Steampunk birthday crad

19/02/2012card, steampunk, steampunk birthday cardJackie

For John’s birthday card I went for a bit of a steampunk theme. He has written a book and is just waiting for his literary agent to give the go ahead to get it published so I have tried to portray the fact that his writing ideas will take off. There is only a tiny number 60 on the front of the card around the bird’s neck.

Inks: Black document ink, Versafine archival Vintage sepia, distress inks Frayed burlap and Vintage photo, Black Stazon, embossing ink.
Card: Ivory card, Metallic effect card, small bits of grunge board
Stamps: Oxford Impressions Steampunk elements and Steampunk works, Clarity corner stamp
Other: Copic sepia multi liner, vintage pen nibs, Diamond glaze, copper peel-off hinge, vintage copper brads, Distress Vintage photo embossing powder mixed with Brass detail, Kettle copper embossing powder mixed with Brass detail, small piece of metal stamped using metal stamps (number 60) with black acrylic paint rubbed in.

Grungy Valentine’s card

12/02/2012card, grungy Valentine's cardJackie

Although I am not really a lovey-dovey kinda person I do at least make Harry a card (actually I think Valentine’s day is a lot of tosh and nonsense!) so I made a slightly grungy version of a Valentine’s card. I used an old clothing label and was trying out one of Tim Holtz techniques where you paint it black then stamp some images onto it using clear embossing powder as a resist then dab coloured paint over the top. Wait for it to dry then wipe areas of paint off where you have embossed. Well it didn’t work so I turned it over and stamped in white instead. Still when I wiped over the dryed paint it took off most of the greeny blue colour with it. Never mind it gives it a kind of chalk board effect which is kind off cool.

Paint: Acrylic paint DecoArt Turquoise and Spa blue, Adirondack Pitch black and Snow cap
Card: white card, kookai label
Stamps: O-check design graphics Love stamp set ver 2, With love set (Elusive images ?)
Other: black magic mesh, black linen thread

Zentangle cards

12/02/2012card, zentangleJackie

By just using black and white with some subtle shading you can make cards out of doodles. I have been flicking through a great little book that I bought for my dad a short while while ago and got some pattern ideas for doodling and with a little practice I am starting to get the hang of it now. My hands can be a bit shaky at times so some lines get a bit of a wobble in them but it is great fun to do. I will get your book back to you soon dad!

Pens: Black Pitt pen, pencil, paper stub
Card: Black and white card
Book: Yoga for the brain A zentangle workout by Sandy Steen Bartholemew

Art journal workshop week 4

27/01/2012art journal, Strathmore, Traci BautistaJackie

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.

Art journal workshop week3 part 1

23/01/2012art journal, Strathmore, Traci BautistaJackie

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.

Art journal workshop week2

19/01/2012art journal, Strathmore, Traci BautistaJackie

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

Art journal cover

15/01/2012art journal, cover, frontJackie

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.

Art journal week 52: Achievement

13/01/2012art journal, ukstampers weekly challenge No. 52Jackie

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:

Did you finish the journal?
Did you achieve your goals for the year? If not will they be on the list for next year?
Sum up this journal in less than 10 words.

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.

Art journal earthy colours

13/01/2012art journal, Strathmore, Traci BautistaJackie

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

Art journal week 50: Toys

06/01/2012art journal, toys, week 50Jackie

Still doing last years weekly challenge on the ukstampers forum and week 50 is about Toys:

What toy do you remember from childhood, what was your favourite toy? Was there a toy you wanted and never got?
Do you still have any of your childhood toys? Have you any toys that have been handed down to you? If so what do they mean to you?
Use some vintage images on your page.

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

Cardesque

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