Author Archives: ajsartjournal

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About ajsartjournal

This blog is to share my adventures in art journaling. It's a journey of discovery and you are more than welcome to join me. A little bit about me … I’m English and live on the Isle of Wight which is off the south coast of England. I am retired and I’m married to the love of my life. We have been together as a couple since 1970 but only got married in 2007. before that we were just getting to know each other 🙂 We have had an amazing life together, travelled to distant parts of the world and lived life to the full. Sometimes when we look back at our life together we say “Wow! did we really do all that stuff?!” My husband has been very unwell for the past 10 years and I am his full time unpaid carer now. When he was younger he worked as an advocate supporting people who were detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act. He was also a musician and DJ. He is still interested in music and on good days our house is still filled with music. Me, I’m much more of a visual person, I love photography and images and now, of course, I love art journalling and being creative. We never had children, but we are now the proud parents to two beautiful cats called Bill & Jack (after Bill Burroughs and Jack Kerouac). They are getting old now and need more care and attention. Want to know anything else? Just ask 🙂 Big love AJ

Take a Breather

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Hello friends!

This spread turned out really grungy and not very pretty so I collaged some botanical illustrations I found on the internet on the top.  I like stamps with text on so I bought this one, with names of flowers, at a local craft store.  I also bought a set of tiny stamps of garden creatures and if you look carefully you will find a snail, dragonfly and bee in this spread.

The message is a reminder to me, and all you busy, busy people out there, that sometimes it’s OK to just stop, relax and smell the flowers, appreciate the view or just enjoy the moment.  We don’t have to be ‘doing’ all the time.  I added a white area for some journaling but I still don’t feel comfortable expressing myself in words on the page.  It’s OK on the internet, but for some reason the page is totally different.  It might be because I don’t like my handwriting or it could be just lack of confidence – I’m working on that one – so for the time being the journaling area remains blank.

Hope everything is good for everyone

Big love

AJ

Live the Life…

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Hello friends I hope everyone is fine 🙂

Here is another spread from my first journal.  What I really like about this spread is the way the letters, and the bird in particular, seem to lift off the page, all done with just a bit of shadowing and highlighting.

The theme follows on from my previous post and is about me changing and attracting into my life good things.  I truly feel things are slowly but surely changing for the better.

The spread has the usual textured gesso ground with lots of layers of acrylic paint, stamping and paper.  I used some scans of old newspapers my history group had used for research, printed them out on matt photo paper and then aged it with tea and distress inks,  I then tore pieces of the print to add to the page.  The ephemera is from a packet of goodies I bought at Hobbycraft in the UK and is made by K & Co.

I have a new love in my life at the moment and it’s ‘ModPodge’.  I’ve been using it to cover some plain boxes with collage.  The boxes will contain some small some gifts I am making for some friends for Christmas.  I LOVE the ModPodge, even if it does smell a bit strange, the finish is soooo smooth and lovely.  I bought it when I was in America. It is available in some shops local to where I live but I’ve never bought any before because it always seemed far too expensive.  Then when I was in LA I asked my friend to take me to ‘Once Upon a Page’ in Burbank, it’s the nearest craft shop to where she lives in the Hollywood Hills.  It’s mainly a scrapbooking store and was a treasure-trove of goodies for me.  There were loads and loads of lovely papers so many it was hard to make a choice but eventually I managed.  I also bought some distress inks, chipboard pieces, some fauxphemera, a few stamps, the lovely ModPodge and a few more bits and pieces.  I probably went a bit over the top but I was on holiday and I had very little opportunity to spend any money during my visit so I thought it was OK to splash out on supplies. Besides I’m an addict and I just can’t stop myself.

That’s all for now folks

See you soon

Big love

AJ

Beautiful Dreamer

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Hello friends!

Oh my I’m getting behind with so much stuff as I am trying to do too much.  I have loads of outstanding actions for my history group, so many it’s almost overwhelming me, and I want to get as much as I can out of 21 Secrets before it closes at the end of the year.  I am really enjoying the workshops on offer there, some of them are taking me out of my ‘comfort zone’ and that can only be good.  As well as that I have several other projects on the go which will be Christmas presents for a few of my friends.  If only I didn’t have to spend so much time at work!  But that’s what pays the mortgage and bills (and for craft supplies) so it’s necessary at the moment.

I am really pleased with this spread Beautiful Dreamer,  It has lots of layers – acrylic paint, Inktense, scrapbook paper and that lovely handmade paper I am so fond of using, bird and birdcage stamps, a stencilled flower and the pink dots are from some strange, cheap little pens I bought called Pretty Color.  I don’t know what the colour (English spelling) is made from but even after a day it was still wet on the page.  In the end I used some clear sparkly embossing powder on the top which seemed to work.  You can’t really see it on the image but the pink dots are now very shiney (and thankfully dry to the touch) 🙂

I have decided that I need to dream and day-dream much more and about the good things I want in my life.  I want to imagine wonderful things that could and might happen.  Only good can come of this, so Beautiful Dreamer is an appropriate title for today’s spread.   I hope you like it.

This month is Art Every Day Month, but to be honest with you I do that anyway and I don’t need a special month to motivate me to make art, what I need is more time, possibly a bit more money for more supplies might help too 😉   Art is pretty much the first thing I do when I get up in the morning and last thing I do before going to bed at night.  As I said before I make art in my pyjamas.   Since I started art journaling and getting into the creative flow I just can’t stop myself.   When I am at work, if I am on the phone or attending boring business meetings (I don’t think I have ever attended a meeting that that kept my attention engaged for the whole of the time), I am usually doodling (I don’t think my boss is very impressed, but hey, I do my job OK so he can’t complain).

Hope all is well with you and you are all creating wonderful things, I check a lot of your blogs so I know you are.

Big love

AJ

Mother and Daughter

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Hello Friends

This spread came out a bit grungy looking but I really like it.  I textured the gesso, by sticking the wet pages together and then opening them while the gesso was still wet (a top tip from Journal Artista).  Then I layered over several different colours of acrylic.  The images on the first page are of my maternal grandmother and my Mum as young girls and the image on the second page is me at 6 months old.   I stamped small flowers and stuck die cut paper flowers from K & Co over the top.  I found the Graycie Herman quote and I loved it.   My Mum (and my Dad) have been loving and supportive to me and my brothers all our lives and I realise I am not always as grateful as I should be.

I know that many people (my husband for one) had a difficult and traumatic childhood, but for me, I honestly only have happy memories.  My parents didn’t have much money, my dad was a low wage earner and my mum had to stay home and look after three small children, but they both spent lots of time with us.  Although we didn’t have lots of things, or holidays, or gadgets, we did have lots of country walks, days at the seaside, picnics, encouragement to use our imaginations and follow our dreams and lots and lots of fun.

Now my parents are old it’s time for me to look out for them.

Hope everyone is good

Big Love

AJ

Back from my trip

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Hello friends!

I am back from my trip to LA and trying to re-adjust my internal clock.  The trip from door to door takes over 20 hours – taxi from home to pier, ferry to Portsmouth, taxi to Heathrow (hanging about at the airport), direct flight to LA, taxi from LAX to my friend’s house in Hollywood).  There is an 8 hour difference and it took me a couple of days to get used to being on the other side of the world.  The weather was fantastic but best of all was seeing my friend G to celebrate her 85th birthday.  We have been pen friends for over 30 years and have met several times both in the UK and US.  G used to travel a lot but now it’s all too exhausting for her so she’s settling down to being a ‘home girl’ from now on.  I was there 10 years ago for her 75th birthday and again four years ago.

G organised a gathering of friends and family for a lunch on her birthday and 60 people came from all over the states to be with her that day.  She is an amazing woman who has inspired me for most of my adult life.  She is funny, feisty, brusk, chatty, interested, opinionated, loving, caring, generous, inclusive, open, sometimes (quite often actually) foul-mouthed, smart – the truth is, she is a ‘diamond’ in my life and I love her.  You can see the gift I made for her on my Other projects page.

Having just got used to LA time it was time to come home and now I’m struggling again.  Today my husband woke me up today to ask if I was OK.  I thought it was a strange question, but he explained that it was well past mid-day!  I had no idea, I thought it was about 7am.  I usually get up at 6am and today I remember getting up around that time to let the cats out and thinking I would go back and get another hour’s sleep.  Well more than 6 extra hours as it turned out!  Still I haven’t got to go back to work for a couple of days yet, so I should be back to normal by then.

The image is another spread from my first art journal.  I like the colours and I had fun doing it, but the process was definitely more important than the end result…   When I was scanning the page I realised that I had used the image of the lady from the cigar box on a previous page and in almost exactly the same position.  How strange.

Hope everyone’s good

Big love

AJ

Be the Star that You Are!

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Hello friends!

This is about self-confidence, something I’ve struggled with for a lot of my life.  I have to say it has got easier as I’ve got older and this is a reminder to myself, that actually, I am OK, some of the things I do are pretty good and have value.  I need to stop listening to the negative voices and start paying attention to the positive ones.

The base for this spread is gesso which I textured and made waves in, with the wrong end of a paintbrush, then there are layers of acrylic paint and scrapbook paper, gesso’d and painted over again.   The star and letter stamps were cheap foam stamps, I wanted the lettering to look big and bold, but it was far too black after I had done it so I cut out some more scrapbook paper to accent and tone down the letters, then I tore some handmade (not by me) transculent paper and stuck over the top of parts of the spread.  I coloured in some of the areas with Inktense water colour to just give some highlights too.

Right now I am really busy, my history group has it’s AGM this coming Saturday and I have to give the annual report on the many activities and successes we have had in the past year, so there’s a bit of preparation to do for that.  Also I am going to visit a friend in LA in a week’s time, and I have to get packed and ready for that trip too.  I have prepared a little travel journal to take with me so hopefully when I get back I will have filled it with doodles, journaling and interesting stuff I’ve collected on the way.

I hope you are all doing fine and shining like the stars you are too.

Big love

AJ 🙂

Tangled up in Blue

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Tangled UpIn Blue

Hello friends!

I really like this spread, I love the colours.  The gesso base was very textured and it has loads of layers of acrylic paint on it, I think it changed colour about three or four times!  I found some great scrap book paper in purple with vintage hand writing on it and also a scrap of paper that came with some ephemera from K & Co.  I think there is some Adirondak Colorwash spray where I put a wet stencil in the journal and I also stenciled (through my paper cut stencil) with some gesso to lighten the page,  I used a flower stamp and blue ink to stamp over the top and then I drew swirls in dark blue Inktense pencil.  I am really pleased with the result.

I think I have said before that I am much more a visual person than an auditory one, but my husband is the other way around, and all through our time together (over 40 years!!!) I have heard lots of great music.  Tangled Up in Blue is a song by Bob Dylan from the album Blood on the Tracks released in 1975, it was/is a great album and I was 20 years old when I first heard it.  It still sounds good today.

I am having a great time over at 21 Secrets, I am doing two workshops at the moment: one is Gretchen Miller’s Ready for Revo-ution which is about creating a book/journal about the changes you want to make or about the things you want to attract into your life.  Gretchen very kindly posted my second page, about Living Life Fearlessly, on her blog Creativity in Motion.

I am also doing Jane Davenport’s Draw Happy workshop.  I am pretty useless at drawing, but this workshop is at least encouraging me to have a go, and I’m sure the more I practice the easier it will become.

I hope I have time to do a few more workshops before 21 Secrets closes at the end of the year.  I just can’t tell you how inspiring and what fun it all is.

OK now I have a question, does anyone know how to add a badge to the side bar of a wordpress page?  I’m so dense I just can’t figure it out!  I’d really like to put the 21 Secret’s badge on my sidebar (and a few others too).  If anyone could give me a clue, I’d be ever so grateful.

Big love

AJ

Remember the name of the place

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Hello friends

I’ve been so busy lately and apologise for not responding to comments, I’ll rectify that soon I hope, I’ve just been soooooo busy.  You know going to work is such a huge inconvenience in my life, but it pays the mortgage so I shouldn’t really complain.

I am getting immersed in 21 Secrets and it’s fabulous – I feel like a kid in a sweet shop, there’s so much to choose from – it’s awesome 🙂  As soon as I can figure out how to put the badge on my blog I will do so, but for the time being it has me baffled.  I’m such a dunce sometimes.

Anyway this spread is a bit weird, visually I don’t really like it, it didn’t come out as I wanted, but nevertheless it has a deep personal significance to me.  The phrase is from a song by Yello.  The reason it is so important to me is that my husband has bipolar disorder (also known as manic depression) and there have been times when he has been very, very unwell.  Fortunately for the past few years, thanks to finally finding the right medication, things have been under control, he is not cured but things are so much better now.  When he was very ill there were times when I felt I was losing him but if I asked him that question it was kind of grounding for both of us.   The answer to the question is always ‘The Three Roses’.  I’ve no idea what it means in terms of the song, and we have never been to a place called The Three Roses.  Saying it can’t fix anything, but it’s a connection we can make through the mire of depression or craziness, or whatever.   Next to saying ‘I love you’ it’s probably the most important thing we can say to eachother.

Hope all is good in your world

Big love

AJ

Happy Day!

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Hello friends

Oh my gosh, I am so happy that I will be taking part on the 21 Secrets online workshops.  I think I’m going to learn such a lot from all those great teachers.

Thank you Carolyn of A Colorful Journey for giving me this wonderful opportunity, I can’t wait to get started.

In honour of this day I took down the Cheshire Cat, that lives on top of my wardrobe, to share with you.  I made him out of papier mache a long time ago and we are both grinning from ear to ear.

Big love

AJ

Searching

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Hello friends!

I really like this spread, I used masking tape on the pages, painted over the whole page with acrylics and gesso then removed the tape and added more in different places then painted over again with paint and gesso and kept on repeating.   There was also a lot of wiping back with baby wipes and I love the overall effect.  Most of the images are from the wonderful Graphics Fairy blog, so thank you Karen – you are very generous, inspiring and have so many fantastic images.  As soon as I saw the image of the beehive and the lady with the binoculars I knew I had to use them in a piece of art.  It seems to me the lady is searching for something so I found an appropriate quote (based on a quote by Joan Baez).

I try to live my life by searching always for ways to be better but also for being more content with who I am, if that makes sense.  Being creative certainly helps.

I found a sweet set of rubber stamps and I love the little shells.

Anyway I’ve had a very odd week, felt totally shattered after the successful Heritage Event.  I had to go back to work on Monday and it took the small team two days (and me two evenings) to get all the bunting down, the displays packed away and everything tidy again in the Heritage Centre.  Then having got all the boxes and stuff back to our various homes we all had to store it away.  One day we will, hopefully, have somewhere permanent to keep our growing archive of research, artefacts and display materails, but for the time being it all takes up room in several houses.  The more we get the heavier it is to keep moving about, and none of us are as young or as fit as we’d like to be!

Back at work we received the results of an employee opinion survey carried out some time ago by an external company.  The results showed that the vast majority of staff don’t feel valued by the company.  This seems to have come as a great surprise to our directors and senior management but was exactly what we all thought.  Fortunately the top bods have decided to try and improve things for us and I volunteered to sit on one of the focus groups to discuss how to go about this.  Most of my colleagues are very sceptical that there will be any improvements, but I figure we have nothing to lose by being involved and trying.  Also I am hoping it will give me a bit more visibility and confidence.

I really need to build my confidence at work.  I always thought I was capable of more than I was given credit for, but this week I made two very stupid mistakes – one was a miscalculation which gave the wrong results in a report and the other was a duplication of an order (although that one wasn’t entirely my fault).  It seriously made me wonder if I’m losing brain capacity and I’m not as sharp as I like to think I am, I actually got quite upset and emotional about it.

Then I came home and did some art and that made me feel much better and determined to keep on searching and improving.

Hope all is good with all of you.

Big love

AJ