Linda's Journal

Linda's Journal Page 3
Originally uploaded by seussscat

Did some more Art last night. Firstly I made use of a doodle I made in a 2 day meeting last week. Even as I created it I knew I would probably turn it into a journal page. I wanted to be specific with my doodling - I had a feeling of what it had to look like and wanted it to look right. I did it ring by ring as such working out from the original HI. The joy of a 4 colour biro was especially handy. No green in this though, I didn't think it would look right. I also did a sketch before bed whilst Sam and Matt were playing XBox 360 (I surprised Sam by buying him an XBox 360 - he was not expecting it, A big Present for him) of one of Guinea Pigs - Takumi eating. It was quite tricky as he kept eating for a little bit, then going to get some water and then coming back plus he went to bed before I had finished however I had the general gist of the picture so I just finished it off. It was nice to sketch as its been a little while since I last sketched and even longer since I did it based on a subject I was looking at rather than just from my imagination. It turned out quite well - Sam thought it was a good sketch which was nice.

Journals but no ATC's

I have been continuing in peoples journals as normal. I sent on Karen's Journal mid last week and so now I have started working in Linda's Journal. I have done 2 pages so far. One was around donating blood and I put my old blood donor card in the page. I finally got up to 5 donations in total and so I got a new blue card. I was really quite proud and this is what started the page off.
I also did a page based on reading someone elses entry in the journal. This was about how you really feel like you know someone by reading through their work in the journals and getting to see and touch them. Its such a great experience when you first get the journals and start reading them. I normally flick through at first to see the different pages and then come back to them and have a proper read, touching the pages and such. With this page, again playing with tissue paper, was doing this whilst watching fight club at like midnight on saturday. I seem to work quite well in the evenings (it was the weekend so wasn't mentally worn out from work or anything).

On the ATC front however, nothing is coming from me. I need to make some, I have unusual alphabet cards that need to be made and sent out but I have no want to make ATC's. I'm not sure what it is, I don't know if its the working on such a small scale, the fact my idea's haven't been turning out as I wanted them to or the lack of idea's (although for the unusual alphabet, I already have quite a few idea's written down). I'm just not sure what it is but I don't have the same feeling for them at the moment. I want to get my swaps completed and then maybe I will take a mini break from them or something - maybe by doing something else, my energy for them will come back. Who knows.

Will catch up

Thats right I have promised myself I will catch up on all arty stuff I need to do e.g. ATC's, journals etc before comitting myself to any new swaps or projects, no matter how much I want to join in. I am a bit behind with some bits and I want to get them completed and sent out to people as I hate being behind. People are very understanding but it does not make it any better!

I am coming to the end of my time with Karen's Journal. I took with me when I was travelling around this week and although didn't get to work in it much I did get to do this page about travelling on the train so much. Limited materials to work with hence the simplistic nature of the page but I got what I wanted to say down. Then last night after getting back from NASS I had some fun with tissue paper making this page. I wrote about our time at NASS this weekend and what a great weekend it was. Apart from that its been quiet on the arty front what with lots of travelling with work last week and a 3 day weekend at NASS. But I will be sure to keep you up to date on how I am doing with catching up on my art!

sick and busy

Hey all, I know not alot has been going on, not alot arty has been going on at all. I was feeling not so great most of the weekend, swollen glands, throat hurting, head pains so I didn't do any arting up (we were away visiting Sam's parents, I took a journal with me but no work). I briefly did a page a couple of days ago, mainly about being ill so nothing spectacular and I not really done anything since. I have been pretty busy with work too, lots of travelling this week on trains and such, Drum lesson Monday night, Aam met me at the station Tuesday evening and we had a couple of drinks down the pub and then I did some drum practice when I got home. Tonight was travelling to London so at my dads now. Tomorrow night is free but will be packing up bits for NASS before heading out Friday morning for our weekend at NASS (National adventure sports show) - www.nassfest.com. Its like a music festival but action sports instead so bmx, skate, mountain biking etc and some bands. We have never been before so should be exciting and just the 2 of us so quality time together. That has left art little time although I did write to a penpal! Sorry ladies and gentlemen - I hope to have something to show you soon.

Pictures!

Thats right I finally took some pictures this morning and here they are to share with you. I have completed 2 spreads in Karen's journal so far. Firstly is a spread about a leaflet I got with my scrapbooking magazine about a scrapbooking event next weekend. I am at NASS that weekend but still eyed up what I would have gone to if I wasn't and what I though of some the classes being held.

This page was fun to make as I got to just rip up bits of tissue paper and then stick them on with glue. I was trying to be random in my patterning but trying to get a good range of colour which ends up not being so random. But I like the effect it created. I did this because it made me think of leaves and hence I drew all the leaves in green pen. That shade that looks blue is more greeny. It was fun to not write on the page but most of the time I do want to write. I also have plans to make use of tissue paper as background on some other pages but in different colour although who knows what I will write on them - that is the fun :)

I also worked in Lia's journal which is all sealed up in its envelope to send from the post office today however I did not take pictures because I wanted to surprise Lia. I forgot to take pictures at all but when it comes back to me after our next round I will be sure to take pictures for your viewing pleasure.

No Pictures

I have been doing some good journalling work recently and I haven't taken any pictures so I can update you lovely people on them. This is clearly no good so my aim for this evening is to get out the journals I have been working in and take pictures of all my pages. Then I can add pictures and tell you all about the pages. So expect a better update tomorrow!

Journaling

Mainly been journaling recently and have quite a few journals in my possesion at the moment yet I have not really take pictures of the pages I have done. I have Lia's journal as part of our journal round robin (with only 2 of us) which I will be sending for our next round this weekend. This page is from that. I have done other pages but don't want to put them all on here as want them to be a surprise to her.

I also received 2 journals from Seren for our larger round robin and so I am going to do 15 days in one and then 15 days in the next. I have already done a couple of spreads in Karen's journal but have not taken pictures yet so will do that over the weekend and post on here monday.

Then when I popped back to my dads there was another journal from seren but one from here collection to work in so now in a way I have too many journals to work in because I want to give them all a fair amount of time :) There was me complaining about no journals!

Memory Lane

I was sorting stuff in my dads garage this weekend so I could bring it to our house and it was a walk down memory lane with all the stuff. I had so many pictures and such which I had cut from magazines and used to have on my walls. Now its not stuff to keep because its just cut outs from magazines and such but at the same time I didn't want to lose the memories that looking through it brought so I took some and started making some journal pages from it. They are mainly WIP's at the moment but I will add photo's in a couple of days and I'm sure I'll say more on them when I post the pictures

I did as I said

and actually did some art yesterday. It was hard at first as I wanted to but didn't feel motivated and wasn't sure it would look right but once I got into it, it was all good. I first created an ATC from butterfly images for an image lottery on one of my ATC groups. I loved the colours of the butterflies and i did something a bit different but putting them on top of eachother to make it more of a 3d card but loved the effect. I just wasn't so sure about the background once I had done it, my card seemed bland but the couple of stickers I added made it look better.
Then using the scraps from making my ATC I created a journal page which looks like someones head with no face. Its odd but I liked the effect. It almost has a bit of a punk rocker look to it :)

Small rut

I'm feeling rather unmotivated at the moment in terms of art. Part of this I know is because I am busy at work doing lots of data analysis which is turning my brain to mush and making me not want to do much. But I haven't done any art since the weekend and that was only a couple of zen ATC's in front of the TV, nothing major. Got in late from work last night and then had tons of ironing to do and by the time we had dinner it was half eight, quarter to nine and I just felt Bleurgh. I did a little stitching in front of the tv, thats quite relaxing but I didn't get much of that done either. Need to relax a bit and just go for it. Really I should at least be doing something in my journal, even if its mainly writing. Thats what I will do, I will push myself to at least do something in my journal tonight. Well another work day begins and lots more data analysis to be done, hello mushy brain :)

weekend zens

I didn't do much arting (I feel more comfortable saying it now*) over the weekend. Here are a couple of zens I did. The sunshine one is ok, I do like the yellow sun. I like the 5 of Hearts Zen alot more, more effort went into to certainly. I think I feel that alot of detail should go into zen cards. Whether this is true or not is for each person themselves to decide, I guess in my mind, a good zen card has lots of detail but then I think other people's zen's always look better than mine.

*I had a discussion on here a while back about not being comfortable calling myself an artist and the work I do as art rather than craft. But when I went to write arting, it felt right, it felt wrong to put crafting because I didn't feel thats what I was doing. I felt I was creating art. Maybe I have turned a corner. Who knows. Bring on the Art!

Pats fab package

Pat sent me though a fab package which had some many great bits in it that I still have not explored it all but want to do it when I really have time so that if I become inspired, I totally have the time to follow that inspiration. It was a mixture of my scavenger swap pack, my grab bag win and my yak pack win and she certainly spolied me. A nice big tin for altering, some stickers, paints, embellishments, images, ATC backgrounds and so much more. One big piece was a really big butterfly stamp which I just immediately wanted to use and thus the page above was born chatting about my great package. I liek the way the butterfly prints turned out as its like the butterfly is flying across the page.

been away for the weekend

It was bank holiday weekend here in the UK and I also took the tuesday off so I have been away for a few days being adventurous. Saturday was mountain boarding which was great fun, sunday was driving to Wales, Monday was mountain biking in Afan Forest which was a great day although no one told us beforehand there was a 6km climb to get to the trails but the tiresome ride up was worth it as the trails down were great, then tuesday was drive home and chill out in Bristol. We did some great people watching and I had some great thoughts of inspiration but no journal with me so I just wrote down my possible idea's. Will be sure to take my journal next time I go people watching.

Under the Sea

Real quick entry as have been mega busy at work and want to head home. Here are my 3 ATC's that I made for the under the sea swap on my UK group. They are all similar but I did hand draw the mermaid (hence they look a little different) and had limited time (been away with work quite a bit) but I like the way they turned out. So enjoy.

Circles

Thats right I bought a circle punch. I was passing by hobbycraft on the way to a meeting in Greenford and I had some time to spare so I wandered in looking for one and I found a nice 1" punch for £2.99 but it was even better because when I got to the till, it was half price so I only paid £1.50. That made me very happy. Well I was busy over the weekend with my Dad visiting however I was up in Rugby Sunday night as I had an early morning meeting the next day and I had a little play with it. It was fun and I made sure to use lots of colours. Now I am thinking of all the other things I can do with it. Magazine pages and such, I could create such interesting patterns. I can see lots of fun to come in the future.

I also did a page on the way home from Greenford on Friday. This one is about weight and eating and I created the pattern to look a bit like a timeglass. It is a work in progress at the moment as I plan to add colour inside the patterns. This page was more about getting off my chest how I felt.

Zens

Thats right I was zening it up last night and created my very first Zen ATC's. I decided to go a little bit different so used black card and silver pen. I really liked the effect it created. I have been worried about creating these before as I just wasn't sure what to create and was worried they would look rubbish. However I have seen many pictures with the rest of my blindswaps group having been making loads over the last couple of months and last night I just fancied it. I got started and really enjoyed it. Rather than worry about what designs I was going to do, I just went with the flow and followed my idea's as they came. This made it very peaceful and enjoyable. And so I give you my zen ATC's :)

Works in Progress

So many journal pages I have started and that as such are works in progress. The first was created as a background as such and I have never put anything else over the top. It doesn't necessarily need anything else but I am sure I will.

The lady did not turn out as she should have at all. This was me experimenting with the pastels my friend bought me and I was going for a lady in a flowing dress with flowing hair - almost fairy like. It did not work, in that the whole overall look didn't turn out right and the face is awful. However I am not giving up on this page. I will do something with it, even if it is to write about how it didn't turn out right.

Then you have the garden one which I started as part of an illustration friday and since the deadline passed I have done no more with it. I love the idea when I first started as admitedly it didn't turn out as I had originally in mind I still liked it. I do plan to continue this and then to decide whether to add colour or not. I was umming and ahhing at the time as to whether I would and now I definately have more time to decide.

Finally this journal page is one I started on a train when I was on my way Coventry. It is part zentangling and part bits of conversation from the 4 american youths playing cards. I found aspects of their conversation funny and captured tiny snippets to intrigue the reader. I do plan to add a little colour to this. I only had my biro at the time so I did as much as I could and I have never got back round to adding the colour. Again this is something I will do.

Treats from the States

I had family visiting for a couple of days from the states and Angie brought gifts for me. Some crafting treats for me. They all have sticky pads on the back so I am looking forward to making use of them in the future. Apart from that its been quiet in my crafting world. I have been busy, what with having a couple of days off to spend with my family, then 2 day meeting in Rugby with work and a birthday party this weekend in London. I was on the travel for 4 days and forgot to take my journal with me. So I got on with other things but no crafting. Clearly I will have to try and make that up this week :)

Journals

I want to work in journals, I feel a need to work in journals and yet none are coming my way at the moment. Its been a bit slow on the swap I am on but I know one is heading my way. I have been looking on 1001journals.com and signing up for a couple more journals but the couple I had already signed up for are going nowhere. Odd because you would think I could just work in my journal and I can but somehow I feel more committed to work in a journal that is only mine to work in for a couple of weeks. To have one I can work in anytime does not push me to work in it. Admitedly over the last month I have worked more in my own journal but somehow it is still not the same. I am thinking about setting up my own journal on 1001journals, because it would be nice to see strangers work. But it seems to take so long for sign ups to take place and get going. One I signed up for is closed now, I was the last spot so hopefully the person will send it out soon.
I don't know what I would write in my journal - I see to shy away from writing person stuff in my own journal because then I'll have to look back at it and see it where as I have no problem putting it in someone elses journal and sending it off for people I don't know to read. Weird but not weird I guess. Who knows maybe I will work in my journal this weekend or maybe someone elses journal will turn up to work in.

Grafitti Postcard

On my mixed media group we are doing a grafitti postcard swap at the moment. When I started I wasn't sure what I was going to do as my grafitti but I was going to have it on a brick wall. I started to colour paper brown to make a wall when my other half pointed out it wouldn't really work like that. So I drew my grafitti first and then drew the wall around it so it looks like actual grafitti on a wall. This is my first one, I wasn't sure what to do my grafitti and this is what first came to mind. As sam pointed out my lines are a bit too sharp for grafitti but I liked it how it was. For my next one though I am going to try and make it more rounded but will do the wall behind again. Its time consuming but it makes a really good effect I think.