Welcome to the first art journaling post of the new year! February’s session was based on a technique I picked up from somewhere years ago that I remembered using when I was on the WOW! Embossing Powders design team. I found my original post here, from 2012! It uses Brasso metal polish wadding and heat embossing to create an effect that is hard to replicate any other way. I remembered to take step-by-step photos as I created the layout, so another tutorial follows…
The last Art Journal Session of the year is on Monday, 4th December at The Studio in Leicester. Inspired by all things sparkly and shiny around this time of the year, I’ve come up with this shiny Christmas double-spread:
If you’d like to come to the session, please let me know. I remembered to take step-by-step photos this time, so instructions follow…
Continue readingTheme week at Less is More, and we’ve been set ‘music’. Despite the fact I play the clarinet, massacre a tenor sax piece and know where the notes are on a piano, I’d not say I was a musician! (Just ask how well I can play a syncopated rhythm…) I’m also not an avid listener of music – it is on in the background for most of my working day but I don’t choose to listen to it in my down time. So this theme was a bit of a challenge until I realised just how many ‘classic’ music-themed stamps and embellishments I had in my stash. This is my design team card for your inspiration, but don’t forget to check out the rest of the cards the team have created.
It has been a little while since I have shared one of my art journal spreads, so I thought I would do so today as a plug for next week’s art journaling session here at The Studio. I’m also sharing the stages the layout went through to get from where I started to the finished article. ‘Maps’ is the theme this month and you’re very welcome to join us on Monday at 7:30pm for the session where you will create your own take on the theme. All materials are provided, and you can get a suitable journal from me for just £2 if you don’t have one already. Just let me know if you’d like to attend. Here’s my finished layout:
Less is More challenge time again – anything goes but keep it CAS. This theme is therefore an open season, though keeping the design clean and simple is a necessity if you wish to be featured in our winner’s gallery at the end of the challenge (so many entries aren’t). I struggle with an open theme, much preferring a more specific challenge. As is normally the case, I had a rummage in my stash and found an abstract stamp design that I had not used before and came up with this:
Another ‘anything goes’ theme at the Less is More clean and simple challenge blog. This time it doesn’t have to be a one-layer card which leaves a little leeway for embellishments and matting to be added if needed. Remember that clean and simple requires a large amount of white space around your chosen elements. I’ve elected to add a little dimension to my card by lifting up the butterfly wings. I also added a little star dust to the wings which doesn’t completely show up in the pic. Here’s my finished inspiration piece for the challenge:
For the new clean and simple card challenge at Less is More for the next fortnight, we have a colour theme – black and aquamarine. I have to admit looking up what sort of shade aquamarine is and decided it was on the greenish side of turquoise/teal. I picked out a light and dark shade from my distress crayons and basically used them as watercolours to fill in the stamped image. Here’s the final result:
The Less is More challenges are back from their Christmas/New Year break! The first this year is a one-layer card challenge – the image must be printed or stamped directly onto the card blank, with no additional layers and no embellishments. The theme is open – anything goes. Here’s my abstract design team card for your inspiration:
Just in case you need reminding, OLC stands for ‘one layer card’ where you aren’t allowed to use any layers other than the cardstock that forms the card itself. It’s the latest challenge over at Less is More, along with the theme of your favourite flower. Die cuts are out, as are most embellishments so it’s a difficult challenge. I don’t particularly have a favourite flower, but I do have a favourite daisy stamp so I went with that!
The current challenge at AAA Cards blog is to use a rectangle just 1/9th of the card face. The optional twist is to add butterflies to your layout. The normal ratio of white space to an image on a clean and simple card is 2/3rds to 1/3rd, so reducing this again makes for an extremely clean card, though not necessarily simpler. Here’s my take on the theme:
