Bible Journaling: Isaiah 61 & 63

Posted on 15th November 2017 by perfectly4med

Whilst some things I am making, that I can’t tell you about yet (but it has something to do with upcoming TV appearances), are drying, I have started to dabble again with doing some art journaling in my NIV journaling bible. I turned to these passages in Isaiah and picked out a couple of verses to concentrate on. Today I had a little experimentation with things to seal the page to prevent bleed through.

For the left side, I used a wiped-on layer of matte multi-medium, heat dried. For the right, I didn’t prep the page at all. Add some pigment inks for background colour, and watch them slide right off the multi-medium… it just has no tooth at all. It did, however, seal the page very nicely and not too much bulk added. I got around it by applying some ink, drying with the heat tool and then reapplying the ink. I sealed the pigment in with a spray fixative before using a Posca pen to add the text.

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Art Journal Page: Frozen Fractals

Posted on 9th November 2017 by perfectly4med

Last Monday was my regular art journal session at The Studio. We took the theme ‘baby, it’s cold outside’. Coincidentally, it was one of the coldest evenings of the autumn too. The theme called for cool colours, shimmer and sparkle to evoke frost rime on windows and icy surfaces:

$art journal frozen fractals$

I started with layers of gesso, creating ridged fans/feathering by jittering the edge of a palette knife to make the texture. Sprinkle a little Ultramarine Color Burst. Add more layers of gesso and then iridescent medium. Stamp with archival inks before adding the quote. Smear some Stardust stickles over the page and set aside to dry. I think the quote source is fairly obvious and just fits the theme perfectly!

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3D Printing: ‘Will You Be Mine?’ Cuboidroid

Posted on 3rd November 2017 by perfectly4med

I’ve had fun creating my cuboidroids, and as my confidence has grown so have my modelling skills. The third cuboidroid in my series is perhaps the most whimsical to date… ‘will you be mine?’

The arms took a fair number of prototypes to get right, as did the ‘hands’. I eventually settled on the hexagonal shape and added the internal thread. This will give me the opportunity to add props using bolts that screw in. I’ve also added extra elements to reinforce the droid bits:

Now I’ve done the prototypes, I need to perfect the smoothing of the various components, perfect the paint jobs and come up with more characterisations. Not much then…

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Organisation: Mini Archival Ink Tins

Posted on 26th October 2017 by perfectly4med

It’s always great to know where things are in your craft space, which requires organisation. It’s even more important in a teaching studio to be able to tell at a glance if anything is missing and for studio guests to know where to put things back. As part of the Creative Chemistry course, Tim Holtz made available inserts for his mini-distress ink pads to fit the storage tins. I’ve just looked for similar for the mini-archival ink tins, and couldn’t find one. So I made some:

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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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That’s Crafty! Show Samples: ATCs

Posted on 8th October 2017 by perfectly4med

I was on your viewing screens last Friday (you can still catch up at hochanda.com until 16th Oct, 8am & 11am) showcasing the latest releases from That’s Crafty! Part of the mega-pack was a bumper pack of greyboard ATCs, and also available were acrylic and MDF ATCs. Combining these with multi surface paints, shimmer paints, Sparklers and Lynne’s new affirmations clear stamp sets, here are the samples I made, some of which I demonstrated on air.

GIVEAWAY:
If you’d like a chance to win all of the ATC samples I made, comment on the blog post, and at the end of the month I will pick someone at random to receive them. UPDATE: Congratulations to Doreen, who won the draw.

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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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That’s Crafty! Show Samples: Christmas

Posted on 22nd August 2017 by perfectly4med

Following on from yesterday’s post, here are the Christmas demo samples I made for the live Hochanda shows. Unfortunately, we seemed to enter a time warp for the final hour, and there was not much time to go through all the demos I had lined up.

Merry Christmas Wreath

That’s Crafty! Surfaces MDF Wreaths and Baubles Set
That’s Crafty! Surfaces Bits & Pieces Greyboard: Christmas Sentiments 2
That’s Crafty! Surfaces Bits & Pieces Greyboard: Holly & Mistletoe
That’s Crafty! Surfaces Bits & Pieces Greyboard: Christmas Florals 2
That’s Crafty! Multi Surface Paint: Christmas Red / Green / Purple / White
That’s Crafty! Multi Surface Paint: Antique Gold / Gold / Silver
That’s Crafty! Multi Purpose Craft Adhesive Pen

Try mixing different colours to make shades of green – red for a warm brown, purple for a rich evergreen. Use Craft Adhesive for a doming glaze over the berries, and a glaze for the leaves.

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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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