It’s not one of my go-to books, but this verse from Deuteronomy was one of the readings I delivered last Sunday in church. We are perhaps more familiar with the New Testament context of Jesus’ parable about the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:27) and then His response to the question ‘which commandment is the greatest in the Law?’ (Matt 22:37).
It seems that for the last few days my corner of blog land has been out of service due to a duff plugin. Apologies! Here’s another art journal spread to make up for the absence (not that anyone noticed and let me know!). I experimented with collaging papers for the background and unifying the whole layout with a blanket stencil design. Masking off the area intended for the stamp and covering with gesso helped take the busyness away behind the ‘mum. It’s the first outing for my new Dusty Concord Distress Oxide ink pad. I’m not sure if it’s all a bit much, but experimentation is the name of the game in my journal.
Continue reading 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.
I don’t experiment much in my art journal any more, which is a shame. I have developed a style and, generally, keep to it with occasional variations. This week, I was inspired by the work of one of my colleagues at That’s Crafty!, Lynne Moncrieff. She has a wonderful grunge style that uses nature as inspiration, developing textures and colours from natural inks, pigment crystals and sprays.
So I raided the tea bag waste bin for old tea bags and reached for the sprinkles. And learnt that I need to do far more experimentation with both! The pages started to come together with the various bits of ephemera and using some tea bag paper to mount them on. It finally knit together with a healthy dose of vintage photo distress ink and oxides.
But what to write? Well, having done so, I wish I hadn’t! I found a fountain pen and filled it with sepia ink – but of course, it didn’t really like the gessoed page. Tracing over it with a cocktail stick dipped in the same ink gave a much better finish, so next time I’ll go straight to that. I recovered slightly by spritzing with water – the smudging and feathering is now deliberate rather than accidental 😉 Continue reading
It’s my monthly art journal session on Monday evening, and this month’s theme is ‘Spring Spraying’. Spray inks, stains and paints are always a fun, and fast, way of making a background. Occasionally, the spray reaches the page… Using stencils and then embellishing with other media, such as white pigment pens, finish the page off nicely.
Speaking of finishing a page… There are some who ask, ‘when do you know a page is finished?’. Here’s an example. The first pic shows where I originally finished the page. It was only when I was editing the photo for posting that I decided I hadn’t finished after all. The second pic shows where I left it after a little more work:
Continue reading I’ve tried another bible journaling experiment – this time using an image transfer technique. The text and image are printed on a laser printer, and the toner is essentially glued to the page and the paper is taken off. The colouring behind the text is acrylic paint, dabbed on and off with a baby wipe. A little tweaking with coloured pencils and it’s turned out ok, I think.
I had the privilege of hosting three of the church’s young people’s group (in other words ‘yoof’) last night in The Studio. We had two hours to work on a project, so I rummaged in my ‘for altering’ drawer and lifted out some Ikea Malma mirrors that were collecting dust. I also dusted off a technique I learnt years ago and came up with an altered art project.
Continue reading At next month’s art journal session*, we’ll be having a Tim Holtz Stampfest. I have a fair collection of his stamps and, as with most crafters, some haven’t been used yet. I thought it would be a great theme to work with, and lots of possibilities open up as we mix in the Distress line of products.
* The session on Mon 5th is fully booked, but if you would still like to take part, it will be repeated at the following Wednesday’s afternoon group.
Continue reading I’m still on a mission to journal in my Bible(s) at least once a day. And I’m still missing my own goalposts 50% of the time… Here are a few more examples from the times I did manage to sit down do some bible journaling. I’ve tried a few more ways of putting down backgrounds, experimenting with text styles and even allowing stamps and a bit of illustration to creep in.
