Circle Journal - April

Our Circle Journal theme for April was Hans Christian Andersen tales, chosen by...me. Now, I didn't really think ahead as to what I could do so when Darcy told us the theme I realised I had no clue as to which story to go with!

After lots of procrastination I went with The Nightingale - I found a few different versions, although they are all obviously fairly similar.

And here is my page, first of all showing the mechanical Nightingale...

The page then opens out to show the caged Nightingale (this is where some of the versions differ as he isn't always caged)...

The cage then lifts up to show the free Nightingale...

Hope you like it!

Circle Journal Pages

I've realised that I'm a bit behind on sharing my circle journal pages. I'm actually behind on doing them - the drawback with not posting a journal on I suppose!

February's theme was Jayne's and she chose Beatles lyrics. My page was for Jackie. Now, I'm not a massive Beatles fan so I had to resort to good old Google to check out their lyrics. I eventually settled on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". I used some Octopode Factory images as I felt they went with the lyrics and tried to use colours that are mentioned in the song...

March's theme was chosen by Lynn (I think!) and was "Technology". My page for this month was for Lea. Now, I must admit I really struggled with this one. I originally started off thinking of doing a steampunk style page but thought that everyone else may end up doing that - or not, as it turns out! As hubby works in electronics I asked him to get me some resistors and capacitors and then trawled the web for a quote that I felt I could work with. And this is what I came up with...

I'm currently working on April's page, the theme of which was chosen by me :)

Circle Journal 2013

If you've read my blog before then you'll know that last year I took part in a circle journal with nine other ladies who have become firm friends. A few of us wanted to do another one so we started again after Christmas. The lovely Darcy - despite having not having the time to devote to a journal page each month - is keeping us organised and is giving us our theme each month. The themes were decided by us in advance and told to Darcy in secret :)

Due to a few postal scares last year we have decided not to post journals around the country so are just doing individual pages which can be handed over in person once we're at the end.

Our theme for January was "Julie Nutting Designs" - chosen by Becca, and I had to make a page for Jayne.

And here is my page...

 

As Jayne is a fan of Stampotique stamps I decided to go a bit more gothic with my lady - I think I succeeded!

I had great fun playing with the background - the strips of patterned paper is something that seems to appear quite a lot in Julie's designs and I'm really pleased with the effect so I'll definitely be trying that again.

February's theme is "Beatles Lyrics". I've chosen my song and have a fair idea of what I'm going to do :)

 

Major catch up!

Oh my poor neglected blog!

A fair bit to catch up on lol...

Firstly, the circle journal I was taking part in came to a close in July.

Here is the page I did for Tracey, whose favourite book is "The Book Thief". I haven't read it but thanks to the joys of the internet I found a quote that I thought I could work with. I wasn't sure how this page would go down as it's a bit different but I liked it!

 

And the accompanying tag.

 

And my last page (apart from the final page in my own journal) was for Catherine. Catherine loves the BFG so I had a go at some drawing...

 

And the tag...

 

So as this was the end of our journals we had decided to meet up for the final exchange of journals. We're dotted about all over the country so we met roughly in the middle in Harrogate, home of AFTH (no coincidence!). Unfortunately Tracey and Janey couldn't make it  but the remaining eight of us had a whale of a time! Lots of laughter and a class with Dyan at AFTH made for an unforgettable weekend. Most of us are starting another journal in the New Year which, after our little break, we're all looking forward to.

 

Here are a couple of cards too using images from the Octopode Factory...

 

 

I'm in the process of moving all my crafty stuff from the spare room into our bedroom (which needed decorating first) so there hasn't been a whole lot of crafting round here recently - hence my absence. Hopefully I can resume normal service soon!

Darcy's journal

So the Circle Journal this month saw me with Darcy's journal - eeek! I was a tad nervous about doing a page for Darcy but am pretty pleased with how it turned out. Her favourite film is Labyrinth and as luck would have it, Lily at The Octopode Factory has done a Jareth image! I used a couple of Labyrinth film posters as inspiration and came up with this...

We only have two months left but we're already planning on what our theme will be for the next one!

I also promised I'd show my calendar journal page for March - three months into the year before I gave up - not bad!

Now...to try and catch up a bit with the Postcard challenge...

Circle Journal Catch-up

So, I haven't shown the last couple of pages from our Circle Journal.

Here is Lynn's, once again I've gone with an Octopode image - Breakfast at Tiffany's. When asked, Lynn couldn't name just one film, book or song which were her favourite so I just chose a quote that I thought suited her.

 And the tag...

And here is Jayne's journal - her favourite book is "Where Rainbows End" by Cecelia Ahern (a fab book by the way) so the quotes I've used are from there. And yes, another Octopode image - Imelda. It took some thinking about this journal but I was really pleased with it in the end.

I now have Darcy's journal - eeek!

Circle Journal update

I've had a few days off this week and as I've had the house to myself I've been able to do a bit of crafting. I've been working on the next journal in our Circle Journal and it reminded me that I've not blogged the last few that I've done.

Here is Lea's (she's just started up her blog so go take a look here). Her favourite film is Dirty Dancing so you can see where I went!

And the tag...

And here is Janey's journal. Her favourite song is Wind Beneath My Wings as it means a lot to her.

And her tag...

I'm working on Lynn's at the moment and I'm really pleased with how it's going. I should get it finished this weekend and I'll actually be able to post it on to Catherine in time, most unlike me!

Ooops

Errr, 2 months since my last post? Hmmmm. I promise to do better! I just haven't done much crafting recently... I've stepped down from Artgal Style's CT, I was struggling to find the time to do a layout each week and, because of that, it was beginning to feel like something that had to get done each week and that's not why I started crafting.

Anyway, onwards and upwards!

I have managed to make a card recently - for one of the Circle Journal ladies, Leanne. Would you believe this was the first handmade card Leanne ever received?!!!

The image is one of the new ones from Lili of the Valley, which I managed to get at Hobbycrafts in Birmingham (surviving the scrum at the Lili of the Valley stand!). She's coloured with ProMarkers and the papers are Basic Grey.

I also have last months Circle Journal page to show - this was actually finished at the end of October, our next page isn't due until the beginning of January - we gave ourselves a month off for Christmas!

This was Jackie's journal - her favourite film is "Pretty in Pink" so I used that as my inspiration. The girl is another Octopode Factory image and the quotes are from the film and the song. My next journal is Leanne's - still thinking what to do in her journal!

Right, off to do some Christmas cards and finish my Secret Santa present for one of the Circle Journal ladies!

Circle Journal - Becca's Journal

So, Becca's journal arrived at the beginning of September. I was extremely nervous about doing my pages - what if I totally cocked it up? After all, this is someone else's artwork I'm potentially ruining! My fears came slightly true when I got some spots of bright pink paint on the following page - eeek! I was quickly reassured by the other ladies that I wouldn't be the last person this happened to...they were right, Janey followed soon after ;)

Here are my pages and tag...

When asked - Becca said her favourite song is "These Dreams" by Heart. I picked a couple of lines from the song that I liked and that I thought I could use in the journal. The angel image is from The Octopode Factory - I liked the idea of her being a fallen angel so made her halo look a bit rusty and lay it down next to her. The moon is from Tiddly Inks and I drew the stars to match.

The tag also has a line from the same song - I cut the bird out from book print, sprayed it and doodled on it to match the moon and stars from the page.

The back of the tag with a little message to Becca.

Exciting yet a little bit scary...

I thought I'd already blogged these, but whoops, no I haven't!

Remember my MIMM book? Well, a few of us (10 to be precise) who took the class have got together and decided to do a circle journal. We each bought a Moleskine book, OK, more than one - shhhhh, and decorated the cover, first page and a tag. Each journal got posted on to the next person for them to decorate the next two pages and a tag. It then gets posted on again and, well, you get the drift. Eventually our journals make their way back to their owner, filled full of unique artwork to treasure. It's a lovely thing to be part of, though slightly terrifying working in someone elses journal. A couple of us (me included) have already panicked by getting a bit of paint on other pages!

I've asked the girls to give me their favourite song, book and film - the intention being that I use a quote from one of these for their pages, making them a bit more personal.

So, without further ado...

My cover

My first page using a line from my favourite song "Enter Sandman"

Tag - side 1 using a quote from Harry Potter

Tag - side 2 - a little bit about me

I currently have Becca's journal, it's due to be posted next week so I can show some pics once it's been received by Catherine!

On a separate note - Little Musings have some new images coming out for Christmas - you can check them out by clicking on the button on the right ------>