Journaling by 5s

Hello All!

Today I thought I would share with you an absolutely fantastic idea called Journaling by 5s. It was invented by an artist called Shannon Green and I came across it whilst watching journaling videos on you tube.

The idea is that you break down a journaling page into 5 stages and each stage is timed (1 minute per stage per page) It is absolutely brilliant for those of you starting out as it makes the process nice an easy but also encourages you to let go, relax and just enjoy the process. For those who aren't beginners it is great way to get many pages done it very little time. I adore that I can be creative and produce full pages even if I only have a few minutes here and there to spare.

The stages are:

1. Background - paint, ink etc
2. Texture - collage, recycled materials
3. Pattern - stamps, stencils
4. Focal point - words, images
5. Details - pen, pencil, doodling

They are so much fun to do and very addictive. Here are a few I have been doing:

You can do these on loose sheets, old packaging, index cards, in journals or on old leaflets. Whatever you fancy really! And why not try adding extra stages of your own! I hope you all have a go! and please go over and check out Shannon Green on You Tube as well!

Bye for now!

xxx

Experiments

Hello!

Well I realise it's been a while so first let me apologise for that. It has been a busy few weeks! I have been feeling very inspired lately to experiment and play with new things and go back and try my hand again at old things that I haven't done for years!

One reason for this is that recently I applied to go on 'The Big Painting Challenge' on the TV (this is a series that has a different challenge every week and one artist gets knocked out each week) Don't get too excited, it doesn't look like I have got through but by just applying got me experimenting with different types of paintings and with different mediums that I haven't reached for in ages.

Here are a few of the experiments!

This is my cat Biscuit! This was done on watercolour paper with brushos. I use brushos all the time, love them for adding colour to my paintings and mixed media projects but I have never tried to paint an image with them alone. I was really pleased with how this came out!

This one I did in only 10 minutes and with pen and brushos again. I wanted to it to be a bit freer and more expressive. It's simple but effective I think.

This one (again on watercolour paper) is done with brushos, pen and watercolours. I love how this one came out, it is definitely my favorite of the three. I really enjoyed using watercolours, they are not usually my 'go to' paint but this has led me into a bit of a watercolour phase at the mo. I am doing loads of experiments with them. I have never been taught to use them and never had the inclination to try until now. I will keep you posted with my progress!

I have many other projects on the go at the mo, including a new mixed media canvas and an art journaling workshop that I am running this week with a new group, which fingers crossed will lead to lots of workshops in the future! 

I will try and post again this week to show you more recent work. Until then bye for now! xxx

Creative play

Hello All,

Today I thought I would share a process that I sometimes like to do when I am feeling uninspired. Sometimes I go through a lull and my motivation to create just isn't there. This is when I turn to what I call creative play. I delve into my art supplies and just pick some things that catch my eye..not too much or it is easy to get overwhelmed. On this last occasion I chose spray inks, modeling paste and some stencils, glass bead texture gel, iridescent medium, some ecoline watercolour inks, a few stamps and an ink pad, a few old book pages, and four tubes of craft acrylic.

I then prep some A3 plain paper with some gesso and get to work. Using only what I have picked I just let go and do whatever comes to mind. I don't think too much about it, simply just letting myself play with the colours and mediums and see what happens. Here's what came from this process at the weekend:

Sometimes I really like how they turn out and may add to them to create a finished piece. Other times I just stash them or cut them up and use them in other projects. What is important is that it gets the creative juices flowing again and straight away I feel more inspired. It is very therapeutic to just relax and play with the materials and even if I don't like the results I have spent a happy afternoon anyway.

I definitely recommend it if you have lost your motivation!

Bye for now! xxx 

Tile Stamping

Hello All,

This week I was looking at tiles with my hubby and saw that you could buy some sample tiles for 50p. There were some really interesting patterns and textures and I thought they could make really good stamps for art journaling so I bought a couple to try out.

Here is one of them. I tried with ink but the print was quite faint so I had a go with some acrylic and I really liked the result. I think rubbings might be good from these too. I will definitely be looking for some more!  I used this pattern on a page in my altered book art journal and the result was really quite effective. Here is the final spread:

I played around with layering paint and pattern allowing some of the original text from the page to show through. I finished with the circles stamps. I was recently looking at art foamies which are a product in the states that look fab, really big chunky interesting foam shapes and patterns used for stamping. I would so love to buy some but the postage to the UK is really expensive. I decided to try and make my own instead, using a piece of card, some craft foam, scissors and glue. I cut out 24 identical circles from the craft foam and glued 6 onto the piece of card. I then kept gluing the circles on in layers over the top of the previous until I had 6 stacks of 4 circles. Once dry I tried it out with some paint and you can see the result. Simple but effective! I will have to try out some more complicated shapes to see if it works.

I do enjoy experimenting with different art products but making your own and using an everyday object in a different way is really satisfying, it sometimes takes a bit of thinking outside the box but, like buying a bargain, when it comes out right it is even better :)

Bye for now xx

Quick Portrait Technique

Hello All,

Today I wanted to share a quick technique that I like to use when I want to paint a portrait but haven't a lot of time. I quite often want to add a face or figure to my art journaling pages and although I do usually do these from scratch sometimes I haven't a lot of time or might just be feeling lazy. When I feel like this I use magazines to help me out. I find a nice magazine image and stick it down onto my page, paint over this with clear gesso and ta ta I have a template to paint over. (I usually use acrylics to do this)

If you want to start learning how to paint portraits or if you just need that little helping hand to get started this is a great technique. Here is one I did at the weekend:

It is a really effective way of getting a portrait on to your page and I love the results I get. 

I hope you have a go to!

Bye for now xxx

January Art Swap

Hello All,

Last month I took part in the art swap on Jennibelle's art community  The theme this time was to create an art journal page using a technique or medium that was new to you. I was partnered with Jackie from Denmark. I just had confirmation that she has received it so I can now show you what I sent:

I used the glass bead texture through a stencil (I only bought it in January so it is still very new to me.) then added colour over the top with inks and acrylics. Having found out Jackie loved horses I just had to add a horse and the quote seemed to represent the theme well. 

Jackie sent me:

The coloured background has been done with ecoline liquid water colours which I have been pondering about buying. Looking at this I might well do, they are lovely and vivid. The figures are done in gold leaf which I have never used myself so that might be something to look into as well! 

I have signed up for this months swap which is to make a heart from recyled or reclaimed materials.

Bye for now x x 

Lovely Jubley Colour

Hello All,

Having a play with texture and colour this week. I do love colour :)

This is glass bead texture gel with acrylics, brushos and ink. I am enjoying playing which these three mediums at the moment. They create lovely vivid, touchy feeling backgrounds. For me they require very little else to finish them so I am trying to keep the pieces simple and not too busy.

I have also started to experiment in this way on a larger scale, creating an abstract canvas piece. I will post some pictures of my progress this week,

Bye for now! xx

Experiments

Hello All!,

This weekend the family and I went on a shopping trip to Manchester. This was part of my Christmas present from my lovely husband. There is a little dance shop there and since I have been learning to jive he bought me my first proper dance shoes! (can't wait to try them out)
We also found a fantastic art supply shop called Fred aldous. It was huge! I could have spent all day in there, it was heaven! I bought some new brusho colours and some glass bead texture gel, which I have wanted to have a play with for ages.

As soon as we got home I couldn't wait to start experimenting and here is a little of what I created:

For this one I spread the gel out first and let it dry, then added gesso and acrylic paint over the top. I love the texture you get from the beads but you loose some of the shine from them.

Next I tried using the gel through a stencil and leaving it to dry and then adding brusho pigment powders over the top. I like this as you get the colour and the shine.

Finally I added the gel through a stencil on to a pre painted background. The photo doesn't really do this justice, you get fantastic colour, shine and texture with this technique. 

I really like all three and am really happy with the texture gel! It will definitely be making a frequent appearence. I think I will try mixing some colours directly into the gel next and see how that turns out.

Bye for now! xx

Using Paper Towels

Hello All,

The other day I mentioned about making collage papers and patterned paper towels. I thought I would elaborate on the paper towel technique as it is one of my favourites.

This is a page I did in my altered book journal last night using the for-mentioned paper towels. What I tend to do is that whenever I have used a stencil I clean it with a baby wipe on top of a paper towel. It uses the excess paint left on the stencil to create lovely patterns on the paper. Leave them to dry and voilà! lovely for adding to my journals (whilst not wasting a drop of paint!)
When I come to use them I use matt medium to stick the paper towels into my journals, though you could use PVA as well. As soon as you add the medium the paper becomes transparent whilst the pattern remains.

I also stamp on to paper towels and again stick them down using matt medium, which works well too! Both are fab techniques and really easy and effective, so give them a try!

Bye for now! xx