Wednesday 24 August 2011

Circle Journal

I know, I know I said I would never do one....BUT..after doing the MIMM journal with Kirsty and a fab bunch of girls, 10 of us got together and decided to do a circle journal. So I set up a little f/b group for just the 10 of us, we all ordered the same size Moleskine journal, and got started.

I chose a red journal, they are also available in Kraft,blue and black from HERE, they are cheap as chips, around £6.30 for a pack of three, and free postage.



















We each have decorated our front covers, inside cover, first page and 1 tag. The books then get passed on and the next person will do a double page spread and 1 tag, before passing on the book again.

The main reason i have not joined in a circle journal before, is all the rules and specific themes that people insist upon. Apart from a few colour dislikes we don't have any specifics in these journals, the theme is free style, which is great!

The pages in these Moleskines are a bit thin to take paint, so they were glued together in pairs to make them stronger, then each pair was glued to the next pair, leaving the top open to create pockets for the tags. You start with 40 pages, and end up with 10 pages and space for 10 tags.


















I gessoed my front cover,I put the gesso on really thickly in parts to create ridges, then started to paint it.



















I used the faux lumiere paint that I made, which has a gorgeous sheen to it. I used green,purple and blue. then used dimensional paint to stencil the diamonds.



















Next I added some stamped text.



















using a stencil as inspiration i cut this girl out of printer paper and started to colour her, part way through I decided to give her a patterned paper dress.


















She was glued to the front cover, I then added a small stamped bird and birdcage and the title. I don't know why but she just looked like she should be hula hooping....so after much trial and error..and bribery...I worked out how the elliptical circles should look...drew them softly in pencil then glued bakers twine down with matte accents.


















I decided to do my inside cover and first page as all one spread. I painted the background again with lumieres. I added some drips and also pushed some gesso through an alphabet stencil and then colouring it once dried.















I printed out a black and white horse on printer paper, cut it out and then painted it with neocolors, adding a horn to make it into a unicorn. I then stencilled some seed head flowers to the page, added the unicorn and glued some stamped flowers in the foreground. I printed the title onto lightweight cream card and cut it out.














For my tag, I again painted using lumieres, did some stencilling and doodled a border.



















On one side I added circles and this quote.



















and on the other side I stuck a photo of me and some info.



















and thats it all done. I now need to mail it out to the next person. I won't see this book again for 10 months, I will be so excited to get it back and see what everybody else has done inside it.

close up of stamped flowers.














close up of bakers twine hoops and singing birdie.

13 comments:

  1. I've already loved it on Facebook...now I'm here too!! It's lovely, AND....I'm going to be the first person in the group to see it 'in the flesh'!!! Just over a week to go now!! xx

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  2. Looks fab! Can't wait to see it! x

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  3. YAY

    it will be Fabulas dahling

    I got kinda used to the rules and am really enjoying the round robins, although Amy's one is at an end after this last posting rotation as she is sending me both my and Dar's book at the same time.,

    i suppose if you know everyone well there are fewer needs for rules?

    must get my friday pages done, off to 'pool to see Jo them home again to decorate your room, and finish the script....and I do not know what the flip I have done to skype but it does not like OS LION.

    keep well matey

    dx

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  4. Very cool looking -sounds like you'll be having a lot of fun!

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  5. Very very cool. The only Art Journal round robin I set up failed miserably, hope you have a lot more success with yours!

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  6. brilliantly done Darcy, love the texture especially and the pushed through stencilling as well. Thanks for the link for the books, I had been looking for some reasonably priced books in multi packs for the kids to make journals when we move, something to keep them busy each morning whilst my husband is stripping all the dark brown which is everywhere downstairs in our new (old) house, so I bought some of these large size books for them to do together. Hope your journal circle is a huge success, cant wait to see what they all look like and the tags as well. Helen xx

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  7. ALways wondered how those circle journals worked :) Thanks for sharing this Darcy, I know the finished journal can't be anything but amazing with such a fabulous start!!! :D XXX

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  8. Gorgeous work, Darcy. I love all the texture and dimension you created.

    Absolutely lovely!

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  9. Darcy, that's gorgeous! You're going to get a fab book back and the other 9 ladies are also going to each get a fab contribution from you. xxx

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  10. Oh so jealous I am not one of the 10 and I had to get some of those journals very cool ;0) I love what you have started the horse/unicorn looks wonderful and love the gesso alphabet ;0)

    Love Dawn xx

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  11. this is a fab idea...love it and I LOVE what you have done with your journal....can't wait for your reveal {when it eventually arrives back in your sticky little fingers!}

    hugs

    hello gorgeous xxx

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  12. Darcy Darcy Darcy - I would KILL to have you take part in one of my CJs......We do lots of "no rules/no themes" ones.....but trust me, sometimes the 'answering to a weird theme that you never would have chosen for yourself in a million years' bit is the most fun component :) We all like a challenge....and nobody complains if your page's relationship to the original theme or inspiration ends up being hugely tangential....

    Please please please when you've finished this one, do consider playing in one of mine, I'd be honoured to have you aboard!

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