Art Journal Session: Archival Inks

This month’s theme is ‘archival inks’. I’ve just counted how many pads I have, and excluding the mini-Distress pads, I have 62 colours! Many haven’t been used for some time but are still in perfectly usable condition, which is great. It seemed time for them to shine and here’s what I did with them… I’ve worked on translucent Dura-lar on pages from my experimental ‘see-through-page’ journal (which I don’t seem to have posted about before…).

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Bible Journaling: Secure in God (BJ-29)

These five illustrations were used in this week’s Bible Journaling Session on Monday evening at The Studio to reflect on a loose theme of ‘secure in God’. At some point, I will need to find the confidence to do the illustrations myself from scratch, but for now, I still have an image in mind and then search for it online. For this month’s templates, I have also used text-to-image AI to generate some of the graphics – this takes just as much time to tweak the prompt and generate tens of possibilities to get the image I have in mind. Overall design, text and colouring are all done by me.

The templates are available as a free PDF download via my online shop here.

Bible journaling examples (5) on the theme of secure in God.
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Bible Journaling: framed off-the-page illustration (Philippians 4:4)

I’ve some craft fairs booked in the run-up to Christmas. Two are going to be held at churches and I’ve determined that I could use those opportunities to promote some of my groups as well as sell. It seems only sensible for one of those to be my Bible journaling sessions. Combining the two aims results in the inspiration to create and sell some framed off-the-page illustrations, of which this is the first:

Framed illustration for Philippians 4:4 in the style of a ribbon banner tattoo using a walnut frame and a colour scheme chosen by AI.
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Art Journal Session: a tale of two halves

This month’s art journal session, “a tale of two halves”, required a little playing to pull together. It became a lesson in contrasts: complementary colours, techniques and reflectivity from varnishes and mica.

A tale of two halves: contrasting colours, techniques and finishes in an art journal layout.
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Art Journaling Session: Watersolubles

This evening we are playing with all sorts of watersolubles for our Art Journal Session. I’ve raided my stash for media that we don’t use often in the sessions, with pencils, paints, crayons and gelatos on the menu. The session is all about experimentation and the different ways the water interacts with the pigments on the page. We’re adding some stamping and hand-drawn embellishments to adorn the page:

Watersolubles with mixed media in an art journal spread.
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Card making: Online Card Classes – Extraordinary Embossing Folders Day 5

I’m finishing my makes guided by the week-long course from Online Card Classes: Extraordinary Embossing Folders. For the final day, we looked at bonus tips for using embossing folders which incorporate previous techniques with different ways of applying media.

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Card making: Online Card Classes – Extraordinary Embossing Folders Day 4

I’m on a roll – more cards inspired by Online Card Classes: Extraordinary Embossing Folders. Day 4 explored layered embossing, building texture and using different substrates to dry emboss.

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Card making: Online Card Classes – Extraordinary Embossing Folders Day 3

Various things have got in the way of finishing the Online Card Class: Extraordinary Embossing Folders. Eventually, I got annoyed moving the kit from one end of the studio to the other and decided to get on with the course again, if only to be able to put everything away! Day 3 combines dry embossing with dies. Again, I’ve made use of what I have to emulate the course makes and have benefitted from the loan of kit from one of my valued Studio guests.

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Art Journaling Session: Washi Tape

I unpacked a box of ancient washi tape rolls for this evening’s art journaling session and eventually got them all to unpeel without tearing. We used them to build background collages in black and white and colour, and layered them for maximum contrast in this finished layout:

Washi tape used as a background collage for black and white and also coloured elements in this art journal layout.
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Bible Journaling: Revelation (BJ-28)

Here are five new illustrations for verses from Revelation. They were the templates/samples for this evening’s Bible Journaling Session at the Studio. You’re welcome to book in for this monthly session, usually held on the second Monday of the month and open to beginners or confident artists. For more details, see my workshops page. As normal, the templates are available as a free download for you to use (but not share!). Scroll down for further information about how I completed each illustration.

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