This is the final week of Traci’s workshop so here is my final page. I didn’t have the glaze or collage pauge that Traci used but I made do with watered down PVA glue and just added water to some acrylic paint as a glaze (over the face). I did more doodles on news print as the original ones I did would have been too big.
Week 3 of Traci’s workshop over at Strathmore has 2 parts and this background page and doodles are for part 1.
The writing that is partially covered up reads ‘ don’t think just do it NOW’. I am trying to be more spontaneous but I still over think a page and it ends up taking me ages to do.
The background page is a mixture of acrylics, a little watercolour and a little gel medium (I only have that one pot of medium but it is a bit thick) on Strathmore Visual Journal. I used permapaque pens for the writing. The doodles are waterproof India ink on newsprint.
Week 2 of Traci Bautista’s worshop at Strathmore is about creating watercolour backgrounds so here is a page I did for that. In real life it is even more vibrant as I used some neon watercolour sprays which turned out to be permanent (I guess they have some kind of binder in them), the orange on this photo appears dull.
Paint: Reaves watercolour tubes: Sap green Chinese white and Medium yellow, Derwent Auatone crayon Zinc yellow, Derwent Inktense pencil Apple green, Dylusions ink spray Vanilla custard, Zia’s neon watercolour sprays.
Card: Strathmore visual journal watercolour 140lb
Other: fabric flower, spray bottles
So here is my journal’s cover finally! It is made from a cotton cloth which I painted with gesso first then applied acrylic paints a few sprays and stamps. I found a very useful video on you tube that showed me how to stitch some pages into it then I tarted up the spine. A mixture of pink fluffy girly and a bit of grunge.
First I painted the cloth with gesso and make up the background in the same way as a journal page. Next I ironed on some material webbing then stitched this to some calico the same size using a patterned stitch and white thread. (I only added the webbing to make it a tiny bit easier to handle).
As the challenge had 52 weeks of challenges I needed 52 pages so I made 4 signatures; 13 sheets of A4 folded in half then cut down to size, 3 of them containing 3 sheets and 1 of them with 4 sheets. That gives 13 pages which equates to 52 sides.
Take a look at this video by ricefz that shows how to join them together.
I used some white linen thread that I had drawn through some bees wax.
To cover up the large stitches I just used a couple of lengths of pink fluffy feather stuff, small pieces of ribbon, flower trim and beads to tart it up. I added a tiny peacock, buttons and more flower trim for the front.
Do you recognise the background page then? I used the background I made in the previous post: photographed it, altered the colour saturation and levels, added a grunge mask (Jessica Prague), text and ink blot to create my final page of last years ukstampers weekly challenge.
The prompt was achievement:
I did achieve some of my goals and finishing this art journal was one of them. I found it challenging, fun and difficult. I did manage to blog almost every week but a couple of weeks when I was poorly I did not. Now though I must finish the cover for my journal pages and blog that.
This is the first page in my new art journal inspired by the Traci Bautista online workshop over at the Strathmore site. It didn’t start out quite like this as I had sprayed a lovely elderberry colour over some stencils first but by the time I did a bit of washing over the entire surface it took most of the elderberry out. Never mind, I love the effect I achieved eventually.
Inks: India ink
Paint/sprays: Adirondack color washes Terracota, Pesto, and Butterscotch, Chroma jewels Elderberry (most of this came out), Dylusions acrylic paint Avocado, Cornflower and Tangerine and Purple, Lumier Sunset gold (mixed in with the Tangerine)
Card: Strathmore visual journal (140lb)
Other: white inksential pen, black Pitt pens, orange and green Sharpie poster paint pens, oil pastels to highlight areas
Still doing last years weekly challenge on the ukstampers forum and week 50 is about Toys:
Gosh where do I start with toys I remember; there have been so many over the years. I remember a dolls house that my mum made, lots of dolls and girly stuff, roller skates, pogo sticks, sledge, bike, board games, crafty things, colouring books, cot, pram etc. I also used to play with my brothers’ toys like hot wheels, garage, cars, mecano and many more. At Christmas time we would always get a Broons or an Oor Wullie annual which we couldn’t wait to read. I don’t have any of these toys now as sadly none have survived and many were given away for someone else to enjoy.
Inks: Memento Tuxedo black, Distress inks Frayed burlap and Old paper
Card: white card
Stamps: See D’s Christmas: Alphabet, Traditional and Vintage, Basic Grey Flourish corners
Other: clear embossing powder and ink, black, white and red pens, Inktense pencils to colour, Diamond glaze, green and red gelly glaze pens
Week 46 of the ukstampers weekly challenge (last year) prompt is Astrology:
I used to believe in this kind of stuff; after all if the moon can exert a force on all living things then why can’t other planets? We are all linked by subatomic particles like neutrinos that we are just finding out about so who knows truth if any lies behind astronomy?
I do sometimes read my horoscope in the daily newspaper by it is always rubbish. If I did read something that was true then I would put it down to coincidence. I am a metal rat according to Chinese astronomy.
I embossed the sun and moon the sprayed the background. While this was still wet I sprinkled over some salt and let it dry. When the page was finished to add to the starry effect I used a toothbrush to spray some white acrylic paint over it.
Inks: Memento Tuxedo black in, Adirondack colorwash Denim
Card: white card
Stamps: Inkadinkado Zodiac, Non-sequitur Oriental love letters (moon), Unknown Alice in wonderland collection (sun)
Other: salt, white and black pen, clear embossing powder, white acrylic paint, copic pens to colour
Nearly there now, only a couple more pages to do. This is week 51 of the ukstampers challenge (last years) and the prompt is Christmas tree:
We have a fake tree that goes up each year and as bit fall of it, it gets a little smaller each year. The same old decorations get hung on it which are of no sentimental value whatsoever. Any decorations that didn’t break the previous year get hung on the tree, along with any I have made (but there are not many of them). I used to love counting the trees I saw in peoples windows as I passed in the bus as a child. We have a fake tree as I don’t like the waste of growing all these real trees just to get thrown out after a couple of weeks.
Ink/paint: Memento Tuxedo black ink, Red, Moss and white acrylic paints
Card: watercolour paper, white card
Stamp: Stamp-it Home for Christmas Cherish, Dylusions Around the edge
Other: Black and white pens, Stickles Xmas red, Lime and Platinum, glitter pen
Just a quick one before my next lot of visitors arrive.
Week 49 of the ukstampers challenge is about Tradition
We do like to have a fairly traditional dinner at Christmas but I would much rather have a goose or duck than a turkey. Mum and dad used to host the boxing day bash but that has now passed on to me which I really enjoy (even more than Christmas day). One of the best things about Christmas is the festive cooking! I love the traditional Christmas spices in things like the mincemeat, mulled wine and Christmas cake but I do prefer a clootie dumpling than a Christmas cake. Dad used to always get cigars or pipe tobacco as gifts so these smells remind me of Christmas but he doesn’t smoke any more and I have even been known to smoke a cigar just to get that smell and Christmas-past memory.
Inks: Memento Tuxedo black, Distress ink Fired brick
Card: Nitwit collection Cookin’ cookies, white card
Stamps: Nitwit collection Cookin’ cookies
Other: copic pens to colour, green brad