Mysterious

Hello and welcome back to my poor neglected blog, it has been months since I was last here. Today I am back with a mixed media art journal page.

 

Over on the Viva Las VegaStamps blog they have a month challenge and April is all about being inspired by not only the image below, but also "Be inspired by words like nature, natural, trees, forests, camping, mountains, skies & water, fishing, birds, reflections, boats, dogs, gray, tan, white & black, gray + anything else that you might be inspired by!"

 

One rule that you absolutely must follow is that your project must include at least ONE if not MORE stamps from vlvstamps.

 

This is the image for the April Challenge.

 

I used three stamps from plate 1471, which was released April 2016

 

This is my finished art journal page.

The way that the inspiration board inspired me was firstly all the different textures that you would find if you were actually standing looking at the scene in real life. The second way was what different shapes that you would find in nature and naturally I gravitated towards the circle even though there isn't one in the board. Circles are my favourite shape and appears in nature so often.

I kept my colour palette pretty neutral with the pop of teal to bring the page to life.

 

I gave my art journal page the title of mysterious because mother nature is pretty mysterious and so can be the creative process.

 

Below are some more phots of some of the different stages of my art journal page an close ups

 

 

products used: golden fluid acrylics - carbon black and teal, prima art basics heavy gesso - white, prima art extravagance texture paste - white crackle, stabilo all - black, archival ink - jet black and watering can, liquitex - matte gel, faber-castell tri graphite pencil 2B

 

Happy Creating

Blossum, Bloom, Grow

I love playing with new products and this last week I got to play with a relatively new product from Faber-Castell, colour fizz tablets. They are included in the Shop and Crop Scrapbooking September Mixed Media Mania Kit, which is still available in the shop.

If you would like to see how I created this canvas and used the colour fizz tablets then please pop on over to the Shop and Crop Scrapbooking Blog to follow along with my tutorial.

Happy Creating

Paperfic Melbourne 2017

I cannot remember the last time I attended the Paperific Expo, it is at least 13 years as I have know my husband that long and I haven't been since I have know him. Last month I was able to go, but it was a little different to what I would normally have done. Normally I would have picked a day, and gone, this time was there for four days and working. Thursday was set up day, got there around 1130 as I had to go after I had dropped my children at school. I was really excited but also nervous as I was meeting Kylie and Darryl Powell who own and run Shop and Crop Scrapbooking. I had spoken to Kylie on the phone and had conversations on facebook and messenger but never actually in person. Its a bit hard when I live in Victoria and she lives in NSW. I also meet the fabulous Donna who is also on the design team.

The weekend was a fantastic, I had an absolute blast. For the weekend I got to talk and meet lots of people, selling products that I love and on the Saturday and Sunday I got messy. I played with Expo Kit No. 4 instead of making a scrapbooking layout I create a canvas. Here is a sneak peak, if you would like to see the complete piece please pop on over to the Blog.

Happy Creating

Choose To Shine

I am really enjoying creating the Artsy Circles, I think I am stepping out of my comfort zone, still no idea what my style is but that's ok, I don't need to know.

So the prompt for today is Butterflies. I love butterflies, along with tulips they are my most favourite things. In saying that you would not believe the trouble I had creating the circle for today. First I was looking for something that I thought I had thrown out and in the end I had just transferred it to another draw, 1/2 an hour I spent looking and then it wasn't right. Secondly, after I realise that what I thought was a good idea and it wasn't I then spent ages going through all my stamps and stencils to find what I did have.

Finally I created a circle that I am really, really happy with.

I started off with a piece of heavy water colour paper that I put through my bigshot with a circle die that has a diameter of 10.4 cm, which I then put gesso on both sides.

For my background colour I mixed clear gesso with Frank Garcia artisan powder and applied it with my palate knife, making sure that I had texture and not just an all over colour.

Making sure that the gesso layer was dry with my archival ink and stamp I added another layer.

It is all about layers, through a stencil I added some paint in a contrasting colour.

Next I added white gesso to just tie it altogether, then I got out my stabilo all pencil to grunge it up.

Ok so this is where I forgot to take photos as I was very involved in my creative process. Once I made it grungy, I then stamped the butterflies all over the surface making sure that they were going in different directions and that I had some flying off the page and flying on to the page. I then scraped another light layer of white gesso over my stamping. Using my stabilo all to grunge it up some more. Finally I added my white circle, embossed the image, used my stabilo all to grunge it up again. Lastly I added the three quotes.

products found at Art and Soul Studio
archival ink - jet black
art alchemy acrylic paint - black berry
Frank Garcia - artisan powder - french sage
kaisercraft stamp - sketchy

Happy Creating

Book Pages

It's Artsy Circle day today which means the Art and Soul Studio and the affiliated facebook group Soul Sisters have a new prompt.

The prompt for today is book pages. Now I know this can cause some people to shudder when they think about people ripping a book and if this is you please still play along but find a piece of cardstock that looks like a book page. I have an old text book that is filled with Shakespeare's plays that I brought from an op shop for $5, I am sure it will last me a life time.

I started with a piece of heavy watercolour paper that I cut with my metal circle die through my bigshot. The circle is 10.3cm in diameter which I have then put gesso on both sides.

I decided that I was going to cover the surface of my paper with the book page, at first I was going to run it through my bigshot but I vetoed that idea. I put glue on my watercolour paper and then put it straight down onto the book page. Once dry, well what I thought was dry I torn the rest of the page away from the edge of the circle. To make sure that the paper was well attached I used my brayer over the top and bottom.

I let it sit overnight because I had no idea where I was going with this. I thought about drawing on it and actually went ahead and started, that was a complete disaster. I tried to erase my light pencil marks but I torn the page. Once the page was torn I could actually remove the book page from the watercolour paper. The glue wasn't dry, I don't know if this was because I used a glue stick on gesso. So my background on my actual complete circle is different from this picture because I put a new piece book paper down. This time attaching it with matte medium. Using a paint brush I put the matte medium on to my circle then the circle straight on to my book page.

I wanted a garden on my book page. Why you ask? I have no idea its just what I wanted. Looking through my large stash of stamp I found one that I like and knew would work for the idea I had in my head. When stamping I didn't want a dark or perfect image, so I had sure that I stamped on a scrap piece of paper first. Also I had never used this particular stamp from the set so I seasoned it with my ink first.

Once I found the stamp I was going to use I knew that I had some rub-ons that went with this stamp and that is what I used for the middle flower image and dragonfly.

I am not really sure where I was going with the gesso but I went with the flow and ended up with a smaller image but you could still see some of the image underneath.

Using my inktense pencils I coloured my image but I wanted the middle flower to stand out from the rest. I didn't want to use gesso so I was at first a little bit stumped but then I had a brain wave of using my artisan powders from Prima to dull the image. I painted the powder over all of my circle and once I was happy with the colour I then recoloured the middle flower. I also used another colour of my artisan powders on the gesso. I like these powders as they have no shimmer. I didn't put them on very heavy so they are really hard to see but they are there.

products used that can be found in the shop
Prima Artisan Powder - vintage ivory and trianon patina
Derwent Inktense Pencils - beach green, burnt orange, deep violet and deep rose

Happy Creating

The First Step In a Journey

I am really excited to share with you this project and tutorial.

This project and tutorial is an Arsty Circle. It is a project that has been created for the Art and Soul Studio online store and Soul Sisters facebook group. Arsty Circles is loosely based on the ICAD challenge which is created and run by DaisyYellowArt. ICAD is basically where you create art every day on an index card.

The Artsy Circles for Art and Soul is where a prompt is posted in the Soul Sisters facebook group every Thursday and Sunday, you can play along or just see what others create.

The only request that we have is that the shape of your substrate is a circle. This circle can be any size, so if your mojo is overflowing you could have a huge circle but if you are struggling maybe a 1” circle is all you want to use.

The reason we chose a circle is because a) it’s different and b) Our mantra (see pinned post) is all about a circle of women.

There are no rules other than you must have fun. The first prompt is Red.

Here is what I created

My circle that I am using is 10.3cm in diameter, the only reason it is that size is because that was the largest die that I had. I could have created a bigger circle if I got my silhouette cameo out of the cupboard, but that just seemed too hard.

My  first step was to cover the back and front of my circle with gesso, I applied this with a palette knife, as I am not a fan of brushstrokes. Using my heat gun I made sure that it was completely dry before I found my favourite stamp Script from Kaisercraft and stamped all over the surface of my circle. I didn't worry about where I was stamping I was just making sure it was covered.  Around the edge of my circle I coloured with my Stabilo All and then activate it with a water brush.

 

Once my I was happy with the black watermarks I made sure it was complete dry I then added bright red paint with my palette knife. I didn't want the paint too thick and I also didn't want it to complete cover the surface. Because I am too impatient I used my heat gun to dry the paint then with an Inktense pencil I added three lots of three triangles (which I activated with water), with my black paint pen I added three lots of five crosses and then lastly I with my white paint pen I added dots to the red paint.

The last thing I added to my Artsy Circles was a word sticker.

products used that can be brought from the shopinktense pencil - deep blue
dina wakley media heavy body acrylic paint - ruby
timholts idea-ology - clippings stickers
kaisercraft stamp - script

Happy Creating

Follow Your Dreams

Currently I have 5 bound art journals being used and 2 just patiently waiting for me to break them out, but I really love using mixed media paper or heavy watercolour paper that I have cut up myself.  Having all these different size journals and paper lets me just follow my journey where ever it leads.

The art journal page I am sharing with you today has a little story behind it which I hope you don't mind me sharing with you. It started out as a page painted with black gesso, then letter stickers stuck down. Once this was all dry I added colour with my Twinkling H2Os, which were pretty in colour but the design was ugly. I put it aside for another day. That day final came and then after many, many, many layers of thick gesso, texture paste, I was able to cover the old page up. My piece of mixed media paper that is 21.5 cm x 21.5 cm now weighs 64g. The same size and kind of paper with nothing on it only weighs 13g, that's a lot of product to cover something up.

Much happier with the new page

products used: mixed media paper, art basics heavy gesso - white, lindy's stamp gang sprays starburst - tiffanylou blue, blue hawaiian blue, lindy's stamp gang sprays flat fabio - tilt-a-wheel teal, tim holtz collection layering stencil - stripes, uni pin fine line - black 0.1, kaisercraft rubons - dreams, indigoblu stamp - limor circles, dina wakley media stamp - textures

Happy Creating

Find The Calm Within Your World

I was flicking through my art journal last night just before I went to bed, not really looking for anything but I can across this background and I knew what it needed.

We all have soooo much going on in our lives that sometimes it just gets too much. The calm within my world is my art which has been pushed to the back but the last couple of days I have made a point of coming into my space and trying to create.
 

I cant tell you how or what was used to create this background other than the arrows and circles are from a VivaLas Vegas stamp set.

products used - archival ink - jet black and coffee, dina wakley media stamp - silhouetted woman, posca paint pen - white, printed quote on computer, gellyroll pen - white, uniball signo pen - black.

Happy Creating

Winter Blues

Today is the start of another month, just where has the time gone?????? This also means that a new challenge is up on the blog at Show Us Your Stuff. This month it is all about colour, remember to make sure that you add a hand made embellishment to your creation.

 

For this challenge I made three totally different cards.



The hand made items I used for this card are the snow covered hills & the fussy cut image which I then coloured.

products used: stampin' up ink - dapper denim, marina mist, soft sky, soft suede & garden green, archival ink - jet black & cornflower blue, stampin' up stamps - peaceful pines & festival of trees, faber-castell big brush pen - permanent green olive, gelly roll pen - white, ranger embossing powder - silver, versamark, stampin; up cardstock - whisper white, mixed media paper, aleens glitter snow, prima art basics heavy gesso - white.

The handmade items are the resin butterfly from The Resin Rainbow, which was white but I altered with alcohol ink and the wooden veneer from flutterbydesigns - circle confetti.

products used: lindy's stamp gang spray - tiffanylou blue, Caribbean blue, blue Hawaiian blue & tilt-a-wheel teal, faber-castell big brush pen - cobalt blue, sharpie - white, Adirondack alcohol ink - sail boat blue, archival ink - cornflower blue, white thread, mixed media paper, stampin' up stamp - helping me grow, stampin' up metallic foil doilies, vivalasvegastamp - plate 1471, the resin rainbow butterfly - white, flutterbydesigns - confetti circles, stampin' up cardstock - whisper white, izink - volubilis.

 

The handmade items used here is the chevie border from burdys embellies and the wood veneer from flutterbydesign - abstract 2 which I altered with silver emossing powder.

products used: archival ink - forget-me-not blue & jet black, versamark, burdys embellies - chevie borders, stampin' up ink - dapper denim, ranger embossing powder - silver, stampin' up punch - circle 1", stampin' up cardstock - whisper white, white cotton, flutterbydesigns wood veneer - abstract 2, kaisercraft stamp - script, stampin' up stamp - honeycomb hello (retired)

Hope that you are able to join us this month

Happy Creating

Some Days

Some days I just don't feel like creating, some days I want to create but the mojo is not there, some days I want to create but nothing works and some days it just happens. Lately I have been in the I want to create but the mojo is missing, so this morning I was asked to create a sympathy card. I decided to keep it nice and simple.

 Really love this colour combination.

All products used are Stampin' Up: Ink - Island Indigo and Pool Party, Stamps - You've Got This and Teeny Tiny Sentiments, Cardstock - Whisper White

Happy Creating

Kraft+, Black and White

There are times when you cannot go past a challenge and the new challenge at Kraft+ is one of those times. Kraft+ have a different challenge each month but there is one criteria that must be followed each and every single time, your design must be created on a kraft base.

The challenge is Black & White, this month there is also a kraft board to help with the inspiration.

When I first looked at the kraft board what caught my eye were the polka dots. I didn't use polka dots but they did give me my starting point. The circles also caught my eye and I just love circles.

I couldn't just stop at one card for this challenge I had to create two.

 Products used: kraft, dylusions paint - black, die cut circles, kaisercraft wooden flourish guitar, distress paint - black soot, faber-castell big brush pen - black, gelly roll - white, stampin' up - stars framelits dies and dusty attic stencil - criss cross.

Products used: stampin' up stamp - flower shop, stampin' up punch - pansy, faber-castell whipped spackle, the crafters workshop stencil - mini tiny circles, twiddleybitz chipboard - chicken mesh wire, versamark, archival ink - jet black, stampin' up emboss powder - black, tim holtz idea-ology - big chat, charms creations - heavenly hearts and cheese cloth.

Happy Creating

Just Add Aqua Cotton

Because I was having so much fun playing with my stamps and was not sure what I wanted to create for the April challenge at Show Us Your Stuff I created a set of three cards. Now these three cards are the same but different. Have I confused you, let me show you what I mean.

  

I started out making my atc (artist trading card) size rectangle which I then coloured, stamped, heat embossed and then stuck my embellishments to. The other element which makes them the same is that I have only used one colour of ink - soft suede. It is amazing how many browns you can get from just one ink pad.

Products used: Ink - Soft Suede, Stamps - Gorgeous Grunge, Summer Silhouettes, Timeless Textures and Teeny Tiny Sentiments, Dies - Butterflies Thinlits and Bold Butterfly Framelits, Cardstock - Whisper White, Vellum - Botanical Gardens Designer Stack, Corrugated Paper - Kraft, Sequins - In Colour assortment, Emboss Powder - White, Versamark, Sepciality Designer Series Paper - Typeset, Cotton - Aqua

If you have any question about any of the products I have use please either leave a comment on my post or email me at deeseldee@hotmail.

Happy Creating

Get Creative With Stamps

I love using my stamps and that is what the challenge this month at Show US Your Stuff is all about.

Do you have a stash of stamps that don't get used? Well go and get them out and get creative. You can use them for cards, layouts, journal pages and mixed media designs. Because stamping is fun and I enjoy it a lot I created a set of three cards and an individual card for this months design team reveal.

Today I will share with you the single card that I created.

 

Please don't forget to pop on over to the blog to find out what the other designers created using their stamps.

 

Products Used: Cardstock SU - Whisper White and Pear Pizzazz , Watercolor Paper SU, Blossum Accents SU - Watermelon Wonder, Ink SU - Soft Suede, Watermelon Wonder and Old Olive, Ribbon SU - Natural Cheveron, Framelits - Secret Garden (discontinued), Stamps SU - Hardwood and Teeny Tiny Sentiments, circle die cut, Embossing Powder SU - Clear

 

Happy Creating

Cards for the School Raffle

Every year the primary school that Master C and Miss C attend hold a school concert. Last year (feels funny saying that) they made it into a bigger event with a second hand book stall (which I am sure half the books there were from this household), dinner, which was a sausage sizzle or paella and a raffle.

For the raffle I created some cards to donate.

 

Happy Creating