It’s challenge time again at Less Is More, and the theme this time is ‘borders’. Now then… I know I have a stamp set of numerous borders. Could I find it? Nope. However, while I was trawling through my stamps, I found a couple that I thought would work as a border and sentiment, so here’s my DT card:
Next week’s Art Journal Session has the theme ‘butterflies’. I’ve three new pages to share, but there are several in my past library that you can find using the search facility.
Another challenge blog, another challenge! This time, it’s the Less Is More challenge to do a one layer card with the focal point off centre. In card making, one layer cards are quite tricky – you have one time to get it right, and if you’re layering or positioning stamps it’s easy to misprint and have to start all over again! Of course, you only get to see the final take…
Happy New Year! After a break for Christmas, and some online classes taking up some time, I’ve been crafting. I’m working on a dragon sculpture, currently curing in the pond, and I’ve been learning 3D modelling software – part of which included animation of a lamp model you may spot in the blog header from time to time.
Anyhoo, today’s bit of crafting was the latest ‘Less is More’ challenge – a project with minimal layers, minimal embellishments with lots of white space and this time using the Pantone colour of the year 2019 and 2020.
They’re not two colours I would immediately choose to put together, so initially, I had a mental block. I ended up with two cards, one of which I don’t like, and one that I do!
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!
Next month’s art journal session’s theme is ‘Washi tape’. This versatile patterned translucent sticky tape is ideal for decorating pages, but can also be used as a masking tape. Here are two pages for your creative inspiration.
Our next Bible journaling session has ‘rubber stamping’ as its theme. It will be a departure from my normal style, and it took some time to find suitable stamps to match some verses and themes. When creating, I also chose to break my ‘rule’ of not working over the text areas of the page. I made sure, however, the work I did was transparent and the text still readable:
On Monday night I have my art journal session in The Studio, and we’re using the prompt ‘New Year’. This layout developed from a teaching session I did with a new Studio guest a few weeks ago, showing the difference and similarities between Distress Oxides (left-hand side) and Distress Inks (t’other side). A quick layer of acrylic paint forms the background to the white text. The purple text is a combination of stamped and handwritten, using Distress Oxides and Posca pen respectively.
As I’ve previously mentioned, the August art journal session at The Studio is all about ‘tints, tones and shades’. Playing with light and shade on a page helps give depth and interest to the piece. Here, playing with the properties of distress ink and distress oxide provides the opportunity to get every shade of the same colour. The use of water also helps with the lighter tones.
Continue reading Next month’s theme for my art journal session (Monday 6th August, 7:30pm) is ‘tints, tones and shades’. I wanted to try a cool ombre effect as part of my suggestions (tint, white added, lighter; shade, black added, darker), so that’s what forms the background of this layout. Then a quick play on words for the shades and a suitable quote and this page is complete.
