Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Colleen's page in Jenny's Stuff & Nonsense Journal

Jenny your journal is gorgeous, & Sharon I love your page as well.
It took me a while to figure out what I would or could do, so, as I had just done a class on making strange pictures out of collage, I thought, right, that's what I'm doing. It just evolved as I went along.


And so the stuff & Nonsense began.


I used colour burst powders for the base, followed with some stencilling & stamping.
I chose the figures I would do, & cut the pieces out of scrap paper. I wanted to use the quirky birds somewhere & the saying "A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush." So the birds went into their hands. I cut out the saying 3 times on my cricut, but wasn't happy with any of them, so I stamped the saying & used pictures.



Still not enough nonsense for my liking. So I added the little speech bubbles. The boy is saying "I don't know about that! I'm thinking lunch", & the bird is saying "HELP!"

Hope you like it Jenny, It was fun to do.

Art Nouveau by Louise


Roz's lovely Art Nouveau journal arrived this month and it took me a while to come up with a theme. I was planning on drawing my girlfriend's lovely cottage but although it does have elements of art nouveau it is more federation. I am learning all the time :)


Further discussion with Kathy and she suggested the Paris metro and once I saw the gorgeous subway entrances I was entranced. Now I have another place I want to visit. 


Please excuse my unedited photo's as I am still without a pc. 




Monday, April 23, 2018

Robyn's Paper Napkin Art


This is my page I did in Colleens Paper Napkin Art Journal.
 Everything is done with napkins.
 I coloured the back of a napkin for the background then cut out all the other elements from 3 different napkins was not as easy as I thought it was going to be but was a great learning experience hope you like it Colleen xx

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Lisa playing in Robyn's Dreams and Fantasies Journal

I actually struggled a bit with this one - what did I want to be when I grew up?  What were my dreams and fantasies when I was a kid?  

I wanted to be a journalist because I like to write.

I wanted to be a teacher.... so I could write on the chalk board. 

I wanted to be a famous artist.  Well, part of that came true, for I am an artist.  Doubtful that I will be famous though, but that's okay.

Still not really knowing what my page theme was going to be, I started with a background.  And took a photo!


Some collage with book pages, music paper and a doily, plus some watercolour and gelatos.

I kept adding painty layers, then whitewashed it all with a stencil, and then thought of another of my dreams/fantasies.

And it's a strange one - Astral Projection.  When I was perhaps a tween, or in my early teens, I remember reading a few fiction books about this phenomenon.  And I thought, yep, wish I could do this.  Not so much the 'out of body' experience when you're looking down on yourself when critically injured, but the ability to 'go' somewhere else with the power of your mind.  France.  I wanted to go to France, because I was studying French in high school, and had a French pen pal (still do, but now we're friends on Facebook instead 😊).  

Anyway, I never learnt how to project myself anywhere, and I sadly don't believe in it anymore.  Too practical and analytical in my old age. 😕 

But it's nice to wonder isn't it...


Hope you like it Robyn!

Cheers, Lisa


Friday, April 20, 2018

Janies play in Lisas Music and Lyrics.

My latest, in Lisa's Music & Lyrics journal. I didn't realise how hard it was going to be to choose a song I loved, and that I would love to interpret 2 dimensionally. I loved and enjoyed a number of Aussie songs, but 2/2 artistically depicted had already been chosen. I thought it best to go in another direction, so I eventually chose to go with Send in the Clowns by Stephen Sondheim. I had been saving images for three likely  to be used songs, so already had a number of nice pics collected. I cut them out, and started playing with them on paper, until I saw in my mind's eye what I wanted it to look like. A dark moody background was called for and this was achieved with Lindy's starburst sprays, printed tissue & stencils. Once an interesting depth was achieved i stuck down my collage elements into a predesigned picture. Below are the 3 finished pages
Outside of the flap I created and stuck on.

inside the flap - the lyrics to the song. The water blotches represent tears 😢

The main finished double spread; faces you can recognise.....?


Thursday, April 19, 2018

Walk Like An Egyptian by Jenny

Annabelle's journal Walk Like An Egyptian is a fantastic theme. Of course, all month long and ever since, I've had the Bangles' song stuck in my head... dum dum dah dah dah, dee dum dee dah dee da-da dum! omg - when will it end?

Thankfully painting is a wonderful calming thing to do and its even better when your artwork turns out so well that you're actually happy with it.

Here's how it eventuated... after googling Egyptian women and camels with pyramids. The idea behind it all is "a wander through the desert with friends".

I started off my painting with the portrait colours from Jane Davenport's set of acrylic paints and one of the Mermaid Texture Brushes. Don't let looks fool you... it may look like a gimmicky paint brush but the bristles are beautiful :)

Scrap paper behind the pages, attempting to keep the book clean... not sure it worked but there's a note from Annabelle saying it doesn't matter if we're messy. She's so kind!

Still wet so slightly shiny, it dries to a lovely matte finish. It was so smooth and creamy to use :) I painted on a thin layer of gesso but it doesn't seem to have helped the paint stick to the book tape any easier but at least it stops the paint from getting through to the other pages.

I'm new to gesso so any tips are welcome. In the past I only used a sealer or medium on wood, glass or clay before painting Folk Art flowers and other pretties. I didn't ever use it on paper or canvas! Maybe I should have? A painting I did when I was 17 was painted directly onto an unprimed canvas and 32 years later looks just the same - although my view of it is different! I'd love to paint over it but my parents like it! lol :) Moving on...

I painted the sky with a brush then spattered white paint over it all and played about with the tail of the mermaid brush. So nice to be painting :) Will have to make time to do some more.

These pyramids were built alot faster than the real thing! I used the sandy colours plus the dark brown, red and white. While blending the shadows into the sand I lost all the splattering I'd done earlier, so smooshed the whole lot. Sand never stays the same in a desert so its all good!

Testing palette paper... Thought I'd better give Jane's a go. So different to using my china plate or even the craft mat. Not one of my faves as it keeps sliding about the table but Mum loves the stuff. At least I've discovered why Jane's craft mat is made of that semi-sticky silicon, it ensures everything stays put. Ideal if painting on a sheet of paper without an easel and don't want to tape the edges.

The camel is drawn from a photo... as I told Dad, his hump isn't correct because his embroidered blankets have a square frame underneath so its not really his hump you're looking at!

I drew the camels straight onto the page with watercolour pencil but had a practice with the woman on scrap paper. I've always found people hardest to draw! Its much easier when you don't try to make them look exactly like a photo.

The photo of the woman I found was wearing these very dark sunglasses that I almost included but I'm glad I didn't. She looks more at peace than her real-life self, calmly guiding her camel.

This pic is showing all the embroidery completed including knots and tassels... some of the blankets camels in real life are given are gorgeous!

Dry brushing the shadows onto the second camel.

Up close view of the three friends.

Almost finished... I spent another age searching for something meaningful about walking in deserts with camels but gave up (still had the song in my head but didn't want to use that). Eventually sifted through my Tim Holtz stamps and found something not related to walking with Egyptians at all but at least its meaningful.

Last of all were the shadows for the camels and woman... added using watercolour pencil and waterbrush. Much better now they're not looking like walking about on air!

So that's it, my walk in a desert with friends :) Its been a wonderful page to create. I hope Annabelle likes it!

Thanks for reading :) Have a happy day!
xx
Jenny

Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Sharon's Vintage Circus with Pam

Well this really tested me and I had a lot of help from my friends, thank you Janie, thank you Colleen.  I find it very difficult to work with ready made ephemera and so the thinking cap had to come on, due to my very limited drawing skills.

So to begin I slapped down some bright clolours and this reminded  me of clowns.  Happy clowns, not scary ones.




Referring to my private tutor aka Wiki-how I drew myself a clown.  My thoughts were to print a couple and use one as a template to cut out his clothes and then collage them on.




I coloured the parts with neocolor 11 water soluble crayons and then went ahead and added the collaged pieces.




 He he is all dressed up and ready to go.  He also got his tinsel on, what's a clown without a bit of glitter?




And then he was stuck down on the original background.  Banner at top was stamped and heat embossed.




Other side, same bright colours and I envisioned the scene as we arrive at the circus with all the colour, move,ent and excitement of a big day out.


 

Sharon's journal is a very interesting design, and very easy to work in, but sadly I did my second page UPSIDE DOWN!!!  Sorry. And I didn't take step by step pictures.  Hope you like it Sharon.

Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Deb’s Alice journal

I must addmit I had a hard time with the journal theme, I hate to say that I couldn’t remember the story. So I had to do a bit of research in my grandchildren’s bookshelf. I based my spread on my granddaughters favourite part of the story.
I started out by sketching the figures directly onto the page
 
I decided to play around with the tree on separate paper. I didn’t think I could do it again so I collaged  it on to the spread. Then I inked up the rest of my drawing. I decided to use coloured pencils to add the colour 

I finished it off with watercolours and added the verse on the left hand side to finish it off.

I really love the way Deb has made her journal, there is something about altered books that make my heart sing. I hope you enjoy seeing my take on the story.


Monday, April 9, 2018

AAJS6: Jenny's Stuff and Nonsense

Hi Everyone!
 
Sharing my pages in Jenny's "Stuff and Nonsense" Journal for Round 6 - just loved this theme and had a lot of fun creating the pages!
 
The wording reads "Walking on the Moon" - I thought afterwards I should have put the wording as "Moon Walking" but LOL it's all stuff and nonsense either way!!!!!
 
 
Hope you like what I have done Jenny!!
 
I started by adding a layer of Gesso to each page and then adding strips of washi tape - varying lengths - to cover nearly all of both pages.
 
 
Then I added a thin layer of gesso over the top to tone down all the colour!

 
Then spritzed some ink spray over each page.

 
Getting all my collage elements printed and fussy cut and of course you will all know these are of course by my favourite collage lady "Sandy" from Art Tea Life @ Etsy - always something perfect for any occasion that I am creating for!!!!!

 
And then added all the elements to make the two walking moon ladies along with the letter stickers, collage stars and some scraps of muslin cloth.
 



 
Just LOVE how these turned out!!!!!

 
Hope you enjoyed the process and like the finished result for Jenny's "Stuff and Nonsense" Journal!

 
Have a great day!
 
Sharon