Category Archives: art journal

Art journal week 31 Smile

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Week 31 of the ukstampers art journal challenge is all about Smile:

  • what made you smile this week – list your top 5
  • use a happy colour on your page
  • stamp some kisses

I have used some yellow, orange and pink for this page  and I tried to transfer an image using Golden medium and printed acetate.  The image is a couple of years old – Tegan was playing with my hair and put it up in a bun on the top of my head; I have rather a stupid grin on my face and it reminded me of the song about ‘a smile and a ribbon in my hair’.  It came out very dark so I scribbled over the hair with some pens.  Some things that made me smile this week include my dog launching himself into his bed and rolling about in it without a care in the world, the baby dove is still about in the garden and visits everyday, the sun came out briefly, I made pancakes for lunch today, and the roofer finally came to fix the guttering which broke last winter with all that snow.  You might not be able to see the stamped kisses – they are 3 tiny crosses after ‘Rare’ and after ‘hair’.

Inks/paint:  mostly yellow, orange and pink acrylic paint with some black and white
Card:  watercolour card (and acetate to transfer)
Stamps:  Paperbag studios Scrap journal (bubblewrap stamp), Eline’s Huis cross-stitch (tiny crosses)
Other: coloured pens, Golden medium

Art journal week 33 Spiritual

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Week 33 for the ukstampers challenge is Spiritual:

  • are you a spiritual person, what do you believe, are you a work in progress?
  • use a quote on your page
  • stamp some symbols that have meaning to you on your page

What a big subject to tackle – I am basically a spiritual person (I believe every one is to some extent) but do I believe in one particular religion over others? – well no.  I take the bits out of various religions that I like and that I think help make me a better person in some way. Actually I don’t know that much about any religion, so I am a work in progress. Is that hedging my bets – maybe?  I am however drawn to this symbol and whether it is called yin yang or Dao or Tao I like what it stands for and instead of using a quote I have included the three jewels of the Dao: Compassion, moderation and humility.

Inks:  acrylic paints and Distress ink Black soot, black document ink
Card:  watercolour card
Stamps:  yin yang symbol (unknown)
Other:  black, white and silver pens, small piece of patterned paper

Art journal week 32 Sport

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For week 32 of the ukstampers challenge the prompt is sport:

  • are you sporty? love it or hate it? have a favourite sport?
  • what sport if any would you love to try?
  • stamp some circles/rings on your page

I kind of went over sport a bit when I did my hobbies page so for this page I have chosen Martial arts as the sport I would love to try.  I did dabble in judo for a very short while but that all came to a halt when my pal hurt her knee very badly then the classes stopped, then I moved home etc etc.  If my circumstances were different I would love to try out different martial arts as there are quite a few out there.  It would be a fantastic way to keep fit with discipline and self defence.

Inks/paint:  Black document ink, red, gold, white and moss acrylic paints
Card:  white card, copy paper, Yuzen Chiyogami paper
Stamps:  Calligraphy (Ying-courage), Elusive images Dragon, Non-sequitur Oriental love letters, English stamp Co. Oriental set3, Paperbag studios Scrap journal
Other:  Copic pens green and red, Pearl ex-press watercolours metallic, embossing pen, Moss and gold embossing powder, gold and white pens, coin
The pearl ex-press watercolours give a nice shimmer to the dragon and the sprinkled embossing powders give a nice texture to the page.

Art journal week 15 Travel

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Week 15 – yeh I know from ages ago but I kept putting this one off.  I am not a big fan of travelling and now when we do go anywhere we take sooooo much stuff!!  The image on my background page is from a card Harry gave me a short while back and I love it.  Thank goodness for estate cars with top-boxes is all I can say.  For ukstamper’s week 15 challenge we had to include:

  •  travel – love it or hate it?
  • where are the best and worst places you have travelled?
  • use an old map on your background

We tend to just travel around Britain and we haven’t really been to any bad places but a few of our favourite places include Aviemore, Cornwall and Wales.  I love woodlands and forested places whereas Harry likes open rolling fields. Whenever we do go out and about we have to plan out route carefully for good accessible toilets for me and plenty of nice places for our dog to stretch his legs.  The map is a scan from an old Roadfinder atlas.  I tore it in strips before pasting to the background then sprayed the whole lot.  To make it a bit more visible I outlined it roughly with a pink pen then white dots.
You can’t tell from the main photo but you might be able to see in the closer shot that there is a nice shimmer on the background.

Inks:  Memento Tuxedo black, Dylusion ink sprays Post box red and Cyan, Cosmic shimmer mist Aqua lagoon
Card:  water colour paper, torn scanned image on copy paper
Stamp:  Stamps away Arrow
Other:  Tim Holtz tissue tape, black and white image scanned from a card then coloured using copic pens, white, black, pink and blue pens

Art journal week 30 Smell

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E.G. Boring’s optical illusion

The young lady’s chin is the old hag’s nose, the old hag’s mouth is the young lady’s choker, and the old hag’s chin is the area under the young lady’s choker.

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The ukstampers weekly challenge number 30 is about smell:

  • have you got a favourite smell?  is there a smell that reminds you of something – if so, what?
  • add something smelly to your background
  • use a nose image on your page

I have used E.G. Boring’s optical illusion image as my image of a nose.  You either see a young lady looking away or an old hag.   I traced around the image to make 2 pages with one page being not quite a mirror image but almost.  I splodged the paint on with a baby wipe roughly where the dark areas should be then rubbed over the tracing paper to show roughly where to draw the black outlines.  I then went over the darker areas with a grey copic pen to give then a bit more definition.
Smells can bring back memories or people, places, holidays and happy times.  My grandad used to buy blocks of tobacco which he would tease out and rub then dry in front of the fire.  I loved the smell of his tobacco pouch so the smell of tobacco reminds me of him.  The smell of cigars bring back memories of Christmas as my dad would always get cigars as a gift.  Mincemeat, mulled wine and Christmas pudding also remind me of cosy family Christmases.  Some things I just simply like the smell of, like: ferrets, stables, my dog, old books, leather, churches, hippy shops and incense (not the smoke of the incense), open fires especially peat and wood fire, the forest in the rain, coffee, fresh bread, flowers (but not lilies), the pits at motor racing, harbours when they are painting the boats with anti-fouling paint, dewy mornings when camping  and many, many more besides.  Perfumes on the other hand I am pretty fussy about.  I find that a lot of perfumes smell like fly spray and I don’t like perfumes with too much vanilla in them.  My everyday perfume is Paloma Picasso and my good perfume is Chanel No. 19.

Paints:  acrylic paints yellow, purple, red, grey
Card:  watercolour card
Stamps:  Scrollwork stamps Netting
Other:  stickles Starry night, incense sticks Sandalwood and lavender. grey copic pen, black and white pen

Art journal week 29: You

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I really like these colours together and although I made a few mistakes making this art journal page I am actually quite happy with it.  I tried using white rub-on words for ‘my thoughts’ but they didn’t stand out too well so I went over them with a white pen which made it worse so next I tried smudging a little charcoal pencil around the words.  It worked ok but not that great.  For week 29 of the ukstampers challenge the prompts is; You (as in me):

  • describe yourself in 5 words
  • use some stickers or rub-ons
  • include your fingerprint on your page

Do you know just how difficult it is to think of just 5 words to describe yourself?  These were the 5 words I came up with that more or less describes me although I am sure some people may disagree but these are my thoughts, about me, and no-one else’s.

  • Indecisive – I take such a long time to make decisions and I am always worried that I have made the wrong choice.
  • Average – I am pretty average at everything – I have been described before as a Jack of all trades, master of none.
  • Fanciful – whimsical? would love for fairies and ghosts to be real, love fairy tales
  • Nice – I am a nice person, kind, generous and friendly
  • Inquisitive – I love learning new things about everything and I am always asking questions (these days I tend to forget the answers!)

Inks/paint: Acrylic paints: turquoise, rust, white, black, and silver, Inks: Stazon Jet black, Distress inks Tumbled glass and Spun sugar
Card:  water colour card, scrap of silver and white patterned paper
Stamps: Tim Holtz Chronicles ‘i’ and Mini muse, Stampin up Sanded background, Stampotique Gooseneck, English stamp Co. Oriental set 3 (grass), Paperbag studios Scrap journal, Aspects of design Daisy flutters (flower), small alphabet stamps unknown
Other:  BoBunny Whimsy rub-ons, Cosmo cricket rub-ons, Stickles Aqua, shiny butterfly sticker unknown, charcoal pencil and coloured pens
The mouse is my fingerprint.

Art journal week 28 Truth

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Here is my week 28 page for the ukstampers weekly challenge.  The prompt is Truth:

  • what does the truth mean to you? are you a truthful person?
  • is it acceptable to tell little white lies?  have you ever lied or been lied to big time?
  • include some splodges of paint, an exclamation mark and a question mark on your page

I was trying to keep this page plain and simple – like the truth – but I found I kept going back to embellish it!  Hm what does that say about me?   If you hadn’t notice yet I have bought a couple Kate Crane’s Art journalling videos and they are very inspirational.  I haven’t quite gone done the road of collage work yet but I am sure I will soon.  One of her techniques is to stick to one main colour but use several different shades so I have tried that here using black and white to highlight.

Paints:  rust and white acrylic paint
Card:  white card
Stamp: Stampotique Moon girl
Other:  black, white and coloured pens, Stickles Tiara, crackle glaze for the angel wings

Art journal week 25 Ambitions

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The prompt for week 25 on the ukstampers forum is Ambitions:

  • are you ambitious?  if you are have you achieved them?
  • have you got a bucket list? if so what is in it?
  • use some kind of glittery star embellishment on your page

As you can see I went all out with the neon colours for this one.  It didn’t turn out quite how I expected it to but I like it anyway.  The black memento ink that I used on the stamping is rather dull so I may have to experiment a bit with other makes on acrylic paint.

I am just not ambitious in the least, sad I know, but it could be that I am happy and content with life just the way it is so I don’t need to be ambitious.  Or maybe I am just lazy!  Perhaps it is only greedy people who are ambitious?  always wanting more!  I just kind of bumble along in life from one thing to another.
After painting the background with pink, blue and yellow I did a bit of splattering.
I stippled some white paint through a plastic reusable doily then sprayed over the top with ink sprays.  The journalling was written onto pink tissue paper then pasted onto the page using mod podge.  Next came the stamping, doodling and doting.  The star embellishments are the pale pinky/purple gems in the shape of a star and some tiny pale silvery blue stars.

Inks:  Memento Tuxedo black
Card:  white card, dark pink tissue paper
Stamps:  Elusive images Funky doodles Fresh
Other:  pale purple gems, mini silvery blue stars, neon pens, black and white pens, spray inks and paints: acrylic pink, blue, white, black and yellow, sprays: Dylusions Post box red and Cyan, Ecoline Chartreuse, and a neon yellow spray, blue, yellow and pink Sharpie poster paint pens

Art journal week 27 Celebrity

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Week 27 of the ukstampers weekly challenge is all about Celebrity:

  • would you like to be famous? would it be heaven or hell?
  • do you have any claim to fame? or know any one famous?
  • include some stamped stars on your page
  • if you could be famous for one day who would you be?

I guess I am too shy to want to be famous and to have lots of publicity and no privacy  would be hell.  I don’t know anyone famous or have any claim to fame.  I wouldn’t really want to be any celebrity for a day but it would be nice to know what it would be like for a sports star on the podium having won Olympic gold for their country.  Someone like Denise Lewis perhaps.
You can’t really see the shimmer and sparkle over the page so you will just have to take my word that it looks better in real life.

Ink: versamark with gold embossing powder
Card:  white card painted with yellow, orange, brown and rust acrylic paint with touches or black and white
Stamps:  Bring out the star in you (unknown), A stamp in the hand Field of sky
Other:  Vintage image from art-e-zine, paper stars, gold stickles, Perfect pearls Heirloom gold, white, black and brown pen

Art journal week 26 Commitment

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For week 26 of the ukstampers challenge the prompt was Commitment and had to include:

  • are you determined – once you commit to something do you hang in there or are you easily distracted?
  • what is your biggest commitment you have made – or what is the one you never kept?
  • use a dictionary quote on your page

I like to think that I see things through until completed but at the same time I like to quit while I am ahead ie. I don’t want to waste my time and energy on something that simply will not work.  My biggest commitment is my marriage (don’t have kids otherwise they probably would be).

Inks:  Distress inks Mustard seed and shabby shutters, Memento Tuxedo black
Card:  white card painted with yellow, teal and white, some black
Stamps:  Judikins Artifacts cube, Aspects of Design Daisy daydreams, Tim Holtz mini muse
Other:  white pen, computer generated text