As with everything internet, I tend to only post things I am happy with. It’s the same with quality control in The Studio – it only goes out of the door if either my guest is happy, or I’m happy (and hopefully both) with the result of hard work. Today I’m going to share the process that led to this illustration:
Over the last two days, I’ve had a sewing project on the go… a quilted day bag. The pattern is from our trip to Canda and is available from Lazy Girl Designs. It’s not the first bag I’ve made, but even so, it took some effort to follow the instructions properly (operator errors, the instructions were actually pretty clear…). The pattern calls for quilting cotton fabrics – I chose a heavier weight printed canvas for longevity. I’ve also learnt from previous experience and on finishing it, liberally sprayed it with Scotch Gard fabric protector. It will be washable though. Fabrics from Thimbles Fabrics & Crafts. Finished size: 12″ x 6″ x 10″. Total make time approx. 8 hrs, materials £40.
Happy New Year to all my loyal readers and Studio guests! A new year is a great time to resolve to start something new – it just so happens I’m starting a new teaching session each month looking at Bible journaling. It’ll be on the third Monday evening, starting in January. For the first session, we’ll look at materials and media, as well as embarking on our first journaling.
In the meantime, I’ve done some more journaling that I thought I would share. First up, a verse for the new year in both my NIV and NLT journaling Bibles:
I recently took up bullet journaling as a means of recording what I intended to do each week alongside what I actually did (or didn’t). I thought it would be helpful to have some visual prompts for my pages, so invested in a set of stencils designed for bullet journalers. Well, the bullet journaling lasted about 8 months, but the stencils hung around and I started using them in my Bible journaling instead. There was just one problem – they were too big to use in the margins of my journaling Bible. So, this week, I created my own to fit!
Here are some journal entries demonstrating my stencils in use:
The weather outside is frightful – the risk of freezing rain didn’t amount to much, but it’s cold, dark, blustery with heavy rain. As a result, I am in a toasty warm studio with pencils and pens out and doing some Bible journaling. I thought I’d take some of the less familiar scripture verses that are relevant to the Christmas story and develop some graphics to capture them in my margins.
This is a relatively simple tangle pattern, which could probably be drawn in a couple of different ways for speed. That said, it’ll work well as a space filler or, indeed, as a border pattern:
This is the next instalment in a short series of new tangle patterns. I like the geometry of this one, with the curves interplaying with the curves. The negative space is quite pleasing as well, with a cross appearing as the pattern is tiled. Below are a sample card and two 3D versions of the pattern etched into wood.
I’m not exactly busy in The Studio at the moment – I’m no longer doing TV prep and I’m not on any design teams, so I’m left to my own devices. I have plenty of time, as a result, to do my own thing. At the moment, it’s developing tangle patterns and Bible journaling – and prepping for my craft stall on Friday and Saturday (Lutterworth Town Hall, F: 5-9pm, S:10am – 4pm if you’re interested).
For this release of Bible journaled verses, I kept to my general style, but I have added a couple of sketches (one thanks to free-to-use Armour of God from ChristianityCove.com). I also added a motivational phrase to illustrate the verse – this is the first time I have used text other than the verse itself. As is now normal, I have used coloured pencils and fine tip pigment pens to avoid bleed-through.
Now seems to be a good opportunity for a plug… Starting on the third Monday in January, I will be hosting a Bible Journaling Session here at The Studio from 7:30-10pm, £5. We’ll look at materials and methods and then have themes for the evenings such as lettering, colouring techniques and using different media to decorate our Bibles.
I’ve been busy designing some more line patterns, and this is the first of a few. I thought it would be helpful to see a ‘real life’ use of the patterns I design. I’ve used a 4″ square Strathmore Artist Tile in grey for my background, adding my pattern and embellishing with black and white coloured pencil. The tile is mounted on a 6×6″ hammered card. Turned out ok, I think 🙂
I’ve drawn a few more mandalas and, during breaks from doing my accounts, I have done some colouring in. This time I seem to have played with tints and shades of the same colour with some grey and an accent colour thrown in here and there.
Stained glass window? 
Feels like the middle is draining away…
Simple and blue. 
I’m not sure of this one, I think the light pink is too dusky.
I’ve used Promarkers to colour these mandalas – alcohol-based ink pens allow blending and layering and smooth gradients.
