Welcome to a Skype collaboration post where I have a fabulous (well I think it is) Eileen Hull HeArtfelt journal to share with you made in an hour long Skype session with the lovely Nikki Acton. We were both experiencing mojo issues and thought that sharing a project and ideas together would help us get through it and get us motivated and feeling better about our crafting again - it certainly worked for me, I really do love what I made.
The Ipads were on the tables and connected to Skype. We had already decided to do the journal before the session and had them and the panels cut and ready to go. We weren't sure how we would collaborate and in the end decided we would take turns in suggesting each new layer for the background and could opt out if we wanted to after 6 layers.
So here's how it went -
1. Brenda - choose 2 colours of paint and use a brayer to create the first layer.
I used raw umber and titan buff.
2. Nikki - dip, drip and dry with a third colour.
Mine was burnt sienna.
3. Brenda - use a stamp.
I pulled out a Tim Holtz ledger script stamp and coffee archival ink.
4. Nikki - stencil with paint.
Titanium white was sitting on the table and a sponge and I used them both with Tando Creative and Tim Holtz harlequin stencils.
5. Brenda - paint a wash or glaze of colour all over
I took soft touch varnish, paynes grey, burnt umber and titanium white with a little water, mixed together and used this to knock back the colours and vintage them up a bit more.
6 - Nikki - more stencilling - anyway you like.
At this point I was really happy with my layers and didn't want to stencil again. I tried the printing method but wiped it all off as it really looked awful and decided to go back to my original stencils and ledger script stamp and I stamped through them creating a little darker stamping but not too much of it - phew it worked and looked ok.
7 - Brenda - edge/frame in any way you want to.
I added this layer just because I like to darken the edges of my work and I sanded them back and blended ground espresso round.
Coffee break
Mine was a coffee caramel popcorn frappuccino (taken from the freezer).
Covers
I painted raw umber, dried it and applied a layer of weathered wood and when that was dry painted over eternal chalky finish paint and somehow got quite a mega crackle. A few layers of stenciling, stamping and colour washes and I had something that fitted with the front and back covers in both colour and design.
Embellishments
We decided we would use die-cuts that we had in boxes or lying around rather than cut anything new with an agreed circle shape and some words incorporated into the design. Here you can see me pulling bits together and I also added some memory box chloe flowers and a paper doll with a 'halo' to bring attention to it.
Five hours later we had finished with elastic in and ties and panels on. Woo hoo what a fantastic and fun collaborative Skype session with two brilliant projects finished. Can you guess we both went through the same processes to get to our finished designs? Amazing isn't it how different they are?
Thanks Nikki for a fabulous five hours, we had a great laugh, swapped ideas and tips, talked to Frankie (her cat) and both ended up with something we were really pleased with. All paints and mediums I used are from DecoArt media line.
We had so much fun we are doing it again at the end of August/beginning of September.
Thanks for stopping by, please pop over to Nikki's blog - Addicted to Art and take a look at her project and photos in more detail. I'm sure you'll love her journal and be amazed at how different it is.
See you soon.
hugs Brenda xxx