deli paper and the gelli plate

I finally got hold of some deli paper to try with my gelli plate - only taken me a year!!  I discovered this when I googled 'deli paper gelli  plate' and found Kate's post, which is where I must have seen it originally!

So I spent yesterday afternoon playing, and what made it more wonderful was that I did it with two good friends :)  I started off with colours and stencils I'm happiest with...

... then branched out, adding an earth colour as per Sami Harding's advice at Art Summer Camp this year...

... and ended up adding colours I don't normally immediately choose as that was what my friend used and it looked amazing!  That's one of the brilliant things about playing with your paints etc alongside others, whether at home with a friend or in a class.

I particularly wanted to try deli paper this week because I discovered Bible Journaling a week or so back and, keen to give it a try, I purchased a journaling Bible (it has extra wide margins for note taking ...or paint, depending on your preferences ;)  )

I thought the deli paper would work well on the fine paper that Bible's are made up of.  In the end, I also dived in and added paint straight to my pages, working alongside my gelli plate, using it just like I would any other journal!

I added some texture to a random page whilst cleaning off my stencil ...

...and added some gelli printed deli paper alongside one of my favourite Psalms

 And that was my very happy Saturday after an exhausting first week back at school :)

21 secrets goes pearshaped

 My good friend Chris, from Pearshaped Crafting, came over this morning to do a bit of journaling.  After a bit of umming and ahhing I'd signed up to the '21 Secrets' series of art journaling workshops and we decided to do one this morning.  To choose which one, Chris picked a random number out of her head - 10 - and we counted along to find the tenth workshop which was Kate Crane's!

Funnily enough we've taken a class with Kate together before!

Chris' page started with reds and greens.  I decided to go for browns and greens, but discovered that Mushroom Adirondack spray is nearer a grey when sprayed over gesso!

I didn't have any acrylic ink to hand so used a couple of pipettes to add inky circles with ink taken from my Adirondack spray bottles.

Chris used her Neocolour water soluble crayons to add her circles.  Much more subtle!

I had been saying that I was resisting the current journal trend of painting faces (actually, I don't have to resist hard as faces aren't really 'my thing') but looking at my 'blobs' they seemed to be crying out for facial features.  Sue's funny bird doodles came to mind, as did Dr Seuss and Carla Sonheim's imaginary creatures!!!

I intended to make a couple of the 'blobs' into flowers, but forgot - or maybe they just didn't want to be flowers!!

The blob at the base of the 'elephant' looked so like a little snail without a shell I just had to doodle him in, despite it looking a bit odd, but then, the whole page is odd!

I just added eyes to each blob and went from there!

"Be who you are"

Dr Seuss

EDIT:  Chris has blogged her page so head on over to her blog HERE to see how differently the pages turned out!

almost jumping up and down with excitement!!!

It's a tough week this week, getting reports and assessments finished at school, so I was so, so, so, so happy when I came home to this!

My copy of Art Journaling with my article inside :) :) :)

I'd seen the draft copy but it's quite different seeing it in print, amongst so much gorgeous work!

It's lovely to be featured alongside another northern journaler ;)  the lovely Kate Crane (who's work is on the front cover, how cool is that!) [edit: just discovered Gail Milburn's in here too!  So that makes three of us!]

Right, back to the report writing, will treat myself to a good browse later on!  Wendy, down at The Stamp Attic has copies of Art Journaling if you want to get your hands on a copy - I can highly recommend it ;)

a couple more journal pages

Thanks for the get well wishes!  After more sleep today my headache has finally gone - yay!  So it's back to work for me tomorrow :)

Most of my journal pages last week were quite minimalist but after a visit to Kate Crane's blog one day I dug out my spray inks and just went for it!  The white lines are courtesy of a tippex pen!  And there's collage and stitching hiding away in there too.

I cut this owl from scrap paper on my desk.  The page isn't finished yet, it needs 'something' more, I'm just not sure what it is yet!  Maybe a bit of doodling, or some stamped or letraset letters...we'll see!  I've missed this journal this weekend, it's been part of an exhibition of my work over in Oldham.  Looking forward to working in it again.

Kate Crane - a mini journaling inspiration!

Saturday saw my good friend Chris and I heading up to Art from the Heart, Harrogate to take this class from Kate Crane:

It's aaaaaaaaages since I took a class so I was really excited.  I love little books and have been really keen to get journaling in some, but for some reason I find it really hard.  I can happily journal on small tags, or decorate tiny squares or envelopes, but adding paint to small pages throws me!  I LoVe the colours Kate uses on her pages, well, everything about them to be honest!  They're always STuNNiNG!

I'm usually a baby wipe girl, slapping the paint on my page; Kate had us paint with a paintbrush over gessoed pages.  I HaTe gesso!  And probably for the same reason most people like it - I don't like things to move once I've put the paint down, and I know how paint etc is going to behave on paper, gesso makes it behave differently.  

I do LoVe the pages I made on the day though, and as well as learning a different way of adding the paint to the page I challenged myself to work in a different way.

 It was also great to meet people from blogland,

http://patacake-patcrafts.blogspot.com/2011/08/mini-journalling-at-afth.html

http://gezzybscraftybits.blogspot.com/2011/08/well-i-promised-my-next-post-would-be.html

http://craftyshe.blogspot.com/2011/08/birthday-weekend.html

http://gotpaintinmyhair.blogspot.com/2011/08/fabulous-weekend.html

http://flutterbycrafter.blogspot.com/2011/08/warning-contains-scenes-of-sexual.html#comments

 and not forgetting those without blogs, and to share in Sheila's birthday cake :)  

I've worked on a couple more pages since the workshop - thanks so much for the inspiration, and for a great workshop Kate! I'm getting there I think, although I still don't get the nice, distinct areas of colour like you do ;)

unfinished; meant to try NoT working across a double paged spread in class

and forgot,  so had a go here

no gesso; bit busy this page; little tag book in bottom RH corner

is covering up a picture I added last night and didn't like!

in the style of Sarah Ahearn Bellamere by train

I treated myself to this beautiful book just before I went away.  I LoVe the way Sarah Ahearn uses snippets of collage and colour, and also her use of white space.  One of the activities in her book is mini scrapping using what comes to hand from a collection of papers in a box. I found this really hard on holiday but gave it another go whilst away again this last week.  We celebrated our twentieth wedding anniversary this week by taking a steam ride from York to Scarborough, first class no less!!

On the return journey I got out my scrapping kit again and had a go at some mini pages:

I might still add to these pages, I might not, but I'm pleased with the progress I'm making.  My friend Chris and I are going up to Harrogate on Saturday for a workshop with Kate Crane, again working on mini pages - hmm, I see a pattern forming ;)

art calendar 2011 365 challenge

Kate Crane started art calendar 365 challenge last year after seeing Jill Taylor's calendar journal and they're both throwing down the gauntlet again this year.  I'm really not a diary keeper so wasn't sure how far I'd get; last year I made it to the end of January, which is amazing for me, so this year I aim to carry on longer than that!

Rather than work in a book, which is wasted if I don't finish the year (last year I made one especially for the challenge), I decided to decorate a file folder and include individual pieces of card for each month.  I've been dying to decorate a file folder for months!!!

I used my new Martha Stewart punch on the right hand corner of the file folder, then stencilled white paint through some sequin waste.

After stamping some circular patterns from a Stampendous stamp, I free machined over the top of them before adding layers of torn paper, lace and beads in the corner, along with some punched MS hydrangea flowers.

I also decorated the inside of the file folder, on the back page.  I've started adding a bit more to this, including some snowflakes and punched hydrangea flowers.  It is still a work in progress.

I just LoVe the effect these oversized numbers give to the page.  They are stamped in grey so my writing will still be visible.  My file folder feels great in my hands so here's hoping I can manage to get a few months in there!!!

art calendar 2010 365 challenge: half way through january!

I think I've passed my record for keeping a diary!!  Some days I've done retrospectively, but I am up to date!  I only have one inch squares so can't fit much writing in there, but that seems to be helping me keep it up!  It's funny though, it's hard some days trying to decide what to write. 

[Just to give a bit of background to the entries, I'm on a change of meds for anxiety/depression and I've found things REALLY hard to cope with the last couple of weeks.  But I'm ok, and praying that 2010 is the year I see the breakthrough.  I know I'm making some progress, there was absolutely no way I could have written about this when it all first happened a year ago!]

calendar challenge

A month or so back Kate was inspired by Jill over at the Third Age Musing blog to create a journal calendar page for December '09 and to fill it in daily [see above photo].  As it went so well during the busiest month of her year, she's challenged us to do it for the year.   You can sign up here.

The work is really only in the preparation.  And as the choice of design is up to you, it's down to how much time you have.  Otherwise the daily commitment is only 5 minutes!!!  The challenge is to fill in a little tiny square each day with a word, a picture or a sentence picking out something from your day. 

Kate used pages in her A4 moleskine, adding another challenge for herself by working larger than she's used to.  I decided I wanted to make a book which will then become a diary of the year.  I'll be REALLY chuffed if I manage to write in it everyday, I've never managed to keep a diary beyond the first week or two of January ;)

I started with a large sheet of Bockingford watercolour paper on the kitchen floor and had a wonderful time adding colour to it using my adirondack paint dabbers.

When my husband came into our small kitchen to get his breakfast, he was very sweet and really didn't mind manoeuvring around me, but did fall about laughing at me and insisted on taking a photo...which I'm not sharing!!

 

Once I'd painted both sides and they were dry, I tore the paper into eight pieces, and sewed down the middle of seven of them to create a book.

 

I had a very relaxing time adding tabs to each page which I'll put the calendar months on. 

Then promptly forgot I was taking step by step photos!!  I've stamped the first open spread page using adirondack paint dabbers and stamps by Tim Holtz, Wendy Vecchi and Lost Coast Designs, highlighted the letters saying 'january' using a very soft graphite pencel, and added printed words and 1" squares cut from a sheet of white card stained with coffee.

 

It's still waiting for '2010' to be added, and 'january' to be added to the tag, but otherwise I'm pretty much set!  The book needs a cover, and I'm going to prep february's page next, but it's good to go for Friday :)

Thanks Kate, this is going to be great fun!!!  And hello to all my new followers!  And the uplifting comments people have left as part of the Stamp Man's first blog hop.  If you've not joined in yet, there's still time!  You've got until midnight GMT Sunday 3rd January 2010.  My part of the blog hop is the post below this one.  Happy Hopping!