Messy Textured Journal page

This page is for Lens Guy who puts up with a lot and as I don't do Valentine's this is it and he really is "For Keeps and Forever". It is my entry into the Stampotique Challenge SDC86 Red, Pink and White and the Simon Says Have a Heart Challenge. I am fascinated by creating texture on my art journal pages at the minute so I began with some texture paste through chipboard waste and by splodging a heart shape on the facing page with my finger.

 I then pressed a sheet of corrugated card on top to create ridges (and impatiently waited for it to dry and getting fed up I sprayed some Dylusions inks onto the damp paste). There was also some alphabet stencils under the heart in gesso from a previous use up of waste paint.

As I had been sewing I decided to sew a border onto the page as well. I stuck masking tape down the centre, a tip I picked up from Donna Downey as many of my previous pages have ink incursions from later pages and this helps contain seepage between pages and is hidden once the page is finished.

I then used 3 dylusion heart stamps on the page facing the big heart and as a border round both pages which I highlighted with more watercolour paint in red and pink, ink and white acrylic paint. I then stamped Oh My Deer and Eric (from Stampotique) 3 times onto white tissue paper and glued them onto the page. For two of the images I went in with red and pink watercolours and blended them into the page and the third one I left the stamped images uncoloured and ghost like.

Close up showing stitching, doodles and traces of the alphabet stencil.

Lots of hearts and texture.

Thank you for dropping by.

SDC52: Oodles of Doodles

I created this tag for the Stampotique Challenge here, set by Kaz Boughton that asked for oodles of doodles. I have been experimenting with creating a wood distress finish for another finish and on this tage used layers of distress stains and titan buff acrylic paint for the background. I stamped Smushasha onto the tag and then coloured her with watercolour promarkers. I doodled the title "Sometimes life's a beach" with gel pens and posca white and then doodled the seaweed over the stamped image.

I then added some of my large collection of sea glass and beach finds and some seam binding. To hang the tag I threaded ribbon through a holey shell.

My imac is having memory problems at the moment as I have too much stuff on it and even though Lens Guy set up a hard drive for me I haven't quite got round to moving stuff onto it. There is always something more interesting to do...

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.

A Productive Crop - Scrapping, journalling and laughing

I was at the monthly EK Craft and Crop yesterday and had a wonderful time, I even managed to create 2 and a half scrapbook LOs and a journal page and managed to gossip (I mean exchange fun information) with some lovely ladies. The hardest thing was not eating any biscuits or cakes as I am trying to avoid putting on any weight with my latest attempt at giving up smoking...19 days and counting.
I had taken last year's art journal and my newest one as Suzy is interested in trying out art journalling. It turns out a whole lot of people are interested in this. As I inked and splodged all over my layouts there were various comments about the mess I got into to, created and how it was not for them. Over on UK Stampers we have been discussing how there are no rules in journalling and if you want to be messy you are, if you want to be neat and graphic (see the fabulous graphic pages by Ephemera) you can be. The subject of what you journal is also fascinating and again we agreed you either do or don't. This is a bit of a ramble here but I am going somewhere with this. My biggest problem with scrapping has always been there seems to be rules and I always felt I was getting it wrong somehow. Yesterday I had this moment of insight (or madness) and agreed with Suzy that we don't need rules and why should it always have a title or journalling? I then happily created 2 and half pages that are heavily influenced by my art journalling adventures. I also bought some beautiful seam binding from Angela of Angel Crafts who brings her shop to the crop and some prima resist canvas (and nothing else if you are reading this Lens Guy...)
A little about the LOs. The first one shows our middle daughter aged about 8 (we never dated our old photos...) and my dad. I cut out out the blue cardstock using a borrowed stencil and then added some TH Kraft resist in the middle which I swiped with dylusion ink using a baby wipe. The title was also swiped with ink and the letters were a Prima Lush set.

This was layered onto a gutted piece of Kraft card. I stamped compass, binoculars and text from a Royal Langnickel set, added distress inks and then journalled. I used two beautiful colours of seam binding to provide a frame and a piece of the canvas resist.

The next layout shows our youngest daughter aged 3 or 4 following my brother-in-laws pet sheep back up to their house. I used a lost and found page and spritzed it with dylusions and distress inks. 

A piece of 7 Gypsies card as a photo mount and then used seam binding to create a flower and ribbon strips. I also added a lovely piece of lace. The title was Tiny Alphas from Prima.

Finally and sorry it's such a long post... the journal page began with Claudine Hellmuth foam dot stamps and then I added Studio 490 Steampunk stamps and Lady Audrey from Octopode. There was a lot of ink and acrylic paint here too. The journalling sprung from the conversations we were having yesterday about how art journalling is scary and messy.

 The little feet shape marks beside the boot were from a decorative easter chicken Betty was making tags with but she took the feet off and Anne suggested I should use it so I stamped them on.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I always appreciate the comments people leave, although Blogger is back to being a little huffy at the moment.

Tim's Tags - 1

 Here is my attempt at the first tag. It is very different as I am just using what I have (as per Tim's instructions) which includes a sizzix embossing folder, distress inks, flowers from prima, brads, distressed ink lacy ribbon. I punched some small holly leaves using a tonic punch and added them with some tiny bling around my lovely stampotique snow lady's head and on the page.

I liberally coated her in distress stickles for a glittery look. The glitter (not sticking very well to the letters) is Martha Stewart.

I don't have the banner (or any of the other dies) so I just tore a piece of craft resist and cut the banner edges and used picket fence and broken china distress. The fir type leaves are just a piece of card which I cut into a fringe. The pearl brads and red bling were in my box.

 I like the effect. Note I embossed the wrong side of the folder and used lots of picket fence distress stain but decided I preferred the look of that side of the tag.. The falala was the closest Christmas greeting I had (sizzix die). I just enjoyed the process and thinking about how to create something inspired by the tag.

Journal pages

I had a burst of creativity on Sunday in response to the stress of the inspection and managed 3 journal pages. The first one was about  the first film I remember seeing and how it was my Dad's favourite film. After stamping a background with various stamps I doodled the vines and roughly coloured them with pro markers. My next page was about coincidence and after applying TH inks and distress stains in Worn Lipstick and Wild Honey I used Dylusions pomegranate ink to spray through a stencil and reverse print the stencil.

 I then stamped TH butterflies and bird ready for my journalling. I had a lot to say this time and needed to leave enough space for the journalling.

 The journalling is about a man we met in Canada who had previously bought a picture from Lens Guy to take to a relative in Vancouver. We met him in a gift shop as we were wasting time as our ferry to Vancouver Island was delayed.

Last page is all about inspiration which I get from Dyan Reaveley, Tim Holtz, Wendy Vechii, nature and all the wonderful blogs and forums that I follow, visit and drop by.

I stamped TH swirl with worn lipstick and then embossed with Ultra thick powder, swiped with worn lipstick and milled lavender. I used the fab stamps from Dependable Dotty and Lovestruck Lucy and journalled around the images. 

AWOL but here's a rare scrapping layout

I have been AWOL as the inspectors are coming to school and under pressure at work to have everything  perfect and could you just write up that and this and... Just finished a 70 hour week this week - not something I want to do again. As our leader said when trying to inspire us..."They'll find what they find." Very profound and this was followed by, "It will be over by Christmas!" Stopping at that point would have been fine but our leader then asked the history teacher if that was the correct phrase for the WW1. With a passion rarely heard the reply was, "And they were wrong and it was followed by 4 years of attrition, destruction and the troops were decimated." To be quite honest I would rather they just turned up without notice as my teaching would be the same, my classroom would just be a little messy and my filing a little behind.
Anyway back to scrapping. I took last Saturday off and spent the day with the fab crew at EK Craft and Crop - lots of chat, laughter and some creating. I even managed some Christmas cards too.

 I borrowed the TH Tattered Floral die at the crop to make the layered flowers, chipboard butterflies   from Tando were inked and the floral paper had been in my stash forever and just had been to be torn to make it less pretty. I also used an acetate overlay I have had for years. The photo is of our middle daughter the weekend our youngest daughter was born. Their aunt had spent hours entertaining the four of them with face painting etc so they did not feel jealous of their little sister - but that has never been a problem. Middle daughter loves bugs, birds and the outside so the butterflies and robin seemed appropriate. The flowers and everything else have liberal applications of ink and doodles.

The journalling is on a tag tucked into the semi circle. I can see that art journalling does influence my scrapping layouts as I had no fear doodling a border around the photo and the letters and a few more flowers. The metal butterfly used to be on one of the girls shoes and I rescued it when the shoes were being thrown out.

Art Journal Pages

As you can I have used some of my new purchases. The first page was asking whether or not we are spiritual and I am not, I am much more of a free spirit summed up by the quote from Nietzche: One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star. I swiped on marmalade distress stain and then added Adironack Espresso randomly. I stamped the Dina Wakely Grungy Silhoutte onto the still wet ink so it blended into the page and then scribbled with a sharpie pen. I used my white pen to write the quote and stamped with paint and ink using the free Jo Capper Sandon  stamp from craft stamper.

 I'm not sporty but I do enjoy water sports and used to sail, windsurf and water ski. Now I am content to kayak around beaches watching seals and surfing waves. The second page is a succession of layers or ink, paint, ink and more ink and paint.

 Once I had built up layers and used gesso to make shapes in the pattern I drew round some chipboard starfish and then sprayed through the waste sheet.

I stamped Smushsasha from Stampotique on the page and then on card and coloured her with aqua pro markers, cutting her out was tricky but it allowed me to place her hands round the distressed surfboard and keep some definition. I also stamped circles with the distress stains in peeled paint and broken china.

I used a glue lid to stamp white and black circles of paint and a card to add white paint lines - some of which I smudged. The title was done in aqua promarkers and sprayed with water to make it run. Finally I added the wavy journalling and a few more stamped circles over it.

Stampotique 36 - Altering A Book

Wow this is my 250 th post. In celebration I will be giving away a book similar to the one I altered for this challenge. I will pick a random comment from this post next Sunday 21 August. Sorry there are a lot of photos in this post.
Valerie at Stampotique challenged us to alter a book. I had such fun with this one and ended up altering three pages in my book. The book was given to by my eldest son as he worked for the publisher when he was in Paris. I was going to give it to a niece or nephew but something told me I would want to play with it.
The book began life as this:

It has lots of different sized pages like the screen that  is a separate page

This made me think of changing rooms which are not places I like going into to.

I applied gesso to all the pages as they are quite thin and for that reason I used a mix of dylusion paints, inks, glimmer mists and water colour pro makers.

I tried adding some texture with the gesso

Inked, painted and coloured some of the existing elements on the page

Lots of ink dripping on this page

I stamped Stampotique's Olivia on card three times and then added her head and three sets of legs to the dress, I stamped dylusions Ruby Rainbow legs and Love Struck Lucy onto card and added them. I wrote the journalling on the paper that I had used to protect my pages and stuck it down. "Does my body look okay in this?" and "Why am I the wrong shape?"

I outlined the original girl and changed her clothing a little. On separate pieces of cards I stamped Stampotique's Angel Boy and Oh Dear on card and added the wings and Oh Dear the page,  then Ruby Rainbow in three layers. I also used my new stamps from Shady Tree Studios for borders and words. "Embrace your curves, bumps, lumps and imperfections!"

I used more border stamps from Shady trees and the number stamp from Paper Artsy. I drew a danger sign on card and added it to the page.

I hope you all embrace  your bodies - or maybe you are that rare breed and actually love your shape.

The book I'm giving away is Colour Your Way Round Russia. I will post more pictures in another posting to avoid too many pics.