Art Journal Page: Border of flowers

Posted on 30th May 2018 by perfectly4med

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:

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Bible Journaling: Keep on Knocking

Posted on 18th March 2018 by perfectly4med

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.

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Altered Art: What do you see in the mirror?

Posted on 12th March 2018 by perfectly4med

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.

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Art Journal Page: Tim Holtz Stampfest

Posted on 20th February 2018 by perfectly4med

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.

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Bible Journaling: a few more examples

Posted on 15th February 2018 by perfectly4med

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.

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Bible Journaling: Developing a Style

Posted on 26th January 2018 by perfectly4med

I have been trying to get into the habit of illustrating a bible verse each day since the start of the New Year. On average I think I am hitting a 40-50% hit rate, which isn’t too bad with everything else that’s happening. Here are the results of some of those bible journaling episodes. I think a typography style is developing nicely, but I’m also very fond of the illustrated ‘Immanuel’ page spread.

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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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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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Tutorial: That’s Crafty! Art Shrine

Posted on 10th October 2017 by perfectly4med

I don’t know how much of this art shrine sample was shown on TV last week… I certainly didn’t have enough time to demonstrate how I put it together, so here comes a tutorial to follow if you want to make your own 🙂