I’ve been a bit busy this last week getting things done in the garden (why did I have so much decking put in?), and getting samples made with the latest Craftwork Cards collections ready for the TV shows next week. Oh, and leading a workshop at The Studio yesterday at which there were some super mixed media art journal covers made.

And I got asked – what are we doing on Monday night? Referring, of course, to my monthly art journaling session. At the time, I couldn’t remember what I idea I’d had, but it came back to me today, and this is the result of my trying out the technique.

The background is gesso’d first, then dried, then spritzed with water and overlaid with torn strips of ‘bleeding tissue’, spritzed some more, and then dried – during which the tissue paper comes off. I’ve saved that for another page… Spritzed with water drops and left to dry. Printed the agapanthus images (Woodware stamp) with archival black, and then painted round them with Dylusions white linen paint two thirds up, and a second layer to one third up. This takes up some of the dye from the tissue paper, which helps it all blend nicely. Shading with water-soluble 2B graphite pencil, add a smidge of colour with Lilac ProMarker. Main text stamped with Dylusions Crushed Grape paint on foam stamps, next row of text is stamped in Magenta Hue archival ink, and finally Cobalt archival. Lastly I created highlights on top of the balls by wetting and dabbing the dye from the gesso layer (sort of like you can do with distress inks).

Never been used until this project: Agapanthus stamp, bleeding tissue #nbu