Travel Journals

I am leaving for a European Trip tomorrow - and am very excited to have the opportunity to travel with two of my sisters and one of their husbands. Isn't he lucky?

I always journal my travels, and love recording unique events, places, words, expressions, experiences ... and whatever else takes my interest. My first overseas trip was in 1985, and it's interesting reading back over my impressions from then. that journal was written only. The page to the left is from my 2008 journal.

And a written and collaged page from the same journal.

Now that I have discovered altered books and collage - my recent journals are a mixture of words and collage - from train tickets to interesting images from tourist brochures. I have altered the covers of the journals I'm taking with me - with scrapbook paper and printed serviette layers. This makes it an art experience for me and has channeled the excitement into something useful. There seems to be a bit of an unintentional theme - flight! Birds and butterflies. Also brings to mind "freedom" of travel, which I love!

Cover of my "Getting Ready" Journal .

Cover of a sewn notebook that I'll take.

Inside pages.

Covers of the travel journal.

Back and front cover of the travel journal - but sorry - I can't get the photo to be around the right way!!!

Cards for Special People

Here are two of my latest card creations. I've been making cards for over 10 years now and when I give them to people they are appreciated. I am always updating my designs and see that I have had a pink theme here. I tend to favour the simple styles with just a bit of bling.

This card was made for my wonderfully talented future daughter-in-law, Hannah Norris. We are very proud of her, and especially now, because she was awarded the Curtain Call Award for best female actor in the 2010 Adelaide Fringe Festival for her portrayal of Rachel Corrie in the play "My name is Rachel Corrie", a very moving story of our times. The play will have a season in Melbourne in November.

This card was made for one of my sisters, Mandy. She is going to be the Mother-of-the-Bride on 8/9/10 in New York when her very talented daughter Jade marries Andrew. Jade Arnott is the name behind the Arnsdorf fashion label and we're very proud of her too.

One corner of my studio where I work sometimes...

The cards are both in the mail now so I hope they like them and know that I'm especially thinking of them both.

or I might choose to work here in another spot with a lovely view to our bushy backyard and down to the creek.

My Junk Journal.

The two covers - just begun.

I recently attended a Junk Journal Workshop day at Ro Bruhn's place. I had a wonderful day - playing with paint and stamps, chatting and laughing with fellow workshop members and relaxing & enjoying gourmet morning tea and lunch, cooked and served by Ro's husband Steve. A delicious spread.

I had been collecting interesting papers and envellopes for a quite while in preparation - I can't throw anything out now I've caught the "bug" and so I arrived at Ro's with a huge box full. I used mount board for covers and decorated these with gel medium applied through a piece of lace curtain.

This gave interesting texture and I painted it when dried. I will do more work on it as I think it looks a bit plain so far- maybe it needs more colour and some outlining or collages or ... 

Two signatures joined together

Front of one signature

I painted and stamped manila folders (signature covers) and assembled the papers in an interesting way and sewed these into two signatures. My journal still has lots of work for me to complete as I still have to sew the signatures to the spine of the covers. I loved some of the serendipity designs that happened during this work and as you can see - anything goes when using colours and stamps.

Painted page and some "Junk" pages.

One double page spread begun with a 10 minute Spontaneous Collage