Art Journal Page: Pick A Stick Challenge #PASC1017

Posted on 25th October 2017 by perfectly4med

I know I haven’t done the Pick A Stick Challenge for a little while but didn’t realise quite how long ago it was… 2015! I’ve decided to try and do at least one ‘me-project’ each month, and this month was the Pick A Stick art journal challenge. For those that have forgotten the format, ten sticks are chosen at random, each with an instruction as to what to put in or a technique to use. The challenge Facebook group can be found here.

The page ended up darker in tone and emotion that I normally do – the quote was inspired by the raven stencil I used. There are many different things that I would call from the poem, but this is perhaps the darkest. As I was writing it onto the page all I could think of was my road with depression, my ‘black dog’.

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Art Journal Page: Beer Festival

Posted on 3rd October 2017 by perfectly4med

My annual pilgrimage to Peterborough Beer Festival this year was on 23rd August. Of course I went to meet up with friends… it’s purely coincidence we had 400 real ales to choose from at the time. While supping such delights, I’ve recorded my tasting notes in my art journal. It looks worse than it is – I was only sampling thirds of a pint of most. It’s also brilliant that the organisers ensure bottles of water are easily available at just 50p per 500ml.

The page uses all the bits and bobs in my journal travel kit. It was a challenge doing the background and lettering on the train from Leicester, particularly over the points when the train rocked a fair amount!

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Art Journal Page: Large Scale Layout

Posted on 2nd October 2017 by perfectly4med

In tonight’s art journal session, we’re going to look at using large scale layouts. Though we will be working in our normal journals (mine is A4 spread), we’ll be using 12×12″ stencils and very large stamps to build our layers, only adding detail towards the end. This exercise is designed to encourage the breaking down of large patterns into manageable chunks… a lesson for life too!

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Art Journal: Despite the dark

Posted on 10th September 2017 by perfectly4med

I’m a subscriber to Art Journaling magazine from Stampington, and every now and then a featured article catches my eye. Reading the fine print revealed that this particular journal was based on a mixed media class available online from Donna Downey (Metamorphosis).

Between TV shows I can normally fit in a couple of weeks for my own projects, subject to other calls on my time. This time round I managed to take some quality art time for myself, signed up for the class and completed my journal.

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Art Journal: Gelli Tag Book

Posted on 25th July 2017 by perfectly4med

It’s been a while since I have played with my Gelli mono printing plate, and inspired by the work of Birgit Koopsen and the latest copy of Somerset Studio featuring tag art, I set to. Twenty or so monoprinted tags later, I had the basis of a new art journal – a Gelli Tag Book.

With a quick cardboard cover, book binding tape and a few quotes (and several days later) my journal is complete. Overprinting and underpainting, outlining hand drawn typography create a cohesive whole.

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Art Journal Page: Sew Faux Patchwork

Posted on 2nd July 2017 by perfectly4med

On Monday evening, it’s the monthly art journal session at The Studio. The theme for the session is ‘faux patchwork’, and here’s my sample. Quilting meets paper craft and art journaling.
Just so you know, there is no fabric, padding or indeed cotton/thread on this page. Everything you see is flat and stuck onto the page.
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Art Journal Page: Brave Choice

Posted on 3rd June 2017 by perfectly4med

This Monday, the art journal session at The Studio has the theme ‘perfect palettes’. For this journal prompt, I picked a colour chart from the ever fabulous design-seeds.com and did my best to match the palette. Of course, this was a little harder when printing out the image – the printer colours aren’t a good reproduction.

And here’s the resulting page (and don’t forget that the colours changed again when I scanned it in…). So the palette isn’t exact, but, as with all journal prompts, it’s what sparks the rest of the page. I also chose the theme to help those who struggle to know what colours might work together.

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Art Journal Page: Experiment

Posted on 31st May 2017 by perfectly4med

I recently took delivery of a new Dylusions art journal – the 8×5″ landscape format – and last night I took the opportunity to experiment with a 3×5″ Gelli plate and some DecoArt fluid acrylics. Bubble wrap of two sizes and a mosaic stencil added a bit of pattern, and then rubber stamping with acrylic paint added the highlights. Finally, some cut letters as masks and a sponged layer of acrylic paint finished off the page nicely.

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Art Journals: using acrylic covers – part 2

Posted on 2nd May 2017 by perfectly4med

I promised to share my ‘now you see me, now you don’t’ technique for acrylic covers that didn’t quite get finished on air during my last Hochanda shows for That’s Crafty!. Below are some instructions along side the pics I took prior to the shows, and below those is a short video I have done to try and explain it a little more clearly! Apologies for the outside noises on the video – they’re wind chimes and a radiator warming up, if you’re wondering.

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Art Journal Page: Marvellous Mandalas

Posted on 1st May 2017 by perfectly4med

The theme for tonight’s art journal session at The Studio is ‘marvellous mandalas’. I have played on various software platforms and drawn my own mandalas, but the example below is ripped out from one of the many ‘adult’ colouring books available. I remembered that I had a couple of sets of Chameleon pens, so used those to colour in the mandala (that’s how I got the shading). Bit of gluing and cutting out of letters and my sample was done… though it took a fair bit longer than I expected – I think it’s the pausing to do the whole Chameleon effect doubling the colouring time. Very calming though, all that pausing.

Colouring on white paper and then cutting and pasting onto the black background seems to make the colours pop far more. A little more thought and time would have resulted in better placement of the quote, but it’s not that bad.