Just out of Interest....

Has anyone done anything with theirs yet, ie made in to a book or album or display? Would love to see the finished articles.

I intend to do it but am still waiting for a page or two.......

Page for Yvonne

Here is my last page - I finished it even though I haven't yet seen Yvonne's own first page. Details are on my blog.
I hope you like it Yvonne.

Astrid's page for Wendy

Here is my page for Wendy, the very last one.

I have now also received all of my pages and will start to put my book together. Hope others will soon too.

Femmy's page for Astrid

Here is Femmy's page for Astrid

Finished at last!! - Wendy's page

This is Wendy's page, and the final one for the round robin. It has been fun. And thanks Wendy for sorting me out a photo!!

Update

I still have Heidi's and Cindy's pages. Will do them both asap

The last three pages.. so now i am all finished

Ok so this is for Wendy - she wanted a piccy of us as a child, so heres me as the perfect model!! pupil, bit of bling added with the metal, i love the background paper - i got them from LB Crafts

Heres Astrids, again some great papers from LB Crafts, the top right hand image is onto acetate and looks much better in real life well i think so.

and lastly its Femmys page, who wanted the great outdoors, so have stamped a tree onto wood which is ironic i think, what you can't see is the background which is crackled glazed

hope you all like them. Thanks for organising this swap Astrid - i am sure i will get my pages back at some stage during 09!! ;0)

Another straggler Pages for Sherry and Yvonne

These are my pages for Sherry and Yvonne
The top one is Sherry's Vintage sewing. Background paper with a tissue pattern piece in one corner. I then added various sewing bits, with a bit of stamping
The bottom one is Yvonnes memories. I used a photograph of us at the seaside in Lincolnshire where we went every year, and met up with our friends, and the tag is little young me. Oh that sounds Chinese. I inked the background, and then stamped various words, swirls, and ephemera.

Another Straggler - this time for Nicks..

Well here it is at last. Seems to have been a long time getting to this point and in the end it was all a bit of an accident as I was playing around with paper and embossing powder etc and had this large piece left from the resulting mess which I thought Nicks might like. It fitted the page so was obviously meant.

Oh dear that doesn't sound very good. Perhaps I should have said I was thinking about it for weeks (months) before I came up with just the right idea and then had to learn exciting new techniques to get the effect I wanted..... yeah right.

Hope you like it Nicks.

Finally finished Astrids page...

wanted to do something a bit different for Astrid's Page as 'vintage' isn't my usual style (please note Wendy... no brown!!).And fabric?? Nicks hyperventilates at the thought of sewing, but decided to get out of my box! (my poor mother who was highly skilled with a needle is probably turning in her grave, poor woman) I have put this on my blog so full details are there, but it's a bit of batik, printing, sewing, beading...


Thanks Astrid for being patient with me........ Now, apart from Heidi, do I owe anybody else a page?? Haven't had any for ages so I think i am up to date, but let me know (i have a memory akin to a sieve)


Nicks xx

Sherry's page for Nicks

Hope you like it Nicks, details are on my blog.

Love of Her Life

Page for Cindy called Love of Her Life

Sian's Page for Susan

This is my page for Susan. I will post full details of how I made it on my blog at the weekend.

Sian's Page for Nicks

This is my page for Nicks on the theme "Instructions for Life". I found this one quite difficult as I had to have a good think about what I was going to say! (I'll put full details on my blog).

Wendy's page for Nicks

This is my page for Nicks, who choose lessons for life as her subject. Again this is very textured, and I can't believe I did it in one of Nicks favourite colours. This has a mixture of mesh, tissue, grunge board, metal, stamping, and shrink plastic. Not a peeloff in sight. The back also has other words and phrases on.

Wendy's page for Sian

Sian's subject is "What colour are you" As I find myself drawn to Turquoise, I have chosen that as my colour. I have made it quite textured, as I know Sian likes texture. It is a mixture of tissue paper, grunge board, metal, friendly plastic, mesh, and air dry clay.

Wendy's page for Susan

This is my page for Susan, whose subject is Women. I inked and stamped the page and then applied the images. The back is the other have of the paper I used for Astrids, the one I cleaned my encaustic iron on. It makes a lovely waxy background. I hope Susan likes it. She should have received it by now.

A page for Paula - Imagine

Here is my page for Paula, for more details see my blog. Cindy x

Paula's page by Femmy

Femmy's page by Nicks

Well here is my page for Femmy and her theme of Outside. I just love being outside at night when the moon is full and the sky is clear and the stars are bright.

Page for Paula

Here is my page for Paula.

I know that she likes a lot of texture so that was my starting point. I then coloured with a mixture of acrylic paint, distress ink and glimmer mist. As her theme is imagination I found this quote by Einstein. I actually have a stamp with it, but it is rather a small stamp, so I computer generated the text in stead. I hope that Paula still wants to be part of the Round Robin and likes this page...

Astrid page by Wendy

This my front page for Astrid. I inked and put gesso on the background, then stamped the trees and birds. I then embossed the front with white enbossing powder, which I dragged my finger across to roughen it and make it look more like snow. It's the type that puffs up a bit when heated. I then added the images. The back is a backing paper I made myself ( Yes I know that's obvious) and then stamped and added the image and words. I hope Astrid likes it.

Page for Nicks

Here are the two sides of my page for Nicks.

Seeing it was for Nicks it had to have: texture, Utee and grungeboard, as she is a Tim Holtz fan. Now I just hope she likes it....

A page for Astrid

'Home Entertainment' - those were the days eh? For Astrid by Cindy

Page for Femmy

A gardening scene for Femmy's 'outside'theme.

A Page for Femmy

I called this page Holiday, I'm sure we all love to see children playing on the beach and I thought it fitted Femmy's outdoor theme.

A page for Heidi

I'm a bit out of order but I seem to be doing five at once and this the first one that is finished. Heidi didn't give us any instructions though whether that was wise or not we'll have to wait and see. I hope she likes it, it is the kind of thing that I would keep for myself (from which deduce I would be quite happy to have it back!!)

page for Nicks

this is my page for Nicks.

Page for Cindy

I've jumped the gun a bit and made a journal page for Cindy before actually seeing her own page for real.

I've kept the page simple - it just has a picture of a pretty woman on it which is actually an altered magazine image (Bernie Berlin style). She is embellished with a paper flower in her hair and a real chain and locket around her neck. The background and woman's hair is painted with acrylic paints. The music score is an extract from the musical 'My Fair Lady' and I have decorated the back of the page with further extracts of music score from the musical too.

Although the page is quite simple, I am really pleased with how it's turned out and thought that it may not have fit in with Cindy's brief so that I'd have to keep it for myself! However, Cindy has seen it on my blog and it seems it is acceptable - lol!! So Cindy - it's on it's way to you now.

Wendy's page by Nicks

No comments please about the chubby cheeks still being present on the adult Nicks!

I have put full details on my blog if you are interested! But basically I was trying for Wendy's sake to stay away from brown... she seems to think I use it alot, don't know where she gets that idea LOL!

The pictures are the only remaining ones of me as a baby and were taken on my baptism. obviously after the ceremony cos I was stuffing a chocolate egg down my throat! (well it was Easter Sunday!)

Now got Femmy's and Astrids to do and then wait for the next lot to arrive!

Sian's Page for Wendy

This is my page for Wendy. Wendy asked that everyone used a picture of themselves as a child on their page. I struggled with this one, firstly because I didn't have any photos myself that I could use and secondly because I don't have my scanner permanently attached to my computer due to lack of space. Anyway, I finally managed to borrow some photos from my parents. I chose this one because it was better quality than most of them, being a wedding photo. I found that unfortunatey most of the old photos were quite faded and didn't scan too well (probably because my scanner is getting old). The photo is of me as a bridesmaid, aged four. I'll put a full explanation of how I made it and a bit of background on my own blog so as not to waffle too much here.

Page for Susan

Here is Susan's page. As both Susan and Cindy have the same theme, i wanted to do something very different this time.

The background is faux leather created with a mixture of first dye inks, covered with PVA and tissue, more ink and another layer of PVA. After that I took the shine away a bit with some acrylic paint. The image is from a vintage CD, the embellishments are grungeboard. I journalled words around the edges which I associate with "woman", I didn't really think about it much but just let the words flow as they came into my mind without any particular sequence or order.

Just hope that Susan likes it...

A page for Heidi

I've put details on my blog.

Femmy's page from Wendy

This is my page for Femmy. The bottom one is the back, and has a picture of my husband, his two brothers, and two cousins at the seaside in Lincolnshire. The front page has a picture of me, my late brother and our friends at the seaside in Lincolnshire a few years later.
The front is inked, and embossed with Distreess powder at the bottom, so it feels like sand. There are air dry clay and friendly plastic shells on the sand. Then I stamped the fish, and added stamped images of seagulls, and shells. There are quotations on both sides. I hope Femmy likes it.

Sian's page from Astrid (Front and back)

Here is the page I did for Sian. I fretted over it for a long time as I just could not decide what colour to choose. In the end I chose Copper Brown. I love brown and use a lot of it in my art work, but is a particular warm shade of brown that I love. It's not a colour I wear particularly though, so maybe it isn't really me, - who knows.

Anyway, I know Sian likes texture, so I knew I had to have texture in it somehow. The basic background is mount board. I then created a piece of fabric paper by collaging torn papers over a 6 x 6 piece of muslin. I coloured it with a mixture of different mediums, acrylics, dye inks, moonshadow ink and glimmer mist. I took my lead from Sian's page and worked in an altered photograph of myself and finally embellished with some bits of text, fibres and a dried maple leave.

The back was pretty much coloured in the same way with some embossing to give it a little texture. (The scan is pretty bad). Well here's hoping Sian likes it...

A Page for Wendy

This page I called, Child of the Times.

A page for Astrid

This page I called, Girls of Yesteryear.

Page for Susan

This is my page for Susan. I gave it the title Beautiful,

Page for Sian

My page for Sian

Sians and Nicks pages

ok so I seem to have blown it this time - I cant find a photo of the page I made Sian - and I have not heard from her and I sent it over two weeks ago - so at least now she can say she didnt get it if she really hates it and I will have to make another one for her LOL

So to the mighty OGNO's page - which i finally handed over and looked very closely at her when I handed her the envelope for the OH MY GOWLD I HATE IT LOOK from OGNO Nicks - she hid it well.

I had to make about 7 bead bracelets to swap to get the leather to make this. Nicks asked for rules/lessons of life. So I have put my hidden thoughts on life underneath the padlocked door, the key for the padlock somehow seems to have got caught up on the padlock so you cant unlock the door - unless you by chance happen to use the spare key that I own hahahaha!!!!!!!!!!! the door is covered in metal, embossed with writing and a pattern and then I used some sepia to colour the triangle. The background is leather and stamped. Done

been busy - pages for Paula, Susan, Sian, Nicks

I have managed to do four pages - only down side is I am rather concerned as 3 of the ones I have sent I have not heard from the peeps so either they hate them or they are away, or God forbid they have gone walk abouts. I am overly excited and pleased to report that my page seems to have finally turned up with Femmy and she has now passed this onto Pbird . Ok so heres two of the pages that I have done to get started with.

The spider web with the lady dream catcher is for Paula - after I sent it I have this awful feeling that I hope she does not have a fear of spiders. The lady dream catcher is made from clay and the spider web from metal. Paula's asked for a page where we Imagine - but how do you compete and try and make something as awesome as her page so hey heres my take on "imagine"

This lady is for Susan, she wanted things to do with Women if I remember corretly. Well I love these stamps that I have, so stamped onto metal and then played around with some of my templates from LBcrafts, hope Susan likes it




I will be back later to post Sians and Nicks pages.
Hxx

Sherry's page from Astrid

Here is my page for Sherry, - I had such fun doing it. I have this vintage women's magazine which I picked up from a second hand bookshop. It has wonderful images and stories in it. It's from 1915, so lots of war time saving tips etc. I collaged the background of my page with pages from the magazine, added some rub-ons (the first time in my life I used those, what a nightmare, they just would not rub on the page, any hints anyone?), then added a tag and finished of with some bits of lace and buttons. I'm hopeless with a sewing machine, and defenitely not a sewer, so I just hope Sherry likes this.

page for Sherry

A page for Femmy

I've called this page 'The Beach' and it is for Femmy whose theme is Outdoors. I was a bit stuck on this page and didn't really know where to go, but once I saw a picture of a seagull in a magazine, I decided to use it and this is what I've come up with. For the beach scene I used gouache paints. I altered the seagull a bit with some acrylic paint and have made his wing a bit 3D although it doesn't show up in the photo. The coastal path sign is made from lolly sticks and there are some pebbles and sea shells to finish it off.

I'm hoping it will stay in one piece on it's travels to Femmy and that she'll like it.

Yvonne's page

Here is my page for Yvonne. I've called it "childhood memories". I loved the theme but found it quite hard at first, as I tend to be a person who always looks ahead rather than back. However, once i got in to it, I really enjoyed it. I had a gloriously happy childhood on the whole and decided to do childhood memories and to use some childhood photographs. I did a transfer on one side and then collaged another image. The pictures are of me in a garden in Germany where we used to go almost every year in the summer as my mum is German, that's why i used some German text (which i once got from Femmy as a little gift). As Yvonne had a tag on her own page, I thought I'd do one too.
The back of the page has some quotes on memories which I rather liked.
Hope you like my page Yvonne...

Cindy's page

Here is my page for Cindy, I hope she likes it.
The background is collaged mainly with pages from a very old (1915) women's magazine I picked up in a a second hand bookshop last year in London. I then transferred a couple of images, one of which pretty much disappeared. I coloured and stamped with rangers watercolour inks. The tags are journalled with various good and not so good aspects of a woman's character, just as they came into my mind. As Cindy was very clear :o) that we should take care of the reverse of the page as well, I collaged that also with just one page from the same magazine, it has the title "over the garden wall". I chose that as Cindy's DC name is "garden girl". That's also the reason I mainly used greens. I actually tried very hard to stay away from the vintage look for once, but as you can see I totally failed, I just don't seem to be able to get away from it at the mo.

Sherry's page for Astrid

This page is called 'Hopscotch' and I've used beeswax and an image transfer. Full details may be found on my blog.

Hope you like it Astrid.

Sherry's Page for Wendy

I've put full details on my blog.

Page on his way to Yvonne

This is my page and tag for Yvonne. as a kid I was often at my grandparents farm and I have the most precious memories at those days. Yvonne chose memory as her theme and I didn't have to think about my page for her. hope she will like it.

Page for Paula

This page I called Imagine This!

Wendy's attempt at Paula's page-- Imagine

After thinking about this for weeks, and getting nowhere, I took the bit between my teeth, and just got on with it. The front is covered with crackle paste to make it look like an old wall, and then inked with rusty brown colours. I then made a door, inked it and stamped lines on it. Made two hinges, a lock and key out of Grunge board and distressed them. Imagine is made out of air dry clay.
The inside, when the door is opened shows a scene of trees and birds through the window, which is covered with acetate. On the back of the door I have stamped a saying, clocks and keys.
The words are: Secrets and mysteries of the Past. Memories of generations hidden under lock and key, Unlock the the past, and uncover the treasures of memory lost in the dust of history.
The back I have covered in a backing paper with trees and words on.

This is for Astrid's children of a bygone age page. I have stamped the background and used some gorgeous images of children, (my children never looked so angelic).

This is my page for Wendys journal. I have included a picture of me as a baby as requested.

I struggled with this page not sure why though. I chose colours which were outside my comfort zone, aubergine and cream. Anyway I hope Wendy likes it.

This is my outdoors page for femmy.

The outdoors to me is going fishing, which is the title of my page. I used to go fishing with my father, when I was young, and really loved it. I have made the background with spray inks, and stamped and coloured the main images.

A page for Susan - 'Woman'

I've kind of gone back to the same sort of style for Susan's page that I used for my own, although perhaps with less random elements. It's a mix of collage and altered image and is supposed to be amusing rather than terribly meaningful. It is however realtively thin compared to the last two efforts!!

A page for Sherry - The Seamstress

Tried to do something with fabric so it looked like a dress with buttons - rest is just bits of collage. More details on my blog!!
Cindy

Sian's Page for Femmy

This is my page for Femmy on the theme of "outdoors". I chose a very natural countryside kind of look for the page as this is what the outdoors means to me. I started by creating a layered stamped and emboss resist background which I coloured using Distress Inks in browns and greens. I wanted to use something natural on the page so I chose some pieces of bark, which I've layered under the main image. I coloured the image with Distress Inks, cut out and added the birds and then finally added a skeleton leaf (also coloured with Distress Inks) and the quote by Keats.

page for Cindy

Page for Susan

The title of this page is Love and Cherish, two qualities that are important to us all.

Nicks page for Pbird- Imagine

It's much brighter in real life! details on my blog

Sian's Page for Astrid

This is my page for Astrid on the theme "Children of a Bygone Age". The background is gessoed, inked with Distress Inks and stamped and I've layered the music and the children image over the top. The children are an image transfer done using Mod Podge. I've added a piece of vintage lace at the bottom which I've also coloured using Distress Inks, a Grungeboard flourish and some layered Prima Flowers. The butterflies are stamped, cut out and stuck on, and the song words are handwritten.

This page is for Sian.
The title is Colour Me Green.
Green is one of my favourite colours, it was great fun searching the web for words relating to green, two I would like to add to the list I found are creative and likes a, challenge. Once again the page is a collage using rubber stamping , material s etc .

My theme for this is WHEN YOU WERE YOUNG, so please ladies put photos of yourselves on. I've gone all sentimental in my old age. I don't mind about colour, use whatever you are happy with.
At long last my first page has been done. I have struggled with this, as I had lost my inspiration. My first attempt, which is in Nicks infamous browns and rust colours will be my cover. It has plaster crackle stuff on it, and I didn't think it would travel well, so did this one instead. I will put the other one on in due course. ie when it's finished.
I inked and gesso'd the background, than did some fairly faint stamping with an old inkpad (never throw anything away) I then added some photos of me as a baby and a little girl. I have always loved birds, so some of those flew on, along with some buttons, and a metal butterfly. The buttons I hasten to add didn't fly on by themselves, I had to do that. The back page is covered in paper with images of blue poppies and another bird.
Not terribly happy with it, but it's done, and on it's way to Sian.

Sherry's Page for Paula

Paula's theme is IMAGINE and after seeing her own page, I could only imagine what it would be like to be as talented as her!

I started the page off by covering it with torn pieces of an old book with some matte medium, then painted another coat over the top. I then melted some beeswax and black oil pastel over the whole page and covered it with a light dusting of some gold Pearl-Ex. This gave a nice texture and in a few places some of the text from the old book still showed through.

The three diamond shapes are Memory Glass with Pearl-Ex coated on the back and rubber stamping on the top (except for the woman's face which is stamped onto paper and placed behind the glass).

To finish the page off I stuck on some pieces of mosaic near to each piece of Memory glass.

I was pleased with how the page turned out - and hope that Paula likes it too.

Vintage sewing for Sherry

This I called Tools if the Trade. I enjoyed making this collage page and had to stop myself from adding more bits.

Another one for Sian by Nicks

Well it had to be BROWN... since that is my favourite colour! My OH brought home from a pile of real wood veneer and asked if I wanted it.. bless him he is so thoughtful and I love him to bits but he does ask silly questions, of course I can use it! I decided to try an incorporate as many of my favourite medias as I could along side my favourite colour. So we have acrylic paint which has been heated and bubbled around words which relate to Brown (not necessarily to me!), metal magic, wood, copper and wax.. I meant to add some leather but once I completed to project I found that still languishing on my desk.. whoops!
I haven't sent it yet cos I am hoping to do some Holey ATC's for a swap on DC that Sian is hosting very soon, so I will send them all together!

PS.. small things please small minds.. I really like the back of the page, all it is, is where I have cleaned the excess paint off my brush each time I changed the shade of brown.. it's really simple and nowt special but I like the effect !

Cindy's Page for Sian - GREEN

The next journal page (things got a bit out of order because I was away on holiday) that I have completed is for Sian. Her theme is 'what colour are you?' and I decided that I am green. I have made the page from several layers of card and mountboard - in fact I could be rivalling Paula for creating the thickest page SO FAR for this challenge!! The background is made using resist emboss technique with some collaged butterflies over the top (I went for some orange as a contrast as it was VERY green when I had finished). The leaf is made from string and tissue paper on card, the frog is modelled from makins clay and painted (isn't he just cute as a bug?). The additional layers were required to accommodate the turning circle which has a spiral of words on it explaining GREEN from a personal aura perspective. The challenge for this page was not the individual techniques but in making everything match up. It's nearly perfect but I'm not going to give away my mistakes, lets just say the little bugs were very useful. I really enjoyed doing this one, and I have called it, 'Life is easy when you're green' (alternative title - 'Kermit got it wrong'). I hope Sian likes it!!

Susans Page by Nicks

Been playing catch up this week and made this page for Susan. (am a bit out of order cos I haven't done Sian's yet.. but that's in the thinking stage!!) My mate Sparkles came to stay this week and we visited a craft shop - as you do - I saw this stamp which was half price and admired it but popped it back on the shelf as funds are a bit short, lo and behold though cos Sparky bought it for me as a surprise whilst I wasn't looking! Must have been fate because when we arrived home and I opened the post there was Susan's page with the theme 'woman' and what that means to you............ have to confess that I'm not always that keen on us woman, we are far too complex and this stamps I think sums a lot of women up.... moody and overly emotional, who use their 'moods' to incite power!
I hope Susan likes it. I kept away from traditional female colours and went for a mixture of green distress inks, with a spray of tattered angel glimmer mist. The words 'Secrets' and 'Mystery' are triple embossed with Metal Magic and Enamel powder. The word Emotional was embossed with a black embossing powder which wasn't that successful.... anyone know of a decent black embossing powder?? but I rubbed over it with a green rub on and that brought the word to life.. a happy accident!
Now off to start Si ans..... wish me luck!

Paula's page for Heidi

This is called 'There was a crooked house'. I just need to say that I PROMISE this looks better in real life, I just cant take pictures! I know that Heidi is quite fond of her houses, so I decided to make some with a difference. I know its a bit odd but I like it and hope very much that Heidi does too? Well its made up of mountboard with ice lolly sticks chopped up to make all the bits (its about a half inch think - sorry!). Now I have to tell you all, it is not easy trying to find plain old lolly sticks here, they're all multicoloured, so I had to cover the whole thing three times in gesso before I could start to paint!!It is covered with a mix of acrylic paint and an irridecent mixative, then highlighted with some wax rub ons and the edges are all sealed with alum tape that has been alcohol inked. Oh and the base of the page is ripped card to make it look like a wall, although i think it might look more like water, but thats fine too. Lastly there is some glossy accents in the house windows to look like glass. I'm not sure if it needs something else so I'm going to look at it for a day or two and think about it again then.

Page, on its way to Nicks

This page is titled Live the Moment, we all tend to rush around , so take time to enjoy each precious part of the day.

The background is stamped and inked.

My First Page

This is the first page of my Journal called A Trip Down Memory Lane. My theme is memories, recent or vintage the choice is yours.

The background is stamped then chalked a favourite medium of mine for getting a muted colour.

Sadly It would seem that my page on its first travel from me went AWOL - which i am totally and utterly devastated about, so not sure if you want me to post it here. It is on my blog - its the metal grey one - which i thought i was being really clever with having the three perspex windows - hey hoy that will teach me to be chuffed with something i have made. Ok so I better mention here what I had said in my attaching letter - suprize surprize i dont do pink and fluffy or peel offs, i hate the devils dandruff and i dont really like the "vintage" either - but saying that i dont want a theme anything goes and i will be pleased to own your page - and i think i will either make a new front page in the same style as i did like it or use my 1st attempt ............. but nope cant do that can i nicks LOL

Ok so here goes for me - this is my first page that i made for someone else - this is Cindy's page - boy the metal looks really really shiny blue but its not quite that blue in real life, hope you like it cindy. The mistake i made was i didnt photograph the back of the page as i have done for Yvonne, so the rest of you will just have to imagine. Cindy's theme was women so this is may take and colour theme - Cindy the page you made look even more stunning in the flesh

So now to Yvonnes page. Her very specific theme was memories so this is my take.

I have been very lucky to have done a huge amount of travelling and have so many great memories, my fav country in the whole world - after Scotland of course would have to be Italy - totally stunning country. I couldnt decide if i liked the hand painted water scence as the front so changed my mind and it ended up being the back of the page - I hope you dont mind Yvonne - but then again it will be your book so its up to you if you use it as the front or back, anyways i hope you like it.

Ok so onto the next two - Sherry and OGNO Nicks has arrived today OH DEAR ME help

Susan's Page for Paula

Here is my page for Paula's Journal. I have used acrylic paints, tissue to give it some texture, which is the one thing I seem to have trouble doing. Printed image and fimo. I know it is not up to her standard, but I hope she likes it.

Paulas page for Femmy

Well I think I might just love the vintage look now. As a rule I dont like to work with images or vintage or collage, so this has all of those!! And I'm really pleased with the result. In fact I might keep it lol!! This is for Femmy for her theme of outdoors. I struggled to come up with an idea for AGES and had a rummage around trying to decide what to do. I found a few images I liked and then came up with this lot. The background is collaged and gessoed (a word?), then inked round the edges, a few bits of veneer type stuff for driftwood is on the bottom, the fella in the middle is an image stuck on card them triple embossed with a bit of distress ink to blend him in a little, the same for the Ocean sign on the bottom right. The rope is string knotted around rusty old washer type things from the toolbox and then the string was distress inked in brown and green for rust and seaweed. I do hope Femmy doesnt mind a bit of dimension in her page, but flats just too hard!

Paulas page for Astrid

Well this is the first page i've made for the return. Scary! I really dont do collage or vintage often so I do hope its okay and Astrid likes it. I had fun making it. The background is collaged and then overpainted with gesso and sanded. There are more paper overlays, mainly textured paper with a coloured core so I could sand a embossed image from it (although its pretty much covered up now). There is the acetate little girl, I didnt really want her shiny but I wanted all the text and bits to show through and I'm rubbish at image transfer so went for the safer option. There are little nursery rhymns around in there too, lace, brads, distress ink, flowers, german scrap, charms and im sure some more. Fingers crosssed Astrid likes it ok!

Femmy's page for Heidi

Sian's Page for Paula

This is my page for Paula, on the theme of "Imagine". (I think my imagination is perhaps a bit less dark than Paula's, and she says I'm insane!) Strange as it may seem, I struggled with this one because it's such an open theme (I think I must like being told what to do).

I've used acrylic paints, Brilliance inks, mesh, more mesh, the bottom of a pie tin coloured with alcohol inks, a printed image, Sharpie pens, Anita's gloss finish, acetate, butterflies stamped in Stazon, Stickles glitter glue, grungeboard, mosaic tiles and both handwritten and printed words.

Unfortunately this is not a great photo (although it's the best of several attempts). My photography skillls leave a lot to be desired. The mosaic tiles on the bottom left are actually lilac and a silvery grey, and the grungeboard flourish and arrow are covered with gesso and then coloured using two colours of Brilliance ink so have a pearlescent finish. I've used Anita's gloss finish on the eyes to make them shine but that also doesn't show up too well on the photo.

(I'll put a full description of how I made it on my own blog later to save waffling too much on here).

Heidi's page by Astrid

Unfortunately Heidi's page seems to have gone missing on it's way to Femmy in Holland, she posted it on the 7th June and it has still not arrived, hopefully it will turn up soon!

But I have gone ahead and completed her page, working from the picture on her blog

Cindy's page for Yvonne

This is the first one I've done for someone else so feeling a bit anxious. I also went off at a complete tangent - had seen Yvonne's page just before I went on holiday and I knew her theme was 'Memories' so I spent some of the time on my lounger thinking about what I was going to do. A friend had lent me the book ' Iris and Ruby' by Rosie Thomas and it gave me the idea to do a page loosely based on this. I won't bore you with the whole of my reasoning here(Yvonne I have sent you an essay, hope you understand my ramblings) but basically the story is about a love affair set at the end of WWII in Egypt, but also, and in my view more poignantly, about the fear of the woman that she will lose her memory as she gets older, and in particular this memory which defines her. Hee hee, bit deep for me I know, but I had a lot of time to think about it.

So it is collage with a couple of image transfers, very simple techniques but I think it's turned out quite well, apart from the fact that I think the soldier has the wrong uniform on but ket's not be picky. I have called it 'Remember Cairo'.

Cindy's First Page

This is my first page. Originally I thought I would do zetti or something to do with images of woman….... Well it didn’t come out very zetti and there is a woman in it so I have settled on the latter although I see now that Susan has chosen the same theme. It will be interesting to see how all the pages turn out. I have been looking at journals for some time and I know this RR is not about journalling per se but I really wanted to try out doing the lettering that I have seen other people do. The quote is one I particularly like (although nothing to do with woman) but is soooooo grungy you can hardly read it. Unlike some others this page has got off quite lightly (I'm saving the sandblaster for Heidi's), it's really just collage with a little bit of altered image work and lettering. There is an image transfer on it as well but it ended up under so many other layers of stuff you can't really see it anymore.

My theme ‘woman’ can be interpreted very loosely as its all about getting different takes on the subject. I am going to leave deciding on the final cover pages until the mood of the journal as a finished piece becomes more apparent although I do have a couple of ideas. Can't wait to start getting pages! Cindy x

Astrid's page for Femmy

I received this page from Astrid, in real it's soo beautiful, I am very pleased with it. Thanks Astrid!!!! I really love it.

Femmy's first page

here is my first page for the round robin. I picked the theme Outdoors, that could be all kind of outdoor atcivities or travel, plaves whatever, as long as it is outdoors.
The background is made with sistressinks, the boy in the boat is a transfer, I used stamps, and rubons.

Sherry's Page for Sian

Here is my page for Sian whose theme is 'What Colour Are You?' - and as you can see I chose PINK. I don't know why really - just because I like the colour I suppose (however unfashionable that may be with all you artists out there!!!) However, the page has a lot of purple in it too, so perhaps my colour should have been pinkish / purplish!

I used mountboard and painted both sides with some Starburst Stains but spritzed the front side with water to tone it down a bit. I used chipboard letters for the word 'pink' which I coloured with ink and glossy accented over the top of - pressing a few pink gems into before it dried. The dictionary definition of 'pink' I coloured with more of the stains and applied with some matt medium. I printed off a photo of me - which I hated, so I gave it the Bernie Berlin treatment and got rid of all my double chins in the process! I glued the picture onto to some inked tissue and stuck that on - added a foam crown, a wooden heart and some pink embossed sheet metal and hey presto - finished!

I've enjoyed doing this page the best so far - Sian's own page was absolutely amazing and so inspiring - that's why my interpretation is really just a poor copy of hers! I love the result though - lol.

Sherry's Page for Susan

Here is my page for Susan whose theme was 'Woman'. Unfortunately, the picture is rather dark but the page ended up quite light and pretty.

I used some pretty floral backing paper and overlaid it with some paper painted with Twinking H2Os. The whole lot was then painted over with some matte medium. I rubber stamped a pretty dress onto acetate and painted it with some Pearl Ex. Added to the top and side of the page was some old lace and little dress charm next to the main dress. The word 'Woman' was rubber stamped down the side as a finishing touch.

My interpretation of Susan's theme was pretty (well, you'd never have guessed that!), pastel, feminine and nuturing. Hope she likes it!

Sherry's First Page

My theme is 'Vintage Dressmaking' and this is my first page.

I've never done a journal page before and wasn't sure what to use - I ended up using card as I thought mountboard may have been too thick. However, having seen a few other pages already, I realise I was wrong - doh! Oh well, never mind - I don't mind if people want to use mountboard for my pages - in fact I'd prefer it really. (I've already received Nicks page back and she used mountboard and it's fantastic!!!)

Here's how I did my page - I painted it with some pure colour raw sienna mixed with a little medium. I used part of an old dressmaking pattern and applied it with some melted beeswax. In the same way I also applied part of an old packet of snap fasteners.

Using brown Stazon ink I did some rubber stamping - including some on a self adhesive textile square. I added another mannequin - which was rubber stamped onto and cut out of Grungeboard. Finally, I added a few old sewing notions and was quite please with the result.

Apologies if my theme seems a little staid and boring - yep, that's me!! I've made a note to myself - must be more imaginative -lol.

My Second First RR Page

This is my second first page as my first first page was not so good :( I am happy with this one, although i'm not sure the photo really does it justice. Its mountboard covered in tissue paper, squashed clay faces, acrylic paint, wax, wax rub ons, beads, stamps, UTEE, embossing powder, crackle paint and no doubt some other things that I cant remember. My theme is Imagine, so pretty much whatever is running through your mind at the time. I love this challenge and cant wait to get all my pages. I'm thinking about hanging them on the wall and not binding them, but I'll see, maybe a book for a while then on the wall.

Astrid's 1st attempt

My theme is 'Children of a Bygone Age'This was my first attempt of doing my first page. I used card, collaged and overstamped and embossed, and then added the image. In the end I though it was too buzy, so decided I might use it as my cover, though I am not totally sure yet

Astrids 2nd attempt

My second attempt, again, - card, collage, stamped and embossed with the image added to give it focus. I'm really into vintage at the moment, so I've asked people to use any colour as long as it has a vintage look

Sian's First Page

The theme I've chosen for my journal is "What Colour Are You?", based on the idea that each colour has different meanings, (although I will hasten to add that not all the words around the edges apply to me!) In case you are wondering, yes, the ugly mug on the left is me, although I've altered myself beyond all recognition, (I think I like my new hairdo better than the real one). Don't worry, I don't expect everyone to use a piccy of themselves, although you can if you want!

I've started with a base of mountboard for this. (I thought it wise given that (a) I've subjected it to a lot of abuse and (b) it has to make several journeys through the post). I've used, inks, water, tissue paper, three different colours of acrylic paints, Radiant Rain Spray, blue metallic embossing powder, a photo of me in shades of blue, black and white gel pens, stamped images, bits of book pages, acetate, a Sharpie pen, brads, Grungeboard, gold metallic rub-on, eyelets, and I think that's about it! The colours are a bit more intense than they look on the photo as my photography skills leave a lot to be desired! The words around the edges are hand written in black gel pen and they're all words that are associated with the colour blue. (There's a full version of how I made on my blog, but I've edited it on here because it was too long!)

Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the back, and as I believe it's currently en route to Nicks I won't be able to.

I haven't seen anybody else's pages yet so haven't been able to do any, but I'm desperate to get started!

I had my first page back from Susan at the weekend and it's fantastic. I've never done anything like this before, so it's all really exciting.

Nick's page for Sherry

Sherry's theme is Vintage dressmaking

Again I used mountboard. The dressmaking pattern is a real pattern adhered with gel medium. The rest of the background has been brayered with a textured roller and stamped with appropriate stamps.. and I knew that the chipboard mannequin i bought at Ally Pally would come in useful!

Nicks 6x6 page

Here is my front page....didn't know what it was going to end up like when I started, I just knew I wanted to use this colour combination which is a long way from my usual choice of colour scheme but was inspired by a Brak made for me last year by Sian, which sits on a shelf near my work space. I was keen to use several different media's on my page but ran out of space!
The page is mountboard, I used this because it needed durable being passed from person to person. It was painted/inked/sandpapered within an inch of it's life, so just as well it wasn't just card!
The word 'Instructions' is made up of newspaper cuttings, 4 and LIFE are chipboard, but all treated differently........ then a bit of stamping, embossing, handwriting and grungeboard wings....

I'm pleased with it............. the back is painted and stamped as well, and I'm hoping my RR friends will pop a bit of advice graffiti style on the back for me...

(BTW... if you look at Heidi's first attempt at a page and the back of mine you may see why she felt she had to redo hers... ROFPMSL)