Hooray, it's HOME!....UK Stampers CJ

Actually it's been home for a couple of weeks, but it has taken me a while to get it fixed up, rebound and photographed. 

But all that aside, here it is - the CJ that I sent out on its little journey way back in November 2009 - it hit a few delays along the way but it finally came back to me last month. 

I'm really chuffed that the covers have survived 12 postings so well - I was a bit worried all that crackle paste might flake off - but it's still solid as a rock (and all the little pebbles held on too, god bless gorilla glue!)

 

Looks great inside, huh?

You can see my own page on the original post (linked up there as 'November 2009') - and here are the rest (sorry about my painty old table in the background):

"Shrink Me" by Tasha (Chicken Licken)

"the gate to another dimension" by Sid (Harpie)

"when one door closes" by Linda E

"Dante's Inferno" by Claireabelle

"Look Inside" by 3D Jean

"Boo!" by Efemera

My bestest pal Alison G spoilt me with a double set of gorgeous hand-watercoloured pages

"Alice's Garden" by Moira (Happy Daze)

Another take on "one door opens..." - there was no sign in tag for this one, but by a process of elimination, it must be by T Ann

"Keys" by Fiona (Magickdiva)

 and last but CERTAINLY not least, a masking masterpiece!

"hell of a good universe next door" by Diane (Morti)

Thanks so much to everyone who worked in the journal - I'm glad you all had fun with the door stamps.

It now has pride of place on my CJ bookshelf :) 

Catching up in my Trip/Travel journal

Thanks to some bloke marrying some woman, we all got the day off work and school today - woohoo!  So I spent some time this morning playing catch up in my 2011 trip journal... I'm trying to document all our day trips and holidays this year, so we'll have something to look back at in the future to remember all the fun times.

So here's the page about our day out at Blenheim Palace - all very posh and regal, and rather appropriate for a day like today! 

None of us had ever been there before, and we weren't sure what to expect, but it was a fantastic place to visit, both the house and extensive grounds, not too stuffy and snobby and boring, if you know what I mean - and we barely had time to see everything there was to see and do everything there was to do.

Not very "arty", these pages, more just a download of memories.  But I did enjoy using my new Copic airbrush system (a birthday pressie from t'other half) to make the backgrounds, and doodling the little maze.

And yes, that's my third orangey/yellow based page in a row - I'm afraid I made up a little too much paint the other day, and I'm too tight to waste it!  But that's it all gone now.  No more yellow for a while, I promise :)

AJED : 75 / 365

The game's up!

And so, this is the end of the Take Ten CJ - and what fun it has been!

The theme of this last journal was board games, can you guess which game I chose to interpret?

Mousetrap, of course :)

I used to LOVE that game, must dig it out, haven't played it in years!

Actually, I say I chose Mousetrap, in actual fact it was chosen for me - as I am the last to work on this CJ and therefore the other nine games had already been taken.  But I think I would have picked this one even if I had gone first, I really enjoyed searching for just the right real-life imagery to represent all the game pieces - the old boot, the rickety stairs, the bath tub, and my favourite, the diving man :)

Here's the layout back in the book, with my sign in tag:

It goes home to its owner next week - and that's when my own book should come home also - can't wait!!!

Thanks to everyone who took part in the Take Ten CJ - it's been a pleasure to host, no drop outs, no delays, no drama - perfect :)

No Waaaay! Really??

 

Woohoo!!  Now that Skullita is in the post and winging her way to the U S of A, I am back to playing in my art journal, I've missed it loads!

And I knew exactly what I wanted to do on my first page back....as I loved this fortnight's prompt from A Year In The Life Of An Art Journal:

 

The prompt: Really?!

The song: Tell Me Something I Don't Know by Selena Gomez (lyrics HERE)
Product/technique: speech bubbles

And it fitted right in with something I'd been wondering about recently....if I had the chance to go back in time and talk to my younger self, before my disastrous marriage, before various other mistakes I've made, what would I say to her?

The more I thought about it, the more I figured that she wouldn't believe a word I was saying anyway - especially if I told her some things about my life in 2011 - I've ended up a very different person than perhaps I would have predicted back then!  But I'm happier than I've ever been, so hip hip hooray for unexpected diversions from the plan :)

This page took much longer than it looks like it took - I spent hours making a lovely, involved, woven book page background, and then promptly covered it up so much you can barely see it, pah! :)

Luckily I took a photo of the background before I stuck and wrote stuff all over it, I love the look (inspired by Maryanne's cards here) - I must try this again, and next time maybe I'll leave a bit showing!

AJED : 73 / 365

Meet Skullita....

....she's the reason I've been AWOL from my blog (and from paper-crafting of all kinds) for a little while.

This young lady is a 12" x 12" quilt square, made for a very good cause - and she has taken me a looooong time to make!

I'm SO slow at sewing!  It's not only the hand stitching that takes me forever, it's the machine sewing too...at least twice I managed to sew the material on back to front and had to unpick the seams stitch by stitch, doh!  And the pieced starburst background?  You have no idea how complicated I managed to make that, and what a pain it turned out to be.

But never mind, it's finished now! yay!  and will be winging its way to Richmond, Virginia tomorrow to the Skull-A-Day HQ (oooh, my pal Jennifer lives there too, hi Jennifer :)  )

I hope this project raises tons of cash for Becky's Fund - and if anyone reading this would like to get involved, it's not too late - you just need to get your square to the organiser by the end of May, plenty of time yet....

A slightly late crusade - my forensic self portrait

Yet another outing for my self portrait stencil - I'm certainly making it earn its keep!

This page is in response to a recent Crusade from Michelle Ward's Green Pepper Press Street Team:

Due April 1st - oops!

The premise was nice and straightforward - document yourself right now in this moment.

This will be really fun to do once a year, to see how my preferences and behaviours change over time...

I was brave and used fabric and the dreaded sewing machine on this page, it behaved perfectly, I must use it more!


AJED : 72 / 365

Not Broken.

This page was pure and simple synchronicity....

I had this mask left over from my Guns n Roses page, and with its lovely black and gold spray paint treatment it was far too nice to waste.

Then came an unexpected free evening and time to work in my journal...and I spotted the latest three-part prompt from A Year In The Life Of An Art Journal:

THE PROMPT: Love
THE SONG: Not Broken by the Goo Goo Dolls
PRODUCT/TECHNIQUE: Silhouettes

Everything fell into place pretty quickly from that point....I had the silhouette.....a "love" themed page seemed to fit the dancers, plus Jay and I have now been together two years so the timing is right....and "not broken" made me think of not breaking step - dancing in unison - a relationship in perfect balance.

I couldn't be happier, or luckier, to have found my perfect partner for the dance.  Happy anniversary Jay xxx


AJED : 71 / 365

Used to do a little but the little wouldn't do it so the little got more and mowah....

....just keep trying to get a little better, said a little better than befowah!

Yay! I've been waiting for this CJ ever since we started the Take Ten circle, the Guns n Roses theme!  

As I am the ninth of ten to work in this book, I wasn't sure which songs would be left for me to choose from, so you can imagine how excited I was to find that my favourite G n R song ever ever ever was still available - squeeeeeee!!!! I got Mr Brownstone!!!!

I really enjoyed putting this layout together, mainly because on at least two occasions in its evolution it went HORRIBLY wrong, but I still managed to salvage it.

And that somehow is more fun than eveything going smoothly from the get go :)

The song is about the cheery subject of heroin addiction, hence the poppies.

I have just one more journal left to work on in this circle - with a board games theme - and then I'm all done.  It's been a LOT of fun, I'm going to miss it when it's gone!

Download the best from the best!

... the best 2010 projects from the best UK artsy crafty magazine, that is

Craft Stamper, which is the only magazine I religiously buy every month (I really ought to renew my subscription one day, but I'm still waiting for the perfect sub gift! :) ), has released a FREE downloadable e-zine with twelve of the best projects from last year.




Well worth a click: http://www.craftstamper.com/ezine - or hit the piccie. 

Enjoy!

(and no, this isn't an April Fool, the link won't take you to a Rick Astley video, promise!)

(although that would have been funny :) )

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!

Shout, shout, let it all out....

 

Oh my, this was fun, I have to do this again one day :)

This page is in response to a prompt on the excellent Year In The Life Of An Art Journal site, where they offer three part prompts every fortnight, including a theme, a technique and a song, any or all of which you can use as a springboard for a journal page in any way you choose.

The current prompt is as follows:

• theme - "confidence shot"
• song - Strut by Adam Lambert (lyrics)
• product/technique - eye shadow

I'd never heard of the song before, or even the singer (according to Wiki he's an American Idol contestant), and it wasn't totally my kind of thing, but I did love the lyrics - especially the part "open your mouth, open it wide, let the freedom begin!" -  so that was my starting point

I wanted something to illustrate the shouting out part, and as I was the only model I had on hand, I used a self portrait

It was entertaining watching "cartoon me" evolving, so here's a few photos I took along the way:

Original photo.  I'm supposed to be joyously shouting.  instead I look like I've just seen a ghost :)  acting is not my core skill!

Photo lightly gesso'd, and skin tones, teeth and whites of eyes painted in....plus double chin obliterated :)

Jewellery, clothing, and rather glam red lipstick added....instead of the eye shadow mentioned in the prompt - I didn't want to make myself look too Bet Lynch!

 

...with the addition of hair and a tongue, cartoon me is nearly done...

The black outlines finish everything off nicely

I really enjoyed this, right up until the point when my 18 year old son walked past after I had been painstakingly painting for a few hours, and announced that I was wasting my time as "mum, I could have done that in 30 seconds in Adobe Illustrator"... bah ... I think he's missing the point :)

So - what does all this have to do with a "confidence shot"?....let me tell you.....

The reason the "let the freedom begin!" part of the song lyrics appealed to me so much was that it worked on two counts... in the short term I feel freed from stress this week, as my fortnight-from-hell is behind me at work, and now that we have recruited an extra team member, hopefully it will never get that stupidly busy again....and in the broader sense, I have more freedom in my life now than I had in the first 40 years put together.  Part of this is undoubtedly down to being in the best relationship I have ever had, part is down to finally feeling secure in my job, but it all boils down to feeling in control of my own destiny, not being limited by fear or insecurities - and THAT comes from confidence.  I don't know exactly where this newfound confidence and feelings of security have come from, but please can I keep them???

Life is good for me right now.

[I have to add, I feel a twinge of guilt writing those words today of all days, thinking of poor Sian O' Callaghan whose murdered body was found today :(  RIP Sian, the whole of Swindon is in shock and mourning, nobody can quite believe this has happened to one of our own]


AJED : 69 / 365

Always leave your mark...

 

It feels gooood to be back in the swing of things with my journal, I really enjoyed putting this page together.

It's one of those that just kind of fell together with very little effort from me, it's always the pages that make themselves that end up being my favourites.

I've had this fingerprint stencil for yonks, but I think I've only ever used it once before, which is a crying shame because isn't it FAB???

AJED : 67 / 365

Yay!!!!!! I've got my life back!!!!!

Hello poor neglected blog, sorry for going AWOL on you.....

I've got a good excuse though.  Work has been INSANE for the last fortnight, I've basically worked every waking hour (and many hours when I shouldn't have even BEEN awake) for the past two weeks, and all creative endeavours had to come to a complete stop.

There goes Art Journal Every Day :(  and my stencil tute (coming soon), my quilt square for skull-a-day (ditto), all CJs, all ATCs, all everything.

I have missed getting painty SO MUCH.  But then when I sat down at my messy table tonight, I just couldn't get going.  It seems that two weeks off = death of mojo :(

So what you have here is an ugly old page.  But I think it needed to get itself out of my system, like an exorcism.  I needed to get all of my frustration about work OUT onto paper.  And I do now feel much, much better.

So it might not be the prettiest page you've ever seen, but as cheap therapy, it did its job just fine :)

As for the flowers mentioned - here they are:

Bought for me by the big boss man to acknowledge that I've been having to put in hours waaaaay above and beyond the call of duty recently.

They are lovely, and I definitely do appreciate them, but I really hope that everyone knows that that level of stress and tiredness wouldn't be sustainable going forward, for all the flowers in the world!

So let's hope that things at work calm down significantly over the next few weeks, because I'm just frazzled.


AJED : 65 / 365

a stencil tute?

I've had a couple of people ask me now, both here and on Facebook, if I'd blog a step-by-step on how to cut a portrait stencil, like the self portrait one I used in my journal t'other day.

I'm no Banksy, but I'd be happy to oblige - I need a subject though......

So please feel free to use the comments section on here to suggest who I should cut a stencil of for the tutorial....

Suggest your favourite celebrity, and I'll choose the one I like best and see what I can do!

Too nice to succeed? Probably, but that's fine by me.

Another not desperately exciting or artistic page, in fact this probably wouldn't have made it to my blog under normal circumstances, but I want to be sure that this Art Journal Every Day journey is fully documented, just to prove that I actually stuck to it.

I must admit that some days finding that ten minutes feels a lot like a chore, especially if I am really tired.  But other days it's great to have an excuse or encouragement to start playing.

Anyway, this little rant page was three days in the making, believe it or not! 

• One day to stamp the background with smiley faces and the repeated phrase "it's NICE to be IMPORTANT, but it's more IMPORTANT to be NICE" - very much my life philosophy. 
• One day to gesso and colour the background with various paints and sprays, and stick it into my journal
• One day to add the journalling, stencilled image, photo and stamped dotty border

The words are about my realisation that I just don't have what it takes to achieve lofty heights in my career, as I don't have the velociraptor instincts needed.  But I'd genuinely rather be a nice, kind poor person, than rich but a nasty piece of work.  So more power to me :)

My favourite part of the page is where the uninked dots on the border stamp have lifted the stencilled image, which I hadn't realised wasn't quite dry.  Neat, if unintended, effect.  I must try that again deliberately one day :)


AJED : 64 / 365

4 goals down, 97 to go!

 

Just a quickie page to celebrate the completion of another one of our Project Zero goals - to take the kids (and us big kids!) to a Disney theme park.

In real life it's more terracotta/orange, and less pooey brown :)

AJED : 61 / 365

I am contradictory, apparently

So here's that stencil in action again, properly this time, and with considerably less bling! :)

I cut it in the first place following a prompt from the excellent "A Year In The Life Of An Art Journal" challenge blog, as they suggested the use of a self portrait. 

I love cutting stencils, and I think this one has turned out pretty well, all three of my kids reckon it's instantly recognisable as me, anyway.

Then, just after I had finished stencilling, and I was sitting there wondering what to do next, another blog - Journal Fodder Junkies this time - popped up with their own weekly prompt - which was "I am".

That seemed a pretty good fit, so I simply rattled out some bullet point journalling about who/what I am....

...and in doing so discovered that some of my bullet points were a little contradictory...I'm "happy in my skin", but I also felt the need to put down that I'm "overweight"....I'm "good at my job", but "frustratingly unambitious" and "terrible with money"....I'm "a good mum" but a total "soft touch", two things that don't always sit well together.

But, well, contradictory or no, I'm me, and I'm also "happy" and "contented" and "in love".  And that's a pretty good place to be :)

AJED : 59 / 365

What a productive day!

I have to say, I wish that Connor's school would have teacher training days more often :)

I've had a lovely day off work, chilling with Connor and making tons of stuff.

Including 

• the CJ entry I blogged earlier
• three ATCs (pic of one above, they're all the same) for a swap on UKStampers (theme "In The Woods")
• A "wish you weren't leaving but good luck anyway" card for my boss (forgot to take a pic of that)
• A background page in my art journal: 

And I'm still at it, I'm partway through cutting a stencil which will be used at some point over that background.

I do love being productive!  The only problem is that once I'm on a "making stuff" roll, I find it hard to stop.  I have to get up for work in the morning, mind, so I need to make sure I drag myself away from the art supplies and up to bed by midnight....

If anyone spots me still up at 12:01, tell me off!

---

**edited to add - ok, so now it's just after half past midnight....slapped wrists.....but I promise I'm off to bed now....I just had to share my accidental "self portrait in glitter":

Bling bling!!!! :D

No idea what I'm going to do with it, it's just on a scrap piece of paper....but you see I finished cutting the stencil, and then sprayed it on the back with repo adhesive, so it will be dry tomorrow when I want to use it in my journal...

But of course the glue went through the holes in the stencil and left a gluey version of me on the scrap paper.

Well, I couldn't waste it, could I, so I dumped a pot of glitter over it lol

I like it! I'm all sparkly! :)

I really am off to bed now, or I'll never get up for work in the morning - night night.

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.

Don't do it, Orpheus!

Not an art journal page today - a CJ page instead.

This is my entry in the latest Take Ten CJ to reach me - the theme for this one is "couples in literature".

As I'm 8th of ten to tackle this book, most of the classic couples - including Heathcliffe and Cathy, Mr Darcy and Elizabeth, Romeo and Juliet, Edward and Bella from Twilight - had already gone.

But luckily for me, one of my favourite (if rather tragic) couples was still available - Orpheus and Eurydice.

I remember going to see the opera of this with my dad when I was a kiddie.  And the story is a cracker.  As is the moral (I'm a BIG believer in looking forward not back).  So I had fun bringing it to life on paper.

Unfortunately the end result is pretty tricky to photograph because it's a bit shiny in the light, but hopefully you get the general idea.

I enjoyed making the papers for this one, the "flamey" background was made by dragging various colours of translucent fluid acrylic paints across some yellow pearlescent card with an old credit card.

And the rocky walls were made with various paints and Liquitex glass bead medium on dark red textured card.

The devil is a photo of a toy I found on t'interweb.  I drew Orpheus and Eurydice myself, she has ended up with a rather big head and a jutty out chin, but I'm sure Orphy still thought she was beautiful :)

I think I have "Guns n Roses songs" coming next in this circle - I'm REALLY looking forward to that one (although 8 out of the 10 available song titles will have already gone, so I wonder what will be left for me!)

I really don't mind what you call it....

The other day, on an internet forum, someone took it upon themselves to tell me that what I do isn't "REAL art journalling", as I often use my own photos and the journalling on the page is usually just documenting the photo - hence I am "just a scrapbooker".

I think I was supposed to be upset by that, but to be perfectly honest, I'm not in the slightest bit fussed what you want to call it, I'm just having fun doing what I do :)   I certainly don't have any personal need to call what I make "art".  I've always considered myself more of a crafter than an artist anyway, although I often use artists' materials in my craft.

But anyway, here's another page in my journal / little scrapbook / book of fun :)

This page commemorates the ticking off of another one of our Project Zero goals - to have a smooch on or in front of the Eiffel Tower.

We're not the world's most romantic couple, but who could resist the opportunity for a little 'moment' in the cité d'amour? :)

Lots of sparkle on this one from copious applications of glimmer mist.  Shimmer shimmer.

And it's VERY purple.  It wasn't supposed to be, but it just turned out that way :)

My little Moleskine is getting really colourful and pretty at the edges now - and it's seriously fattening up  - it will be HUGE by the time it's all full!

AJED : 55 / 365

Stop! this is the Empire of Death!

Another quick page tonight, just to showcase one of the many photos I took last week in the Paris catacombs.

It was quite the experience, walking miles through tunnels deep beneath the city, lined with the remains of over 7 million.

It was a sharp reminder that our time on Earth is short.

More photos of the Catacombs, and the rest of our Parisian adventure, are on Facebook here.

AJED : 53 / 365

I was supposed to be having an early night tonight....

....but I thought, in the spirit of ten minutes art journalling every day, before heading up the stairs, I'd just spend a little time adding some more paint to the background I started in my book yesterday....

...and of course I got carried away and ended up finishing the whole page.  Ooops.

Never mind, it's still only 11pm, that's still an early-ISH night.

This is a fairly simple page just to celebrate the completion of one of our Project Zero goals - we finally got a First To Find!!!  (in Geocaching, if someone hides a brand new geocache, and you get to it first and are the first to sign the log book, you get FTF honours).

It has taken us three years to get our first FTF as it's a highly competitive side of the game - as soon as a new cache is published, the race is on, with local cachers legging it to the location.  And we have never been fast enough before.

(We were very nearly not fast enough this time either, with another team literally breathing down our necks racing across the field - it was fun!)

I like how the background turned out on this page, you can't really see on the photo but the dry-brushed paints over the washi tape stripes are semi metallic, and they catch the light really nicely as you tilt the book.

The compass was made with a Tim Holtz mask with the N, S, E, W letters drawn on with paint pens.

There will be another Project Zero page in the journal soon as we cracked another goal while we were in France...

AJED : 52/365

Didn't we have a lovely time, the week we went to Paris...

So - we're home - achey and exhausted, but we had a great time.

And I NEARLY kept up my art journalling every day - but I must admit that on the very last day, after a very tiring 5 hour trip home with lots of train changes, I was in no fit state :(  So the best I can hope to end the year with is 364/365.  I can live with that, though - I kept up this new years resolution well into February which is a lot better than most! :)

 

I think you'll need to click on these trip journal pages to see them larger if you want to be in with a fighting chance of actually reading any of the writing, but even just at a glimpse they give you a fairly good idea of how much we managed to cram into 3 and a half days (and why we are now so tired! :) )

We spent 2 and a half days in the Disneyland Paris parks going on tons of rides, and meeting the characters.

And we had an action packed day trip into the city of Paris itself, where we visited all the sights, the highlights being Sainte-Chappelle, the Catacombs and travelling right to the very top of the Eiffel Tower at night (blimey, it's a LONG way up!!)

I hope to use this particular journal (a 5"x8" landscape watercolour Moleskine) to record all our trips and holidays this year, it will make a nice memento I think.

These three pages are also my contribution to the current Green Pepper Press crusade - "been there done that" - where the challenge was to document evidence of a trip or an event in your journal.  Thanks to Michelle Ward as ever for the inspiration.

AJED : 49/365