Art Journal Journey - Types of Cocktails

When I was in college learning to type I always enjoyed using different fonts and changing the sizes of lettering.  Display work was always a favourite thing for me to do and I took great delight in making the most of things like advertisements and menus.

Years later when I began teaching Commerce one of the Units I had to teach was Advertising and I just loved when it came around to that time of the year when I had to deal with that subject.  Powerpoint was a favourite program of mine and I enjoyed using it to do presentations but still enjoyed my typing on both a typewriter and a computer.  Later I found the ability to use Powerpoint a good tool for talking to parents at school about Options, Work Experience and Career Prospects which was part of my additional teaching post at school.

So when I chose 'Type' as my theme for Art Journal Journey I knew I had to include some display work.  Now not really being much of an alcoholic drinker, except the occasional gin and tonic, and I do mean occasional, I thought about looking at some cocktails.  So here is my page dealing with them:

The pink drink on the right was on a card, along with the word "cocktails" that a friend of mine sent to me.  I did like the way she had done the card so it always stood in my craft room, little did I know months ago that it would be useful in my Journal.  Now I have no fear of losing it and remembering the card that Heather sent to me.  The other images are from a set of stamps that another friend, Jayne, loaned to me for the purpose of this page.

I must confess the only cocktail I have had is a Margarita and that was when I was first introduced to Mexican Cuisine by my late friend in America.  I had heard of a Bellini, in fact I went into Harry's Bar where they were made famous in Venice, but only had a coffee early one morning.  

I had to look up the ingredients of all of these cocktails but enjoyed myself changing the fonts and using the 'centre' command.

I hope this has given you another idea of how you can do the theme of 'type' and enter into the challenge over on Art Journal Journey.  I'd love to see you there.

Art Journal Journey - Type

 This was the first journal page I did for my guest designer spot at Art Journal Journey and I was quite excited about it.  I just love those little figures by Janet Klein and Charlie Chaplin was a firm favourite from the minute I saw she had drawn him.  Today is also my partner's birthday, and as he is called Charles (but prefers to be known as Chas) it seemed appropriate that I used this one today.

Luckily I remembered I had a stencil with some figures of him in a film strip and so I decided to base it around that and use a typewriter diecut that I had had for several years.  Now I am going back a while - to 21st May 2013 in fact, when I decided to launch something/somebody called "Flat Susan".  

It all started with a friend's daughter in America asking if I would host "Flat Stanley" for a school project she was doing.  Following the many trips I took with Stanley I decided I would launch Flat Susan.  Lots of people on here got involved and Flat Susan (who was a shrink plastic doll in a matchbox) journeyed all over the place.  You can read about her on my old blog which marks the first of her journeys.

Now, you may wonder what on earth this has to do with Charlie Chaplin.  The answer is "nothing really". but the typewriter depicted on this page was a thank you note sent to me by Bella (Belinda Basson) who lived in South Africa at the time.  I didn't want to spoil it by tearing off the top page of the diecut card so I stuck the whole thing down.  Now I have a reminder of Bella every time I look at this page.  Bella now lives in Germany and makes the most wonderful art, being a designer for Stamperia as well, some of you may well know her.

To begin with I masked the top of my page off and painted the lower section with grey paint.  I then darkened the paint slightly and stencilled some stars from an Aall & Create stencil on the page.  Next I used the Chaplin stencil (cannot tell you what it is called or who it is by) with some black paint through it before adding my figure and piece of Tim Holtz films strip.

So there you have it.  My next page for the theme Type, this time with a typewriter again featuring strongly.  I love how Charlie Chaplin is perched on the platen there.  I hope this inspires you to join in with my theme over on Art Journal Journey.  See you there?

Jeudi Journal - The World

At first when I saw this quote I was being asked to use for my Jeudi Journal with Wendy I thought of that film where James Cagney died on a gas storage tank saying "Made it Ma.  Top of the world!"  Obviously I was not going to do anything like that as the quote I was to use was "One day I will rule the world, until then I'm going to bed" but do you see why my mind went to this film?

My page began life covered with Pan Pastels in a yellow ochre kind of colour with a lilac stencil over the top.  Very faint colour, I must add, to depict worn wallpaper.  I made a window from a piece of navy card, put a brown frame around it and added a clip art (free) image of the world and some metallic stars. I then cut some curtains from lilac cardstock and added my girl.

"Donna had been to see her Great Gran.  She loved visiting the old lady and looking through her various boxes of treasure.  The old jewellery was a favourite of Donnas as she was allowed to try some of the pieces on and dance around with the paste stones glinting in the light.  Gran had been quite a looker in her day and had some of the most incredible earrings that jangled around Donna's neck as she danced and twirled.

They had enjoyed a lovely Victoria Sandwich that Donna's mum had brought along and Great Gran had bought some crumpets for them to toast.  All this was whilst they listened to Harry Secombe singing "If I Ruled the World", one of Great Grans favourites.

"If I ruled the world, Every day would be the first day of Spring, Every heart would have a new song to sing, And we'd sing the joy every morning would bring".  The words were echoed in a voice that had once been true but now had a slight tremble to it and Donna was filled with love for the old lady.

Donna often joined in, now almost knowing the words to the whole song having listened to it so many times, singing along "My world would be a beautiful place, Where we would weave such wonderful dreams, My world would wear a smile on its face, Like the man in the moon has when the moon beams".

Turning to her Great Gran she said that one day, she would make sure the world was a lovely place to live in, where everyone was happy and loved everyone else, where there was no hatred or pain.  One day, when she was Queen.....

That night, when Donna went to bed, she stared out and imagined she saw the world outside her window, humming the song in her head.  "One day I will rule the world, until then I'm going to bed" she said, as she closed her curtains."

Because I wanted this to fit in with Art Journal Journey's theme of "Type" I decided I would try a different kind/type of lettering and so this rather dominates the page today.  I have often thought I would like to try my hand at calligraphy but I just don't have the patience these days to spend hours practising the strokes so I tend to use my cake icing book and bluff my way through some of the fonts there.  I think all my Jeudi Journals will feature a different type of lettering (or font) this month.  Next week, in my Jeudi Journal, you will notice a real difference.

WOYWW 635

 August already, before we know what is happening we will have Christmas things all over the shops.  With a bit of luck we will have Halloween and Fireworks before then but I wouldn't hold my breath on Christmas not featuring soon.  Today is the 635th edition of WOYWW and I am sure most of you know what the acronym stands for but if you don't pop along here and all will be revealed.

Talking about revealing things, at last I can tell you why I have had nothing to show you on my desk of late.  I was asked by Elizabeth (who lots of you know), to be guest designer on the blog, Art Journal Journey, she runs with some other people (Chris of Pearshapedchris being one who also posts on here).  So I was getting several journal pages done in readiness for the month of August.

If you look carefully at my desk you can see I am still in the throes of making journal pages but you will notice I have left my journals open at the pages that have already been published here and here.  The theme I chose was "Type" which I linked to a typewriter and the various fonts you can get when using one and, of course, a computer. I am fascinated by fonts - and wish I had learned how to do calligraphy like our dear Shaz in Oz.  Just haven't the patience these days, or the time.

You will notice I have plonked my folder of Aall & Create stencils over one of the pages in my journal - that is one that has not yet been published.  I have dragged my trusty Vagabond out for a bit of serious die-cutting and dry embossing.  I treated myself to one of those 3D Texture Fades Folders of Tim Holtz' and boy oh boy does it emboss.  I can see my buying more of these and maybe using them a bit more than my old embossing folders which I forget about all the time.  I'll be using the letters I embossed on one of my journal pages before long.

My bff, Lorraine, came out trumps and visited me with lots of goodies that she felt I could probably use in my journal this coming month, along with a couple of ideas for layouts in my pages.  That's what friends are for!  At the moment I am looking for an old manual typewriter (at the right price) but persuading my other half to go to a car boot sale is not happening at the moment.  

Nothing else happening on my desk, the weather up north is a bit mixed so it has not really been sitting out weather but I think today is going to be a 'tidy up session' in the garden.  I noticed one or two patches that needed a bit of tidying and some of the plants have gone a bit rogue and multiplied.  Our gardener who kept our back lawn nicely cut has moved to Ireland and his son, who has taken over, was not well the other week so I am not sure what is going to be happening - the lawn is huge!  And growing!

Guess I had better sign off now and get my back brace on to see if I can manage a bit out there.  Have a lovely week and stay safe and well.

Art Journal Journey - Type of Letter

Now when you look at this page you probably wonder where the word "Type" fits in.  Well I have used the page to portray a love letter from a man to a lady he has taken quite a fancy to.  

As we all know a letter is a way of communicating between one person and another or a group of people, and there are various forms of letter; formal, semi-formal or informal.  A letter can be hand-written or printed but the gentleman in my journal has put pen to paper for his letter.  I wonder if he scented the paper before he put it inside the letter, maybe he put some rose petals inside before he sent it, or a piece of lavender.

Either way he is communicating, rather boldly, with the lady in the photograph, declaring his feelings for her.  I well imagine her uttering to herself "be still my beating heart" as in the romantic novels of old.  The letter reads:

"Dear Miss Jones

I hope you will forgive me for presuming to write to you without permission for I assure you it is with reluctance I take up my pen.  But I feel that I must reveal to you my feelings and my hopes.  Trusting that my intentions have, in a measure, prepared you for a demonstration of some kind as regards the future. I now throw myself at your feet and ask your love!  If I know my own heart it has an unalterable affection ...."

Oh dear, I wonder what followed?  Perhaps you can write the ending yourself.

I began by colouring the page in my large Dylusion Journal with two shades of Brown Distress Ink, stamped some leaf and berry images on the page along with some script.  Then I tore a page from an old book, but I haven't a clue what it says, I do hope it is nothing rude, but doubt it as it has those pretty flowers and a book at the top.  I found an old postcard in my stash advertising something, perhaps a portrait painter?

I then typed out the letter and made an envelope for it, aged both with Distress Ink Old Paper and added two photographs, probably Tim Holtz ones.  A pocket watch filled with Glossy Accents and a tiny sprig of flowers completed the look.

So there you have it 'a type of letter' for my theme at Art Journal Journey.  I must admit this idea was taken from a layout that my bff once did, she is a treasure.  I hope this has given you an idea on how you can have 'type' without a 'typewriter'.   Hope to see you there with your entry.

BTW:  I hope I did not mislead you on Sunday when I said I had typed at 90 wpm - that was a while ago and I am afraid my typos rather cancel out a lot of wpm these days.  I'm probably about half of that, if I am lucky.  It's not the same on a flat keyboard - I want a typewriter! (smile)

Art Journal Journey - Type

Hi Everyone!   I am absolutely thrilled to be hosting the theme for Art Journal Journey for this month.  This is my first time as a Guest Designer and I would like to thank Elizabeth and Bleubeard from Altered Book Lover for inviting me along.

For my theme I chose "Type" because I have a fascination with the typed word, or rather the patterns people make when they do "fancy writing" using the various fonts on a typewriter, or, as we use nowadays, the computer.

When I first left school I trained as a shorthand typist and as time went on I  became secretary to the Production Manager of a large company.  From the beginning I loved typing and worked hard at the exercises given to me by my teacher until I eventually could type at over 90 words per minute.  Not as grand as it sounds as some people type at 150 wpm.

Today my journal page is traditional containing two of my favourite things, rubber stamping and some stenciling - plus I love colouring although I am no colourist.

All images are rubber stamped on a reverse image stencil with some stamped words and numbers.  The flower and flamingo images are by Aall & Create, a favourite company of mine.  The typewriter image was stamped and embossed and the flowers were coloured using Inktense Pencils.  The letters spelling  'TYPE' are diecuts from a very old Spellbinders set but I thought they looked like the typewriter keys on the old machines.

I would love you to join me at Art Journal Journey during the month of August - the word 'type' does not have to include a typewriter or anything to do with the machine.  If you look in a dictionary it will tell you 

n person thing or event serving as an illustration symbol or specimen, a letter or other character used in printing: collection or fount of this; execute on or use a typewriter."

Remember also it can be used as both a verb as in "he typed the words ..." and a noun "they produced the type of perfume she loved".  Hopefully that will give you some more ideas.  See you there?

Jeudi Journal - Problem

 "It was a lovely summer day and Samantha was out in the garden.  Samantha had been going to Slimming World and had shed quite a few pounds as a result so she was feeling quite good about herself,  In fact she had had a few admiring glances from the local builders who were working quite close to the nursery where she worked.  I wouldn't say things had gone to her head but she had decided to buy herself a new swimsuit and a pair of shoes which almost were a perfect match.

She decided that sunbathing was the only activity for the afternoon but as she had finished reading her book she could only think of one thing - inviting her best friend Maxine around for the afternoon.  They could have a good chat and listen to some of the music that they both liked, her parents were out shopping, and they could have the music as loud as they wanted.  She could get all the 'goss' and a nice tan ready for the disco that evening.

Maxine said she would be around but it might be an hour or so before she got there as her mother wanted a couple of small jobs doing, so Samantha took herself upstairs and started experimenting with some new make up she had bought for that evening.  She could get Maxine's thoughts on whether it was suitable or not.  She rather liked the sequins that went underneath the eyes and the pendant looked particularly good when worn on her head.

Maxine arrived and took one look at Samantha. "What on earth are you wearing?" she asked.  "I thought you were, err, we were, spending the afternoon in the garden, listening to some music and having a chat about tonight".

"I just thought," began Samantha, "that I could wear these sequins and the pendant - like this tonight."  "I thought you would love them and maybe want some of the sequins for yourself."  "Whatever we do we must outshine Jo and her friends and they won't have got anything like this to wear."

She then went on and on about how she had always wanted to outdo Jo and her friend, Fran, and this was the perfect opportunity.  They had not seen one another for the whole of the summer recess and therefore the other girls did not know about the weight she had lost and she was feeling really good at the moment so with a tan and this new makeup she would easily outdo the others. Particularly where the boys were concerned.

Maxine sat and listened totally lost for words herself.  What on earth was the matter with Samantha - it was all this weight loss that had turned her head.

"I don't know what your problem is but I know it's not mine" she said, "I think it is time for me to go home if you are just going to go on and on like that.  To be honest if it is going to be a popularity contest tonight you can forget me joining you.  I cannot do with catty people and since that weight loss you have changed so."

And with that Maxine left and went home whilst Samantha sat there with a dumbstruck look on her face -  and a sequin coming off and slipping down to her chin."

I am entering this journal page into Alison's challenge over at Art Journal Journey.  It's almost the end of the month which means Alison's challenge is nearing its end but hopefully this scene will fall under the umbrella of Summer countryside for Alison

Background is Pan Pastels with a Janet Klein stencil used with PP's to give the appearance of flowers in the garden and a Dylusion stencil up the side.  Figures coloured with Promarkers.