More Gesso Pages in my Poetry Journal

pages primed with gesso and then painted over

papers to dull the colour.

stamping with gesso - on the left stamped in gesso

and painted over with acrylic and on the right, gesso

stamped over acrylic

Maps from travel brouchures collaged, poem

by Lily Brett written over and then gesso

applied over the top to tone down gloss.

I've undertaken Michelle Ward's GPP Street Team Crusade this month. Crusade 25 is GESSO. Michelle is challenging everyone to play with gesso and share their results. I haven't journaled for a long time, so I thought I would start a new journal (its a moleskine cahier).

This is going to be a journal of favourite songs, poems and quotes, stemming from LK's challenge to share favourite poems and songs. I thought I would start with The Beatles Song - Blackbird.

I prepped the page using gesso and then stamped the song words (GPP), there was some remaining blue ink on the stamp from its last use and the gesso removed this ink. I then stamped the ravens and glued down the song lyrics.

I liked the look of the page, but it looked too clean and bright to me, so I thought I would darken it a bit. I added some black acrylic paint in patches and it looked a bit better, but I thought I would add some gesso over the top to tone it down. Patience is a virtue that I don't seem to be endowed with at the moment ... I muddied the whole thing. I'm not sure if it can be rectified, I might just have to live with this one, but I have learnt rule 1. let gesso and paint dry completely before adding another layer

Carving Capers!

In my enthusiasm to make a start on this crusade, I turned the studio upside down looking for my lino cutting tools - we've still got boxes that we're unpacking (nearly 5 months after moving in - you can't rush these things!)I didn't find the tools but I found some scraps of lino and decided to make a shadow stamp for my anatomy stamp - a la Michelle - I stamped the image onto the lino and cut it out using a scalpel. I inked it up, it looked ok, so I stamped it. Then I inked the head and stamped over the 'shadow', something just didn't look right. I sat and looked at the stamps and the stamped image. It took a little while for me to figure it out the 'shadow' is a mirror image of the stamp, so it has created a reverse image rather than a shadow. So while I'm back to square one, I do have a silhoutte of a head stamp!

I went into town this morning to try and buy a carving block, with no joy - This is the bit that I am finding difficult living in a small country town, 8 hours from the city - I guess I'm just going to have to order what I need online. Stay tuned for future progress.

Here are some more Journal Pages that I have created with my journal kit. Thanks to Michelle for the great idea - I haven't had a chance to travel with it yet, but I have to travel for work in the next few weeks so it will be coming with me!

The photo didn't quite work out for this page, the frame and words came from a magazine and I used a piece of foil to create the mirror.

Don't forget to check out the blogs of other GPP Street Team members for some great journal kit and journaling ideas.

This month Michelle Ward's crusade is to create a journaling kit, so that you can journal on the go. This is a great idea for me, especially when I have to travel for work. To have a kit that I can just grab and it has everything that I need in it.

I'm using a scrapbooking tote, that I don't use for scrapbooking 'cause I have too much stuff. It's just the right size to hold my pencils, and my journal fits in it too if I need to, but it's a bit of a squeeze.

What's in the kit - a glue stick, sharpies, prismacolors, journaling words, scissors, stamp pad and stamps. I'm also checking out all the other street teamers kits for ideas of things to add to the kit.

p.s. thanks to the street teamer who explained how to use the hyperlink on blogger - it has made life so much easier!

Journal your Blog

Here are a couple more of my pages from my GPP Street Team Journal.

This journal spread - Crusade number 15 - Where in the world - is for this blog post.

This journal spread - Crusade number 12 - Crush on You - from this blog post.

It's Crusade Time Again!

For this month's crusade, Michelle is encouraging us to journal our blog. Taking one (or more) of our blog posts and journaling about them - creating evidence. (I don't know where she keeps coming up with these ideas - amazing!) Belinda Schneider showed her journal spread in her GPP Crusade Journal - Now there was an idea that I could use.

So here we are, I've created a GPP Street Team Crusade Journal - All Crusade blog posts are to be recorded HERE.

I'm starting now but I'll go back and journal all of the crusades that I've participated in.

Thanks for the great ideas guys!