Taking my own advice

Whenever I talk to people about art journalling, or if we are art journalling in a workshop, people will often say that they "aren't artistic"... or they are sure they "couldn't do it"...or they are worried about "making mess of it"... and I always say its just paper and if it does go horribly wrong and you can't save it then you can always gesso over the whole thing and start again.... and this week I opened what I thought was a fresh blank journal to find the most ugly test page in the whole universe... it was truly horrible and beyond saving.
 I think I may have just been testing products rather than trying to build a page, but what was there was totally unworkable. Of course I could have simply pulled the page and started with my fresh new journal, but then I thought of my own advice and decided to follow it.

Out came the gesso and I used a liberal layer to cover what was beneath. I had previously applied  colour using a spray and  the wet gesso reignited the colour and I was left with pinkish and yellow tones in my gesso, but that was fine because the gesso muted them from their former vibrant shades and I knew I was going to do a real cover up job anyway.

I added lots of different torn strips of papers...everything from scraps of patterned paper left over from projects, left over gelli prints, scraps form magazines and old book pages and once they were dry I lightly added some white gesso over the top with a palette knife, paying particular attention to the edges and lightly going over the centre to highlight the texture.

Next I  added some random stamping before adding some modelling paste through a home made circle stencil. Once this was dry I added colour to the circles and then added additional finger painted circles in a different colour. After that is was a little more gesso and some doodling...and finally the word Dream was added and I "called it done."

I love this page now... and thee is no trace of the ugly thing that lies beneath. I am so glad I took my own advice.

Until next time
Cxx

Magical - an AJP

This was something that came about from a challenge prompt from the lovely Marta Lapkowska.

It had to include a door, a wall, some brickwork, some handwriting and something upside down. 

This was a very wet and messy project but I really enjoyed the process. I used ordinary poly-filler through a stencil for this. It gave the depth and feel or real brick and was super cheap because I bought my tub of filler from the pound shop (why not?)

Once the poly-filler had dried - I zapped it quickly with the heat gun to dry the surface and set it aside overnight to be sure it was fully dry  because I planned to use a lot of wet medium and did not want to end up with a soggy mess.

I used DAS air dry paper based clay to make the door and windows and the toadstools and I also zapped them with the heat gun and left them overnight to dry out (actually they dried over two days while I worked on the other stages)

On the opposite page I used a  fairly thick layer of gesso applied with a palette knife and then  randomly added a mix of crackle paint and crackle paste with the palette knife and that also had overnight to dry.

On day two I began to add the layers of paint washes to build up the layers and depth of colour to add detail to the wall and the brickwork. Messy and repetitive but I kept going until I was happy with the result... I gave the same paint and wash treatment to the clay elements and left everything to dry thoroughly before adding it to the pages.

The hedgehogs and flowers were stamped, coloured and fussy cut before being adhered with gel medium. I really like this page, even if it is heavy and bulky in my journal.

Until next time
Cxx

Life goes on....

This is a photo of  one of a series of paintings by my Dad

It has been a very stressful few weeks. Ten days  after the stroke my Dad died.  We were with him and his passing was peaceful but it will take time for us as a family to adjust....and just when we thought life was done dumping on our family,  along comes more . ...but life goes on and we will continue to put one foot in front of the other and do the very best we can.

I took a short break from all things creative simply because there weren't enough hours in the day, but things are settling again now and I am finding creative pursuits are very therapeutic on so many levels.

My Dad loved to paint and so I am sharing this photo of one of his paintings. I think he would like that.

 I hope life is treating you kindly...

Until next time
Cxx

Son Birthday

I was asked to make a card for a son's birthday and with very little time or information to go on this was the end result... which his Mum loved.

I cut some Stampin' Up! designer papers to make the background base and stamped the wording and heat embossed with a copper embossing powder. I also die cut a circle frame for the centre panel which is raised on foam pads for a 3D effect. I was pleased with how it turned out and thought the end result was quite effective.

Until next time
Cxx

Happy Father's Day

So its Father's Day again  and time to make a card to make Dad smile. This is the card I made for my Dad using layered embossed card from a wood collection. I  stamped the Happy Father's Day greeting in chocolate chip ink five times and finally added die cut letters spelling out DAD

I was quite pleased with how it turned out ...but sadly my poor old Dad suffered a stroke on Friday and is in hospital. His wife has taken the card in for him but right now Father's Day is not something that will really feature for him this year.

Hope all the Dads out there, young and old, are having the best day possible.

Until next time
C xx

Things with wings -AJP

This was another art journal loosely linked to a prompt I had seen online. For this one I used modelling paste through a series of stencils, distress oxides for the background, archival ink and a script stamp from Paper Artsy, some die cut insects (these were test cuts from a new die set I purchased recently) and some gilding wax.

There was no real idea behind  or direction for this piece which just evolved as I went along. It is good  for me to work organically and I was pleasantly surprised by the end result.

Until next time

Cxx

Life is Beautiful (Tag)

Finally life has settled down a bit and I am able to start resuming swaps again. So this is my tag made for the monthly swap over at UK Stampers group.

It is a very simple one this time with a crackle background, an acrylic wash and stamps from VLVS store. I was really pleased with how it turned out and hope the recipient will like it too.

Until next time
Cxx