Stampotique Designers Challenge SDC99 Summertime

 The Stampotique Challenge set by Carol was Summer but as I live in Scotland which does not always have bright days I was thinking about the colours of the West Coast of Scotland. Photos are probably the easiest way to show how this came about. The journalling says "As the sun sets the Selkie comes out to lure the unwary to a watery wedding...". Selkies are are a Scottish myth and are sea creatures that are seals in the water and beautiful people on land.  I thought my Stampotique Mermaid added a more sinister twist. I began by creating texture using gesso.

Then using watercolours created the landscape.

I added Titan White and Buff

Stamped texture in the distance using Angel Wings...

Stamped the mermaid, coloured her and placed her on a "rock" cut her out and added her and journalling to the page.

This and that

The photos show the front and back of my current art journal. I set a challenge on UKStampers to take inspiration from a modern (ish) abstract painter and alter something using inspiration from your favourite abstract artists and stamps. I choose Wassily Kandinksy. The front is inspired by a painting called Patch of Puddles. I began by creating shapes with modelling paste, leaving three squares flat for stamping.

I then added dylusion acrylic paints and wiped some off with a baby wipe.

I stamped with three Paper Artsy stamps and sealed with some acrylic gel medium.

The back was inspired by the painting Composition V111.

Once painted I added more paper artsy stamps and then some gel medium

I blotted this with a paper towel to create texture. And now for something different... (well not altered or stamped)

This LO shows our eldest two daughters 20 years ago. It is based on a Sketch given by a group I belong to on UKS called Scrap a Sketch. The embellishments on the bottom of the photo hide distracting elements in the photo.

The journalling tag pulls out and describes the day and some of the Easter traditions we had when the children were much younger.

Freedom ATCs and a journal page

Freedom to write

 The theme on UKStampers for this ATC swap was Freedom. When I thought about what freedom meant to me it was the freedom to express yourself wherever you live in the world.
I began by inking and embossing the four backgrounds with different stamps from TH.

Backgrounds ready and waiting

I then stamped the relevant image for each Freedom onto vintage dictionary pages with suitable words: To write (typewriter from Lost and Found); To be (watch and saying from Craft Stamper); To talk (Dotty's head fromDylusions) and to protest (Text and pointy hand from Paper Artsy).

Freedom to Protest

I added some more distress inks and text for each one and highlighted certain words in red.

Freedom to be

To be ended up with a very thick layer of glossy accents - too much as it almost fell apart.

Freedom to talk

Finally I sprayed some orange chalky glimmer mists and popped them in the post.

The set but the picture is a little blurry and they now in the post...

The journal page followed the prompt to use numbers (from Julie Kirk) and emboss. The page had one of the experimental transfers on it - this one using a transparency. I added distress inks and the journalling.

I have a collection of Lens Guys beer bottle caps to use one day... I filled them with alcohol inks and glossy accents and then squished them in the Big Shot... A minimal page but I thought the image needed space.

SDC49 Purple Pink Black Art Journal Page

Two posts in one day - I have been having fun all day. The latest Stampotique challenge is to use Purple, pink and black. This page is about how I feel discombobulated - this was my eldest son's favourite phrase for many years and it is just how I feel today. (Even if I did miss out two letters on the page. I only noticed this just now and the page is fixed but it is too dark too take a picture of the word fixed.)
I used Stampotique's Oh Dear, Angel Boy and Olivia stamped several times on card and cut up to create new odd images to reflect the feeling. The background began with masks, gesso and pink and purple dylusions paint.

I added the watercoloured stamps

I then doodled a border around the edge. Maybe I should have left it there after my journalling...

 but I added a layer of sprayed black and pink inks and then paint applied with a credit card and some black lines around the stamps.

I am also altering a box for the February challenge on UK Stampers but it is going very slowly - two weeks and counting but here is sneak peek of the box in progress.

Art Journal and more image transfers

This time I followed the fab and easy to use instructions from UKS and created image transfers by layering on 8 layers of gel medium  and then letting it dry and soaking paper off. Intriguing results and more experiments to come. This page began with modeling paste and then layers of acrylic paint in pink, red and yellow and some ill advised adirondack pearl dabber. It was bright and vibrant but I hated the pearl dabber...

Gesso to the rescue. My images come from a book on North West Pacific First Nation Art. I am fascinated by this art and always wanted to learn how to create images like this. The transfers were created by adding about 8 layers of Golden Soft Gel (Semi Gloss) medium in alternating directions. Once dry I soaked the paper and rubbed it off. They were then stuck down with more gel medium.

They are slightly shiny but see through.

I then stamped a number of birds from The Birds on a Wire Dylusion stamp set.

And then began to doodle my journalling. In real life there is not such a contrast in colours between the image transfers and the rest of the page. The journalling is about the fact that I don't get Twitter and can't see the point of it even though I am pretty tech savvy.

The gel medium swirled around so I thought my journalling should too. I then created a border around the pages of 140 black blocks and added a number to each to represent the 140 characters allowed in a tweet. 

Another finished page.

Wall hanging

I am setting a monthly challenge on UKStampers here. The challenge for this month open until 11th of February is to..."Use Metal, Material from old clothes, tissue and stamps to create a wall hanging. As is it January and it's a long time until payday you can't buy anything new - existing stash only."This is what I began with.

I always have a huge amount of jotters to carry to an from school and I had been using an M&S canvas bag featuring twiggy until it developed a huge hole in the bottom. I have used on side of the bag to form the top of my inking apron (more of that another day) and decided to use a piece of this and because it is such an iconic face to to use the Face but the mouth was a victim of the bag breaking. I had recieved an Art From the Heart parcel recently so used the red tissue paper from that to recreate her hair with texture and give her a more modern haircut.

I then decided to paint all over it with gesso as I wanted to change the colour...

As part of my Christmas money spending I had bought the Paper Artsy Grunge flower die and the Hot Pick HPXT02, partly because at some time in the past I had bought some metal and had no idea what to with it. I later discovered I should have brought tape and stuff too but improvised.

I cut out out the flowers and stamped them with purple stazon and then decided I wanted to add alcohol inks but forgot about mixing stazon and inks. The flowers looked great but I removed most of the stamping. This is one of the flowers I made using the silver but in the end decided copper tones would  work better. Daughter wants this as a brooch.

I then took Claudine Helmuths dotty stamp from the domestic set and stamped a blue Dylusion background that I highlighted with black posca pen. I applied pink and purple dylusions to the hair with my fingers and then painted on some very scary eyes. I wanted to change the face and make her something else which she certainly is - a little scary I think. Daughter came in and asked if she could have the hanging for her room as seems to be delighted with it. Here is the bronze flower.

I punched holes and set eyelets with the cropodile and then used some of the idealogy chain I won for entering a Tim Challenge on UKstampers. If you would like to enter the challenge (which is monthly) please pop over to UKStampers, it is just for fun and no prizes but already some of the pieces in the gallery are fab.

It's Finished - 2011 Art Journal

At times I never thought I would finish this. When I agreed to enter the weekly challenge on UKStampers to create an art journal I did not know what I was letting myself in for. I have loved every minute of this process and have learned a great deal in the process but still feel I have a long way to go. I learnt that I favour colours in green and purple area of the colour wheel but also liked a little orange and pink. I used two pieces of cardboard from the back of note pads to create my covers by doing this...

After placing a layer of gesso on the cardboard I used my fingers (and hands) to apply teal and white dylusion paint. Lens Guy came in during this process and commented on the fact I was making a lovely guddly mess. He was quite right and that's what I have enjoyed about this process as I don't think there are any right or wrong ways to journal. I have loved some of my pages and others I have not been so happy with but that is all part of the process.

As green, orange and pink featured in the journal I decided the cover needed to reflect that. I had made the tag earlier this year using Dependable Dotty stamps from Dylusions but did not know what to do with it. Does any one else have that problem. I had some scraps of the glue resist background left and drew and cut out the words art journal. The little bit of orange ribbon links to a journalling tag at the back summing up the process for the year.

I have now bought a journal to journal in as when I started this last year I just used random sheets of paper that were approximately 9 x 7 inches. It was meant to be 6 x 4 but that seemed too small to contain my messy splodges. Having now started journalling in a book it is easier to contain in a book but means  less unusual backgrounds to work on unless you stick them in but I could do that as there are no rules. Did I meet my goals I originally set? Yes apart from the smoking one... I stopped and started twice last year. I have stopped again (only just) but know that I am a bit of a repeat offender especially when stress at work gets to me. I thought I would share some of my favourite pages this year.

Thank you for dropping by and scrolling down through all these photos. I am going to keep on journalling this year, try and do more scrapping, learn to quilt, do more altered art and just have fun...