Journal Journey's Challenge 23

It's September! So the children will be back at school very soon and the happy routines can return. YAY! I will have so much more time for art. I have been immersed with the grandchildren a lot over the Summer if not on their own with Darling Daughter in tow as well, it's been exhausting but FUN! 

How much fun did we have with our Summer theme? So many of you joined in despite the Summer holidays and I am SO glad you did. We even had a few new faces which is always exciting. I am so pleased you came along for the journey. On to this months challenge. 

Gina is our GDT member for this month and she even picked the theme. Thank you Gina for being part of this journey Dxx

CHILDHOOD

A close friend of Gina's had died and she wanted to celebrate her life by doing a journal page. What will this theme mean to you? You can go to so many places with this theme, from games to clothing, childhood memories. Anything is aloud as long as Childhood is the theme of your journal page you can use any media so make sure you have some fun playing in your journal at least once this month. This month our random GDT member is Claudia Hi hun I hope you can be our GDT member for the month of October please e-mail me.  

Here is Gina's wonderful art I hope it inspires you all to play this month. Leave your link to your post below. Have fun and get inky or painty or gluely lol just make a mess and have some fun in your journal. Love Dawn xx

Mix It Monthly

Oh what fun I had with this challenge over at Mix It Monthly this month I really enjoyed getting started in a new journal (which I can't find anywhere, I do wish people wouldn't move my things) Any way lovely new journal (A gift from a friend). I will also join in with Paint Party Friday - PPF I loving playing around with paint and as it is Friday why not!

Isn't it pretty? It's A5 or there about's, it's all lined paper but that doesn't matter to me when playing in any journal. it also has a lovely little magnet fold over and I just thought this will become a problem actually mmmm. Any way I thing it's beautiful even though it has a oriental feel (which I am not keen on) Full of blossom.

I printed off the things from Conny's Challenge page. Flowers & pendant. I thought it was really clever what she did with the pendant, I am SO NOT computer savy when it comes to things like that.

I painted the background randomly with the colour pallet we was asked to use Then cut some parts of the flowers & pendant out and stuck them randomly around the pages and then I started to add things :)

Some doodling and journaling and then not much later.......

The finished spread I hoped you liked this look through my process for this challenge. It was fun. Thank you Conny For another lovely challenge Dxx

Journal Journey's Ch 22

Hello Everyone, I must apologise for being so late but it is STILL the 1st of August. (just) Wasn't July HOT!  lets hope it continues. Summer is truly here now as the children break up from school & university and we have our family home. I've hardly had time to breath with all the fun things we have been up to. I hope you are having fun wherever you are and managing to enjoy the weather.

This month's challenge is.....

WHAT SUMMER MEANS TO YOU!

How appropriate, don't cha think? lol Next months GDT member is Gina, COOL so, Gina can you e-mail me for next months prompt, really thrilled I do hope you are able to accept. 

So, what does Summer mean to YOU! is it a beach holiday, hot weather trees, day trips, flowers, horse riding, gardening, sport, what? I really want to know and please share through your art journaling for the month of August.

This is the lovely Jeanett's GD piece and I am so grateful she had time to participate as Guest Designer this month. Thank You Jenny xx

Here is what Summer means to me. Children, fun and laughter. No matter what we're doing, cinema if it's raining, day trips out if it's warm.  What does it mean to you? Camping, dog walks, Alton Towers, Royal babies. What ever it is I hope you find time to share with us. Dawn xx

ARC & PPF

I love to get a new book, get excited about it, guess what may happen and get involved with the characters. This was a great book for this. ARC with Darcy is a challenge for readers & artists of any skill. If you have lots of books you have been meaning to read this challenge is a chance to do that.  You read a book in a month, review it then do some art for that review. I read a lot any way, so I may not be reading books off my shelf as I have read them. I am constantly buying new or second hand books. I really like this idea of reviewing it with art as well.

 

This is for a book called Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. (Click the link for further information or to buy from Amazon)

The Review This is about a married couple, the wife goes missing and the husband is suspected of a hand in her disappearance. and it all goes on from there. The author uses diary entries from the wife to show how the wife views things and the present time is how we see things from the husbands point of view. 

I didn't like either character, both were less than perfect as in real life we all are. So I couldn't root for the hubby to be vindicated and I couldn't care less if the wife was found or not as she seemed a devious cow from the get go. But having said that, I think this is how the book is meant to make you feel. (although this could just be me). Wifey each anniversary sets up a mystery treasure hunt, each clue is given at the answer to the previous clue. (hope that makes sense?) hubby does this with out telling the police and as he finds each clue ....... Can't really tell you any more with out spoiling the book. But even though I didn't like the characters I wanted to know what was going to happen to both of them. I really liked the book actually and I thought it was very cleverly written. The heading at the beginning lets you know where you are and in what time reference so it's easy to follow. Over all I gave this 10/10 after reading it, I really enjoyed disliking the pair of them. They were made for each other and in my opinion it has a good ending.

The Art I found some resist paper I had forgot I had and decided this would be the base for my journal pages, as it had a writing feel to it. This would go along with the written diary and clues given. I made some envelopes out of card and wrote the clues on there and added lots of ink all over. I wrote my own review and popped that in the pockets I have made for this Journal, for book reviews. I have quite a few finished now and I am behind with a couple of others I have read as well.

Next months book could be 'If' - by George Kempis' a freebie e-book from Kindle I read on my phone. Here's the link so you can read this if you like as well. Or I may just review Granny Squares by Susan Pinner I haven't reviews a craft book yet and I read a fair few lol.

Finally I would also like to add this entry to PPF and join in with all the wonderful artist there as well. Have a lovely weekend Dxx

Journal Journey's Ch 21

Hello everyone, we have had some more NEW faces this month (which we LOVE) and I have really enjoyed looking at your pages & talent. I never get board of  Art Journaling. BIG apology now, I am SO SORRY I haven't played along this month. I know, I had another bad fall so have been sat on the sofa crocheting with my feet up. I Couldn't face the table & chair and effort involved with just sitting let alone stretching. I am SO grateful for our lovely GDT member I am feeling much better now though so maybe I will join you through out this month :) Which brings me nicely on to this months challenge.

This months challenge is .....

HATS

The lovely Birgit is our wonderful GDT Member this month a special thank you to her as she was busy and fit us in specially and I know I am so glad she did. Birgit has this say about her self & art work. " I Like to play with different materials. Rubber stamps, paints, pencils, paste, magazine images, different papers and so on. Therefore art journaling is best. I'm not an artist; I'm a hobbyist and do it just for fun. Sometimes more... sometimes less. "  I love Birgits work, such colour and doodling on the hats is fab.

I hope you can find time to join in this month again. The winner of the GD spot for the month of August is Jeanette I hope you will honour us all with a special appearance. Please e-mail me So I can give you next months details.

Just a little though here, have you any suggestions for over the Winter for Challenges you would like to do? I want some fresh ideas for the Autumn, Halloween & Christmas. I know I can think of lots, but if there is anything you would fancy having a go at in particular leave me a comment. Have a wonderful month Dxx

ARC & PPF

Time to share another book review already. I have read a few books this month but I thought I would share my review on the new Dan Brown novel Inferno. I had high hopes for this as I have really enjoyed Dan's Prof. Robert Langdon series.

The Review - And I have to say I was a little disappointed to say the least. I didn't like the story much and the way we started with Robert having no memory and working backwards to find out why he was in his currant situation. This is on the first page or two, so I am not giving anything away. But I read it and still give it a good 7/10 still imaginative. It was much easier to put down between sessions than previous books from Dan Brown.

I started a new Journal for all my future book reviews, even if they don't all make it to the wonderful challenge with Darcy that is ARC. I have really got into doing this and I enjoy it lots. 

Okay The Arty Bit - The background for the page is tweed Prof. Robert Langdon is well known for his tweed jacket. This is also echoed in the chevrons as well as the purpose of direction, as he doesn't have a clue which way to turn. The silhouettes are to represent him running this way  & that in the book, as with ALL off these books time is an issue! I also printed off a photo of Florence this is the setting for much of the book. I used a lot of  Fresco paint & stencils as well as splatter with a tooth brush. I have also created pockets for each review,  as you can see in the last photo. I can write my review and pop it in the pocket between the pages.

I would also like to include this in the challenge PPF And I hope to catch up with you all throughout the week Dxx

Playing with charcoal & faces

What better way to  play/experiment than in your journal?  So, I thought I would show you how I have been playing with faces.

I prefer the simplicity of the top one 'Candy Girl' to the intensity of the bottom two. But the background on the 2nd is just from excess inks from my stencils then gessoed over, how cool is that? Dxx

Mix it Monthly

There is a new challenge with my lovely friend Conny and it's called Mix it Monthly. She gave us two pictures to use as we saw fit. These are shown below.

She gave us beautiful examples and a vid to help out. I am not a big Picaso lover to be honest well certainly not all the cubist stuff just not for me but this was still a fun challenge I got to play with.

Conny also said she wanted to see lots of yellow. I did the whole background yellow. I started with book pages then painted it then added scrapbook paper also yellow and then as Conny did I cut up her Picasso  style painting and popped that in the back ground as well. I really like the colour pallet of Conny's work so I focused on the primary colours in that as well. I will pop a quote on the right-hand side at some point just not found what I want yet :)  Below is a close up of the lovely lady.

I hope you have time to join in Mix it Monthly all the details are over there so stop by for a look Dxx

Journal Journey's Ch20

We have had some glorious weather in May we actually had some sunny weather on a Bank Holiday in the UK and we Brits know how rare that is lol. Looks like we have some more followers (Fabulous to see you) and we have had lots of people joining in again. Hooray! We have lots to get through so lets push on to this months Challenge.

This month's challenge is....

NUMBERS

You may recall that last month I started choosing, (with random generator)  a special monthly Guest Design Team (GDT) member. It's really easy to do, just join in each month and one person randomly will be picked out to design for the next month. You can send your photos to my email add and a couple of sentences as to why you like to craft. The idea is along the way we all get a turn at being a GDT member & find out a little more about each other.

Susi Our very first GDT said "For me Art Journaling is the best way to relax, to try out new techniques and to be messy with colours, stamps and glue. I have to create to stay healthy and happy." Thank you Susi I totally agree with you. And a big thank you for being our very first GDT member.

I wish I had a button I could give out. Does anyone know how to make one? If you can and you would like to make one for us that would be super :) Just e-mail me with the details thank you.

Last months winner of GDT was Susi. And hasn't she done a fantastic job? Thank you Susi.

This months winner is..... No. 15 That's Bridgit
Please contact me via e-mail for next months Challenge details :)

Here are my pages to help inspire along with Susi's. So remember 'NUMBERS' is the theme, have fun with it this month and please pop your link to the post of your entry in the linky below. Dxx

ARC - Book Review

This months Book review I am sharing with ARC  Is; Jo Nesbo's The Redbreast. These books with Harry hole are growing on me. I read The Snowman last month and then this one (they are out of order) but I don't know if I will read them all. I like the detective, Harry Hole. In this book I can get a better idea of him from the beginning. This is a fascinating story. I love the history this book shares of the war although brutal (isn't all war) this is where we get to know about the person Harry is looking for although you don't know which one it is. There is some references to Nazis and prejudice in there, but there has to be as there was in the war years.

I liked the backwards and forwards though history. A lot of books are like this now, I have read a few and am currently reading another one like this. It seems authors like this at the moment, although some times it's confusing I feel that is more the authors fault, as others are better written and are much easier to follow through time and others just become confusing. Cloud Atlas, for example, is very confusing but the film made it all very easy because of the visual aspects and the book failed to explain these connections. But when written well like The Hundred year old man who....... I find them exciting. And this is no different, it keeps you reading along at a good pace. I enjoyed the book and the ending was okay. I have to say though I much prefer Camilla Lackberg to Jo Nesbo, is that a woman thing? I don't know. But her novels I care more about the characters as there is much more effort put into the everyday life as well as the case that the detective is involved with.

Any way if you read through this far well done, give your self a gold star lol On to the art part of  ARC.

I was really stuck art wise when I came to it, but I then got to thinking of the snow and the German uniforms and that's where I started with grey & white acrylic paint smeared all over the gessoed pages thickly with a pallet knife. There is a lot of snow and it's quite a large part of the story in the past. There are a couple of love story's going on in the book love for country, love for comrades and love for a special woman. I focused on one part of the story that is focused in the past. 

Here a solder wants to impress a woman and books a table in the best restaurant in the city. The air-raid siren goes off and people desert the restaurant to go for shelter but the couple stay and as the bombs fall so close that, the lights go out and the candles on the table are the only lighting in this huge posh restaurant. The plaster falls down, they do not move, the chandeliers begin to sing as they shake and the crystal with it. When all around them is in chaos they drink the best wine & dance together. 

Not everything in this story is black and white there are many shades of grey this is also part of this journal piece. As I read this part of the story I could totally picture the sound the crystal would make and this was so poignant. I searched German crystal chandeliers and got this picture from google printed it in black & white and cut it out and glued this to the page. I then got some ink and a pen to write some of my review  on the pages. I hope you like the explanation to this (what may look simple) piece. I am also sharing this with PPF Dxx

P.S.  I forgot to add what next months review will be; this is because I am not sure I have just finished the new book by Dan Brown Inferno But I have also started a book by Lucinda Riley The Light Behind The Window. So it will be one of these two :) Dxx

Loss!

I have been very sad since November last year. I didn't know if I should share this but I feel as I am in a safe place here I can share this with you my dear friends.  James is my grandson. Here he is:-

These photos are from Nov 2012 the last time we had him at our home.

This is my beautiful ANGEL and I can't look at his photographs with out crying! I am BEREFT 

This may sound strange because he is still ALIVE. But his mother has been with another man and had two children to him and has now moved house and never told us. We went round to pick him up as we have done for the last four years. I was there when he was born (I actually assisted). We have been an integral part of his life from his birth. It didn't work out between our son and her but still she allowed us to pick him up every fortnight. Anyway, time passes and a couple of boyfriends came and went. Then Ryan came on the scene she quickly became pregnant and then another pregnancy followed he was good with James and we had nothing to negative to say apart from he didn't want a relationship with us never spoke to us etc and we suspected that this day may come, put prayed it wouldn't. We have no legal rights we can enforce, our son can not get access as there is no legal aid now for him to claim.

So we haven't seen our beautiful boy since November 2012 the month of his birthday. I ache with longing for him. I think it's some times worse than him being dead, because he is out there somewhere and I can't do anything to find him. Then I think don't be stupid he is ALIVE and out there somewhere and that is better surely.

So here is a page for James Michael Anthony, My Grandson I love you so much be safe and god protect you my angel boy where ever you are love Grandma & Granddad your uncles Shawn & Matthew who also miss you loads and the rest of your family who miss you.

I found this poem for the loss of a child and this is how I feel:

The Cord

We are connected,
My child and I, by
An invisible cord
Not seen by the eye.

It's not like the cord
That connects us 'til birth
This cord can't been seen
By any on Earth.

This cord does it's work
Right from the start.
It binds us together
Attached to my heart.

I know that it's there
Though no one can see
The invisible cord
From my child to me.

The strength of this cord
Is hard to describe.
It can't be destroyed
It can't be denied.

It's stronger than any cord
Man could create
It withstands the test
Can hold any weight.

And though you are gone,
Though you're not here with me,
The cord is still there
But no one can see.

It pulls at my heart
I am bruised...I am sore,
But this cord is my lifeline
As never before.

I am thankful that God
Connects us this way
A mother and child
Death can't take it away!

Author Unknown

We love you James. Your Uncles love & miss you as does all our family. We pray one day we will see you again that you will remember some of the times we have spent together, that we love & wanted to see you no matter what you are told by others. I pray you will be safe and protected and that one day we will see you again God bless you my dear boy Gxx

Texture!

Just thought I would show some of the pages in my texture journal. Dxx

Only just realised this is my 102nd post went right past 100 with out realising, thanks for being with me on this journey in to ART JOURNALING and long may it continue Dxx

Beautiful Bonnets

I have been playing with stencils & paint and I had loads of fun, what is not to love about that? I used mostly new things stamps stencils etc. But I have committed to using up old things, things I thought were too precious (papers/elements) I had decided it was better to use them finally, instead of hoarding these yummy treasures. So I have used some Tim Holtz 'Grunge Board' the swirls you can see. I painted it to match the bonnet.

Some close ups. All I could think of when I started to add the images was a silly song from forever ago, called 'Tip toe through the tulips' by Tiny Tim,  made me laugh. I had to look it up on you tube and here it is hope you like the journaling as well as this barmy song.

There is still plenty of time to join in with Journal Journey's ch19 Which this month is 'BIRDS' please join in we all love to see what you have been up to Dxx

FishBall

I wanted to try something different for me, a challenge indeed to use NO stencils & NO stamps! This is for the challenge over at the wonderful Art Journal Journey.  I am glad I challenged myself to do this, I still prefer to use stamps, stencils but this was difficult but rewarding. Thank you for the challenge Susi. I will also add this to the PPF Ch.

I drew each individual fish my self and it took forever lol.  I have often watched nature programs of how animals like whales, seals & dolphins herd these fish and it fascinates me. This is the inspiration for this journal spread.  How so many fish try to become invisible. I think these fish-balls are beautiful although, inevitably, it usually has a sad ending as they all get eaten. But I guess that's nature beautiful & cruel at the same time. Thanks for looking, I hope you have time to challenge your self this month. Dxx