Journal Journeys Challenge 19

Its 'Birds' this month over on Journal Journeys this month so here's my offering.

I started by scribbling Derwent ArtBars (in Spearmint, Honeycomb, Pacific Blue and Allzarin) in blocks all over the page.  I used a paintbrush with water to blend them together.  This is the first time I've used the ArtBars and I *love* them.  They're like water soluble wax crayons (and we all know how much we love wax crayons!!).

Next I tore some pages from a bird book  and stuck them on with gel medium.  Then I put some Claudine Hellmuth Blank Canvas paint on top of them with my finger and scrubbed it off with kitchen towel to blend them in with the page.


I used a Stewart Gill stencil of a Peacock Feather and sponged Landscape Green and Yellow Pastel through it.  After that I really looked at the background and realised that there was pink and blue in there so I sponged Painterly Pink and Sky Blue through small sequin waste and scrubbed some into the background with my finger.


Ages ago Jo and I were in The Works at the Metro Centre and we came across a book in the sale called Fotolog.  Its a book jam packed full of all kinds of photos on everything imaginable.  Well at a fiver who could resist....  I used 4 unusual photos of birds on the page and scratched into them using Stampbord tools.  I used the same colours of ArtBars to scribble round the edge of each photo and then outlined them with black pen.

I googled bird quotes and found the 2 I've used.  I thought because my photos are a bit dark, the quotes needed to be deep.  





I hand wrote them using a black pen, first going over it in black then in pink to accentuate it.  I don't hand write in my finished pages very often but I think this page benefits from it.




I used a Tim Holtz clear flock of birds stamp with Sweet Plum Memento ink randomly on the page.  Memento doesn't dry too well over acrylic paint and gel medium so I used a heat gun to dry it and scrubbed any damp ink into the page with a kitchen towel.

So here is my finished page.

Its something completely different for me but I'm really please with it!

Thanks for organising this Dawn :-)

Hospital and journal pages

I had my treatment last Thursday and saw my nurse.  My treatment wasn’t as smooth as it usually is due to no veins being suitable in my arms and the stupid doc who came down to put the cannula in my foot, wanted me to have a permanent central line put in.  For a once a month treatment.  I ask you!! 


My nurse (Carmel) thinks that the pain in my legs and the tiredness is all down to my new pills, so I’m off tweaking the dosage.  I seem to spend my entire life doing this kind of thing LOL!!! 


My friend Lou, who I met through Graphicus, is a teacher and has asked us on to help her show the kids what a talented bunch we are on the Guild.  She's asked us each to do at least one 8" x 8" journal page with the theme TIME.  Here are my first two:

This 'page' is made from the back of a breakfast cereal packet from Aldi.  The girl was already on the pack, so I sanded the whole surface and gessoed it and used 3 colours of Lumiere paint for the background.  She looked quiet dreamy so I pasted a picture of a pool and an advert for orange juice into the top corner and stamped 'O's' to make it look like she was thinking about the pool.  I sponged through sequin waste and used a baby wipe with white acrylic to bring the page together.

I wanted to make the girl stand out a little more, so I drew round her with a black PITT pen, but made a mess of her mouth, so I stuck a pair of lips from a different picture on to her face and coloured the lips with a Promarker in poppy.  A happy accident but it works!!

The second 'page' is made from corrugated packing cardboard.  I gessoed the surface and while it was damp I tore some of the top off it reveal the ribs.  I used Claudine Hellmuth paint in a Dash of Red and a Dab of Yellow, and a tongue depressor to spread it.  It really accentuated the texture of the cardboard.  I've had the image from a magazine for ages. 

Jo bought me a quote book a couple of Christmas's ago and she found this one which fit the picture perfectly.  I hand wrote it onto a piece of backing paper I got free ages ago, but I can't remember where from so I can't credit them, but thanks anyway. 

I was amazed that my writing was so good yesterday.  Couldn't do it today as I'm absolutely exhausted after mine and Jo's crafting session yesterday.

Another workshop and another bout of sheer exhaustion!!

Saturday saw Jo and I attending another workshop, this time run by Lynn Robinson-Hunter and called 'Canvas Creations'.  All we knew was that it was on canvas (suppose the name gave it away LOL!) and that we were gonna be working in a neutral palette, a first for both me and Jo.  We're the ones that are practically guaranteed to have the brightest colours of any workshop which are usually purple and green for Jo and orange for me!!

I drove on Saturday as I felt fine.  We met the other two participants, Joan and Karen.  Joan's daughter Rachel was ill and lying down in the car outside.  Bless her she finally made it into the workshop for about the last hour or so, but she got so much done!!

There were 8" x 8" deep frame canvasses waiting for us on the table with some dictionary paper and a Tim Holtz Ornate Plate. Lynn then began to tell us of the colours we could use which she had totally restricted to the neutral palette and that we had to try and build texture on the frame.

I began by using one of the Tattered Angels Masks on the top left hand corner of the canvas and pushed Golden Fibre Paste through it with my finger - YUK!!!!  I hate having anything gooey on my fingers.  Lynn had gone in search of palette knives, but I just thought 'be brave' and off I went in with my finger.  I was still picking bits out of my nails on Sunday even though I'd washed my hands thoroughly!!!

I then used scrunched up dress making pattern tissue paper crumpled into watered done PVA glue and arranged it in the top right corner of the canvas.

While we waited it for these to dry Lynn showed us how to make flowers from fabric by twisting round.  I had quite a bit of difficulty with this as I couldn't manage to hold the flower as well as twist the fabric at the same time, so Lynn made mine for me.  That's how its so perfect!!

By this time the fibre paste and tissue paper had dried.  For anyone who knows Graphicus you'll know how hot it was in there!!  Lynn asked us all to hand draw a flower (EEEEK!!) onto the canvas and begin sticking paper on as well.  I stuck pieces of torn music as well as a gorgeous piece of hand made paper Lynn gave us onto the canvas with Golden Matte Gel Medium, being careful to leave my 'flower' undisturbed.

Once we'd done that we had our lunch and browsed the shop and bought some 'necessary' bits and pieces with the 10% off for attending the workshop, but who needs an excuse?!

Then we started to paint.  This was difficult for me because although all the colours went together I had a problem choosing which to use!  I started with a Ranger crackle paint which dried almost immediately.  Then I moved onto Ranger Paint Dabbers in various shades and a Ferro paint in Old Brass.  I paint my 'flower' in using paint from a Paint Dabber in copper squeezed on my mat and watered down slightly then drew round it with a black Sharpie pen.

Once I'd finished painting, I used melted wax to dribble down the canvas at strategic points.  In other words, I slapped it on and it went where it wanted!!

 

This photo shows the wax over the fibre paste and you can see the texture peeking through.  I had (for some unknown reason) decided to trace round the curls in the texture with black.  Putting the wax over it toned it down - thank goodness!!

Once all of this was dry / cooled I applied gold leaf in certain areas just to highlight.  Lynn had to stop me before I went gold leaf mad!!

Earlier we had each done a canvas transfer using Claudine Hellmuth Sticky Back Canvas from images Lynn provided.  I chose the Mona Lisa.  The idea was to put the ornate plate over the part of the image we wanted and place it on the canvas.  I chose her face (obviously!) and Lynn triple embossed the image with the frame in place for me.  You can see the texture of the dress pattern on this photo too.

Once we had the canvas the way we wanted them, Lynn showed us how to cut scallops from the dictionary paper.  One quarter of a piece of dictionary paper was enough to fill one side of the canvas and the depth was right once we'd cut the scallops.  We adhered them using Golden Gel Medium again and once dry we drew round them with a black Sharpie pen like we had with the flower. Then Lynn gave each of us 2 ornate head nails to bang into the sides of the canvas and a piece of wire to hang it with.  I had to get Lynn to do this for me as there was no chance of me bending the wire properly, and me with a hammer ..... NO!!!

Once all of this was done, Lynn gave us each a selection of ribbons to tie to the wire.  I had decided to add another embellishment to the canvas when I got home and was 'with it' again.  I'd told Lynn it would be one of the Tim Holtz Word Keys.  On Tuesday when I felt OK, I tried one of the keys and it just didn't work.  So I made wax seals with silver sealing wax spelling out the word ART and touched them with gold rubbing wax.  That was what I needed to finish it off and it is now sitting waiting to be hung.

And here is the finished canvas.  I love it even though I was completely exhausted after doing it and have only just recovered now!