Deb's Travelling Art Journal

What a beautiful journal with a glorious theme for Spring.
I am a keen gardener and I get that thing every spring

 where I need to get seeds into the ground, 

Spring Fever so my page was inspired by wonderful seeds. 

I have been playing around with seed themed elements

 for a while now, and they fascinate me.

Deb's journal is just gorgeous,

 I love her cover with its combination of painted papers

 and sewn fabrics, it is adorable.

I always admire sewing in a journal, 

it is something beyond me so I am always taken

 by its tactile and rhythmic qualities. 

This journal has so many sweet pages 

and this lovely girl being swept along 

by a leaf in the breeze is Debs entry. 

Sharon takes us right into her neighborhood

 and shares the gorgeous nature all around her.

Danielle has us pondering over a magical dandelion.

Nicoles beautiful pages really pop and I can almost smell that flower,

Jan brings in some texture and

 transports us across the world on her travels,

I love the roots growing down through the ancient bricks.

Roz's beautiful pages

 continue with wonderful texture and details.

This cute little owl  caught my eye.

Janene has bought her lovely layered texture into her pages.

I decided to do 2 pages as one page just wasn't enough

 and there were plenty of pages to play with

 and it is Spring after all !

All of that wonderful texture 

in the pages I had to add some as well.

My last page is inspired by Gaia
I used John Seed's Invocation from Deep Ecology
Council of All Beings

Invocation

"We ask for the presence of the spirit of Gaia and pray that the breath of life continues to caress this planet home.

"May we grow into true understanding — a deep understanding that inspires us to protect the tree on which we bloom, and the water, soil, and atmosphere without which we have no existence.

"May we turn inward and stumble upon our true roots in the intertwining biology of this exquisite planet. May nourishment and power pulse through these roots, and fierce determination to continue the billion-year dance.

"May love well up and burst forth from our hearts.

"May there be a new dispensation of pure and powerful consciousness and the charter to witness and facilitate the healing of the tattered biosphere.

"We ask for the presence of the spirit of Gaia to be with us here. To reveal to us all that we need to see, for our own highest good and for the highest good of all.

"We call upon the spirit of evolution, the miraculous force that inspires rocks and dust to weave themselves into biology. You have stood by us for millions and billions of years — do not forsake us now. Empower us and awaken in us pure and dazzling creativity. You that can turn scales into feathers, seawater to blood, caterpillars to butterflies — metamorphose our species, awaken in us the powers that we need to survive the present crisis and evolve into more eons of our solar journey.

"Awaken in us a sense of who we truly are: tiny ephemeral blossoms on the Tree of Life. Make the purpose and destiny of that tree our own purpose and destiny.

"Fill each of us with love for our true Self, which includes all of the creatures and plants and landscapes of the world. Fill us with a powerful urge for the well-being and continual unfolding of this Self.

"May we speak in all human councils on behalf of the animals and plants and landscapes of the Earth.

"May we shine with a pure inner passion that will spread rapidly through these leaden times.

"May we all awaken to our true and only nature — none other than the nature of Gaia, this living planet Earth.

"We call upon the power that sustains the planets in their orbits, that wheels our Milky Way in its 200-million-year spiral, to imbue our personalities and our relationships with harmony, endurance, and joy. Fill us with a sense of immense time so that our brief, flickering lives may truly reflect the work of vast ages past and also the million of years of evolution whose potential lies in our trembling hands.

"O stars, lend us your burning passion.

"O silence, give weight to our voice.

"We ask for the presence of the spirit of Gaia.

Sharons travelling art journal

When Sharon's gorgeous travelling art journal arrived I could not wait to see what was inside this beautifully created book case. It was like a birthday present.

It opens right up to reveal a beautiful art journal, wont you come for a wander through the woods with Alice to see all the beautiful pages created so far.

This is Sharons cover, a lovely mixed media page using some papers I have in my own stash and they never look so good when I play with them.

Sharon has obviously lavished love and attention onto her gorgeous journal and included beautiful gifts for us all - this is her front page, I covered up her details with a dragonfly for the picture.

Sharon also did this first spread and it has an extra surprise in that cuppa, 

and with the mad hatters tea party a scene from Alice we have lots of  tea taking pride of place in Danielle's spread.

I have fallen in love with Nicoles distinctive quirky style and her page is adorable. 

Jan takes us back to the tea party with this gorgeous stack of cups and so many Alice inspired details and layers.

Roz's page actually inspired me to read Alice and Mr11 and I also watched the Alice movies one weekend. I dont think I had ever read it before. 

Janene's pages are so lovely and whimsical and textured. I love the variety of interpretations and styles we are collecting in our journals.

These are my pages I wanted to play with the woods and the checkerboard landscape.

I even gave Alice a themed package to wing her way off to Reniet and there is my handy dragonfly to cover up another address.

Nicoles Travelling Art Journal

Sometimes, life gets to be too much,

 and even though every day we do what needs doing,

 life can become a bit of a blur- 

we can forget to notice the everyday moments

 that make life so rich 

and we can miss out 

on those activities that do bring us pleasure

 but are not quite so essential so they get put aside.

I have been in this space lately 

so the routine of a travelling journal 

arriving every month has been a real blessing.

I have not been doing much art at all

just masquerading that life is normal

The chance to contemplate working in a friends journal

to think about the theme and how it sits with me

to gather the materials -

 these tiny river peddles are from my beloved Clarence River

all offer me a chance

 to step outside of the stress and worries and touch my creative fire

My creative fire is my core
it gives me strength and joy and pleasure
I need to get back to creating daily,

but for now I am grateful for this 

Australian Art Journal Swap.

Elvira's Travelling Art Journal - Hands of an Artist

This is my page for Elvira 

from our 15-15-15 Journal Swap

Being the last one to work in this theme I wanted my hands to be different and I tried to capture the way fellow artists work in each others journals- It comes from the heart, we need to overcome our own concerns and trust that our work will be received as we mean it and bring joy to the owner of the journal when it gets home but also to our fellow artists along the journey. Its a privilege to work collaboratively in this way.

and these other pages are just a few from all of the wonderful women who worked in this swap

So many beautiful interpretations created

I just adore the texture in this page 

It was a pleasure to journal with these talented women.

Jan's Travelling Art Journal - Just Three Words

 It was a pleasure to play in Jan's lovely handmade journal.

Just Three Words

is her chosen theme so that leaves the field wide open to do as you please really.

I added a extra piece so I had more room to play

and I used a Jessica Sporn stencil and lots of texture and layers.

I took it out into the sun to try and pick up the under layers more clearly.

Oriental-Roz's fabulous travelling Art Journal

I have not been very arty at all lately, things have been really full on at home and the sheer size of all that is going on has been overwhelming and all the while this little beauty has been quietly beckoning to me from my self. The picture above is the tittle page Roz made in he journal, the whole journal is a delight.

Initially I was playing around with an idea for something clean and simple and sophisticated, I wanted to use paper and pattern and I started this page and it just sat there for a while until I finally added the fan.

In the mean time I had an idea about an Asian sunset,

so I played with dylusion sprays for the background and a simple ink drawing, and then the ideas were really flowing so I did a third page.

Playing with suggested textures here , I was after the feeling of languishing in luxury, silks and velvets, precious metals and succulent fruit.

So I have added an extra page into your journal Roz and I hope you like them.