My Final CJ Entry

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The Penultimate CJ Entry

So close now, this is the second-to-last entry in the UKStampers CJ. I am currently working on the final entry, and I feel like it needs to be the best of the lot (no pressure!!!) as I have met Tasha, and have spent the last nine months sending things to her.
It has definitely got much harder to do something original. The stamp for this journal is the face, and I kept having ideas, only to look at the (gorgeous) previous entries and find that my idea had already been realised. In the end, I took my inspiration from Cherry Pie, where I am a member of the Yahoo group. Last year, the group did an art doll swap, and the result of that swap was a plate of stamps which had the body and accessories for an ATC-sized art doll. This entry turned into a real technique-fest for me, as I used all of my newer craft products, and had lots of fun creating the individual elements.

Colour: alcohol inks, vivid inkpads, glimmer mist, paint dabbers, versafine, Brilliance
Stamps: face (unknown), Cherry Pie, Studio g (alphabet)
Other: Papermania jewel brads, acetate, silver detail embossing powder, printable magnet paper (used for doll and accessories), heavyweight watercolour paper, vellum, fibres and bead, all from my stash.

Latest CJ Entry

Here we are again, with this month's CJ entry for my UK Stampers 'just one stamp' project. We are so close to finishing now, only two journals to go, then our own finally come home! It's very inspiring to see each journal as it arrives, especially now they are so full of gorgeous artwork. There are some very talented stampers involved with this, and I feel lucky to be involved.

Anyway all waffle aside, this is my take on the little flourish stamp which arrived with this journal. I was inspired with the idea of recreating this piece of art "The Great Wave Off Kanagawa" by 18th Century Japanese artist Hokusai, although I will 'fess up now and say that a previous entry to mine also was inspired by waves. The two pieces are totally different, though, so I hope the journal's owner doesn't mind.

I started off with an origami paper design which I printed onto some Japanese paper. ( The site I got it from has got some amazing free papers and projects to download). The waves were stamped and embossed onto the same Japanese paper, sponged with ink, then ironed to remove the embossing. Interestingly, the paper became transparent when embossed, and now looks like vellum. The background was embossed with the dots and sponged with Distress Inks. Mount Fuji was taken from the original print. Everything was cut and assembled (there was a lot of cutting!) then I added a copy of the original to piece of Stampbord.

Stamps: Flourish (unknown) Field of Sky (A Stamp in the Hand)
Colour: Distress Inks
Other: Japanese paper (Hobbycraft), white and clear embossing powder, Stampbord, Cut'n'dry foam

Next CJ Entry

This is the next entry in the 'Just One Stamp' circle journal. We are not far from finishing now; we have three more to do until our own journals wing their way home, full of gorgeous artwork. And the really great thing about this group is that our organiser, Gail, has kept us all on track, so we have no missing journals to worry about, which seems to be a common problem in these kind of groups. Just to recap, here is the link to all of the previous entries.
The stamp which came with this journal is a feather. I don't know who it is by, but it is a beautifully detailed stamp. The previous entries were all so good, and I wanted to do something different, so I decided to turn the feather into a peacock's tail. White peacocks are thought to be incredibly lucky, and I know the journal's owner, Alison, is very ill in hospital and could do with some luck, so I had to make my peacock white. I also really wanted to use the turquoise, as for some reason it is my favourite colour at the moment and I keep using it on everything I do (even my new clock is that colour, and I hope to do a new header soon, too).

Stamps: Unknown (feather), Tanda (Peacock and Peacock feather)
Colour: Alcohol inks, Moonshadow mist, Sakura glaze pen, White embossing powder, Nick Bantock Inks
Other: Words printed on Conqueror Silica blue paper, ribbon from my stash, Self-adhesive metal tape from DIY store, Cuttlebug embossing folder

The background is alcohol inks on glossy card which I then sprayed with the Moonshadow mist. Because of the glossy coating, it beads up when sprayed, and when dried with a heat-gun, you get a gorgeous effect, with tiny dots of the turquoise mica powder (sorry, it doesn't really show up on the photograph). The patterned section is the metal tape, which I ran through the Cuttlebug then coloured with alcohol inks. I can see myself trying that again, and maybe using some glaze pens too- it could look great!

Back at last! Latest CJ entry, too.

It's been a little while since I wrote that I was about to hand in my last assignment. I went to college, confident with the knowledge that I completed all of the hard work, only to be given three, yes THREE more pieces of work to do. I was so surprised, and I actually ended up late with the CJ I am a part of. I *hate* being late. Luckily, Tasha, who is the next on the send-to list, was fine about it, so I did the college work then got on and did what I think is a good job of the CJ entry.
This is Flo's CJ, and the theme is 'Take Flight'. The accompanying stamp is a pair of tiny wings. I was really looking forward to seeing this one, as it looked so gorgeous when I first saw it on her blog. What surprised me (pleasantly) is how little the book is. It is a collection of tags, about the size of luggage tags, but in different shapes. As you would expect, all of the previous entries are fab, so I wanted to do something different and dramatic. I hope you like it, Sarah!

Stamps: Wings (unknown), Cherry Pie face stamp
Inks: Brilliance Rocket Red, Distress Inks (also used to colour face)
Embellishments: Prima flowers (coloured with the Brilliance to match), gems and feathers from my stash
Other: Cuttlebug embossing folder, Bind-it-all

PS You can barely see the background paper I made, but I was really pleased with it, and will do a tutorial since I think everyone should know how to do it!
PPS As far as I know, I passed my course, but I won't be absolutely sure until the moderaters come and look at our work in two weeks time. I'm looking for a job, though, so lets assume it's OK!

Two Months' Worth of CJs in One Post!

As usual, I have been doing and photographing, but not blogging. Life is busy, blah, blah, blah, I'm sure you've heard it all before. So I thought I would show two months' worth of CJs together, as a sort of catch-up.
The stamp for the first journal was the clock stamp. Now, the clock paper I have used for the background is one of the first scrapbooking papers I ever bought. It's K and Co, from one of their 6" x 6" books. I have stopped buying paper's en masses, as I have loads left, but for once I knew this one was the one to go with the stamp. The quote is by Virgil, and means "but it flees, irreplaceable time flees", otherwise known as "Tempus fugit". Very appropriate for many of us! The dragonfly is Non Sequitur, painted with H20s and with glossy accents over the body, and the wings are Fantasy film. The clock face is covered in crackle accents, but it doesn't show up in the photo. I had the idea that the dragonfly was flying off, holding the clock.
The second journal came with the legs. Everyone before me was inspired in a humourous way, so I had to do my bit. Anyone that doesn't get it, look at 'bingo' on Wikipedia, particularly English bingo calling. Well, I thought it was funny!
I have a couple of cards which I will try to blog later, both Magnolia, and one made in a class which I took on Friday with Isabelle Norris. I have to go and do the housework now, real life isn't always fun... ;-)

Just one stamp CJ- Love.

Well, I've finally done it and changed my editing software, and I'm so glad I did. I was using Paint Shop Pro 8, which I've had for a while, and loved to use as it was really instinctive for me. Sadly, when I switched to Windows Vista, PSP8 suddenly didn't want to play, and became a torment to use instead of a pleasure. So I looked up loads of reviews, and decided to give Photoshop a try. Adobe offer a free 30 day trial, so I downloaded it. A few days of figuring it all out, and here we are! Now I've had a play, and figured out how to do all of the things I could do before, and I love it! My next thing is to try some digital scrapbooking, but don't expect to see the results any time soon, as I am really busy as always, and don't have time to play.
Anyway, here is another CJ entry for the UK Stampers journal I'm in. I really enjoyed this one, as I got all inspired by one of my favourite movies! This is Pat's journal, and her theme is 'love'. Her stamp is the heart stamp (from Clever cuts), and in the introductory page she wrote that she liked interactive elements, and wanted the colours to be red and pink. I was hit by the quote from 'Moulin Rouge', which you can see in the third photo, and thought immediately of the beginning of the movie, where the red curtain opens to reveal the Paris landscape.
The curtain was a free download from a website about toy theatres, stamped with Paperartsy and Zettiology stamps to create the gold braid effect. The wrought iron and Tour Eiffel stamps are Paperartsy, the stars are Field of Sky (again!) and the moon is an image from the 1902 movie 'Le Voyage Dans la Lune'. The heart stamp was stamped and embossed twice on acetate, then glittered on the reverse, and the words printed on the computer. The curtain has a card track to make it pull up and down fairly straight. I hope Pat likes it! Thanks for the inspiration.

PS The glue on the red heart isn't dry in the photos, but it was dry when I sent it, honest!

Petra's CJ.

This is my first ever entry in someone else's journal! If you recall, I am in a circle journal with 9 other people from UK Stampers, and the idea is that we send a journal around with an unmounted stamp, and everyone does an entry with that stamp. Well, this is Petra's journal, and she has chosen a journal made of envelopes and tags. Each player decorates an envelope, then uses Petra's stamp on the tag. Petra's stamp is a sort of hippy-chick from Time to Stamp, quite a challenging one really! First of all, it made me think of 'Hair', then I started to think about 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' by the Beatles. Hence the colours etc! (Check out the 3rd photo for the lyrics if you need an explanation).
The envelope is covered in paper made using the usual water/craft mat/Distress Ink technique. The diamond stamps are by Limited Edition, and the swirl stamp is from Paperartsy. The 'tangerine tree' is done using stamps from Aud Design, and the 'cellophane flowers' are also Aud Design. They are yellow and green, coloured with alcohol inks, but didn't photograph well.
The tag inside was inspired by those star charts, which show the night sky as a join-the-dots picture to explain the constellations. After sponging on some distress inks, I used Field of Sky to stamp on my stars in silver, then used Petra's stamp with Versamark and clear holographic embossing powder. As you can see from the photo, when you tilt the tag the image of the woman becomes clear, tilt it back and she's invisible!
I'm up to my eyeballs in birthday cards again, I have three to do this week. Then I have a flurry in January, and that's it for a while! I think that in February I need to sit down and make a few, so I'm not always playing catch-up. But I did take the time to make some arty ATCs for UK Stampers. I got really inky and pricked my fingertips (I used hand-sewing on them!), but afterwards I felt really good. Sometimes you just need to go where your muse takes you, it's really therapeutic. I forgot to take photos, though, sorry!

Circle Journal at UK Stampers.

This is hello and goodbye to my first circle journal. For those who don't have a clue what I'm talking about, the idea is that you work with a group of people who each creates a journal and then it gets sent from person to person until it eventually comes home, full of other people's artwork. This one has the clever idea of sending an unmounted stamp around with the book, for people to use as a starting point. My stamp is from Non-Sequitur, and I chose it because it's an interesting image for people to play with, but I won't struggle without it for ten months!
The journal itself is handmade. I made the cover using traditional book-binding methods, then used my Bind-it-all to hold the inside pages together. The cover paper was made using the craft mat/water/Distress Ink technique (using Vintage Photo and Aged Mahogany) then stamped with a Judikins cube. I added pockets to the cover and first page, one for the 'rules' (and contact info), and the other for some tags. I love tags and have chosen to ask participants to make one as a sign-in. I can't wait to see all of the fibres etc at the top when it's complete, it'll be so textural.
I did the first page before sending the journal off and I thought I'd get the Oriental thing out of the way by doing it myself (the stamp is from an oriental plate). The red is painted with Hot Cinnamon H2O, and the text stamp is Judikins.
So far, one other person has completed their page in my book, and I love it! I was trying not to peek, but I knew it was on Photobucket so I couldn't resist. It's completely different to mine, and has a clever quote too. I have the next person's journal, and will be completing my entry soon. It has tags and envelopes to decorate, so it should be fun!