Art Journals: using acrylic covers

Posted on 28th April 2017 by perfectly4med

I was on Hochanda this week demonstrating techniques for using the acrylic covers effectively, for the A4 and A6 journals from That’s Crafty!. As always, there is too little time on air to fit in all my ideas, and only just enough time to fit in all I had planned! What follows below are photos and quick explanations of how to do your own. I really need to remember to take step-by-step photos as I make so that I can do a proper tutorial post! First is an unbroadcast cover, then the mirrored cover that didn’t go so right when rushed, and last for this post is the bubbling water effect shown in my first hour.

Peel off the protective film from the reverse of the cover
Work on the reverse side for all the following steps
Place the snowdrop stencil in position and fill in using Posca pens
Dry, then place the TIME stencil upside down and sponge through ivory paint
Dry, spritz with gold mister, dry
Meanwhile, print texture stamps onto large Rizla papers using Chartreuse archival ink
Heat set the ink, then using decoupage glue/multi medium glue overlapping layers of the printed papers
Once dry, any paper over the edges of the cover can be sanded off

Peel off the protective film from the reverse of the cover
Working on the reverse, add alcohol inks until you are happy with the coloured layer
Place the JOURNAL stencil upside down and sponge a layer of Jet Black archival ink through onto the alcohol ink
Remove the stencil and then rub away the black in with a clean cloth/kitchen towel
Repeat inking steps if you want to remove any more of the alcohol ink
Now spritz with a water-based varnish (e.g. Pentart spray varnish) to seal the ink
IMPORTANT: allow to fully air dry, do not heat. Repeat varnish layer
Spritz with Pentart Mirror Mist and heat dry immediately to stop the mirror mist weakening the varnish beneath
Seal the mirror mist with the same varnish and finally apply a layer of black acrylic paint
Peel off front film to reveal your results

Peel off the protective film from the reverse of the cover
Working on the reverse, and using the word stencils the wrong way up, sponge your main colour onto the acrylic; heat dry and repeat directly over the top.
Next, sponge your shadow colour through the same stencil, slightly offsetting from the first colour
For the water effect, first dilute some white gesso/primer
Working quickly, cover the whole sheet with a layer of watery paint and then dab isopropyl alcohol into the wet paint – it will push the paint away and start the effect
When you are happy with the effect, heat dry in a well ventilated room
Repeat with a light shade of blue, and then another darker shade of blue
This technique will work over any sealed surface, but does rely on the paint being thinned and still wet
Try adding text to the front of the cover as well, this time starting with the shadow colour and working over the top with the main colour

Bonus post

Later this week I will do a separate post explaining my ‘now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t’ technique that was a wee bit rushed at the end of the second show:

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Art Journal Page: Beautiful Art

Posted on 1st April 2017 by perfectly4med

The first Monday of the month sees my monthly art journal evening at the Studio, and next week the theme is ‘never been used’. I’ve asked studio guests to bring something from their crafty stash that they have never used, and we’ll be incorporating them into our beautiful art journal pages.

In prepping my sample for the session, I came across an embarrassment of unused kit deep in folders, drawers and baskets. I think I will need to do more of these! I know I’m not alone, so what do you think – anyone fancy a ‘never been used’ challenge blog?

Here’s my show page, worked in my very first art journal from 2011 on a background that I’d not yet used:

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Bible Journaling: Psalm 72 vs.18-19

Posted on 31st March 2017 by perfectly4med

I’ve taken a break from spring cleaning the studio… how come when ‘tidying up’ things look even worse than when I started? I merely whisked a cobweb away with a damp cloth, inadvertently cleaned a section of paintwork, wiped a little harder, and it ended up with me repainting that section later that morning. I think I will get the feather duster out next time.

As I say, I’ve taken a break and used the opportunity to do more bible journaling in my NLT Refections bible. This time I’ve broken away from the main margin and added typography to the white space on the page proper. Not sure this one works too well with the colours I chose, or the grey background – but then that’s what practice and experimentation is for! I think the use of white space works better – and that’s probably more obvious when the passages have the short poetry style formatting. It’s not going to be as easy to use white space when there isn’t any… and that’s where the next artistic bravery step comes in – illustrating over the text itself.

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Art Journal: American Adventures [Travel Journal]

Posted on 28th March 2017 by perfectly4med

It’s taken some time, but I’ve finished the journal I handmade last year and finally got round to taking and editing the photos of the finished article. I intended to journal each day before going to bed, but got a little behind whilst in New York as our room was so small that there was actually nowhere to work on a flat surface, and there was no communal area I could use either. Consequently, by the time I got to Boston, and there was space to work, I was already five days behind. Then life on the road for the final few days also meant I was doing other things at the end of each day. So it meant finishing off the work once I got home, but that brought back good memories of a lovely, and much needed, holiday.

As a format, the piano hinge worked very well – I was able to slide out each of the sticks in turn to work on the pages individually, which was far easier. The fold out sections added a little more space, and the wallets somewhere to put the various bits of ephemera that I collected along the way. With techniques from collage to napkin decoupage, hand drawn typography to watercolour illustrations, it was fun to put together. I would have liked to do more urban drawing, but for speed, mini-photos had to suffice.

Sit back, with a cuppa of your choice, and holiday vicariously as you work through the journal 🙂

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Bible Journaling: John 20

Posted on 24th March 2017 by perfectly4med

I’m developing my bible journaling techniques – this time, I’ve worked in my NIV Journaling Bible. This has cream pages, with wide unruled margins. The paper is as thin, and has a little more bleed-through that the NLT bible I reviewed at the beginning of the week. That aside, the performance is just as good in all other aspects. I chose the same passage as before to illustrate, but this time have read around the main verse to add to the drawing. Initially it was just black and white, and I hemmed and hawed about adding colour before taking the plunge.

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Bible Journaling: John 20 v27

Posted on 21st March 2017 by perfectly4med

I’ve recently bought a new Bible specifically to journal in – actually I’ve purchased two (NIV & NLT). There are probably some people who think that drawing in a Bible is sacrilegious, but I see it as creative worship, and an extension of my sermon sketchnotes. As a pastime, it seems to have become very popular and perhaps a spin off from the adult colouring trend. Some journaling bibles even have illustrations waiting to be coloured. I christened my new NLT bible this evening:

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Art Journal Pages: Colours

Posted on 19th March 2017 by perfectly4med

Regular readers won’t be surprised to learn that I have been spending quite a lot of time making samples and prepping demos for my shows on Hochanda last Friday. It’s one reason that there have been very few blog updates recently, as there’s always a media embargo on sharing things before the shows go out. Now that they’re over though, here is one of the 8×8″ journals I decorated for the occasion.

Each spread uses the Pentart Matt Acrylic Paints in a baby-wipe swiped layer, stamped and stencilled, to give a tone-on-tone effect. Some worked well (purple and orange), others not so well (mentioning no names, green). The fine applicator nib is great for painting outlines and letters, as I demonstrated on air.

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Art Journal Page: ATC Art Gallery

Posted on 4th March 2017 by perfectly4med

It’s my monthly Art Journal Session on Monday evening, and for this month’s theme we’re tackling ‘ATC art’. I’m not one for making artist trending cards most of the time – for the uninitiated, ATCs are 3½” x 2½” pieces of artwork that are designed to be swapped between crafters – and I thought it was time to revisit the format. I’ve sneaked them into my art journal timetable, and here’s the sample page. BTW – the frames are one of my first forays into the world of 3D design and printed here in The Studio.

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Art Journal Page: Dare [for That’s Crafty]

Posted on 26th February 2017 by perfectly4med

I think I’ve said it before, but one of the benefits of being on a design team is that you get to play with new kit before it is available to everyone else. So – spoiler alert – it was exciting to see in yesterday’s post some of the new That’s Crafty! journals, stencils and stamps that I will be using on my TV shows on Hochanda on 17th March (7am & 11am). This will be the only sneak peek I’ll be doing until the shows, so see what you can spot will be on sale!

There’s so much potential with the new kit for layering, building texture and depth, and so many new elements to add to a page. I hope you can join me either live, or on the catch up on the Hochanda website (or on record if you’re not up and watching TV already at 7am!). The first hour is going to be live in the Netherlands – my first live international audience 🙂

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Art Journal Page: Deep Waters

Posted on 7th February 2017 by perfectly4med

It was a ‘watersolubles’ theme at Art Journaling last night. In between diagnosing a broken Mac (it was one of the RAM cards that died) and having the car serviced (it was a VW diesel engine…), I grabbed an hour or so to do an inspiration page:

It reminded me that all watersolubles are not created equal, with some water-soluble wax crayons barely moving when wetted, even on watercolour paper, and others wandering off and doing their own thing quite happily. It also is worth noting that, to get best effects, you should gesso or otherwise seal your journal page unless working in a watercolour paper journal.

In the above example, I used the blues on watercolour paper before drying and cutting out the letters on my Silhouette Cameo. The background is a combination of colour and graphite watersolubles over gesso, overprinted with acrylic paint. Handwritten text and outlines finished off the layout.