Tag Archives: DecoArt Media

Art Journaling Session: Crackling Campfire

Posted on by
Reply

If you’re UK-based, you’ll be well aware that it’s Bonfire Night on 5th November. For those in other places, you may not know that this is our way of commemorating Guy Fawkes plotting to blow up the Houses of Parliament back in 1605 during the State Opening, intending to kill King James I. Rooted in religious discontent which carried on for centuries, it’s now an excuse to let off ridiculously loud fireworks and compete for the biggest conflagration in the area.

So, it is with this inspiration that I have chosen the theme of ‘crackling campfire’. Blessedly silent, this layout incorporates crackle paint to add the appropriate texture to logs and flames, and aptly named distress oxide inks. A bit of sparkle brings the text to the fore and is a nod to firework displays up and down the country.

Crackling campfire art journaling layout with crackle paint texture and distress oxide inks
Continue reading →

Art Journaling: Fused

Posted on by
Reply

In this month’s session, we explored art journaling with fusible webbing – a technique that brings texture, sparkle, and surprise to your layout. It’s a heat-reactive mixed media method that uses iron-on adhesive sheets to trap colour, foil, glitter, and more.

I vaguely recall trying out this technique back in art college, some 13 or so years ago, but I came across it again recently. I had been looking through my library of mixed media technique books and found it in both Surface Treatment Workshop (p.114 – Fusible Webbing) and Mixed Media Revolution (p.41). Since I have oodles of fusible webbing available after buying a whole roll of it for quilting purposes, I came up with this after some experimentation:

'Fused' journal layout with paint, metallic acrylics, foil and glitter held together with fusible webbing.
Continue reading →

Art Journaling: Cloth Collage (with step-by-step tutorial)

Posted on by
Reply

When I’m looking for potential techniques and ideas for my art journaling sessions, I often reach for analogue sources: books. For this evening’s session, I took inspiration from ‘101 More Mixed Media Techniques’. In the fabrics & fibers [sic] section, there is information on sticking and covering elements and pages. And so my cloth collage theme was born and this is what I came up with:

Fabric collage art journaling tutorial with stamped calico and matte medium.
Continue reading →

Art Journal Session: ‘Industrial Grunge’

Posted on by
Reply

This month’s art journaling session was on the theme of ‘industrial grunge’. I thought it would be a great chance to revisit rust effects, drips and runs and also use up some of the matte black vinyl I seem to have inadvertently collected over the years… I also exercised AI skills using Microsoft Designer to create the graffiti and worked with ChatGPT to develop the colour scheme, selecting the base colours with my Nix Mini 3 digital colourimeter. Here’s what I came up with:

industrial grunge art journal page
Continue reading →

Art Journaling: A shiny Christmas

Posted on by
Reply

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:

A shiny Christmas art journal layout with coloured glazes over aluminium foil tape.

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 reading →

LIM DT: Music

Posted on by
Reply

Theme 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.

music themed card with rubber stamped background, rusty quaver embellishment and a quote sentiment

Continue reading →

Art journaling: playing with Brushos

Posted on by
Reply

This morning’s project was to prep for this evening’s art journal session at The Studio. We’re playing with Brushos, concentrated crystals of watercolour/dye. They give great, largely unpredictable, paint effects and work wonderfully as backgrounds to mixed media work. They are also tiny and get into all sorts of different places, so they come out rarely and take some cleaning up after! A pot once dropped into my distress ink box and took months to get rid of them all… Everything is covered and ready for colour carnage: here’s my example:

Art journal page featuring BrushosThe session runs from 7:30pm, costs £5 and needs to be booked in advance. Materials are included and if you need a suitable art journal to work in they are available for just £2 on the night. Just get in contact for more information or to book your place 🙂

Continue reading →

LIM DT: My Favourite Technique

Posted on by
2

One of the joys (and tribulations) of being a mixed media artist is that you have a great deal of choice when coming to the question of a favourite technique. The fact that the latest challenge at Less is More is conventionally a card craft project helpful narrows down the choice. I found it hard to pick a favourite, so here are two cards based on the effects I most like the results of.

Continue reading →

Art Journal Page: Hexagonal Monoprinting

Posted on by
Reply

Hexagonal MonoprintingIt has been a little while since I have had my gel plates out, so I thought it was time to play a little with monoprinting into my journal. The experimentation was also inspired by the delivery of several texture printing plates made from rubber from Carabelle Studio. These are designed to be used with gel plates, and have text the right way round rather than a mirror image as found on rubber stamps. This means that text is monoprinted the right way round, and if used as background stamps in art journals, for example, it’s the wrong way round. The texture plates are very easy to use – just lay them across a painted gel plate, lift and then print with the gel plate.

Continue reading →

Altered Art: Weathered, Part I

Posted on by
2

In my efforts to move things out of The Studio, I have started making things for sale. That, in turn, has created stock – for the first time ever – which then needs its own storage, but that’s another issue. I bought these papier-mache frames a long while back, originally to use for Powertex painting. Instead, I have created a weathered faux-zinc frame complete with moulded flower motif. I popped in an acrylic mirror for good measure. What do you think?