Art Journal
Art Journal Page: Layers, layers, layers

Posted on 25th October 2019 by Neil

Next month’s art journal session is all about layers. There will be an unofficial ‘challenge’ to see who has the most layers on their page by the time the session finishes. I think my example had upwards of 20 by the time I had finished. The layers include acrylic paints which were stamped, stencilled and monoprinted using textured wallpapers. Over that were stamped archival inks before the title was stamped and matted onto the page.

It’s a bit of a melange, but I guess that’s the point of the exercise. I wondered after if keeping to a complementary colour palette may have worked as well – perhaps something to play with during the session next month. Spaces are available if you’d like to get inky and paint-splattered!

Used in this layout

Various acrylic paints
Ranger Archival Inks – various colours
Darkroom Door stamps
- Watery Washes [DDRS162]
- Alphabet Medley [DDRS026]
Stampendous/Nathalie Kalbach stamps: Marks [NKCRS06]
That’s Crafty stencils – various
Hero Arts mounted stamp – Italian Poetry Background [S1832]

Altered Art
Altered Art: ‘Stained’ Glass

Posted on 17th October 2019 by Neil

I’ve been playing around with some 15cm square mounted glass plates I had lying around the studio. I found some 3mm self-adhesive lead strip and used a template to stick it down. Rather than soldering the joins, I overlapped them and made sure they were well burnished. Then it was a matter of using some alcohol inks on the reverse of the glass to give the colour/’stained’ glass effect. I used isopropanol/rubbing alcohol to remove the alcohol ink from areas I didn’t want it.

Top tip: when cleaning fingerprints off with alcohol, remember not to wipe the reverse of the glass or some of your stain will rub off too…

The contemporary cross panel is available to purchase here.

Art Journal
Art Journal Page: Beautiful Leaves

Posted on 15th October 2019 by Neil

It’s just about time for the leaves to fall… the weather is distinctly autumnal (read wet!) and the leaves are turning. This art journal spread started off with a Distress Stain Spray background that I hadn’t used up to now. Next, stamp some fallen leaves (Tim Holtz/Stampendous CMS097) in jet black archival ink. Fill in around them with black acrylic ink. They didn’t particularly look 3D until I added some shading with Black Soot Distress ink. I’m not entirely happy with the quote placement. I can always paint it out if it aggravates me next time I look at it!

Other Art Pieces/Techniques
Printing: Christmas Linocut

Posted on 13th October 2019 by Neil

I’ve recently been asked by a friend to teach him how to do a linocut. That got me thinking… ‘I really ought to review how to do a linocut’! The last time I did one was a school humpty-hump years ago. Things have moved on a little since then – the tools are the same, but there are various different hardnesses of lino and even a lino replacement. I chose to use Speedball’s Speedy Carve block, a (4×6″) piece of pink rubber which is softer to carve than lino. I designed the cut in Illustrator and then transferred a laser copy to the rubber by ironing it on face down. Top tip – wait until block is cool before peeling off for a better transfer.

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Art Journal
Art Journal Page: Mini Stamps

Posted on 25th September 2019 by Neil

Next month’s art journal session (spaces are available) puts to use the small clear mini stamps that are available on the front of Craft Stamper magazine. Over the months I have collected a fair number of them, and the challenge is to use them in an art journal spread.

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Art Journal
Bible Journaling: Acrylics, masking and off-the-page

Posted on 18th September 2019 by Neil

It’s a while since I have done any Bible journaling, but for this month’s session, I did an off-the-page piece. I wanted to encourage my class to work outside their Bible and show off their skills. This is designed to fit into a Ribba frame from Ikea and is approx. 8″ square. It is available to purchase here.

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3D Projects
Altered Art: various bits ‘n’ bobs

Posted on 16th September 2019 by Neil

My crafting mojo has wandered off, somewhat inconveniently for earning an income, but hey ho, it happens. I have been doing some ‘pottering’ in the studio though and here are a few altered art pieces I have managed to get made…

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Tangle Patterns
Tangle Pattern: Punctuation [!?]

Posted on 31st August 2019 by Neil

I don’t think enough is made of the double punctuation emphasis that is ‘!?’. Is it possible to have an exclamatory question? And if you’re a grammar purist, which way round should they go? Instead of answering those questions, I made a tangle pattern from them.

Available to purchase
Laser Cut: 3D Mandalas Part II

Posted on 28th August 2019 by Neil

I’ve had a couple more goes at layering 3D mandalas. Making the layers sometimes causes some head scratching, but as I have been used to editing layers in other design work, it’s not all bad. The first two are based on my hand drawn mandalas, and the second is based on a photo of a real snowflake.