One Collage Challenge [Wanderlust 2016]

Posted on 7th December 2016 by perfectly4med

My Wanderlust journey has wandered off track recently… it has been a long time since I have checked in at each of the stops, and as the year draws to a close I thought I’d better check when I lost access to the class! Sigh of relief – I have a little longer to browse and save what I want to keep.

But in the meantime, I caught up with the One Collage Challenge. Every fortnight or so we were given a step, to take no more than 5 minutes, to build up a final collage. Prompts ranged from ‘add dots’, to ‘cover your page with a stamped image’, and the penultimate one – cover your whole page with gesso or acrylic paint.

Now collage isn’t really my thing – so the step by step was a good process. I didn’t really like what was developing, but that final unifying coat of gesso blended it all together into what turned out to be quite a pleasing piece of art.

Here’s a quick video showing each of the steps, and the impact they had on the building piece:

Continue reading →

Art Journal Page: What I see in the mirror [Wanderlust Prompt #5]

Posted on 10th May 2016 by perfectly4med

I decided yesterday that I would catch up with some of the Wanderlust 2016 class activities, and watched Birgit Koopsen’s class as she demonstrated her signature style. This is my response to the fifth journal prompt from the beginning of March (‘what I see in the mirror’) using her techniques, albeit in a slightly different order! And it’s probably more of a reminder of what I should be seeing in the mirror rather than what I do… Anyhow, I wanted the background to show through the white layer (given I’d spent so long working on it!), so used I used thinned gesso for its translucency. I think the colours certainly zing against the white mask.

Continue reading →

Handmade Art Journal II [Wanderlust Wk 10]

Posted on 22nd April 2016 by perfectly4med

With one or two other things going on, I am not keeping up with my Wanderlust course! I did however catch up with Karen Michel’s class, where she showed how to make our own journals using the cover of an old book, some fabric and lots of scraps of paper and card. It’s a far more informal journal than I’m used to, and as a result, it invites creativity as some pages overlap others, and each page has a different colour and texture. The fabric I chose was one of Tim Holtz’s Eclectic Elements designs. I’ll post the inside pages at a later date.

Continue reading →

Perfect Paper Pockets [Wanderlust Week 6]

Posted on 20th February 2016 by perfectly4med

I’m catching up on my Wanderlust course, and in week 6, we were introduced to origami wallets to hold small journal cards/zentangle cards in. To be honest, I didn’t like the style taught as it was open on all sides. So I dug around in Pinterest, and Google and developed this version. On the product list for the lesson was ‘lokta paper’ – which is quite fibrous, hardwearing and handmade in Nepal. So I searched for that too! I eventually found this wonderful vintage style paper that, to me, seems to be a cross between old leather and hand rolled tobacco leaves. The shop that sells it (PaperPod) was one flooded in York this winter, but still managed to get my order out to me in good time – fantastic since the shop is still drying out and all the (dry!) stock must be somewhere else.

I got a bit carried away and worked out all the sizes for my various journaling cards. All I need now is to monogram the fronts, label the bands, and get journaling! Note that the brown colour is a dye and moves about when wetted… I may seal it with a suitable varnish, or just let it do it’s thing as it is handled.

Continue reading →

Art Journal Page: One Word [Wanderlust]

Posted on 4th January 2016 by perfectly4med

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.

Continue reading →