Using scraps - Garden Journal

I have boxes of bits; patterned papers, leftover backgrounds, discarded die-cuts, stamped images, snippets - in fact you name it I've probably got it - so whilst we are locked down in this Covid-19 pandemic I am aiming to use up some of those scraps in any of my numerous journals.

Today it's my garden journal with some rusty and shabby bits. Just a simple collage!

A rusty panel, crackled leftover, textured panel and very old leftover rulers with the beautiful TH dragonfly.

The words came from a pouch of collected bits and just fitted into the current climate.

Suddenly it was life changing times, but amongst it all there is hope for a better future.

xxx

Vintage Photos, Collage, Ephemera and Embellishments.

I love my mixed media work but I also love working with all those things in the title of this post. Today I am using the new Found Relatives Vintage Portraits with some older Tim papers and bits and pieces I keep for creating my vintage collages.

I love this photo of a young girl and her teddy bear, she is sitting so beautifully for the camera and is composed and happy. I bet this portrait became a favourite of her parents.

The heart is a little one die-cut from corrugated card and given a large splattering of white paint and mounted over some linen thread. I also tied the neutral bow to it to give additional interest.

This embellishment below just came about with me finding the small piece of black seam binding and the piece of tape in a box and put them together like this. I wanted the red to continue drawing the eye around the page and the black balances the Heartfelt sentiment  in the other corner.

You can just see some vermillion stamped text, it is randomly dotted over the grungy panel which was the result of a DecoArt project I made for May. So keep your eyes peeled for that coming soon.

A scrap of hessian, red and white borders and the Heartfelt sentiment carry the eyes across the page picking out the textures and patterns. The little red flower is one I made years ago and it found it's way into my box of bits when I disassembled a project it was on. Do you do that too, take something to pieces that you don't want to keep any more and recycle the elements?

I wonder if this little girl is going on a journey as this red and black ticket fitted in perfectly with the colour scheme and the pen nib reflects the idea of typed and written text in the right hand piece of layering paper and of course you just get a glimpse of the red stamped text too. Perhaps she grows up to be a writer or a travel journalist?

I love the kraft, red, white and black palette and as you saw this was created in one of my kraft journals which I think will now become just for paper dolls, lost relatives and photo booth collage art.

xxx

Journal page for DecoArt Media Team

I have started a new journal and if you missed the cover you can find it here. This is the first page made as a DecoArt Team member for 2019 and I have used real leaves I picked up in the garden as well as stencilled leaves too.
I know many of you might have already  seen this on the DecoArt blog but I'm just bringing all the details into the fold of my own space here at Bumblebees and Butterflies. My friend Alison Bomber calls it an 'encore' post.

Process steps

1. Using black archival ink randomly stamp a text background. Dry with a heat gun.

2. Use a monoprint technique using some quite thick paper or a piece of card. Randomly paint your piece of card with white gesso and press it onto your page.

Repeat until you are happy with the background. Play with the amount of colour you paint onto the card and watch for the variations it gives you. Leave some of the kraft page and text showing through. I placed a piece of wax paper behind my page to protect the pages underneath and prevent them from getting stray paint on them.

3. Using the dark grey mixed with titanium buff on your craft mat, spritz with water to create a watery wash, with a paint brush spread it out over a wide surface area …..

….. and dip your page into and dry several times.

4. Repeat step three with a very tiny amount of prussian blue (it really is a strong pigmented colour) mixed with some paynes grey.

5. Repeat steps 1 and 2 to tone it down again but leave some of the colours showing through as well.

6. It was here I decided it looked a little too cool in tone so I brayered some transparent yellow iron oxide over to warm it up. I wasn’t sure if I had done the right thing but I persevered and carried on.

7. Now I tried another monoprint technique using a stencil, but it didn’t work for me. I think it was because my background was too textured and didn’t allow my stencil to lay flat on the surface. We always learn something from our experiments don’t we?
Acrylic paints can dry very quickly especially in warm environments so I added a little extender medium to my colours for this next step. I used prussian blue hue and diarylide yellow.
I mixed both of these colours individually and together on my palette with the extender medium ……

…. then using my craft mat I painted some onto a stencil and then pressed it onto my page, rubbed over the back with some clean kitchen towel and repeated with the same stencil design to add pattern and texture.

But it wasn’t quite what I expected but you know what they say – get over it, there’s never a right or wrong way it’s all part of the learning process. So that’s what I did.

8. There is a bonus as you can press some clean media paper or card onto the surface of your mat or plate and rub over the leftover paint to ‘pull’ prints which can be used later.

9. Knowing that I had a leaf to add to the page I decided I wanted some of this background to show through but I also needed a more neutral palette for the leaf to sit on so I scraped some white gesso over the page using a palette knife keeping the flat side horizontal to the page. I can still see some of the original grey and blue and some of the stamping.

10. I took this a bit further and mixed some gesso and white modeling paste together and scraped it through the leaf stencil and a small dotty stencil to create texture. I left it overnight to dry and then mixed some sap green with glazing medium and painted it all over the substrate and wiped back with a wet wipe. (I love this technique I learnt from our very own talented Shawn Petite).

11. I wanted to make this a bit grungier so I repeated step 10 using raw umber fluid acrylic.

12. I had picked a couple of bits up from the back garden to use in this journal. To get them ready I placed them between some kitchen paper and two pieces of card, put two elastic bands around it and put it in the microwave on full power for 2 minutes. They came out lovely and dry and flat ready to use.

13. I had originally thought I would paint the leaf with gesso but I love the holes in the leaf parts and the faded colours so I decided to seal it on both sides using the DecoArt matte sealer spray instead. I have to be honest and say I don’t know how long it will last! Because it was very dry I painted a coat of matte medium over the top of the leaf but it was very fragile and broke in a couple of places.

14. So I altered course and made the decision to completely change the ending of my processes. I added some very small torn pieces of collage paper and then covered the page with a coat of clear modeling paste and laid the leaf in it to protect it. Originally I thought I might be able to glue it on with a hot glue gun but hey ho – all the best plans! This now made the leaf very soft and pliable and bends with the page.

15. To finish I cut three leaves from the prints you can see in photo 8, stamped them with some brown texture and drew in the veins.

I added some hessian ribbon, some stained cambric and some words to complete the page.

I'm looking forward to creating more pages in this journal.

Thanks for stopping by and ....

xxx

Bee journal page

A page in my new 'inspired by nature' journal. The front cover and the first page are complete and this one adds to the story. As the name of my blog suggests bumblebees and butterflies are important to me so you are very likely to see more pages inspired by them but as a retired teacher who loves learning, books have also been a principal player in my life so I just had to use this quote when I found it.

Process steps

Stamp the page with a large crackle stamp and then layer some random texture with white gesso using a palette knife.

When dry stamp the numbers with black archival, make sure they are dry before covering with a gesso wash. If it looks too white knock back with a wetwipe before it dries.

Know roughly what elements you are going to use and where they will be placed ....

.... before building in a little more texture using a stencil and white gesso. When it's dry use watery acrylic paints, dry dabble, spritz and drip some quinacridone gold, heat dry and repeat until you are happy. Then repeat again with carbon black.

Use die-cuts to create a honeycomb (these pieces were in a bits box left over from cutting a frameworks die a long time ago).

Use water soluble wax pencils or distress crayons to edge the paper and create a grungy border by using a wet paintbrush to dissolve the crayon and let it disperse along the edges of the page.

Then assemble your pieces to create your design.

xxx

Journal pages for Andy Skinner Team

I'm over at the Andy Skinner blog today with these journal pages as my Creative Team sample for January.

I decided to use my vintage journal which is an old book altered for the purpose of adding vintage/mixed media pages. I knew I wanted to create some mixed media layers with mediums and fluid acrylic paints and just went with the church window as my starting point. Little did I know at this point it would have a wedding theme by the end of it!!!

Process Steps

Begin by sealing the book pages with white gesso and leave some of the text/image showing through. Dry.

Apply black modeling paste through several stencils. Dry.

Take cobalt blue hue and medium grey separately on a palette and mix both with glazing medium. Paint them over the pages and then knock back with a damp baby wipe.

Take cerulean blue and white and mix with a brayer to blend over the raised areas and pages. Repeat with white on it's own.

Take a stamp and add some text using watering can archival ink. Scrape some thin gesso over both pages.

Stamp the church window with cobalt and black archival inks x 3, give them an acrylic watercolour wash using prussian blue and cobalt blue dry and cut out. Use vintage photo distress ink to blend around the edges.

To achieve the next layer of colour I did some colour mixing. Using tiny amounts of english red oxide, raw umber, burnt sienna, yellow oxide and burnt umber I got this lovely vintage brown oxide blend. I spritzed, dribble and dried it until I was happy with the effects.

Now assemble the focus elements and embellishments, ink the edges and adhere to the pages.

Also rub a stabilo water pencil round the edges of the die cuts and the stencilled word 'DREAMS' and finally around the edges of the pages and paint with a water brush to darken and create a frame.

Having stamped three windows ideas wandered to a church feel so I chose the happy couple as my vintage focus. That led me to remembering that Ken and I will celebrate a very special wedding anniversary in July and that's where the number came from and the little hearts. The words are remnant rubs.

I thought I'd play along at 'Try it on Tuesdays' where the theme is Romance. I rarely get to share on other blogs or enter challenges these days so this is a bit of a treat.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful weekend and

xxx

Supplies

DecoArt Media Fluid Acrylics-cobalt blue hue, prussian blue, medium grey value 6, cerulean blue, titanium white, english red oxide, raw umber, burnt sienna, yellow oxide and burnt umber

DecoArt Media mediums - black modeling paste, white gesso, heavy gel medium.

Andy Skinner stamps - Gothic Grunge, Techrauma

Andy Skinner stencils - Creativity, Time Warp, Halftone