Tuesday 26 July 2016

Circle Art Journal - Just Go

A quick Art Journal page inspired by my love of travelling. I would love to do more so this is some advice to myself!




Background: Glossy Accents and Ranger Adirondack Inks with heart and star doodles.
Main Image: Die cuts in Happy Mail from my kind friend Dawn - her art is amazing, check out her Instagram feed here.
Quote: Handwritten on a pretty pattern I found in the background of a calendar picture!

Stay crafty!

Katie x

Sunday 24 July 2016

Clarity Challenge - July

I love Clarity Stamps and I have a few that I have not yer used so thought I would make an effort to join in the the Clarity Stamp Challenge. Here is my entry, a small canvas, for the July Challenge with the theme of Days Out.





1) Stamped the Small Sketched Lady and Large Eiffel Tower images with Adirondack Archival ink in Jet Black 
2) Each image was masked with Pebeo Drawing Gum.
3) Using a torn piece of paper the sky was added using Clarity Stencil Brushes and Distress Ink in Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade and Festive Berries.
4) The land was coloured using the same stencil brush technique using Old Paper and Peeled Paint, ensuring darker patches were under the stamped images allowing them to be grounded.
5) The horizontal lines were highlighted by freehand doodle lines using a fine line pen.
6) The drawing gum was rubbed off and the images were coloured using distress inks (Festive Berries, Tattered Rose and Wild Honey).
7) "Summer in Paris" was stamped using the Letterbox stamps.
8) A boarder was added using Vintage Photo Distress ink and an ink applicator.

Ta Da!

Stay crafty,
Katie x



Circle Journal Workshop

Yet another fantastic afternoon was spent with Mike and the wonderfully fabulous ladies at Art Journal Class. We made Circle Journals from scratch and I am chuffed with mine!!

What do you think:


Front Cover

Back Cover

(Note to self - better photos required...)

I found it a lot of pressure decorating the covers as they are obviously the things you will see the most... But I'm very pleased with them. Now to fill it with pages just as beautiful!!

Stay crafty,

Katie x

Friday 22 July 2016

Mission Inspiration - July

I haven't been art journalling long. I discovered it through attending workshops at what was Kraftyhands (now ceased trading) with Ian and Mike.

Mike has a fantastic YouTube channel (If you haven't checked it out yet you should pop over.) and is the founder of the the Mission Inspiration Facebook page. Each month a set of instructions for creating an Art Journal page is given so I decided to try my hand at July's mission.

Step 1: Apply a base page colour with a baby wipe



I chose to use DoCrafts Artiste paints in Metallic Silver and Metallic Bronze. Most of my pages so far have been quite bright so I thought I would step out of my comfort zone by using something more neutral.

Step 2: Glue tissue or napkin fragments



I knew what quote and image I wanted to use so I went for screwed up white tissue paper to try and simulate clouds.

Step 3: Add a thin layer of white gesso or paint.



I used white gesso watered down just a little.

Step 4: Add texture pastethrough a stencil
Step 5: Addtwo contrasting colours



I used a Sheena Douglas stencil to add more clouds with the texture paste. And then I'm not sure what came over me but I was obviously feeling there was not enough colour so bam! Out come the Dylusions paints, in this case it was London Blue and Squeezed Orange put through the Stampin' Up! Hearts and Stars mask. At this pointI hadnoideawhat I was doing. My face looked something like this:



Why,oh why did I have to throw down those stars. I though about tearing it up and starting again... But I persevered.

Step 6: Adhere textbook fragments



As the them is a song lyric for the quote I went with music paper. Phew,some of the stars have gone! But I thought a layer of watered down white gesso would calm things down a bit more.



Much better!

Step 7: Stamp image or patterns
Step 8: Add focal image or shape



I have a lot of stamps that haven't even made it out of their packages yet so part of my reason for choosing this song lyric is I knew I had something to create a focal image. I'm not sure which set the swirls are from as the packaging wasn't with them (ebay purchase?!) but they went on with Versafine Onyx Black and Encore Metallic in Gold.

The focal images are from Gorjuss by Santoro London - The Owl and Flying Above it All (I think this one might be discontinued?) coloured using Inktense pencils.

Step 9: Add handwritten song lyric quote



I chose a line from Defying Gravity from Wicked. Love the musical and this song always gves me goosebumps!

Step 10: Add a border of your choice.

The swirly stamps already added a border to this page so I went with a dab of distress ink around the edge. Here is the final design!


I don't feel it's my best page by far but I am proud of it as it was the first page I did on my own without Mike and the fabulous ladies who attend the Art Journal Workshops.

I am looking forward to next month's Mission Inspiration prompt and who knows, I might step back in time and try some of the previous months!

I have entered this page in to the following challenges:
Creative Loops - Star and/or Stripes
Paradise of Stamps - Anything goes
The Sisters of Craft - Anything goes
Country View Challenges - Have fun with circles

Stay crafty,

Katie x