February 2013 journal page challenge (Part I - 1st to 16th Feb)

I have recently joined a group on facebook that spend time each month making a journal page of that month.

 

I have only been journalling for a brief time but thought that it might be interesting to take part in a journey of this sort so that creatively this time next year I can look back on my creative journey.

 

I have also taken to keeping a written journal/diary now too just for me of thoughts feelings and ideas that I may or may not use for future journal pages.  It was something I used to do in my youth but feel it would be a cathartic way of approaching my busy life.

 

Please take time to look at the pictures and brief descriptions below.

 

 

This is the base background page for February as a double A3 Portrait spread and also on a closer scale.  As you will see the base layer consisted of pink, purple and red acrylic paints before a fire stencil was applied to the page and FW acrylic inks applied in black and pearlescent red and purple.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is one of those items that just happened organically and I love it.  The background is using distress stains and inks before stamping and colouring in the Crafty Individuals bird image using Tim Holtz distress stain pains dipped in staines to create the graduated colour affect.  Finally the background was distressed further using a random numerical pattern, great start to the month.

 

This vintage lady came as a cover stamp off of Craft Stamper Magazine.  I have been having quite a busy time at work lately and very much wondered how it must of felt to be one of the first women to get the opportunity to work so I decided to create some text in the background with my handwriting before distressing the background with seedless preserve.

 

 

This song from the 80's has been rattling round in my head for the last few days since hearing it, so whilst it refused to leave I thought I would use some of the lyrics for todays entry.

 

 

This is one of my favourite images so far excluding the 2nd.  This used the amazing image from Indigo Blue and was water coloured in using Distress Stains.  Sometimes simple is all you need.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love Washi Tape and this uses the parisian text from Tim Holtz overstamped with floral patterns in purple archival ink and coloured using Faber Castell pitt pens.

 

 

Loving my new stamps from Saturated Canary called Little Darlings, this one was coloured using promarkers and then a button peg stamp applied to the background prior to distressing with black soot and adding a bit of glitz.  Feeling quite whimsical today so suited my mood.

 

 

 

 

 

 

16th February,  this is now one of my new favourite techniques for adding some vibrant colour to the background of a stunning stamped image.  This background is using oranges and reds from the Portfolio Oil Pastel set and overstamped using Archival Ink with an old Joanna Sheen stamp, feels really atmospheric.

 

So who would have thought how quick part of this month has gone already.....

 

....stay tuned for part II with 17th-28th February images and a sneak peak at my thought for March.

 

In the meantime thanks for looking

 

Emx

 

 

It takes a long time to grow young

 

I  really adore this image, another from the Little Darlings Stamp Range.  I wanted to branch  beyond the amazing promarkers with this one so I used Lyra Polycolours for this image stamped in Archival Jet Blank ink as I blended the colours not only on the page but with a paper stump and zest it blending fluid.

The A6 card was pale blue and I stamped a dotty floral background on to it using Archival Cobalt Blue.  I then layered a piece of pearlised navy card.

 

The sentiment comes from a Fiskars set of sentiments.

 

I hope you like this card.

 

Em x

An adventure into Steampunk

 

So today I had a friend come over for a crafty day and a spot of lunch, these usually do not follow a plan but gives us both the opportunity to play with each others crafty stash and expand our knowledge from each other.

 

This is the card that we both created with our own interpretation.  The background is the 3D cog spellbinders embossing folder which was done on copper card and then distressed using adirondack alcohol inks.

 

The cogs are part of a new spellbinders die release which we cut using card and my friends Grand Caliber.  We then distressed these as well.

 

For my card I cut out the largest and second largest cogs twice.  With the largest cog I used vintage images stamped in Gathered Twigs, Tea Dye and Walnut Stain distress inks and rotated it slightly behind the original cog to give a slightly different and vintage background.

 

The second sized cog was stamped using the sentiment from a Dyan Reavely set of stamps and I thought it was both appropriate and in keeping with the card.

 

All the cogs were mounted on a craft card backstamped with the same vintage style images.  The background and cogs were adhered to the card using Pinflair glue gel.

 

I hope you like this card.

 

Take care

Emx

 

 

May all your wishes come true

This amazing Saturated Canary image was coloured using the amazing promarkers. I then mounted the image on a 5x5 card blank stamped in brilliance ink with a dotted floral background stamp from Judikins.

To complete the look I colour tinted the ribbon and used a diamante buckle to complete the look.

This will be submitted for this week's passion for promarker theme.

I hope you like it.

Em xx

Lightening Canvas (Part II)

OK so I have a confession the amazing idea I had to do an image transfer failed.  But thankfully I managed to claw it back to something I am sort of growing to like.

The background as it stands now has a couple of layers of white tissue paper stamped on using archival purple ink and two shades of grey from the Stazon range, applied to the canvas to create a feeling of height and texture (not the best picture apologies). 

A tip I have learnt always remember to ensure whatever design you do you decorate the edges of the canvas to make it complete.

At this stage I still was not happy with the overall effect so I decided to add some stamping, this also didnt go to my liking and so the canvas now has a further layer of paint which I applied with my finger and some crackle medium applied from Golden before covering this with DecoArt paint in Tropical Blue.

 

Once this had dried I masked off the plane to protect the image and added some black marble and crushed grape dylusions ink through a stencil and some patterned waste material.

 

To complete the look I sponged the canvas with some metallic silver crown paint from my local diy store and allowed this to dry.

 

Finally to lock the image to the background I used Faber Castell pitt pens which are water soluble but set as permanent india ink in a petrol blue and sky blue shade.  Added some stickers to personalise it for my pops and sealed these with mod podge and the canvas was complete.

 

I think I managed to turn this at times difficult canvas around, let me know what you think.

 

 

 

This is the completed canvas which I will be presenting to my father tomorrow.

Stamp Addict Purchases

OK so just a few purchases from today in this picture:-

Stampers Sampler Take Ten Summer 2012 and Autumn 2012, Zig Stampendous Clear Backed Brush Stroke Stamps in large purple, Gold rubons of wings and crowns etc; for my art journalling and the Waving Crock (SA-7031) and Jolly Bear (SA-7010)

In the picture above you can see I bought further large and small clear backed brush marker text for my art journalling along with the latest copies of Stampers Sampler and Somerset Studio.  The stamps pictured are Etched Heart (SA-7036), Etched Square (SA-7040), Mermaid (SA-7033) and Goldfish (no reference sorry).

Below I increased my crafty stash of the wonderful Tim Holtz distress stains and hope to do a post later in the week using some recent techniques for distress markers with distress stains.  My new colours today were:-

Tattered Rose, Scattered Straw, Rusty Hinge, Barn Door, Aged Mahogony, Weathered Wood, Bundled Sage and Shabby Shutters as you can see they fit perfectly into my craft unit on the wall so I can see first glance what is available to me.

Stamp Addicts 50% off Members Sale

Well what can I say other than dont mind if I do, today Stamp Addicts has a 50% off Members Sale before they move to amazing premises new just down from their current location.  I just so happen to need to pick up some Somerset Studios magazines so I may have a bit of a peek at what I can get at such a fortuitous time.....would seem wrong not to.

Have had a very busy couple of weeks with my new job and although I love it and have made some good friends so far, you cant beat a bit of craft this weekend.

So later after my retail distraction and a haircut I shall post again with a piccie of my purchase, and hopefully the completed Lightning Canvas (with maybe a card or two too) for your delectation.

Post Later
Emx