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.

Journal for Jamie

Jamie and Seigrid and getting married in September.  When they announced their engagement they had a photo shoot done resulting in some awesome photos, so here is the 1st of the many creations I am planning using these photos.

This journal cover was made primarily as an entry for the Prima DT call, using lots of their goodies.  I've used all sorts of other products in my stash along with Dusty Attic chipboard, and wouldn't you believe it the colours match this months Inspiration Board perfectly, so I am also sharing this on the Dusty Attic challenge.  Here is their Inspiration Board:

 

After priming the covers with a generous coat of gesso I attached some die cuts and modelling paste thru some stencils, then the fun began.  I got out all my embellishments and started attaching charms, buttons, flowers, laces, die cuts, seed beads & chipboard.  The die cut heart around the photo added more texture once I'd embossed it, it also sits up off the surface for ease of photo placement.

Everything was then given another generous coat of gesso, then when dry various shades of greens & blues were painted over, under and in the embellishments until I was happy with the finish.  I then highlighted areas with gold rub-n-buff.

Enjoy these closeups.



 

Dusty Attic products used on this journal are DA 232 Jumbo Cogs and DA 1074H Love This.

 

 

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 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.

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 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'.

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.