Rockin' all over the world...

….well, at least in Berkshire and Cheshire....

First up, here is my very last entry in the Project Runway themed circle journal that I hosted over on UKScrappers.

My own book is already home and I will share its contents here on the blog soon.

The theme of this last journal was “rock the runway” – and we were to pull together a two page layout based upon music of any kind.

As you know I’m a bit of a rock chick, so that’s what I went with for my pages:

And as I had made up far too much of that spraypainted background patterned paper, I used some of the spare to make a mail art postcard too:

This one’s on a base of thick corrugated cardboard so it’s bulky and light at the same time.

I've just had word that it arrived in one piece, much to the bemusement of the chap who delivers the internal post (it was sent to a corporate office address :) )

Rock on :)

Life's a beach, and then ya die

Project Runway CJ time again - and this month it's the wedding dress challenge.

The brief for this journal was to use at least three altered or transformed elements (papers, embellies etc) on a double page 8"x8" layout - to reflect how the Project Runway designers altered and transformed old, unfashionable wedding dresses into something wearable.

I wasn't sure where to start with this one at first - as it was free theme - so I started to play with transforming some background papers - eg this one which started life as a floral print, until I got to it with the gesso and my airbrush - and the sea and sand colours I ended up with screamed BEACH!

So to the beach I went :)

My altered elements are the background papers, the chipboard letters for the title which I "sandified" with a mix of embossing powders in white, orange, and beige, the footprints which are paper clips that I spraypainted copper,

and the round, shell embellishments which I appropriated from an old hair band:

(plus I guess the tags count as altered too as I painted and sprayed them?)

All in all this was a fun entry to pull together - just like proper scrapbooking!  The journal even had proper page protectors.  I haven't seen one of those in years.

Photos taken in South Wales (left hand page) and on the Isle of Wight (right hand page).

Hurry up summer!

Would you believe 'The Birds' will be 50 years old next year?

Hitchcock's The Birds, still an amazing film and as scary as ever - and it's also the inspiration for my latest circle journal entry.

This was a fun book to work in - it's in the Project Runway circle, and takes its inspiration from the show's film genre challenge.

Each participant selects a sealed envelope containing a card with a particular film genre printed on it - previous players have already tackled Western, Comedy, Romance, Film Noir, Musical, and the one I really wanted, Horror.  But I got Thriller, which would have been my tie second choice along with sci-fi, so I was happy with that.

And then our task was to incorporate a dress form into our page, showing the costume for our lead character.

My leading lady is immaculately turned out, but showing some signs of vicious pecking! :)

The background for this page uses watercolours for the stormy sky, a Crafters Workshop stencil for the trees, and the birds are all drawn by hand.

The back of our page is our sign in area , and we were to incorporate the card we drew from the envelopes, showing our chosen genre:

The background for this side is spray painted, and the bird was cut out from some handmade paper with flower petal inclusions.

This book is due to go in the post tomorrow (oops, I've just seen the time, make that today!), so I finished it just in time.

PS.  this is possibly the only Barbie doll I could be persuaded to own:

isn't it wonderful?  I especially love the bird pecking away at her forehead :)

Brrrring on the bllllling!

Well this pushed me a little out of my comfort zone :D

But that's why circle journals are fun!

This is my latest entry in the Project Runway CJ - and the theme for this journal was the drag queen challenge.

Now this doesn't mean that we had to make a page about an actual drag queen (although my punk rock princess does look a teeny bit butch!) - but that we had to roll out the bright colours and, most importantly, the BLING.

Eeeek, I really don't do bling :)

But as soon as I started thinking jewels..... jewellery....PIERCINGS!  I was back on home turf, yay!

So I found a photo online of a rather prim and proper young lady, and proceeded to re-invent her complete with a punk rawk makeover, with tattoos and piercings galore, and that rather fetching hair style.  Quite an improvement if you ask me :)

There is so much on the page that is super shiny or glittery, it was virtually impossible to take a photo of.

For example the "punk rock bling" title is actually on extra reflective mirror film, and the purple stripes (which are actually straight and parallel to the edge in real life, honest) are shiny too:

So please do use your imaginations to fill in all the glare :)

Inspired by a grand master

It's been a little while since I last posted anything I've made on my blog, but it's CJ time-of-the-month again, so expect a few posts over the next week or two.

This is my entry in this month's Project Runway journal - the theme of this one is "art from art" - make a page inspired by a favourite painting or other artwork....

I chose a piece called 'Canyon' by Robert Rauschenberg (1959):

I love pretty much everything this man ever produced, but I particularly like the earthy palette of this one, and the raven gave me the idea of making my interpretation with a nod to my favourite place in the world - beautiful British Columbia.

My raven is a Haida first nations bird, and it has a couple of inukshuk to keep it company.

I thoroughly enjoyed layering on the different shades and textures of paint to pull this all together.  In some places I have followed the original quite closely, in others I've gone off and done my own thing.

I'd like to recreate this on canvas for myself one day.....I'll add it to my seemingly endless to-do list :)

100% Germ Free

Here is my latest entry for the Project Runway CJ.

Ever since fellow CJer Jaine first claimed the "recycled materials" challenge as the inspiration for her journal, I've been waiting for her book to come around, as I knew exactly what I was going to do for this one.

X Ray Spex were one of my favourite bands growing up - my sister bought me the Germ Free Adolescents album when I was 11 years old, and that was the start of my lifelong love affair with punk rock.

So I was saddened earlier this year to hear that the band's lead singer, the wonderfully eccentric Poly Styrene, had lost her battle with cancer :(

This page, then, is my tribute.  For the recycling journal - a portrait of Poly Styrene, made from polystyrene, what else?

I used this wonderful photo as inspiration, from back in the band's 1970s heyday, I hope I captured the jist of it:

Everything on the page is recycled.

The background is made from tissue paper from a pair of Duffs trainers

The image of a vinyl record is from some junk mail from Orange Mobile

The metal in the goggles is aluminium from a drinks can, inside out

And everything else is polystyrene from various bits of food packaging

This turned out pretty much exactly how I have pictured it for the last few months, while waiting for my turn in this book.

I like it when that happens :)

Please excuse the truly awful photo....

...here is my latest offering towards the Project Runway CJ.

This cool paper bag journal presents us with the regular PR challenge, to use items purchased in a grocery store.

It was harder than you'd think!  But I got there in the end.

The big "R" and all the silver trim come from a couple of cans of Relentless energy drink, the gravestones are made from lasagne, and the ghosts were cut from a scarf I got in Poundland (I hope that still counts as 'store bought', as I think anything not specifically intended for craft was fair game)

It proved impossible to photograph with flash or a lamp, due to the shimmer in the background paint and the shine of the aluminium metal making up the borders, hence this rather shaky picture which doesn't show the true colours at all.

Never mind, please use your imagination....

Take a close look around....

... and you might find something inspirational right under your nose!

For my latest Project Runway CJ entry, and also for one of the prompts over at Marit's Summer Camp, my task was to head outside with my camera, and find patterns, textures, structures that I could work with and take inspiration from, but which would otherwise have gone un-noticed.

This gorgeous old planter couldn't have fit the bill better.  It lives right outside the back door to my place of work.  I walk directly past it at least twice every day.  But I have never looked twice at it before.

I can't understand how I've never noticed it - look at that beautiful patina and that wonderful tesselated leaf pattern!

you can click on this for a closer view

For my page, I used that leaf pattern both literally on the leaves being blown from the shrub in the planter, and also in the background.

I really loved how the background turned out actually, I was almost loath to put anything over the top of it!

Here's how it was made:

I sketched the pattern on some heavy paper and cut the leaf shapes out to make a stencil.  Through this I sprayed Krylon Spray Gesso over a background of watercolour paper, torn dictionary pages, and randomly applied Golden Absorbent Ground.

Then it took lots of washes of watered down acrylic paint and pearlescent acrylic ink, to get to the finished look

The un-gessoed strips between the leaves absorb the paint much better than the gessoed areas, giving this lovely, soft pattern.

I am definitely going to play with that spray gesso some more!

To finish the page off -

• I used Photoshop to make the magnifying glass with the close up of the pattern on the planter
• The leaves and branches of the shrub were cut freehand from textured card and inked around the edges
• The journalling was added with a dip pen and India ink (I think I was channelling Dina Wakley at that moment, although I wish my handwriting was as lovely as hers!)
• Shadows under the planter and magnifying glass were added with Copic pens
• And a couple of ink blobs pulled it all together nicely

It feels like this page isn't very ME - too pastel coloured maybe?  But I love it all the same.

Even angels get the blues....

The Project Runway circle journal is now underway, and this is my entry for the first CJ I have received.

It comes from Kathy in Ireland, and her chosen Project Runway challenge was the one from season 4 where they could use only denim and white cotton to make an outfit for Levi Strauss.

I've used denim from a favourite, but now retired, pair of jeans to make the wings of my very own "stonewashed angel" - and the angel herself is an inkjet image transfer of one of my graveyard photos onto fabric from one of Connor's old white t-shirts, which he had tie dyed so it has a faint blue pattern showing through.

Other nods to the theme are the little Levi-style tab in the title:

And the yellow stitching and halo of antique copper eyelets in place of the rivets on a pair of jeans:

I really like how the image transfer came out, soft and dreamy.

And I also love the happy accident of how the dark spots in the salt background (made in response to a Marit's Summer Camp prompt) worked their way through the acrylic paint that I used to stamp the title, giving it a really great texture....almost like the lichen patterns you so often see on stone angels.  Perfect!

Isn't it great when things work out just right all by themselves.

Make It Work! .... the birth of a new Circle Journal

 

 Anyone who knows me well, knows that I don't watch a ton of TV, but there are a select few programmes that I am nothing short of fanatical about:

• Fringe
• The IT Crowd
• Doctor Who
• Father Ted
• Glee (for my sins)
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• and PROJECT RUNWAY!!

Yes, I know it's an odd show for me to get hooked on, I'm not desperately interested in the world of high fashion.  But I DO love to see the way the contestants respond to all the fantastic challenges they get set - like "make a dress out of chocolate wrappers", "take a hideous old bridesmaid dress apart and make something modern and fabulous from it", "make a three piece outfit inspired by a billboard ad", etc etc etc.  I just enjoy watching creative people being forced to think outside the box, and seeing what clever things they come up with.

And I got to thinking, in that respect the Project Runway challenges are very similar to the Take Ten CJ I just finished working on - where we had prompts like "make a page inspired by a postage stamp", "....by a Guns n Roses song", "....by a layout sketch", ".....in shades of one colour only"....

So the idea started brewing in my head....what about a Project Runway themed circle where everyone picks one of the actual Project Runway challenges from a past episode of the show - and instead of applying the prompts to designing clothing, we can apply them to producing pages for each others journals!

I suggested the potential theme over at UKScrappers, and in no time at all I had 9 other sign-ups - enough for a 10-person circle, and we were on our way!

The challenge I chose was from Season 8, Episode 5 - where the contestants had to choose one "concept" and one "material" from two lists provided, and somehow combine them into a garment.

I've used the same lists that the PR designers had to choose from:

My fellow circle-journallers will need to choose one item from each box, and then construct a 2-page spread in my book, on any subject (it doesn't have to be anything to do with fashion or clothing....), featuring their chosen concept and material prominently.

I decided to call my journal Mix and Match - which takes me back to my cover....did you wonder why there was that second helping of coil binding on the front of the book?

So my model could mix and match her outfits, of course!

I made nine separate flaps and dressed her head and shoulders, torso, and legs in a number of outfits based on some of the options in my "Concepts" and "Materials" lists.

For example, above you see Menswear For Women on the top, Tartan in the middle and Minimalist on the legs.

The initial shot of the book, at the top of this post, shows Military with Futuristic and Gothic

And here's Menswear For Women again with Animal Prints and Gold.

Each look is labelled on the back.

I had a lot of fun making this book (out of old Easter Egg boxes covered with painted and stencilled watercolour paper) - and hopefully my fellow CJ participants will have fun playing with it also.

The other main parts of the book, are my sign in pages:

I liked the idea of using little free hanging tags, like clothing tags, in keeping with the overall fashion theme.  And "auf wiedersehen", German for goodbye, is of course the catchphrase of show host Heidi Klum, so it seemed appropriate to put it at the back of the book :)

And also, for completeness, here is the back cover, where you can get a clearer view of the painted and stencilled papers I made and used throughout the book's construction:

Sorry, this is turning into a super long blog post, almost as bad as one of my geocaching write-ups!  (the current one of which I am currently in the process of writing, and it is already up to 5,600 words!  that's longer than the essays we had to write at school, ridiculous)

Just one more thing to show you, and that's my own layout in the Mix and Match journal.

I chose Tartan from the materials list, and Futuristic from the concepts.  And this is where I ended up (please excuse poor photo, this page is super shiny and reflective):

I had stupid amounts of fun making this - who could resist a couple of super cute tartan robots?

The background was spraypainted in silver onto black glossy card, using a very cool stencil of a circuit board that I got from ebay recently

And the bots were cut out freehand from tartan print and gold card, and jazzed up with the addition of a few eyelets.

I was going to add some terribly witty writing to the page, but I couldn't think of anything terribly witty.  So I'm going to leave the robots to talk for themselves (which could be a bit of a challenge for the one without a mouth!)

So that's my journal all finished and ready to go.  First posting date is June 6th.  I'm looking forward to getting the circle moving and getting my creative teeth stuck in to some of those other challenges!