Simply Whimsical Galahs for Janie

Simply Whimsical is a fabulous choice to use for an art journal page. Thanks so much Janie, for choosing such a brilliantly fun theme.

I'm being totally selfish and blogged all the how-tos at my own craft blog (A Life Less Ordinary) so when I'm sharing it in the Tim Holtz Addicts group in Facebook, everyone who's interested sees my shop! Google will like it too, because then our blogs are linked but not identical :) A win for both of our blogs.

Why do this? Well, I used my favourite nutty adorable birds (by Tim), a host of stencils (by Tim), stickers (more by Tim), the new Sidekick (Tim's) and some of Tim's pretty Botanical Die-Cuts. Lots of Tim Treasures in this one :D

I used other things as well, like Dylusions paints, Dina Wakley Art Sticks (also called Scribble Sticks), and um... Mermaid Markers (surprise! lol).

Above: Rough sketch of my idea. Not bad hey? It finished exactly as planned - apart from them being galahs and not magpies, birds on a wire not a tree and no nest in sight (or pencil or brush or egg). Yep, totally the same! lol :)

The background is Dyan Reaveley's Dylusions acrylic paint in 3 colours (Mushy Peas, Vanilla Custard and Slate Grey) with White Linen splattered over the top. Its amazing how a little bit of white adds life! Love the paper Janie's book is made with too. I added an essay to the cards that are travelling about with the journal... I didn't mean to make it so long, but I was chatting about stuff and it sort of oozed out.

I was thinking of adding Dyan's adorable birds to this page too but they're just too ladylike to hang out with this mob of galahs!

To save me telling you twice, this link will take you to my craft blog (which is linked back to here) so you can see how it all came about :)

Hope you like it Janie!

xx
Jenny

AAJS5: Annabelle's "Just Be Yourself" Journal - Sharon's Page!

Hi Everyone!!

 

 

Today I am sharing my journal pages in Annabelle's "Just Be Yourself" journal for the Round 5 journey!!

 

 

I love using collage elements, making my own backgrounds, fussy cutting and adding embellishments so that's "being myself" for this journal spread!!

 

I started by "recycling" some gorgeous coloured tissue paper which I received one of my xmas presents in! I tore it into strips and used gel medium to adhere to the pages - I covered all the area with the tissue paper.

 

 

I added some paper doilies, also with gel medium - allowing some to overhang the page - once everything was dry I trimmed back all of the over hang.

 

Now to add paint LOL I love adding paint and making a mess. I used 3 soft toned colours in "blobs" and used a sponge to cover the whole page. I only put enough on to add a light layer to still allow the colour of the tissue paper and the doilies to show through. Just love texture!!

 

Here it is all sponged and blended!

 

While the background was drying I printed and fussy cut all my gorgeous collage elements - once again from my most favourite Etsy Store "Art Tea Life"!! Just love these gorgeous quirky cute gals and all the elements!!

 

 

And all finished including the flap page - elements added were sticker lace, muslin cloth and silver corner charms along with all the fun collage elements!

 

This is the front of the flap:

 

 

The other side of the flap:

 

This is the left hand side of the page" - love the little banner elements - cute!!

 

And finally the right hand side page:

 

So much fun to create this page - hope Annabelle likes it!!

 

 

Can't wait to receive the last journal for this round and get creating!

 

Sharon

 



Lisa Feeling Empowered in Lesley's Journal!

Ahhh... The last journal in our Round 4 Swap! What a bittersweet time.  Lesley's journal is A4 sized and full of EMPOWERMENT - Lesley's theme. It took me a while to work out what I should do in this journal. Plus, Christmas kind of got in the way, since I found myself quite under prepared!

As is usual for me, a song kept running through my head when I thought of Empowerment. I resisted for a while but it wouldn't go away. Thus I guess it means something to me! 

I'm terrible at doing progress pics, mainly because I never do a background before my focal image! But here's one:

The song that my journal page is based on is Helen Reddy's I Am Woman. I don’t consider myself a feminist; I don’t think women should be better than men, but equal to them! My 16 year old daughter tells me that this is what feminism is now - so perhaps I am!

I find the lyrics really inspiring:

Oh yes I am wise

But it's wisdom born of pain

Yes I paid the price

But look how much I gained

If I have to, I can do anything! 

I am strong

I am invincible

I am woman...

So my spread simply shows a super woman with these lyrics. For a change I intended to do the page in Copics. But discovered, since I'd done the outline of the woman first, that waterproof pens certainly aren't alcohol pen proof! Smears everywhere, so I had to revert to acrylics instead, mainly Dylusions. For my background I sponged some blue and then added some stencils. Added lyrics and some embellishments to my girl and I was done!

As we're away at the beach til New Years, I'm posting this blog from my tablet. Which is not going well, as the cursor keeps jumping around and random words are appearing here and there! But anyway, this was my outlook today:

Sorry to tease! Here's the completed spread, hope you like it Lesley! Hopefully I can get to the Post Office in the next couple of days so your journal will be returned home!

Wishing everyone a wonderful start to 2018! Cheers, Lisa xx

Janie Under the Sea

Janie O'Brien' spread in Danie May's Under the Ocean Journal. I didn't have a preconceived idea for my spread but instead fussy cut numerous pleasing pieces to suit the theme and placed them on the paper until I received a satisfactory result.

Sprayed the pages with a mixture of metallic Starburst inks and let air dry.

Next I added some pale aqua tissue and pasted down over page encouraging wrinkles.

Sprayed with darker blue, dried, then sanded down to reveal texture.

Commenced adding fussy cut collage elements.

selecting from collage elements and creating seaweed.

The finished product with a final metallic spray to give uniformity to the art and to absorb cut collaged items into the background.

A Page of Happiness for Wendy

I choose happiness... for this book and for always. With so many to choose from for Wendy's awesome theme, I ended up using one that inspired me the most. Once I got the word, the rest seemed to fall into place :)

I started the page with those little banners in the pic above. Each one is handcut and painted using (omg, time to get something different out I think, I'm a bit obsessed) ... ta da - Jane's Mermaid Markers. Its the colours that draw me in every time. They're so vibrant and gorgeous! I mean, its not like I don't have any other watercolour markers or paints :D lol I guess we all go through these fazes!

Anyway, the tags are watercolour card and coloured in my fave colours then left to dry for a couple of days while I decided how to start.

The lettering is from a sticker alphabet that used to be silver (white paint). The stitching is instead of adding pegs (testing out Jane's "Inkredible" fountain pen)... couldn't quite decide if I should call it bunting or an old fashioned clothesline. The poles are border stickers from the Dylusions Sticker Book. The heart is a paper clip from a pack of Dylusions Dyary Clips.

Above : Tim Holtz's "Paper Cut Bird"

While still on the pic above, the ladybugs are clear stickers found in our local cheap shop, added last of all - I needed something else on the page. When I found them years ago, I bought a pack, then another 3 - just in case they stopped selling them! But guess what? 10 years on and they still sell them :) Awesome!

The bird is beautiful creation of Tim Holtz and Sizzix called Paper Cut Bird. Its a Thinlits Die for cutting and embossing. Its just so pretty!

I cut the whole design out of 2 different sheets of Tim's Christmas paper from his latest collection. I then cut it all apart to get the bird. The background of the bird is leftover watercolour paper from cutting up the banners.

The flowers were trimmed, flipped, turned, flipped again as they moved all over the page many times, then eventually I added a bit of extra colour with Mermaid inks and stuck them down :)

In the photo above you can see the many layers of ink and paint in the background. I started with a sheet of scrapbook paper (Tim's Wallflower 12x12), cut it apart and glued back together to fit the page. Then I painted it all with an ink blending tool using Dylusions Lemon Zest and Mushy Peas... lovely semi translucent paint that allows fab layering.

I used a bunch of stencils (using White Linen, Mushy Peas and Lemon Zest with the blending tool again)... all Tim's! Surprise! lol :) They were Wildflowers, Zigzag, Floral, Rays, Speckles and Plaid. I remember using Tinsel too but its not listed so must have been for something else... I write down what I'm doing as I create the page. The memory isn't as reliable as it used to be.

The last thing I did to the background before adding all the elements was splatter white paint everywhere using my splatter brush. I used to use an old toothbrush for doing this but this fab brush gives me bigger splats :)

So that's it... a happy positive page full of bright colours and lots of energy! Hope you like it Wendy :D

Thanks so much for your time, reading this blog post. I hope it makes you smile!

Swimming with Louise

Many, many years ago when I was a young girl my mama found an amazing book in an op shop and bought it home for me. Unfortunately my younger self was less than gracious for this 'second hand book!'

The book was 'Peg's Fairy Book' and went on to be very loved by me still to this day as the magical illustrations really captured my imagination.

When Sharon's gorgeous hand made journal arrived I decided to take my inspiration from Peg.

This is my take on a section of one of her pages. If you ever get the chance to have a look at this book, do take the opportunity. 

I used lots of shiny things to create this page. Sprays and paints and inks.

As there are lots of pages left and my first page was really just art and no journaling I did another quick page using one of my hand carved stamps. 

Deep, dark and mysterious

Is the sea.

As deep, dark and mysterious

As we.

Lucky for us

Art is a key.

To unlock our souls

So we can see. 

My spread in Colleen's Things with Wings. AJ r4

Usually I try to take progress photos, but unfortunately this time I didn't.
My background is Dylusions paint blended with a wipe. Then I did a bit of stamping to add some texture.

Since Colleen and I have been having a running chook joke happening, I knew there had to be a chook, but in fact he is a mighty fine looking rooster.  This and the other main image were taken from paper napkins which I glued to cartridge paper for more impact and fussy cut.

The other smaller images were die cut from painted papers I have made. The peacock was also treated the same way as the main images.

The journalling says.  Our things with wings come in all shapes and sizes.  They whistle and sing, they buzz and they hum and keep us entertained.

Annabelle's Under the Sea

I really enjoyed working in this journal. I started out doing a background using Gobal high flow paints as they are transparent 

I went from light to dark then put a sandy colour on the bottom and went over some of it with blue paint. I then added my collage pieces

I am sorry that this post isn’t very well done but Blogger isn’t very iPad friendly 

This isn’t  in the journal but it was my inspiration for the spread

I just couldn’t seem to stop lol I found so many whale pictures in my stash , I just had to use them all. The tiny diver is in scale to the whales. 

I found this picture of Neptune and I couldn’t leave him out, then my warped sense of humour kicked in

I finally added my quote and I was done with my fun !

Jan works in Pam's 'Inspired by Teesha' Journal

This is such a lovely colourful journal and all the pages are awesome and really go with the theme.
I chose to do one monotone page and one colourful. I have admired Teesha for many years as well and find her really inspiring.
I started by doing my borders and then filling the inside space. I have several Teesha stamps and also some collage sheets so i used these to complete my pages.
I hope you love them Pam as I certainly loved doing them.

This is the monotone one.

And the colourful one.

Colleen's Page in Joanna's Fairy Tale Journal

CINDERELLA

Joanna's journal is very wide when opened, so I thought I would do a story across the page.

I  love this theme of fairytales Joanna.

I started with a pastel background made using dylusions paint rubbed on with a babywipe. I added some collage pieces of painted napkin & glued on my images which were originally colouring in pages from Pinterest.

I coloured in the characters with a mixture of copics & other markers. This was not easy as the gel medium I used to glue them on with was resisting the colour. I apologies Joanna for some of the colouring which is patchy in places. With black ink I stamped some text & stars in the background & a larger star stamp was stamped with white paint. I then went around each area with a black pen & then with distress crayons around each one as well. I loved the distress crayons, they went on like smooth butter, but also resisted the writing. Life wasn't meant to be easy they say.

And they lived happily ever after.

Hope you like this Joanna, it will soon be home.