drawing with scissors PDCC147

 How have I not cottoned on to this idea before?  I get too precise and 'tight' when I'm drawing with conventional materials which is one of the reasons I love drawing with my sewing machine!  To add that dimension to this page though meant doing it on separate paper then adding it to the page so I just thought, "why not cut out shapes and add black ink around the edges instead?!"  Voila!

This journal page, and a tag, emerged from this week's colour combo over at the Play Date Cafe.  It's an unusual colour combo that I know I'd never have discovered myself, which is why I love these challenges!

And isn't that bird stunning?! (although my daughter says he looks like a pigeon - an artistic one though!)

 That 'evergreen' varies depending on which screen I'm using to view the image but I stuck with the labelled colours of evergreen, olive, smoke (grey) and cherry blossom.  Having happily unearthed my Dylusion sprays I started with my favourite ink of all time, the grey one!

 ...followed by some olive green watercolour straight from the tube.  I added some water and let it run then squidged it with a piece of paper over the top which produced a lovely secondary piece!

 A bit of stencilling next with the pink (an acrylic dabber) through some card cut with Tim Holtz' typeset die but what to do for a main image?

I was going to add some large letters so had a little nosy along the bookshelf for some inspiration.  I came across my Lotta Jansdotter book (LoVe her designs!)

... and spotted some nice shapes that I could cut out.  I didn't draw them first, just went straight in with the scissors before spraying them pink, and creating another nice effect on separate paper!

I added some stamped text and am very happy with the result!  Can't believe I'm finally feeling like I'm back in the 'flow' as it were, only to go back to work next week!

Finally (sorry, long post!), I made a tag with some of the background paper created during the making of this page!

And here it is alongside the inspiration image.  I added a couple more stamens as it made me think of lilies, a flower I LoVe.

Thanks so much for taking the time to visit!

PDCC146 playing with ink and paint on a wet bank holiday Monday!

Why does it always rain on bank holidays?  Or does it just feel like it does?!  It didn't really bother me, I spent yesterday clearing out the cellar and having the odd break to play in my journal :)

This week's colour challenge over at the Play Date Cafe is a colour splash, my favourite!

I knew my Dylusions spray inks were in the cellar and was very pleased to find them in the midst of my clearout!  And equally pleased to spot a lime in there, perfect for this challenge!

So I splodged some india ink onto my gessoed page, then laid a piece of paper over it and brayered to squidge it some more.

A bit of stamping, courtesy of Stampotique's Journey Collage, was followed by a squirt of ink through some Tim Holtz sticky letters (only I use them as a stencil lol).

Leadlights

Our beautiful windows in our front door are in need of repair.

The lead is cracked, and even missing in places.  So whilst having a quote for the front windows on the house, we asked about the door.  The guy didn't give us an exact price, just said to work on the principle of £6 per piece of glass..

...so my husband dutifully counted them (out of interest mainly!) and with more than 500 the quote was going to be in excess of £4,000!  My husband's response?  "Why don't you go and learn how to lead stained glass rather than phaffing around with knitting and crochet!"  I did chuckle, particularly as I don't do THaT much crochet, and haven't picked up knitting needles in a good number of months.  And not one to turn down learning something new, I quickly booked myself on a class up in Southport, only 1 hour's drive away, with the lovely Lesley and Richard at Glass Magic

.
There was a choice of three designs that could be completed in a day so I chose the sunshine and set about choosing colours a little different than the usual (with lots of encouragement from Lesley, who has seen many blue skies and green hills and fancied a change!)

I left the choice of glass for the sun until last, and in the end a piece of mirrored glass fit the bill.

(that's my hand and the funky art palette cover for my i-phone you can see in the sun!)

Glass looks VeRY different when you hold it up to the light so I had to juggle pieces in my hand and hold them up to the window whilst planning my piece.   I had a thoroughly enjoyable day, Richard and Lesley are so welcoming, friendly and knowledgeable, and I think I'm hooked!  I've wanted to do this for so long, and got a chance earlier in the summer to do some copper foiling.

This was just a two hour workshop so we had to choose up to five pieces of pre-cut glass to work with.  I chose two mirrored pieces and a large pebble as well as a couple of pieces of more traditional glass.

Again it looks very different hanging at the window, although this photo doesn't really do it justice, especially the mirrored pieces (the top one is a pale green!)

step by step art journal page

Maybe it was a little ambitious to take step by step photos of the creation of a page whilst attempting something new!  All the way through, until I forgot to take any photos, I was telling myself to just play, just enjoy the mark making, but ended up really not liking what I'd done. I really, really, really love these pages now and can't believe they looked like this at one point!

So here you go, step by step :)

in my large-ish typewriter book, layer of Buff Titanium because I couldn't find the gesso!

patches of Phalo Blue in the bottom third of the pages

black drawing ink applied with a stick!

quite liking it so far, don't know where it's going though

a stripe of blue ink in the top third, then some Sticky Fingers Bluebell ink sprayed above it

darker blue ink splodge on, not liking this, and what on earth

am I going to put in the middle?

a stripe of a yellow ochre type of colour...like how it goes over

the blue spots and you can still see them

I wanted some red highlights on this page, inspired by

David Ashby's pottery, check them out they're stunning, like art journaling on clay

Nope, really don't like it, it feels to dark so I'll brayer some white acrylic

paint over it and see what happens

Oooo,

 I liked it so much I forgot to take anymore pics until I finished the pages

Brayering pulled off some of the paint so I used some scraps of paper from the table

as collage fodder

(I'd done some free mark making before starting this page aka Jane Davies then

used the same paper to dry off my brushes/brayer/stencils)

I've always loved the scraps of paper under my work, it's where I don't think so 

often get surprising results and textures.  It's also why I don't use a teflon mat!!!

A bit more drawing ink and hey, I'm happy!!!

:) hee hee hee

Happy, I'm so happy!

... not only did the postman bring some goodies I ordered earlier this week, but we have a new Hobbycraft store that's opened just down the road!  Ten minutes drive from my house, and one the way home from work (if necessary!)  And the best thing?  They had a 25% off coupon in the local paper :)  I'm AlwAys envious of you guys in the US with your Michael's coupons and I've never seen anything like this for Hobbycraft.

My Cuttlebug hasn't been well for a long time and I'm pretty sure it's rollers have 'gone'!  So although I love the look of the V2 Cuttlebug I invested in a Big Shot with my coupon.  I figured it'd cope better with the Bigz sizzix dies, it being made by Sizzix!

by Angeline Yong Jeet Leen

for http://thecreationofcreativity.blogspot.co.uk/

http://thecreationofcreativity.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/jay-gees-nook-dt-thanks.html

After a bit of blog browsing over the weekend, and seeing this (see above) fabulous card, I ordered the gorgeous Chloe Stem die by Memory Box and had a bit of a play with it.

It's the perfect size for shipping tags and after cutting a flower from some scrap, inky paper I had lying around I used the negative first as a stencil (see above)...

...  then on another tag.  I can't resist sketchbooks in art shops so, having bought a new little one at Hobbycraft, I resolved to at least finish one of my most recent ones so this page is in a small A5 moleskine...

I'm finding lots of inspiration over on Jane Davies' blog at the minute and the block of orange stemmed from there (sorry, pun unintended but then it made me chuckle :)  )

There's some background Chloe Stems cut from book pages..

which then stand out beautifully against the orange.  I'm off to learn leaded stained glass tomorrow so they'll be something different to share here over the weekend :)

journaling in a tent..or field..or the beach even!

It was with some trepidation that I only packed paint, baby wipes, stencils, a Pritt stick and the odd stamp, a couple of book pages and a pencil/pen with me to go camping.

I chose a journal to use, just the one, and as it is an old book it's pages required gessoing.

Now I'm not a fan of gesso.  I like my paint to stay put once I put it on the paper. But being forced to stick with it meant I did have fun, and ended up with some interesting effects.

My pages have been feeling a bit 'samey', and everywhere I looked things seemed very similar, so I started by using parts of hymns or bible verses as starting points and using my journaling as part meditation.

I journaled these pages whilst attending a Christian conference so they have lots of meaning for me but I still didn't feel I'd 'cracked it' as it were.  I used to be able to just enjoy my journaling without feeling it had to mean something or say something.

So I've given myself a bit of a talking to, read some stuff, watched a fantastic video by Jane Davies HERE and am back just enjoying being creative, playing with paint and mark making and seeing where it takes me, if anywhere!