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

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

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

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

ARC March

There is a link in the side bar for this monthly challenge, I have been meaning to join in since Feb. when I found it but time got the better for me, I was going to put April in the title but it seems we run a month behind. Any way I usually read at least two books a month and so far I have read three this month but I am going to talk about this amazing book today 'The Vintage Teacup Club' by Vanessa Greene.

Now this is not my usual sort of book at all. But, it had some really good reviews from people, so I went for it, and I am so glad that I did. This is about three beautiful (as people) women and they meet at a car boot and all of them fall in love with a vintage tea set. They decided to share it and their relationship begins there.

The three women are called Jenny, young works in an office & soon to be married, Maggie, single has her own flower shop and Alison, who crafts from home and has a family. What is not to like about these women? They are all of differing ages & experience in life and this is where the book is so good each helps one another in the different problems that they begin to experience. They all want the teacup set for different reasons, Jenny wants them for her wedding theme, Maggie because a client want's an AIWL wedding and Alison wants to make candles out of them.

So Now you know why AIWL theme in my journal. Vanessa writes so beautifully, I could imagine everything and I love it when this happens with a book (well it always happens). Beautiful imagery came to mind and I loved being part of their world and I felt like a friend to them all by the end. This is a 10/10 book for me. I have a board on pinterest with lots of book reviews if your interested. I really enjoyed playing in my journal for this challenge, thanks Darcy it's a great idea and I hope to play again next month. Love Dawn xx

All children are wise

I have been journaling & painting loads, I love this quote. I have heard something similar about give me a child until he's seven & I''l show you the man. This is put better though I think. 'It is easier to build strong children than to repair a broken man/woman' I think of the times I was called a 'Dummy/Stupid' as a child and it still effects me even now. Hence, the little boy with the hat on (I didn't want to put a D for dummy/dunce on even now) because I truly believe all children are wise and it is for us to nurture and show them how truly wonderful they are and what they can become.

I am linking this to PPF & Art Journal Journey. Have a wonderful weekend and show any children you meet how precious they are, even if it's just a big smile you give to the kids in the shops. Love Dawn xx

Blue & Orange?

As it was Easter I went a bit mad on religious quotes so here is the last one (for the time being ;) I worked hard on the back ground, layers & layers of stencils, stamps, paints, texture paste & doodling. All good fun I loved the contrast between the blues & orange.

You can't really see the texture in these photos. But I thought that Blues & Orange really worked on this spread. I am etering this in to Paint Party Friday PPF Thank you for stopping by to see & any comments you have left Dawn xx

Journal challenge 17

February is gone YAY now it's March and the nights are getting lighter the days are longer and this is a good thing, because it means Spring and Summer will soon be here. (saying that we have had snow in March before now) Lets hope not, I have had enough with the cold.

You may have seen I kept a promise to my self to journal more (happy place) In fact I have been doing a lot more inky, painty stuff of late and it's such fun! I hope you're in the mood for this months challenge, because I thought long and hard about this..............

ANIMALS  

MINIMUM OF TWO DIFFERENT KINDS.

Whatcha think? I got five on my pages. Could even put more on as I still think I want to add to it a wee bit more. So here is my inspiration for you.

I started with sprays & stencils followed by lots of stamping and then some freebie and bought images. The bird is free from graphic fairy (in side bar) And the others I think (not sure) are from Artyfacts off esty. This is in my thankful journal which is A5 it's almost full now. What are you using as a journal? Have fun and don't forget as long as the animals are the focus of your page/pages there are no rules play to your hearts content and of course, please share your creations in the linky below. Love Dawn xx

I said I wanted to journal more so .....

Here is my new journal and this is the first page ;) I used some scrap paper & ink splashes from some post cards I'm making for the back ground and then doodled. Dawn (not me) had a challenge last Nov. I have only just found it. It was a song every day and you had to use this as your inspiration. This song is 'Take it easy - The Eagles' Now the first thing that sprang to mind was this....

So I drew a bunny admittedly not as sexy as this one but I love my colourful bunny spread.

Don't forget to pop back for the journal challenge on the 1st of every month Dawn xx

Transfers

Morning peeps ;0) I couldn't sleep tonight so I thought I would just get some journaling done and here is what I have come up with.

After I took all the photos I decided to add another transfer with hot glue on the right to fill in the space and it's the first time I have used HG and it worked so well I will be using it again!

Here is a CU of a stamped image (Archival ink) over transferred images and with paint rings on top, I think you can see that this spread is about lots of layering as well as the transfers.

I found this image in a magazine (newspaper freebie) and I just loved all the geometric shapes in it I had to spread bits of this all over to bring the spread together. All these were Gel Medium easy to do and really enjoyable rubbing all the paper off to reveal this beauty. I love how all the paint, stencils & stamping shows through underneath.

And as I write in the journaling, I don't know why or what this page conveys and sometimes I don't think we need to know, do we? I just loved getting this work down in all its glory and I really liked how it looked when it was finished. I don't think all art has to mean anything it's simply come in to being and therefor is art of my creativity just the same but with know start or end point. It just simply is. Love Dawn xx

Summer Journal Page

Colour & texture are the focus of this spread. I have used lots of colour. And I have also used stencils, stamps, paint and canvas to create texture in these pages. As well as other things to create texture ;0) I am also sharing this with a NEW challenge My Mojo Monthly (MMM) Funny we both started our new challenges on the same day ;0) Well it's not really a challenge but I am happy I found this blog and I am more than happy to share what was the mojo that inspired this page ;0)

And here are another two photos so you can get a better close up ;0) This left me feeling light and airy. I love the way art can make you feel. This is the main reason I stay away from the darker stuff. Not that it isn't fantastic art I just don't like to delve in to those dark places that we all have within us. So I keep it light and happy and positive. Love Dawn xx