Use a Portrait is the new theme at AVJ

My CG sample for the new challenge at AVJ uses several portraits in it, but how would you define a portrait?

A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. 


Wikipedia


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I used a Tim worn cover and had great fun changing it into a place to keep photos of current and past generations of immediate family.

I dipped it in distress inks (still one of my most favourite techniques) to achieve an aged look to it.

I love the way the colours have blended and dried achieving some fabulous water damage results.

I didn't add too much to the front cover, I just like it simple as there is already quite a lot of decoration on it. (This photo was taken before I added the ribbon to tie it up). The photo is my grandmother when she was a young woman and married to my grandpa. You can see I added two small pieces of collage, some inked layers using Tim's stencils, remnant rubs and label letters.

Let's open the book and see what is inside.

Family portraits, in fact 5 generations of us girls. The large cabinet card photo is one of my grandmother when she was small and in fact I captured all of us as children. On the left hand side is my Mum at the top, Chris and I, then my daughter Maddie and my two grandchildren at the bottom.

So having decided that rather than make a journal I would add a configurations box, I lined it with Tim paper and edged it with tissue tape.

I wanted to add two corners and for them to look aged too. So I layered distress paints, drying them between coats until I was happy with the look.

My intention was to get a rusted look by using tea dye distress embossing powders (the only orangey one I have), but I was disappointed with the soft effects.

So I dripped sunshine yellow and butterscotch alcohol inks over the top.

The photograph of my grandmother was mounted onto craft card and then I adhered these two pieces of wood to the back to raise it up. Beneath the photo I added some collage pieces and  more patterned paper and elements in various places.

I dipped the inside covers in the distress inks the same as the front cover and dried them adding some random stamped text.

The circular portraits were made using Tim's reflective imagery technique, although I changed it slightly, but you can see on the girls photos the metal showing through the distressed areas, (Don't forget - embrace your imperfections).

The background is the back of a cabinet card, I had used the front previously on a project and kept this piece, so it came in very handy here.

Some additional collage pieces, chit-chat stickers and two linen ribbons to tie it up ......

..... a decorated back cover with a stamped image from Artistic Outpost.

I have enjoyed making my portrait book and I know the girls will love looking at it.

Most of the supplies I used can be bought at Country View Crafts who are the wonderful sponsor for AVJ donating a great £10 voucher for each fortnightly winner. Why don't you transport yourself over to the challenge blog to see all the wonderful inspiration from the other.Creative Guides, you won't be disappointed.

Thanks for joining me today, for taking a look at my piece and for leaving a comment if you have time.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Weekly Visual Journey

I have started a Visual Journal and as often as possible I am going to make a page and blog it, by the end of the year I hope I will have a book full of ideas, layouts, quotes, colour palettes and further design inspiration.

The first page can be found here and certainly got me started on making a ‘quick’ (well quick for me) visual collage and I certainly had to push myself into working without a plan.

I haven't entered any challenges for a long time and have decided to 'keep an eye' on a few that I know will provide me with inspiration and challenging themes that will get me back into thinking about new ideas and help me explore and practice alternative and perhaps unfamiliar ways of approaching my art. The changes at PaperArtsy certainly look exciting and I will enter this altered book with it's 'fragile' pages there.

So I have another double page spread for you.

This week I wanted to try out  a photo transfer technique and began with two tags and a photo of my daughter as a baby and one of my Mum as a young woman.

I had researched techniques and decided to go with one I had found using mod podge. But my favourite wet glue is Evo-stik wood adhesive so I experimented with that instead.

Many of the tutorials you find say you can only use laser prints but I used my trusty inkjet printer and a thin photographic paper. When the photo was dry I adhered it to the distressed tag (face down) and dried it with my heat gun. I also let it cool and left if for about half an hour to ensure it was dry.

Using some warm water I began to gently rub it into the back of the photo so that the paper rubbed away and slowly the image began to appear.

I continued to do this until I could see the image clearly.

I gave Maddie’s photo a sealing layer of the wood glue …..

….. but not with my Mum’s photo as I wanted to see the differences. I actually prefer the matte finish to the shiny finish from the glue.

I gathered some collage pieces, tissue wrap, tissue tapes, scraps of papers and borders and started to glue them down.

I have to admit I did spend some ‘thinking’ time on this one but not too much, just enough to plan the butterfly in the film strip and to find the letters and numbers I wanted to add.

So there we have it my second go at creating a collage and this time with trying out a new technique as well. I have to say I am rather pleased with it.

Thank you to Nikki, Alison, Sue and Mona for joining my blog hop and sharing your journal pages with me. You can see their contributions below as part of the link-up. I would love it if you joined in as well. I am deciding whether I keep each linky open for 2 weeks or a month, let’s see what happens before I make the decision. So it’s ‘anything goes’ with whatever journal/sketchbook/ type activity is right for you.

This is the code to add to your post so you can share the Link Up with your readers.
get the InLinkz code
Please join our Visual Journal Link Up and thank you for sharing your inspiration with us.

hugs Brenda xxx

An InLinkz Link-up

Something New at CVC

Peace, Hope and Joy for 2015

For my second piece for the ‘something new’ challenge at Country View Crafts I decided to get out my Inspirational Quote Journal as I haven’t added anything to it for quite a while. You know when an idea hits you and you’ve just got to go with the flow? Well that’s what happened here. So if you pop back to see my next post today you will notice the connection in wanting to free myself up from some of the time I spend over-thinking pieces of work and also procrastinating – which I seem to do a lot of……

This is a double page spread with words and symbolism to fit in with the thoughts behind starting a new year filled with peace, hope and joy.

There are lots of layers to these pages using inks, stencils, die-cuts, texture paste, distress paints and stains.

My new candle die had to have an airing as a prayer for peace and to symbolise life, love and celebration ......

..... with the clock standing for the passing of time and that we stand on the brink of another new year, a year in which we hope will bring all those special things.

We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called ‘Opportunity’ and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.  Edith Lovejoy Pierce.

For me in the essence of this new challenge theme the ‘something new’ consists of a new year and using new supplies that I have added to my ever growing collection of art and craft materials, much of it thanks to Susan’s advent surprises plus some crafty goodies for Christmas from my sister Chris. I just love the new dictionary stamp she bought me which I have used on these pages - thanks Chris.

So I am looking forward to many more opportunities in the coming year to learn new techniques, to create more art and to see your new work too which is always an inspiration to me ,,,,

.... and to hopefully buy and play with a few more goodies (and as I have some CVC vouchers to spend too I think I will wait to see what comes from CHA before making any new purchases).

Wishing you all a great weekend

hugs Brenda xxx

A Visual Journey 2015

A Visual Journey 2015

I have decided that this year I need to free myself from over thinking some of my designs. Don’t get me wrong, standing back, walking away and giving yourself some time can be a good thing but often I am making a small project and I start to procrastinate, try to change elements and over think so that my creativity goes out the window and I completely lose the thread. So I thought that if I made a Visual Journal/Diary/Sketchbook and practiced making quick designs at least once a week or fortnight it would help me to free myself from this constraining practice and would also give me the chance to experiment with techniques and ideas that I pick up when visiting your blogs or that I see on Pinterest.

So today is day ONE and I am looking to post something hopefully every Thursday and wondered if you would like to join me? Along the way I will tell you what my inspiration is or what I am trying to achieve and I will add a linky to the bottom of my post. There are no prizes and certainly no pressure to share every time I post but by linking we can visit other artists or crafters who would like to show us what they are doing and find even more inspiration between ourselves.

I bought this old book sometime last year and have been waiting for the opportunity to use it and now is the time. It's a fabulous hard back with gorgeous watercolour type paper pages. Some were cut and some were just torn when it was made so it attracted me straight away when I saw it on a market book stall.

I have started with a double page collage. First I prepared the pages by drawing round some of the words I wanted to show through then painted them with gesso and a little frayed burlap distress paint. When they were just about dry I places waxed paper between the pages so they wouldn't stick together and put under a heavy box to make sure they were flattened well.

My collage is made up of a variety of scraps found on my desk and as I started to design the layout and pick up each of the elements I was creating links to the book title, so that when I had finished putting it all together I added some words that I thought The Roadmender would see or be aware of when he was out every day. They've added the dialogue I felt this collage needed.

I added a little bit of stamping and consciously chose the tissue tapes to go with the design, but otherwise the pieces were all picked up from scraps that were left on my desk from previous projects. Can you believe that they fitted together so well?

The number 8 is foil tape on card and the piece I played with before making my my new year plaque (see previous post).

I hope you will consider joining in with this visual journey. Anything goes with whatever journal/sketchbook/ type activity is right for you. My Pinterest page explains it as -
'Keeping a visual journal is a journey of experimentation; giving time to be free in expressing yourself and not constrained by others expectations. Practicing design, layouts, composition, colour mixing, techniques, materials, mixed media. Creating your own exercises, titles, mood boards, taking yourself out of the box, finding yourself. Bring new ideas to life, to spark you off in new directions, to allow your own imagination and creativity to develop in complete freedom'.

Thanks for joining me today

hugs Brenda xxx

This is the code to add to your post so you can share the Link Up with your readers.
get the InLinkz code

  Please join our Visual Journal Link Up and thank you for sharing your inspiration with us.

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy New Year plaque

Foil tape plaque for 2015

Happy New Year I hope you will have a happy, healthy and peaceful 2015 and be able to enjoy some regular inspiration time to create and make beautiful art.

I am starting the year with something special I made to hang in the dining room for our new years eve party - a plaque to hang over the mirror with the year on it..

Process steps

Cut 4 ATC size pieces of card (2 ½  x 3 ½  ins) covered with foil tape and run each one through  the texture trades numbers set for 2015. I've used a mixture of Ranger foil and DIY foil.

Cut more pieces of card covered in the foil tape and run through a selection of embossing folders. And adhere the patterned pieces of foiled card patchwork style to an A4+ sized piece of greyboard.

Add strips of the foil tape to join some of the edges and to seal the edges.

Use metal tools to edge each piece and to add any other decorative features you might want to add,

Paint over the whole piece with black soot distress paint and before it’s dry wipe over with kitchen towel to take most of it off leaving black paint in the crevices.

Next take the numbers and again paint and wipe away the excess, let them dry.

Blend alcohol inks over, then drip some blending solution over then recessed areas and wipe off. I was aiming to get reddy numbers and a brown background. Drip the browns in the recessed areas and again drip a couple of drops of blending solution on. Pick them up and move them around so that the colours move across the foil. When dry I got a very small paint brush, the black soot DP, the brown alcohol inks and blending solution. I painted some black around the numbers to help them stand out more and then just played with the other supplies until I was happy with the blending and colourisation.

The numbers were mounted onto brown card and adhered to the board and a spread a little teak wood alcohol ink around the edges to frame it (just like I would with vintage photo or walnut stain distress ink on my papercraft projects). Add some snaps with the Cropodile and some wire to hang it by.

It was dark by the time I got to take this photo so it looks completely different to the one above it, but here it is hanging on the mirror, you can just see the reflection of some Christmas lights.

Thank you for all your support and wonderful comments last year, I so appreciate them particularly when my teaching schedule got so busy and I couldn't get round to see you all as well. But new year and fresh start, I am definitely going to try and do better.

We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.

Walt Disney

Enjoy your creative moments.

hugs Brenda xxx