Not the End

To chill out and hopefully help find some mojo again I've been having a bit of fun with another page in my art journal.  Lots of bright colours to cheer up these dreary days we are having at the moment.

This is the first time I've used my Dylusion paints - love them to bits, with everything being outlined with a black gelato.  TH Distress inks were used thru lots of different stencils.  Black and white sharpie pens finish the smaller details. 

As well as trying to brighten up this dreary day I've used the inspiration board from Scrap around the World whose monthly challenge I will enter this into.  I've used all the bright colours, the flowers and the steps in my page.

 

I just love the quote I've used  - "You can't run out of Creativity so this is not the end".  I may even use this on a page I've got to create in an journal swap I'm doing at the moment as we are very close to the end.  This page is my interpretation of one of the masses of works I've seen on facebook, thank you to the original artist.  

Time for an Art Journal page

Time for something a bit different with this project.  The theme this time at Southern Girls Challenge is 'Stickers & Tape' of which I use neither.  For that reason I straight away thought of doing a page in my art journal using these different supplies.

I started by following the beginnings of an Andrea Walford express journal page, which used the stencilling, washi tape, cotton & ink splatter.  Then I added the stickers which came from the Kaisercraft Curiosity collection. 
After outlining the words, I started outlining the birds & butterflies but decided because of how the stickers had been cut out, they actually looked better not outlined.

That's my little step into the 'unfamiliar', I'd love to see yours too.  Come and join us for this challenge, there are some awesome prizes to be won from our fabulous sponsors.

New Inspiration

While surfing through You Tube I've come across yet another wonderfully talented lady who does fantastic art journal pages with easy-to-follow video's.  So I've subscribed to her channel and put her blog on my favourites bar.  Take a look at Andrea Walford's work for yourself, you'll be impressed.

While waiting for paint to dry on the art journal page I'm working on at the moment I decided to have a go at one of her pages I watched last night.  Here is the link to her page titled 'Shine'.

 

This is my interpretation of the page, which I've done on a page with the background prepared earlier by wiping off brushes and baby wipes while doing another page.  I love the extra colour its brought into the page. 

 

This was an extremely easy page to do, I thoroughly enjoyed doing it.  Thanks Andrea for the inspiration. 

Creative Dreams Journals

The 12 months have run their course and I have now finished and returned my last art journal to its owner.  I have been showing you the pages monthly as I've finished them, but here I've brought them all together. 
Firstly here is my last page, which is in Louise's journal (I'm sure by now she will have received it).

 

This page started with gesso randomly splotched around the page thru a template to create a resist.  Next I glued on some ripped pieces of dictionary paper.  This all got a good coating of Dylusions Ink Sprays in several different oranges, pinks, yellows, greens.  I love the effect I've got here.  Once this was dry I got out my latest template to create the foreground (flowers & butterflies) where I used several different coloured Distress Inks.  This is the first time I've had the chance to use my Prima 'lady' stamp, which I stamped onto dictionary paper, then coloured with gelato's & cut out.  The house was created the same.  The bricks were created with a Donna Salazaar stamp & chalk ink.  I then stamped the wording & framed the pages with Dylusions stamps.

 

Here are the other pages, starting with my own book right at the beginning:

 

 

Wow what a lot of variation, I really did try to do something a bit different everytime, especially if there was no theme.  I am proud of what I've created and now can't wait to get into some more of the same sometime.

Thank you to all the ladies who have contributed their time and talent in my journal.  At the time of publishing this post sadly it has not returned home yet.  I wait with baited breath.

Art Journal page 11

Who would have thought it, we are now only one more journal away from finishing this epic journey in our Creative Dreams art journal swap.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the freedom to experiment and try out new techniques/colours/products on these pages.  Here again I am trying new ideas, what do you think?

 

Only days before I created this page I received my latest parcel of goodies I've just purchased online with all these gorgeous coloured Dylusions Ink Sprays.  The 'bubbles' template was also new, so of course I just had to play with them all.

 

I started the page by firstly splashing a bit of gesso on thru the new template, then once dry I got a bit crazy with the Ink Sprays.  What a gorgeous result I got.  I then hand drew the flowers which I filled in with random background stamps.  On top of this I've used some new Dylusions stamps & templates.  All stamping was done using Stazon inks.  Black & white sharpie pens were used for the highlights & lettering.  Black buttons finish the flowers.

 

I'm really please with how this page has turned out, so much so that I recreated it in my own journal, where I usually do a practice run first.  Thank you for visiting, please let me know what you think.

Sunshine Superman

Here we are with my completed pages in the 10th of the Creative Dreams art journals.  Ooooh, its now very close to the return of my journal, with all the awesome artwork completed by the other ladies, I can't wait.  But at hand today is my latest pages where the theme was "Journey".  I wanted to do something a bit abstract, so came up with this idea.

 I wanted to show the effect of superman 'bursting' through the sky, which I think I have achieved.  The background has been coloured with gelato's, and as this was my first use of them I must admit that I'm rather impressed.  Over top of the yellow (butterscotch) stripes I've used a TCW template and TH Scattered Straw distress ink, whereas the blue (blueberry) stripes I used TH Pumice Stone through the TCW template.  Serviettes were used for the superman components of the pages.  TH Alpha tiles, Dylusions edging stamp & dots and rings of gesso finish the pages.

Being part of a group like this has been one big journey for us all.  It is a great opportunity to tryout techniques and ideas that wouldn't otherwise be touched on, and seeing what the other ladies come up with is also such a great way to learn.

Thanks for visiting, keep an eye out for the last two instalments over the next two months.  They will be easy to search for as they are all labelled CD.

Art Journal 8

Its quite amazing how fast we are getting through these journals, as here we are already with No. 8 done.  Not long now until I get mine back all filled up with loveliness from all the wonderful new friends I have made.

For this journal the theme was 'Things with Wings'.  All the other ladies have done birds & butterflies, so I decided to try something different.

I painted the background, then ripped up music paper and stuck down, then gesso'd.  In my stash I have some lovely 'Flower Fairy' party tablecloths, so that was the source of my inspiration. Lots of fussy cutting & modge podge later, the page was finished with ribbon & lace on 2 of the edges then I stamped & coloured the longer sides.  Glitter has been stuck in random places.

Gotta love doing these journals, its a great chance to try something new.  To see all the other pages I have done in this challenge (1 per month) they are all labelled 'CD'.  Let me know what you think.  Think about joining in a similar group yourselves.  It is so much fun with people you've mostly never met before.

Travel journal

Over at Artistic Creationz they are now taking entries to join in the annual Circle Journal, so while I've got a bit of time up my sleeve I've made a start to mine.  Firstly to think of a theme . . . once that was established the whole idea of the shape/size/construction of the journal was quite straight forward.  I also wanted to do something quite different to the norm.

 

This collage was such fun to make, and surprisingly easy.  The whole idea hinged around the availability of the Eiffel Tower chipboard, which luckily Spotlight did have in stock.  I have taken a few photos to show you the different easy steps.

 

 

I started with just a piece of cardstock.  After creating the background by sticking on some 'texture' (muslim, tissue, lace, netting, etc) I hot glued all the bits in place (as you can see there is allsorts here - even a dismembered doll).

 

 

Everything then got a generous coating of gesso.

 

Then the fun part really started.  I painted the whole thing in red, then the base got a touch of black paint and coffee shop glimmermist (to tone down the red a bit).  When this was all dry I touched up the red again (several times), leaving the black background.  Then to attach the label.  The whole page has been finished off by highlighting areas by dabbing on some gold rub'n'buff.  I LOVE how its turned out, and by the comments and 'likes' on facebook, I think I've done myself proud.

 

I hope I have inspired you to try something similar, it is soooo easy and fun to do.  Thank you for visiting and for all your lovely comments.

  

Art Journal 6

Its real fun being involved with these Creative Dreams art journals, so much so as soon as I receive the next journal I have to get straight onto it even though I've got the whole month to complete my pages.  Believe it or not we are actually half way thru the group already, as we had 12 start at the beginning to last 12 months.

 

Again I've gone with something totally different to anything I've done before, infact until I'd finished the background I still didn't quite know what I was going to do.

 

I started the pages by randomly stamping some tissue paper before gluing down.  Next I rubbed a bit of blue paint in odd places just with my fingers, followed by a bit of random splotches of gesso.  I then sprayed the 2 outside edges with Dylusion Ink spray (London Blue) and water and allowed that to dribble across the pages.  When this was all dry I got out a couple of stencils and made random patterns everywhere.

 

This is when I  struck my problem "WHAT TO DO NOW ? ? ?"

 

I found some serviettes with these cute birds & flowers so decided to go with the tree idea.  Even though I'm no artist I drew this tree using a brown marker pen, followed with a bit of texture paste.  I tore the birds and flowers up then adhered them to the page.  Lastly came the saying I found online  "A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a SONG  -  Lou Holtz".  I finished the page by inking the edges with Black Soot TH distress ink.  All in all I think this probably took me about 6 hours to complete, even having to wait for layers to dry.  Infact the drying time was minimal as it is SOOOO hot here at the moment.

 

Again I have thoroughly enjoyed the chance to contribute to this great project and if any of you out there come across something like I would recommend you jump in feet first and seize the opportunity as this is a great way to experiment and learn soooo much, it really pushes you outside your comfort zone (in the nicest way of course).

 

Thank you for visiting, please leave your thoughts and check out all the previous art journal pages I have done here.

Art Journal 5

Wow the time has gone so fast, here we are with Christmas already just a memory.  Its been such fun making Christmas related articles  (cards, decorations, layouts, gifts) so now its great to get back into something more normal again.

Here is my creation in the next Art Journal with the girls at Creative Dreams.  There was no theme to follow in this one so I hope the owner likes what I've done for her.

 

I came across these gorgeous serviettes, so was determined to use the poppies somehow.  Firstly I  painted the background, then modge podged the serviettes and lettering.  The resulting pages are as touch as leather (literally).  I couldn't find many 'poppy' related sayings, so had to use these lines from this timeless poem by John McCrae.  Lastly I added the little 'rows' of crosses.

 

I love the colours in this page and am very happy with the end result.  This has now been posted onto the next person in the group, so bring on the next one.  

 

Art Journal 4

Another month is now well underway, so here I have completed my page in the latest journal in the Creative Dreams monthly Art Journal challenge.   Now being in the fourth month its great to see some of the other girls contributions as well.  This is Allies journal, and she was clever and created the book herself by including magazine pages, photocopy paper, odds and scraps of cardstock and manila folder....etc.  Its actually more of a junk journal or smash book, lots of options here to work with.

 

The theme of the journal is "What does home mean to you?", so I've gone along the lines more of scrapbooking than arty, and shown her what "home is ...." to me.  The two outside pages are actually magazine pages, which I gesso'd, leaving some of the words showing thru, then used templates (brick wall), paint, colouring pencils, distress inks & glimmermist, then lots of photos and even a favourite recipe.

 

Its always a pleasant surprise to see what secrets and expectations the next journal brings, a great learning curve.  I am really enjoying being part of this group.

Art Journal 3

Wow how time flies.  Here we are already the middle of the month.  Definitely time to be getting on with things.  Here I've finished my page in the next art journal I'm doing with the ladies at Creative Dreams.  Being involved with this is really making me think outside the square in a real fun way.  Anyway here is my effort I've done in Jules' book.

She asked for spring colours, so whats better than these fluro Kaisercraft paints?  I spread the 3 colours across the pages with a credit card, then used random templates & stamps in black and white.  The background word stamp was stamped onto tissue before gluing on the page, then also painted.  Magazine cutouts were attached, then outlined with painty pens (black and white).  I finished the page with lots of spots and blotches, rhinestones & distress inks.

Inspiration for the background came from 'Mixed Media Jenn' on You Tube and I also used  techniques that I used on the previous page.  This was a real fun page to create and once I had the colours and ideas sorted in my brain this only took 2 evenings to actually create.

This is also being entered in the Lets Craft & Create challenge which is 'Ink Technique'.

Crazy Collage

Wow I cannot believe I actually created this!!! For someone who can't draw to save themselves, I am very impressed.  This is a page I've made in Fiona's Art Journal, which is the 1st of the monthly journals I will be contributing to with Creative Dreams

 

This is SUCH a crazy style.  Artists Teesha Moore & Jane Davenport are doing this crazy collage on You Tube, and now having done it I find you don't actually have to be an artist to create these masterpieces.  All you need is glossy magazines, pens, and a bit of paint . . . . . . and CRAZY imagination. 

 

This is definitely a style that I will be tempted to do again, and once you have a supply of glossy pictures in your stash, its surprisingly quick to actually put together.

 

Please follow my journey through the next 12 months as I contribute to all the other ladies journals as they arrive.

Creative Dreams art journal

What perfect timing to become involved in another journal.  The Circle Journal I've been a part of with Artistic Creationz has just ended, so when I was invited to join in on this Art Journal run by Jules at Creative Dreams I jumped right in.  This journal is going to be soooo different as it is a more 'arty' project, i.e. painting, drawing etc.  Shock, horror, minor panic here ..... I am NO artist.
Our brief was to supply an A4 sized journal, and decorate as we desired.  We are to complete one journal (double page spread) per month.

 

 

Inside the front cover (on the 1st page) are all my personal details, for all my fellow artists to share, then a few pages over is my 1st real effort as an artist.  This page is the result of 2 ideas, the background was found on You Tube - (RachO113), and the flowers were on a card on the challenge site Lets Craft and Create 

 

 

Firstly the background was painted (blue & green) with watered down paints - very slap happy and streaky here, then I finger painted around the bottom edges with gold paint.  Stencils were used to add the dots and diamonds, then I randomly stamped around with a script stamp just to add a bit more interest.  I inked the outside of the pages with Walnut Stain distress ink.  The petals of the flowers were hand cut from dictionary paper, then inked before I glued into place.  I then drew around the edges of the petals, and created stems with a sharpie pen (black & white) and lastly glued on buttons.

 

I am really happy with my 1st real 'arty' effort and hope the rest of the journals will be as easy to complete. I think I shall be watching lots of  You Tube to get more inspiration somehow.