Stencils (and masks) Galore

Had a little play in my journal with one of my purchases from Happy Stampers Port Sunlight - a beautiful flower mask.  I drew around it with a fine point pen, adding thicker lines for interest.

Actually there are quite a few new purchases on this page - the paint, the flower stencil (and mask), the text stamp and the star stamp :)  

The stars on the left are an offcut from a Crafty Individuals stamp by Alice Palace.  I LoVe her images (and haven't used my puffin stamp yet) and recently emailed and asked if she could do a penguin (I LoVe, LoVe, LoVe penguins) - and she's asked the CI team .... so it really might happen :) :) :)

lavinia stamps challenge #3 pastel colours

Sometimes a background journal page can sit there for a while before it gets finished.  This one has been there a few years now, but I liked it the way it was so it just sat there.

Then along came this month's challenge over at Lavinia Stamps and so my fairy page was born.

The tag at the bottom came about because the fairy's face didn't come out when I stamped it directly onto the page!  But I like it :)  The next page is as yet undecided.  I might just need to get the large 'Believe' stamp and some more tiny fairies in flight ;)

the 'umble ifferous

It fascinates me how there are some images that lots of people love (and some that lots of people love and others hate!), one of which is definitely umbelifferous plants!

For some reason though I can never remember the word 'umbelifferous', and frequently ask Sue 'what's that word for those flowers?'!!!  So I decided a journal page was in order; the blog title is courtesy of Sue after a conversation at Port Sunlight :)

This is started off as another page I didn't feel was very 'me' in my journal.  It got very bright so after a brief panic I stippled white paint through Tim's  Alpha Parts - numeric and am now really pleased with it.  I printed 'umbelifferous' on the computer and over typed it on a typewriter - which was weird after typing on computer keyboards for so many years!

revisiting my little orange art journal

  I love this journal.  It's got lots of pages in that I love and feel are very 'me'.

It also has had some pages that I really didn't like so I'm starting to re-work them.

I gessoed over the page on the left.  It had had circular images glued on and these peeled off fairly easy after gessoing which left a nice effect.  I removed the original matching page - it had a number of images attached that were far too small and didn't come off easily.

It was great to play with my new paints and stencils after the weekend's trip to Port Sunlight!

I added stamped, stencilled and rub on letters to link in the pen advert which was original to the page but it was still bugging me.

Happily the 'Chloe Stem' by Memory Box gave the pages a better focal point.  I have a couple more pages to re-work, and one to finish, but I'm much happier with the overall look of this journal now and, who knows, I might even get a whole book finished!

I have found it interesting, looking back through this journal, at how many pages have quotes on them!

a happy trip to Port Sunlight

Didn't we have a lovely time, the day we went to Port Sunlight 'Happy Stampers Northwest'?!!  It was great to catch up with so many friends, and, of course, buy some new supplies ;)

 Tracey Dutton encouraged me to use my Lavinia Stamps in my journal so this morning I got out my new Paperartsy paints and set to!

I worked in my small, square, pink pig journal, that I've not used for aaaaaaaaages.  It had a number of pages inside that I didn't like so I started off by gessoing over them last night, before adding patches of colour this morning, spraying through a floral stencil

then adding some stamping.

I did have to stamp the fairy onto paper and cut her out as my ink pad wasn't very inky!  (I did find a better one after that!)

 These pages are a much better fit for my journal!

On a very different note - this is my beautiful two day old niece Erin who we met for the first time today!

Gelli Play

 I got to play with a Gelli Plate today :)

I have to say that I hadn't been tempted by one in the slightest...until this week!  I signed up for the '21 Secrets Art Journaling Workshop' a while ago and recently watched Roben-Marie Smith using a Gelli Plate in her journal....and LoVeD it!

 Sue and I had planned a playday today (we've not had one for aaaaaaaaages!) and Sue suggested we play with her Gelli Plate :)  I now need to purchase my own lol

 We spent a couple of hours making papers and printing pages in our journals, stopped for lunch then did some creating with our papers.

[I also got to play with some of Sue's stamps and stencils :)]

I love the textures you can create with the gelli plate.  All I added to this envelope was the flower, the tiny stamped circles and three green paint circles (using the pritt stick lid) and the words 'native graciousness'.

Glassine envelopes are FaB to work with in conjunction with the Gelli Plate :)

 Finally, this envelope came about because Sue found an ant stamp which was just too fun not to use!!

a fabric art journal (edited for PDCC entry)

 The plan this weekend was to get a shed-load of school prep done.  It didn't happen!  My sewing machine was calling me far too intently.  I'm not sure why as I have new Dylusions inks and a new stencil waiting to be played with.

 The wonderful Sue Roddis of the 'Jabberwocky' has been on a roll making duct tape journals and I decided to make a fabric version!  When journaling with fabric I start in a similar way to my regular journals, by picking my colours and supplies.

I love the edge of cotton fabric where they put the pattern number and the colours used in the print and that ended up being my starting point, along with the feeling that it was a yellow day!

 I stitched strips of fabric next to each other before adding some blocks and finally the flower.

 On the canvas that formed the back cover I added some tiny flowers which were so small I had to hand sew the weeny scraps on.

I then cut a strip of furnishing fabric (only because I liked the feel of it and the colour!) and used it to join the front and back covers together.  The grey strip of fabric with the words on was going to go across the spine and onto the back cover, but I forgot to hold it straight when I was stitching so it went a bit wonky.  I wasn't about to unpick it all (one of the very many reasons I'm not applying for The Great British Sewing Bee!!!) and instead just adapted the design a little, trimming it down then highlighting the word 'creative'.

I love Sue's idea of putting her pages in her duct tape journals with elastic bands so she can easily take them out to work on them.  Elastic bands don't really work on fabric so I've pinned my pages.  

I've used a mixture of materials, including acetate and paper alongside fabric.

EDIT:  I hadn't realised but the colours I used for my journal are near enough those of this week's Play Date Cafe, so I was encouraged to enter!

I did have some exciting PDCC news this week ..

I was awarded the cup of the week and won a $25 gift certificate for Jenni Bowlin Studios - so exciting!!