like you are in a movie and you can hear the soundtrack playing :)

And, just to top off this particularly Rockin' week, on Thursday we booked our tickets for this November's Warped festival at Ally Pally:

This will be the kids' first proper festival, and with a great line up (Lost Prophets, Bring Me The Horizon, Less Than Jake, Funeral For A Friend, Bowling For Soup, New Found Glory, and loads of other bands) plus the skateboard competitions and crazy golf etc, it should be a lot of fun for the whole family.

|m|      :)

So I'd better rock on over to Virginia's blog (see what I did there? ;) ) and link this post up......

Feel free to come and join us and share some rockin' moments of your own.....

So is there one L in Vermilion, or two in Vermillion?

Rock CJ time again - and this month it's Clare's colour themed journal.

We are each to choose a rock band or song with a colour in the name, and make something with that colour dominant, that will fit in a little 5" square clear plastic pocket.

My go to favourite-song-with-a-colour-in-it is usually Pearl Jam's Black.  But I've already done a layout based on that song in another colour themed journal some time ago - plus I've done Pearl Jam to death so far in this current rock CJ (here and here) - and it's about time another band got a look in!

So I've chosen Vermilion by Slipknot - such a brilliant, haunting song.  I just wish they'd learn how to spell!  I'm convinced it's vermillion with 2 L's - maybe it's an American/British thing like color and colour and center and centre....?

This is what my entry looks closed up.  One of the key lines from the song is written on the front in silver ink using a dip pen.  You'll notice that my sewing machine REALLY didn't like the spraypainted cardstock - it is a tad sticky and kept getting stuck on the feeders, but I've decided I actually like the super messy look - in some places it has just carved chunks out of the cardboard - I think it adds to the crazed serial killer vibes more than beautiful neat stitching ever could :)  (that's my justification and I'm sticking to it!)

And here it is opened out:

Not the best photo as there was too much glare from the lights above, but you get the general idea.  You can see Corey's mask better in the close up at the top of this page.  The zipper on the mouth is decoupaged up on foam pads, and the edge of the picture has been airbrushed over in black to give the picture a smoother transition into the background.

She isn't real!  I can't make her real!

And here's the back, including my sign in info:

That's pretty much it.

I hope the CJ owner likes it and doesn't think it's too dark or grisly.

And I hope nobody else further down the line wanted the colour red, better think of a reserve colour ladies :)

...so do you really need 5 different bottles of shampoo???

A quick "just because" art journal page tonight, in honour of a fab gig I went to on Wednesday night.

AJED : 102/365

The in between is mine....

I love it when two of my passions collide - in this case it's my "art" (I'm still not brave enough to drop the air quotes :) ) and my music

This is my entry in this month's "Rock Resurrected" circle journal - the book is Kate's and her theme is song lyrics.

Kate has asked for our entries to be done in 'art journal style'.  I'm not sure if this is quite what she had in mind, but this mix of collage, stencils and stamped lettering in the background is very typical of a page out of my own journal, so it's definitely art journal style for me.

For my song I have chosen the wonderful "I Am Mine" by Pearl Jam.  The central message of the song is that you and only you are in control of, and responsible for, your own mind and your own life.  Something we all need to be reminded of from time to time.

I stamped the full text of the first two verses in the background, and picked out the following lines for prominence:

I know I was born
and I know that I'll die
The in between is mine
I am mine

I really enjoyed pulling this page together, in my element with my spray paints and my stamps and my stencils.  A fun way to spend an afternoon off work.

Waving goodbye to the avocado.....

Before I start this post, I'd like to wholeheartedly apologise to anyone out there who loves the cover of Pearl Jam's 2006 self titled album - it's all a matter of personal taste :)

Sorry Eddie and the boys, if you're reading this - I do love the music on it, but not the avocado photo so much.

So, anyway, this is my entry in my own CJ for the just-about-to-start Rock Resurrection circle journal.  I left it a bit last minute as posting date is tomorrow (in fact, it's past midnight now, so it's today!)

The theme of my journal is to design a new album cover for an album you love, that has a cover you don't so much.

So, yes, I went with Pearl Jam's infamous Avocado album:

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't hate everything about it.  I do like the strong blue colour background contrasting with the yellowy flesh of the avocado - and I've carried that colour scheme over to my own version, kinda.  I also don't hate the font or style of the lettering, and I've gone a bit similar with that too.

But I plain and simple don't understand WHY an avocado????  It doesn't seem to have the slightest connection to anything on the album at all.... plus I hate guacamole.  ugh.

So I started brainstorming alternatives, and as a few of the songs on the album are ocean-related (Big Wave, Marker In The Sand etc), and Eddie is well known for his love of surfing, I started thinking of different ways to illustrate the word wave, and, well, this is what I came up with:

There are three "waves" on there - the waving hand (which could be the severed hand referred to in another song title maybe?), the blue ocean waves themselves, and the oscillating wave diagrams stamped faintly onto the bottom-most blue paper.

The book page used for the text based blue paper is also wave related, as it is about building a canoe.

The hand is a rubber stamp I picked up years ago - sorry I can't remember the name of the manufacturer - I love how clearly it stamps the details.

Here's the back of the album cover, featuring a gel medium image transfer of the boys themselves, and the track listing:

As far as I'm concerned, my cover blows the avocado out of the water, what do you reckon? :)

This all gets posted off tomorrow, and in 10 months or so it will hopefully come home with 9 more made-over record sleeves.  I'm really excited to see what everyone else comes up with!