Missing in Action and Some new Journals.

I feel like I am just getting started with 2018! Where has it slipped away to so quickly? I had a trip to visit my family to celebrate my dad's BIG birthday! I will spare his blushes by not saying which one, but it was a great time! I enjoyed being in the Northern Irish countryside in mid winter, and I was not sad to miss the super hot days in South Australia when the mercury climbed up to over 40 degrees. It is so special to be in familiar scenery where you know every nook and cranny and to visit people you have known since you were a child, "my ain folk" as the Ulster Scots would say!

I come from County Fermanagh which has more water than anywhere else I can think of! This winter it even had a little snow! Here is a little snippet of my trip.

The snowy view out of my bedroom window

The bridge over the flooded Colebrook River in my parents village

Lough Erne at Castle Archdale on a freezing day.

Some lovely white sheep at Crom Castle

Enniskillen, the main town in Fermanagh

I brought some journal pages with me on my trip but didn't get much done to them. At least they had a holiday! This is the first of the finished journals, entitled "Understanding". It can be written on or drawn on or simply kept as a wordless book as it is. I have described it more fully on my Etsy shop listing. There is a link to my shop to the right of this post.

Front cover next to matchbox for scale. Gel print, torn digital image, ephemera.  

Old library card on the left. Gel Print on black paper on the right.

Gel print on left with attached tiny paper and ephemera. Gold tissue on right on black paper.

Gel prints stuck on black paper.

Digital tag (designed by me), gel print paper and ephemera.

Gel print on black on left, and digital print (my design) on right with embellishment.

Gel print, embellishment and ephemera

Gel print and butterfly collage on right.

Gel print and white pen embellishment.

Gel print and  custom made dragonfly stamp. 

Tiny book stitched in with blank pages.

Gel print on left, collage on right

Gel prints.

Gel print and collage

Gel print with original digital printed tag collaged. Gel print on right on black paper with white pen drawing.

Original digital tag (my design), gel print, gel print on right with torn digital tag.

Gel prints and drawing.

Gel prints and drawing with ephemera collage.

Gel print with ephemera on left, digital print on the right ( my design) with drawing embellishment.

Left, digital print (my design) collage with gel print, library card.

Thanks for looking. I will post some more journals as soon as possible.

Dragonflies and Dreams Journal

It has been a while since I made one of my journals and this one has been made by remodelling another one. I had some more ideas I wanted to incorporate into this one. No art is really ever finished, is it?

 I have included hand painted pages, gel print paper, digital printed tags and bookmarks, stamping and ephemera, amongst other things. I have stitched 5 signatures ( not all have the same number of pages in them) to make a coptic stitch journal. 

There are 20 pages altogether, 28 coloured sides, plus front and back covers made of board, and 12 sides of blank paper (which is heavy print paper). The front cover is an original collage stuck onto binder's board. Some of the pages are lumpy and bumpy as they have several layers of paper stuck on them. It all adds to the texture of the book. 

The journal is approx 13.5 cm by 18.5 cm, (or approximately 5 1/4 inches by 7 1/4in). 

I have stitched the coptic stitch with natural coloured waxed Irish linen thread.

There are some inserts such as printed bookmark included. Some of the pages have components which lift up so you can write on the back. 

This is what it looks like inside.

The dragonfly page lifts up to reveal some flowers underneath.

The dragonfly page lifts up to reveal old envelope. Left page has been collaged with painted image and gel print paper.

Painted and stamped page on the left, Collage on right. the leaves are painted. 

Pages painted and stamped. Bookmark attached by paperclip.

Painted page on left, gel print and metallic leaf stuck onto leaf. Original bird tag clipped on to page.
Blank pages.

Painted and stamped.

Painted and stamped gel prints.Original fern tag.

Stencilled over paint and gel print. Collage on right page. Original bookmark. 

Stencilling, gel prints and tape transfer on left. Original bookmark.

Gel prints and stamping. 

Left image collaged, drawn and painted flower. Right hand page gel print and original butterfly card. Can slip paper under left side image.

Painted pages. Left bottom holds small paper which has been cut to let image of flower be seen.

Painted pages, gel prints and stamping. Bookmark lifts up on left side, can slip paper into bottom of left page.

Painted pages.

Painted pages, painted card, gel print on right. Flower image can be lifted up. 

Gel print with original bookmark on left and library card in envelope on right. 

I hope you enjoy looking at the images. As usual the copyright remains with me and images may not be used without permission. 

"Ideas" Hand made Journal

This is the little journal entitled "Ideas" which I made at the same time as the other one the same size, which is called "The Story of the beautiful."

Once again it is a tiny journal, it is approx 7.5 cm by 9.5 cm. Just under 2 cm deep. 3 in by  3 3/4  in by approx  1/2 in deep.

Once again I have incorporated many different techniques into the making of this journal; including the use of ephemera, gel prints, drawing, painting, mark making, collage and digital prints. The cover, front and back has been made to look old and worn. 

It has 12 (heavy weight watercolour paper) pages, (24 sides), and most pages are  fully rendered, you can however write your thoughts or quotes on the pages, (especially effective if you use a white gel pen).

The book  has been Coptic stitched so it will sit flat when you are working in it.

 I have stitched the Coptic stitch with natural waxed Irish linen thread.

This is what it looks like inside and out.

I retain all copyright restrictions to these images. Linda E Clarke 2017.