Wednesday 19 February 2014

Art journal page for One Little Word

Hi everyone :)

I’ve been struck by a bit of a bug today so I’ve been at home.  I don’t do ‘bored’ very well… in fact it drives me insane… so I decided to have a proper look for my Distress Inks and I found them in the very last container I looked in… but at least I found them!

I also found my notebook of ideas for the October prompt for One Little Word… yes I’m actually catching up on a project!

Last October Ali Edwards prompted us to ‘get messy’ with our word and create an art journal page.  I’d had quite a few ideas last October but nothing would really come together at the time.  This morning I looked at my notes and suddenly saw something that I’d never seen before… a really strong message that I wanted to remember… so with inks located it was time to get messy!

I started off with one of my pages that already had gesso on it and out came my inks:a

I discovered one thing this morning… Distress Inks lift off a gesso’d background REALLY easily!!!  I tried using the heat gun to set the ink but no matter what I did the ink kept lifting… so I decided to use my Distress Paints instead.b

I started off with a few different shades of blue and grey to build up the sky along with a piece of wet and dry foam to help me blend.  Then I moved into the greens:c

I dried it all with a heat gun and then got busy with a bit more inking to create extra depth on my page.  Totally love the way the paints and inks work together.d

Next up was some stamping… I was trying to really create some depth so I did multiple stamped images using the same stamp and a variety of ink.  First up with some Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink:

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Then some London Fog Memento ink:

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Followed by some Walnut Stain Distress Ink:

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I was really enjoying ‘playing’ by this stage so I  got busy with a stencil and some Wild Honey ink to create a hint of sunlight.  It’s not so obvious in the photos but you can see it clearly on the finished page.

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I had already cut out a stencil that I wanted to use on this page but in the end I used the ‘center’ of the stencil instead. 

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I wanted a darker colour so I used the ‘chocolate’ Gelato and lots of blending with my finger to get exactly the look I wanted.  A quick spray with fixative and she was ready to go!

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After she was dry (which takes about a minute) I glued her to my page with mono glue and then started to add some shading with my charcoal pencil and blending it with a damp brush.

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If you’re wondering where I’m heading with all this here’s the message I wrote to myself back in October…  There’s lots of choices… just pick the one that ‘speaks’ to you and take a leap of faith!  I really wanted to include part of what I’d written on my page so I got out some neglected stamps and went for it.

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And for those who know me well… yes it did tick me off that I got some ‘touch downs’ with the letter stamping!!!  Moving right along… I wanted a bit more on the page and I had a cool ruler stamp that I thought might work:

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Umm.. no I don’t think so… then I found some cool Prima resist canvas elementals that Esther gave me ages ago and decided to open the packet and give it a go… lovely, lovely product to work with… thanks Esther xx

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I coloured mine with Distress Stains (Rusty Hinge and Faded Jeans) and then added a brad from my stash.  Then of course it was time for the date tag:

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My page is now securely adhered into my art journal:

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As you can see I’ve actually reached the end of the first signature of pages.  When I put my art journal together I thought I would have plenty of room for two signatures but to be honest this journal is getting really fat so I’m thinking I might take the second set out of the journal and start a new one.

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p.s.  I noticed when I put this page in my journal that I’d dated my last page wrong… I did the last page on FEB 15 but the date stamp said JAN 15… I was able to fix it up without too many hassles.

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Now that I’ve finally gotten my October art journal page completed I’ll be able to share the rest of my One Little Word album with you soon.  Thanks for all the comments about the last post too… it inspired me to get creative again xx

Saturday 15 February 2014

I’ve been creative!

Hi everyone :)

Today I finally got my arty stuff out and did something creative.  It’s been a REALLY long time since I actually got inky/painty hands and it was well overdue!

I know I usually take step by step photos but today I just got completely lost in the creative process and forgot all about that until the page was actually done… and of course by that stage I had stuff EVERYWHERE!!

Here’s my finished page before it got put into my art journal.  The page actually curled up quite a bit… must have been all the layers of paint!1

It looked heaps better once it was attached into my art journal:2

And here it is again as a full spread:3

About the only think that I know is not on my page anywhere is Distress Ink… and that’s because I haven’t been able to find ANY of them since I moved! 

I’m still going to carry on with Project Life this year but I’m not sure if I’m going to keep to the same format as the last two years.  I have been taking a lot more photos on my new phone so I’ve got plenty to work with but for now I’m busy adjusting to life in Gisborne, a new relationship and a house that is far too small for all my stuff!