Swapping!

A while ago I was asked by Elizabeth (who explains it all here at The Altered Book Lover) if I would like to take part in a journal tip in swap as part of a group of six!

I already knew some of the group, Valerie,(Bastelmania showed her pages here) Dianne (Art Beneath The Cottonwoods showed hers here) and Elizabeth of course and I soon got to 'know' Annette Voodoo Vixen whose blog is here) and Norma who doesn't have a blog.

I have really had to get my 'big girl knickers' on as the standard is very high!

Over the next three posts I will show first, the examples I made to show everyone my style (which you may know is eclectic!!!)
Next I will show you what I received from Annette.
Finally I will show you the pages I sent to Dianne.

My chosen theme is Gardens

                   Page 1

 I scraped paint onto the page and then used random stamping and doodles before adding some green muslin. The flowers and butterflies all fussy cut after stamping.
                     Page2

 Again, paint scraped on and stamped and then book paper with stencilled Agapanthus and some stamped linen. The black label came off a top I bought - I covered the name with bits from my box.The quote stamp is fairly new but I know I will use the words separately on other projects. The flowers are some I have had for YEARS!!!
                         Page 3

 This started as many of my pages do by picking up some mop up paper. This is an A3 sheet of copy paper that I have folded and glued to make double sided A4 size. 
I love to make lots of layers of stencilling and stamping as well as doodling into pages.
My lettering isn't very good but I keep practicing.
                      Page 4

 This is the other half of the folded over sheet - it is slightly bigger than the other 2 but that really doesn't bother me.
I added some bricks using texture paste through a stencil. The flowers are also stencils outlines with pen. The flowers were done with tinted crackle paste and then inked to intensify the colour. The butterfly was from a set I bought at a pound shop.
                   Page 5

 This is as simple as it looks - strips of book paper gessoed over and then ink dripped down the page - the random stamping soaked into the gesso turning it grey. The circles are either gelli prints or mop ups form gelli prints. Stamped with some of my favourite things about gardens….and bees...there has to be bees!!!
                   Page 6

This is really an exercise in using up papers I wouldn't normally use. I gessoed over it all and then added some texture paste through a stencil, some nail art beads, some paint stencilled flowers and some punched Hydrangea flowers.
The image came from a Stampington magazine(they give away lovely pages in the centre of the mag)and I rolled up some torn papers and then stuck the image on with just a touch of tuile. The bird in the corner is also from a magazine - Daphne's Diary - a magazine that is full of lovely gentle articles about artists, travel, decor and food but they also have the most beautiful papers for home use too! 
The label with the sentiment covers up the original stamped one which - of course soaked into the gesso!!

Hopefully by now we are having fun in Paris - this is a scheduled post!

Thanks for looking, Chris