Age

I created these journal pages yesterday evening whilst watching TV! The two images come from an art magazine. The black pattern in the other two corners are part of a paper serviette glued on with matte medium. The yellow is acrylic paint and the pictures are edged with coloured charcoal, blended with a paper stump. I used a felt-tip pin and a white gel pen for the journalling.

A happy accident!

Having created these journal background pages using water-soluble oil pastels I was debating how to add my journalling. I hit upon the idea of writing on top of white correction tape. To my surprise, instead of the ink sitting on the correction tape, it actually wiped away the tape, leaving the background exposed (click on the white lines to see it in better detail). A new technique discovered purely by accident!

Fabric art

I have been experimenting dying material with tea.

The background is the original colour of the material. For the darker piece I used two tea bags and for the lighter piece one tea bag; very technical! I want to use the lighter piece for a project, so I experimented stamping on the darker piece. I then coloured it with some Distress Inks using a waterbrush. Although not perfect, I was quite pleased with the result and so used it to create this piece of fabric art.

Triptych

As well as the benefit of chocolate, Easter eggs brought the bonus of folded corrugated cardboard! Using one such piece, I have made a triptych. I glued on some decorative paper and applied several layers of acrylic paint. These were followed by various patterns of paints made using sequin waste and bottle tops etc. As focus points I added letters, paper flowers and a decorated, die-cut metal bird.

Front view:

Back view:

Window scene

A little digital collage.

Credits: Obsidian Dawn for the exposed bricks; everything else Studio Manu at Scrapbook Graphics

Itinerary 17

The theme given by Art Journal Caravan this week is listening.

For my painted pages I started off with a bright yellow acrylic background. Using brown ink, I stamped on some images by Tim Holtz and then added my journalling. I edged the pages with brown water soluble oil-pastels. (Double click on the pages to make them bigger.)

My digital piece is rather different, based on the premise that real friends are those who listen.

Credits: Tangie Baxter & Angela Sexton, Scrapbook Graphics

This is the picture Art Creations Friday gave us this week. This is what I did with it.

Credits: Background supplied by Kim at Paper Digital Art

Hybrid journal pages

I was sitting at my computer and suddenly had the bright idea of starting off some journal pages with digital collages. So I put together some digital pieces, adjusted them to the right size, tore them from the paper and stuck them onto my blank journal pages with matte medium. Once dry I set to with pens, crayons, paints and pastels and this is what I came up with. Different to my previous pages but an idea that may stick!

Hats and crowns and wings and things

Credits: Tangie Baxter, Gypsy, Birgit Kerr - all at SBG; and iTkUpiLLi, Lisa's Altered Art, Terri Kahrs, Rein & Dover

My contribution to the Three Muses challenge this week.

Art journal

My art journal is one big experiment and I am trying out lots of different styles and techniques. These are my latest pages.

The first started with some sprays of Glimmer Mist and then I stencilled my name down the left-hand side of the page. Once I had used the letters to start some sentences about myself, I stencilled some smaller letters on the other side. Doodles finished the page.

The second page started with some blocks of colour made with water-soluble pastels. Then came blobs of white and black gesso and once dry I wrote some random sentences about colour. Over this I pencilled in some swirls in various colours and added a border. Very different!

Spring time

Sunday Postcard Art wanted us to create something with the theme of Spring time so here it is, a digital collage:

The background is one of my own masterboards, with the colour changed and a Ruby Rynne stamp added over it. The flowers are from Studio Manu's Vintage Farm set.

Proud as a peacock

A digital collage.

Credits: Orchid elixir by StudioTangie at Scrapbook Graphics

New blog design

Well, you've probably noticed, I have a new blog design. As I'm not very HTML literate, I am quite proud of what I've achieved! The lace edges are courtesy of Studio Ztampz at Scrapbook Graphics. All other elements courtesy of Angie Hinksman at Scrapartist - I used some of these to create the background.
Let me know what you think.

ACF 70

Art Creations Friday provided a photo of a young girl. I decided to go quirky this week and used just her face to create this:

Credits: O. N. designs & Maya, both of Scrapbook Graphics

Initially, I created the piece below, using a photo of my own and an iTkUpiLLi background, but wasn't that enamoured by it hence the piece above. Let me know which you prefer.

This is the original image:

Itinerary 16

The theme from Art Journey Caravan this week is character traits.

My mixed media piece started with a brown arylic background overpainted with patches of green and yellow paint. I then added letters to spell the word 'sensitive' and journalled around them. I framed the letters with Coloursoft pencils and, to finish, I added some flower stamps.

And this is my digital piece:

Marie

Credits: Studio Manu & Studio Tangie, both Scrapbook Graphics

This is my first entry for the Collage Obsession challenge, which this week features a picture of Marie Antoinette and the word 'obvious'.

Underground

Maps is the Three Muses theme this week. I chose an old map of the London underground.

Credits: Studio Baers Garten & Ruby Rynne, both of Scrapbook Graphics

Tag - take another look

Nuts & bolts

Having been to the show at Ally Pally I had to create something using some of the things I bought, and here it is.

One of the things I bought was a TSS mould of cogs for metal work, so this is where I started. After laboriously moulding my metal I stuck it to some chipboard and added a border. I then built up a frame from foam board around it and covered it with Tim Holtz paper. I then die cut some cogs with my Cuttlebug machine using my new Tim Holtz die, sprayed them with various coordinating shades of Glimmer Mist, stuck them, once dry, onto acetate and cut around them so the acetate doesn't show. I stuck this to the frame and then added some metal sprockets. I added the PaperArtsy stamp ( I'm not not sure I understand it, but it fitted!) and clock face as points of focus. Done!

Itinerary 15

The theme of my AJC journal pages this week is nature.

My mixed media pages have an initial layer of green acrylic paint over-painted with gesso. I added the pictures (a freebie from a craft magazine) and framed them with Coloursoft pencils. Having written my thoughts, I added further colour with water-soluble oil pastels - I only bought these a month or so ago and I LOVE them!

Now for my digital page.

Credits: A Sexton & T Baxter at Scrapbook Graphics

ACF 69

Art Creations Friday gave us this picture of a girl as our challenge this week.

I didn't want to change the girl very much and so I have set her in a completely different background.

Credits: Background & bench - Miss Vivi; lamp - Manu (both at Scrapbook Graphics)

Ally Pally

Today I went to the Big Stamp & Scrapbooking Show at Alexandra Palace and I was lucky enough to be one of the people who received a freebie from L. B. Crafts - a lovely metal broach.

Blackbird

This is my (tongue in cheek) digital piece for the Three Muses this week.

Credits: Studio Tangie & Studio Manu, both of Scrapbook Graphics

Story

My fourth and final piece for today. Well, actually it's a bit of a cheat as I started this piece a few weeks ago and decided I needed to get it finished!

I applied gesso to a canvas board onto which I stuck a couple of bits of German script. I then painted a variety of acrylic paints over the surface. I added the four images, which were freebies from a Stampington magazine, and added some more paint and some green crackle paint in three of the corners. I made a slide outline with card, and painted on crackle paint at the bottom. To add some depth I painted purple paint over all the crackle paint and then wiped the paint off the surface, leaving the paint in the cracks. After adding the face of the lady I added the metal decoration and stuck the slide onto the board. I added the other two metal pieces and edged the board with black paint.

Double click on the lady if you want to see more detail.

Altered beer mats

This is my third project of the day!

I used a pearl Adirondack paint dabber and covered both beer mats. Once dry I applied alcohol inks to them. On each beer mat I stamped a Tim Holtz stamp and went over the outlines with a thin black pen.

To the first mat I added the film strip with numbers behind it. I stamped on some paper flowers and added these next to the film strip and in the opposite corner.

For the second mat I coloured some of the stamped image with peel-off pens (that is, pens that will dry on the alcohol ink). Using small staples, I then attached a piece of mica that I had coloured with alcohol inks. Having edged the 'promise' Doodad (Tim Holtz) with brown ink, I stuck it to the mica with glossy accents. To add the finishing touch, I attached a square, copper brad to each corner of the mat.

 

Flower and background

This is my second project of the day.

I pasted a piece of Anna Griffin paper onto a piece of cardboard. Onto this I painted a thin layer of white gesso and then patches of black gesso, leaving one of the flowers visible. I mixed some Distress Ink tea dye refill with some acrylic glazing medium and brushed it over the whole of the piece to give the brown colouring. Then came the stamping - Tim Holtz stars, and black circles using the inside of a toilet roll dipped in black acrylic paint. At this stage I used a toothbrush to add some white gesso brush marks. I outlined the flower with a black, waterproof pen and coloured it with transparent acrylic paint. Having written over the background with a white gel pen, I painted patches of the same colour over the background to promote some integration. A few more patches of tea dye colour, a few highlights with the gel pen and the black border finished the piece.

N.B. I made sure each layer was dry before applying the next.

Altered photo postcard

Today is the last day of my holiday, so I have been making the most of it! My first project was to alter a postcard with a picture of a young boy dressed in a sailor costume (produced by Joanna Sheen).

I painted a couple of layers of twinkling H2Os around the central image and then added some black gesso to help integrate it. Next I added some white gesso and then some more layers of twinkling H2Os. I stamped on some Tim Holtz images using cobalt Archival Ink and over those I added some more stamps using StazOn black ink. I added some metal bits and pieces to add more interest and made a hanger with some wire and beads.

Journal pages

Here are two journal pages I created whilst in a hotel room! I had acrylic paint backgrounds already prepared. The rest of the details were created using Coloursoft pencils, a black pen, wax crayons, a letters stencil, paper images (Crafty Individuals) and stamps (Craft Stamper & Paper Artsy).

Itinerary 14

Well, we are now into the second quarter of  Art Journal Caravan, and the theme this week is 'tickled pink'. First my drawn journal pages. I started with an acrylic background, pasted on images of elephants over which I applied gesso. Once dry I drew over the shapes and coloured them pink with water soluble oil pastels. I added further colour to the background and wrote my thoughts.

Now for my digital page. Double click on the word 'reasons' to read the words.

Credits: T Baxter, A Sexton & Rosey Posey, all Scrapbook Graphics.