A Visual Journey #6

Today sees us start a new link up for February and I have got my Visual Journey #6 pages to show you.

 The pages were started last weekend when I visited my sister, I got part of the background done using her gesso, acrylic paints and stencils. When I got back to finishing it I didn't like the brightness of the pages so I dulled them down by spraying white linen dylusions ink over them. (see process steps below)

It's the first time I have inked up these Dina Wakeley butterflies ....

... they are a beautiful shape.

So here's a quick rundown of the steps if you are interested. I like to record them for my own benefit 

Scrape gesso over the pages to seal most of the surfaces.

Scrape acrylic paints on the pages.

Whilst damp use a stencil and rub away some of the acrylic paints. Dry.

Using a sponge dab a different colour acrylic paint through stencil. Dry

Knock it back with Dylusions white linen spray.

When dry seal with a spray varnish. (mine was a shiny one). This allows you to work over the top of it without rubbing any more colour away.

Stamp Dina Wakeley butterflies with black archival, paint with acrylics.

The quote is downloaded from the internet.

I am adding a new Linky for February. Thank you to everyone who shared their pages in January, it was such a pleasure to pop round to your blogs and see what you have been doing, I hope you are enjoying it too. I am now looking forward to February and seeing how your pages are developing and finding out more about how you are putting them together and what is inspiring you. Butterflies are always an inspiration for me as my Mum always used to tell me that she would return as a butterfly in her next life on earth. So I see her so often around me.

Enjoy the rest of the week and thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda

here is the Linky code for you to use.


get the InLinkz code

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Drips and Drops at CVC and step x step

It's the 1st February (Really? Already?) and it's time for a new challenge at Country View Crafts. The theme today has been chosen by the lovely Sue at Scrumplescrunch and she's called it 'Drips and Drops'. Mulling this over in my head I knew I just had to go with my most loved techniques using distress inks and started off on a background but as the ideas were developing I ended up with a Spring or Easter card with the egg image coming from that gorgeous wallflower stack from Tim Holtz.

The acrylic block DI technique using glimmer mists is a technique I love to turn to when I'm in one of those 'don't know what to do' frame of minds.

Dabbing distress inks on the block, misting them until you get those gorgeous 'drops' of colour and then pressing it into the card to get great blended distress effects.

When I'd done that I splattered 'drops' of ink over in stormy sky distress stain and water using a small paint brush and heat dried it.

Blend antique linen and stormy sky DIs over the top half where there is less colour and flick water 'drops' on. Absorb the water droplets with kitchen towel and heat dry

Blend same colours over again and ink the edges with walnut stain.

Splatter 'drops' of gathered twigs distress inks and absorb with the paper towel immediately to ensure the 'droplets' are not too deep in colour.

Finally flick some more water 'droplets' on and heat dry.

We have created a speckled look with depth at the lower part of the card and more subtle effects at the top of the card..

Moving on to the next stage I made a frame using the Tim Holtz Thinlits dies – Labels. Ink the edges of the frame inside and out with walnut stain and adhere one of Tim’s eggs from the Wallflower paper pack.

Take a mini tag and repeat the process steps, stamp a special word and staple a small piece of hessian over the tag hole.

QUICK TIP

With hessian, to prevent it fraying too much, apply a thin layer of wet glue (I use my favourite evo stik wood glue) over the back and let it dry. This keeps the fibres together when you cut into it).

 The final stage is layering up all the elements and I love using tissue wrap instead of stamping on backgrounds, you can still see some of the colour through it.

Strips of Tim's papers still from the Wallflower pack and a couple of chit chat words from the seasonal set. But embellishments were difficult - I wanted to add more eggs so I attached one to a small piece of film strip and cut an even smaller one out and glued it on nearby. Fiddly but for me the detail is so important.

So how will use drips and drops on a card or project? I've got to get my thinking cap on now as I have one more sample to make for later in the month.

We are looking forward to seeing what you do for the CVC challenge.

Thanks for stopping by.

hugs Brenda xxx

A Visual Journey #5

Today's pages mean I have created freely each week in January and it is already exciting to see the altered book filling up with my experimentations; it really is a personal and safe place to create whatever comes to mind.

For these pages I decided to look on my shelves and find things that are sitting feeling lonely and unused. Old rub-ons, stickers, bags with left over bits from projects and workshops, old paper packs, boxes of die-cuts ..... you get the picture?

used die-cuts and adhered to the page.

Coated the die-cuts with a layer of gesso and when dry I scraped broken china and bundled sage distress paints, misted and dried

Added some torn paper from the old paper stack.

Blended some mustard seed and picket fence DPs over the page.

Used my finger to blend some gesso in places.

Finally I sprayed some bright Dylusions over.

And found these film strip pieces on my desk, they are leftovers from prepping workshops this week, so I decided to utilise them.

This is the last January Link, there will be another new one next month. Thank you to everyone who has shared their work with me I so appreciate it and love looking at what you are making.

Don't forget your visual diary, journal, sketchbook or whatever you call your creative jottings is your creative place and you can make up your own rules as to what’s included and how it’s presented.

If you would like to join the party please take a look at my original post HERE and then add the script below to your blog post.

   

This is not a challenge it is just for fun but it's a great way to see what others are making in their journals around the world whether it be an art journal, visual diary or sketchbook and whatever medium or style you choose.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

   

    An InLinkz Link-up

   

Love is in the air at AVJ

A Valentine type theme starts today at A Vintage Journey,  The lovely Astrid is the host and she has chosen the title and describes it thus -

It being nearly the end of January, it's not long until Valentines day.

A flower cannot blossom without sunshine,

And man cannot live without love.

So the saying goes. For this challenge please share what moves your heart with us, be it a Valentine's card for a loved one, a heart themed project, or something else that expresses what true love means to you. Just make sure that Tim's style is evident in what you make.

I have taken the opportunity to make a card for my dear hubby.

A heart with festive berries, barn door and aged mahogany distress paint, dried and covered with rock candy crackle paint. When the cracks appeared and it was dry I painted with brushed pewter distress paint letting it seep into the cracks and wiping off the excess before it dried on. Then covered with walnut stain distress stain and baked on with a heat gun.

A pair of wings were dabbed over with brushed pewter DP, dried, sanded and inked with walnut stain distress stain.

I always collect pieces together that I think will go on my card.

These are the two pieces that formed the background layers. The striped piece is from Tim's Merriment paper stash and the dark red panel is a left over from Christmas where I had used the reverse monoprint technique using the holiday knits stencil. To give me more of the colour I wanted I dipped it into festive berries, barn door and aged mahogany distress paints, smooshing it on my mat and heat drying. Love the effects of the deeper mottled inky background and blended paints on top.

Using a small flourish embossing folder I added texture to the corners of the background piece and gently blended over fired brick and walnut stain distress inks.

I used the trellis framework, cut three pieces from another piece like the red panel, sanded the edges and blended walnut stain over before adhering them to the background

 Finally I added the collected elements to finish my card.

Now I just need to keep this hidden for a few weeks before I give it to Ken.

We are looking forward to seeing what projects you make with a 'love' theme and if you enter the AVJ challenge you could be in with a chance of winning a £10 gift voucher from Country View Crafts, our fabulous sponsor, where the prices are keen and the p&p is free.

Have a wonderful weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Visual Journal #4

Do you ever go onto Pinterest and suddenly realise you are looking at similar things that aren't necessarily what you would normally look at? Whilst looking at journal pages earlier this week I realised I was looking at quite a number that had circles in them. I know they are popular, but it's not a shape I have used much, and if I have it's just to print circles from little plastic pots over a journaling page. As they had caught my attention I wanted to have a play.

I started by gessoing the next two pages in my altered book, adhered some music score paper on the two pages and gessoed over the top of those. Love the textures it created as well as the interest for creating on.

I got out my box of journalling bits, found the plastic lids I have collected etc and using black gesso printed some circles in two sizes.

I decided to use distress paints to colour them in as I wanted to see how they looked layered up with colour knowing that dried distress paint is permanent on the page.

The colours I used are salty ocean, evergreen bough, mustard seed and festive berries. Wow is summer here with these colours?

The next step was to repeat the process using smaller circles and adding more colours to all of them. Did I tell you I was finger painting rather than using a brush. I was having such a great time - it took me back to being a teacher, when I was in the classroom.

For this part of the process I added some vintage photo distress paint and some white gesso. (Really I suppose I should have got the picket fence distress paint out, but the gesso was already sitting on my desk. I was also texturising the circles at this point dabbing my finger instead of rubbing and adding water to get more translucent colours.

Next I added the background using victorian velvet and tea dye distress stains. With a brush and using a baby wipe I blended them around the circles.

At this point looking at the pages I realised the circle forms were all too neat and perfectly formed, how to change them?  Get out your black pen and draw parts of circles round the lids you used. Works for me.

Then some very small text either in or across the circles, some tiny little black circles and some fine ink splatters. Some of the tiny circles that were not connected to the larger ones looked odd to me so I gently dabbed them with the gesso, dried and dabbed some of the distress inks over them, now they appear to be more in the background

At this point although the pages were almost dry they were beginning to warp quite a bit so I put them under a heavy box for a while.

Some walnut stained edges and chit chat stickers saying 

'Laugh forever and share a smile with friends' on the first page ....

... and some 'real' jouraling using a pen and handwriting -

'Using my journal is about developing my ideas - showing my thought processes and providing insights into my thinking without feeling constrained by others' expectations'.

To get a more aged look to the pages I added a coat of glue and seal with some vintage photo distress ink mixed in (see Tim's tag for January). One thing I learned is that if I am going to seal the pages I need to make sure my writing pen ink is WATERPROOF - but as Tim says 'embrace your imperfections', after all not only is this a visual journey it is a learning journey as well. 

If you would like to join the party please take a look at my original post HERE and then follow the link below to get the script to add to your blog post. Maybe you might like to make some circles.

get the InLinkz code

This is not a challenge it is just for fun but it's a great way to see what others are making in their journals around the world whether it be an art journal, visual diary or sketchbook and whatever medium or style you choose.

An art diary, art journal or visual journal is a daily journal kept by artists, often containing both words and sketches, and occasionally including mixed media elements such as collages. (Wikipedia) Dina Wakely says 'Simply put, an art journal is a journal in which you combine art and words to express yourself. That’s it. It’s not complex, and there really aren't any rules for art journaling. It’s all about self-expression. Art journaling has a long-standing artistic tradition. Artists through the centuries have kept notebooks in which they sketched, practiced, experimented, and recorded themselves. Picasso and DaVinci were two other prolific sketchbook keepers. You are in good company!

Enjoy.

hugs Brenda xxx

An InLinkz Link-up