Tag Archives: stampendous

Art Journal Page: Eat Dessert

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Eat Dessert

Today’s page marks a landmark in my art journaling – it’s the final spread in my very first complete journal. I have at least four journals on the go at any time, but this is the first to be filled since I started journaling back in 2011. I wanted to play with different layers, working on making the text stand out and the background to support, but not over power it. Choosing media by its opacity helped me achieve this outcome: transparent Cobalt Blue Hue allowed some of the paper white to show through the underpainting, whilst the semi-transparent Phthalo Blue provided the background to the text, printed in opaque white gesso. Spritzing with the mister and adding visual texture with stamps brought everything together.

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Art Journal Page: Negativity vs Creativity

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It’s perhaps not surprising that over the next few weeks you’re likely to see more art journaling than normal – after all, I’m going to need to practice what I’ll be preaching teaching. It’s also not surprising that with the ups and downs of Wednesday’s changes to my working life that not a lot of creating got done (by me that is, there was plenty of creating being done in the Studio by guests!). I started this page last night, using acrylics to create the water splashed background, before adding bubble wrap dots and embossing the white areas this morning and adding the text. What a release to the negativity, and the creativity is back 🙂

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Art Journal Page: One Word [Wanderlust]

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In the first Wanderlust class of the year, we were prompted to use just one word on our pages – and yesterday, I was so tired. Poor sleep, recovering from a cold and a wet grey day all got poured into this art journal spread. Building on the learning gleaned from the first pick a stick challenge, I layered and layered, and am actually rather pleased with the result, as grey and drab as it is!

It’s the first time I’m working in a spiral bound art journal – this one is a Daler-Rowney Cachet Artist’s Mixed Media, A5 sized, 30 page, 250g/m2. The paper is wonderful to work on, didn’t buckle under the wet media or bend with dry acrylic and basically took everything I threw at it. There’s just one issue – the spiral bound spine: those pesky wires. I’m sticking with the book for the Wanderlust classes, but will be looking for stitch bound journals in the future.

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Art Journal Page: Make Art (and stop hoarding)

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In fear of being hoist by my own petard, I set to this morning to tackle something that has been building up for quite a while… I’d made a comment yesterday on the Craftwork Cards Fan Page in response to a post about hoarding craft materials: that it was only hoarding if you hadn’t actually used them. And then realised my collection of rubber stamps that hadn’t seen an ink pad was quite extensive #neverbeenused #nbu. So I laid them all out to start planning on using them all at least once… it might take a while:
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Ombré Stamped Cards

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It was an exciting day yesterday as several orders got delivered… I knew what was coming, but the ladies attending my Come & Craft session in The Studio were definitely living vicariously as I unpacked each one!

This morning, as I got to grips with my new varifocal specs, I decided to do a straight rubber stamped card – not something I have done for quite a while. To be honest, I don’t know whether it’s the glasses or the fumes from spray glazing some bowls that’s making things go swimmy…

I’ve used the new Hero Arts Ombré dye ink pads to make my cards. Each ink pad is made from three graduated colour strips and with a little shimmy as you ink up the stamps, you get great blended ombré effects. Above are four cards I made showing off several of the colours available. Ombré colours used: Pink to Red; Light to Dark Peach and Butter to Orange; Lilac to Grape Purple; Grey to Black. Stamps: background – Darkroom Door Harlequin; Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous Carved Swirl; flower is an old Anita’s stamp and the sentiment is Stampendous’ Cling Grunge Birthday.
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Art Journaling: using gesso and sprays

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For next Monday’s art journaling session at The Studio, we’ll be playing with gesso. This is one of my sample pages, using both ‘normal’ gesso and the Finnabair Art Basics heavy body gesso to get some texture, as well as faded colour onto my pages. There’s also some never-been-used action here, with the IndigoBlu ‘Beautiful Mind’ stamps and the Stampendous ‘Marks’ stamps by Nathalie Kalbach. The lettering is freehand, first painted with the gesso, tidied and augmented with broad Signo white pigment pen and then outlined in Sakura Jelly Roll Gloss Black.

If you’d like to join one of my Art Journaling Sessions at The Studio, details are here. You can also get details of the sessions using the link on the sidebar or under the Workshops tab at the top of the page.

Never Been Used: Spider Mum Stamp

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I’m sure I’m not the only one that has a section of stash that has never been used. Shocking, I know. I have to admit my never been used pile is relatively small – but I have a lot of stash, so there’s actually a fair number of items in it! This situation is not good. Happily, I keep stamps out of the drawer until I have used them in a project and as the pile is growing, I thought I would do something about it.

So I’d like to introduce you to a new hashtag: #nbu – never been used. If you too would like to rise to the challenge of raiding your stash for something that you have never used so far, make a project with it and share the fact that you have one less thing that has never been used, remember to tag it with #nbu. Then we can all share in your success!

Here’s my inaugural never been used project. I have several Stampendous Jumbo stamps in my unused pile, and this is the first to be used – Spider Mum. I’ve stamped in Jet Black Archival onto watercolour paper and then coloured with Letraset AquaMarkers. The border is heat embossed with WOW! Superfine White Pearlescent EP.

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Two Tone-On-Tone Cards

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I’m quite organised… and I have a pile of stamps that I have mentally labelled ‘I will not put these away until I have used them at least once’. Each show I go to, or order I place online, sees the pile grow by at least one stamp per time – and it doesn’t seem to reduce in size. Today, I decided to do something about it, and created these two tone-on-tone cards featuring Stampendous Cling Stamps ‘Cherish Heart’ and ‘Wild Roses’, with the tag from the Lily of the Valley ‘Set 51 Tags Monsieur’.

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Which watercolour effect?

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I’ve been playing with various watercolour effects, out of curiosity more than any thing! Thought I’d share the results, just in case someone else might be interested… All of them feature a Stampendous stamp (Cling Poppy Scene #CRM234).

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