It’s not often that I deliberately go into a cut-price bookstore with the sole intention of buying several copies of ‘My Little Pony’ children’s books. Well, this happened sometime in late winter, with the intention that I would be using them in a class. On Monday 1st October, attendees at my art journal session will be using the board books as a base for an art journal, included at no extra fee. Unfortunately, it does mean that my little ponies will be painted out. What a shame.
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.
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In my last art journaling post, I wrote about knowing when a page is finished. This time around I went a step too far and completely spoiled the layout. See the staining through the gesso middle left and bottom right? That’s archival ink soaking through several layers of gesso. I thought once the butterflies were on, and the gesso painted around them that I would stamp more butterflies over the top. What a mistake to make…
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 Apologies – I intended to post my show samples for my March shows somewhat sooner than this. But, as they say, better late than never! Keep reading for more details on each project.
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 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.
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’.
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.
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 WreathThat’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.
