Journal Journeys Challenge #04

This is my journal page for Journal Journeys Challenge # 04.  Dawn gave us the prompt of  Nature & Autumn.  I chose to just do Autumn but I suppose the leaves constitute the 'nature' part of it ;)

I started on a blank page of my Moleskine Journal.  I didn't gesso it before hand but now think I should have as the back of one of the pages is soooo covered in Glimmer Mist and krylon pen!

Anyhoo I decide to use some leaves out of my garden as 'masks- and spray Glimmer Mists through them.  However I chose a piece of conifer which was far too dense (bit like me for choosing it!) and the mask just turned out like a big un-painted blob. 

So to try and save it I just sprayed Glimmer Mist in every autumnal colour I had all over both pages.  They were looking a complete mess, so I decided just to use the rest of leaves as 'stamps' and basically plonked them in to DI's and used my hand the press them onto the pages.  The veins showed up brilliantly.  So I tried stamping the back of leaf.  It worked just as well and I loved the page as it had sooo much texture.  Of course I forgot to take a photo (again!)

I used the Sir Tim of Holtz Tattered Leaves die to cut leaves from book pages, scrunched them up, opened them out and sprayed them with more Glimmer Mist.  Once I dried them they started to look more like Autumn leaves.  I stuck them randomly around the edges of the pages and wanted to write 'Autumn natures last and lovliest smile' in the centre.  But....I spelled lovliest wrong.  Typical.  (note to self - *always* write any words you want to use out in rought first!)  At first I used a black Sharpie to write, but it didn't show up very well and I'd already corrected my spelling mistake so there were 2 lovliest's.  When I decided to use a gold Krylon Pen and realised I could've changed the spelling mistake without anyone knowing.  So 2 lovliest it is!

I'm really happy with the pages and I'm gonna try and do the background again and take a photo this time ;)

MS Trust Secret Art Show

The Winter MS Trust Secret Art Show is pretty special for me this year. 

The exhibition has over 250 pieces and includes artwork from well-known artists such as Caroline Tate, Richard Long and Patrick Hughes and ME!!!!  Yes I have 3 pieces of artwork in the show.

Each piece of artwork sold in the show is 12cm x 12cm (the size of a CD case) and costs £45. The artwork is in a wide range of styles and media, including oils, watercolours, abstract, landscape and still-life. The artwork is signed on the back, so people only find out who created it when they receive it in the post. The Secret Art Show gallery will be available for people to view from Friday 30 September. The show will then open for sales at 9am on Friday 7 October.

Please, please, please follow one of the links above and have a look at the work.  Its all wonderful and, if you can afford it, please buy one.

See if you can spot mine.  I know that all of my crafty friends out there will definitely be able to spot one of them ;)

Elements of Art Journaling final pages

Well its been a long time coming but I've finally finished The Elements of Art Journaling course.  Not that its been a chore, but I've just not felt like doing any crafting for a while.  It happens every now and then and I say I can't be bothered but its more than that.  It usually means I'm too tired to do anything.  And that's how its been for most of this month.

Anyhoo, here are my final two pages.  The first is the fire page.  For this page Effy told us to art to music.  This is not unusual for me, as anyone who knows me will attest to.  Then she said to just enjoy ourselves and make a 'hot mess'.  Now this is more difficult for me as I'm a perfectionist and messes just don't come easy.  So I started with red Ecoline ink and blew it around the pages.  Good basis for a messy page....or so I thought.

I then painted Stewart Gill paints in cerise on one page and orange on the other.  This is when I realised my mistake.  Ecolines are water based and they just ran and mixed with the paint.  Ah well...lesson learned.  Once I got the pages painted I closed the journal and squished the pages together and it gave a lovely texture.  This is where I stopped and thought about the words associated with fire.  One of them is anger.

I realised I am ANGRY!!! 

I've always said I was frustrated or irritated but now I know that all this time I have been angry.  I'm angry at my MS for what it has and is doing to me and there are other things I am angry about too but this isn't the time or place to go into them.  So I wrote it all down and burned the paper.  And as I watched the pieces of ash float away into the sky I started to feel calmer.  So to symbolise this I charred the edges of pieces of book pages and arranged them into a 'fire' on the pages and drew tendrils of golden smoke coming the from the fire.

The last page is the Spirit Page.  This was all about celebrating which virtues we possess now or would like to possess in the future.  Again, being British, I struggled to admit what I possess.  So my Mam got out the drinks coaster her and my Dad had bought me a few years ago and between us we decided my virtue is inner strength. 

I did a search on line for the Goddess of Inner Strength and it kept coming back to Sekhmet, the Egyptian warrior Goddess but she was also the Goddess of healing.  As I adore Egypt and everything to do with it she seemed to be an appropriate Goddess for me!

I drew a face using instructions I got from Art, Heart and Healing.  Its definitely worth checking as its a FREE course!!!  As I liked the face I'd drawn and didn't know if I'd be able to do another one I photocopied it and used the copy for the journal page. 

I first dropped spots of Golden Pyrolle Red and Hansa Yellow Medium paint on the pages and smooshed them about with a Speedball brayer.  Once they were dry I used the yellow paint on a clear stamp of bubble background and stamped it randomly around.  I then added drops of Golden Titan Buff paint and smooshed that with the brayer.  It ended up looking almost sandy.

I bought some papers a while ago which feature Egyptian images and used the black one with golden sarcophagi all over it, cut into strips, for her hair and a one with pyramids in neutral colours, with a little more Titan Buff over it, for her dress.

To bring both pages together I sponged Golden Iridescent gold paint over the whole thing.

I used a dipping pen to write the wording.  Its the first time I've done this (as you can tell by the big glob of ink on Sekmet's name), and I'm really pleased with the results.

I got the Ankh that I used on her head from a Zuzu, a blog buddy of mine, and coloured it golden with the same gold paint.  If you get a chance stop by her blog Zuzu's Petals Altered Art 'n' Stuff.  Her work is amazing!!

So there you have it.  The Elements of Art Journaling course.  It has been a revelation for me to do this course as it has helped to open my eyes to who I am and to make some decisions I would ordinarily have shied away from.

For anyone who would like to do this course it will be available as a Self Study course on Wild Precious Studios.  You have to join the Studio but it such a welcoming, nurturing and inspirational place to be part of.

Press for Design

My wonderfully talented friend Carrie has taken a huge step and become a Self-Employed Business Woman.  I have unashamedly copied this from Carrie's Blog as she has put it so more eloquently than I ever could.  Pop over to her blog to read the whole post.

'...I have completed all the forms and am all signed up and am ready to trade! I have two different arms to my business, web and print design and my printmaking side. My web and print design service is specifically aimed at sole traders and small businesses, so if you know anyone in that category please do let them know about my Press for Design site As for printmaking I signed up as a Network Member at Allendale Forge Studios today, so my artwork will soon be available to buy there – do visit if you’re in the area, as it is a lovely studio with many different artists and a cafe attached too. My linocuts are for sale in my etsy store, and greetings cards and prints and canvases of my work are available for sale in my RedBubble store.'

Way to go Carrie!!!  I wish you all the luck in the world - you deserve it <3

1000 Sheets Blog Candy

I know two post in one day.  I spoil you!!!

Anyhoo I spotted this on a blog I follow and thought I myself a chance of winning.  there is some amazing blog candy on offer so hop over to A Thousand Sheets of Paper and you too could be in with a chance of winning.

Journal Journeys Challenge #2

After taking codeine to help with my painful legs I went on-line and entered myself in the Journal Journeys Fairies Challenge.  I only knew about it when Dawn e-mailed me.  Thanks Dawn :)

For the challenge I decided to do a gel transfer of an image from a CD I've not used before called Victorian Angels and Fairies by Joanna Sheen.  Its not in circulation now sadly but has some fab images on it.  Dawn had used the gel transfer technique in her journal and it gave me the incentive to use it too.  I'd not used one in my journal before and managed to tear my first attempt.  For the second one I applied a bit thicker layer of gel and worked just fine.  I'm sure there'll be videos on YouTube showing how to do it so I won't bore you here ;)

Because the gel was thick the image turned out a little murky and grungy but I like that.  I then painted the back of the transfer with gesso to make the colours pop a little more.  I didn't want to do a pretty, pretty fairy page.  That's just not me.

I coloured the pages with charcoal grey and 2 colours of yellow Inktense Pencils and activated them with gesso - my fave technique at the moment!  I chose these colours to tie in with the image.

Next I Googled Fairy Poems and found this sweet little poem.  The image shows a lady steeping into a fairy ring and all of the fairies dancing and presumably (can't hear them lol!!!) singing.  I copied the poem into MS Word, changed the font and made it larger.  I then printed it out, coloured them with the same charcoal grey Inktense pencil as the background and activated it with gesso again.  I then cu the words up and stuck them to the page and went over the font with a black extra fine Sharpie pen.

I stamped various fairies from Elusive Images (now Chocolate Baroque) onto white sticky labels and cut them out and placed them on the page.  I have to thank Lesley W for showing me this technique.  I'm not that good at planning what I am gonna do with pages so this is sooo much easier than masking for me and means I can do things like these fairies and colour them in afterwards.  I used one of yellow Inktense pencils for their wings and used water to move the colour around.

So here you have it.  My Fairies Journal Page for the challenge on Journal Journeys.

Please join in even if you've never journaled before.  Its a great way to relieve stress can be done with just a few pencils / paints and an old exercise book.  I'll be back for the next one Dawn!

Elements of Art Journaling continued

Well I've done another 2 pages in the Elements of Art Journaling e-course I'm taking with Effy from Wild Precious Studios.  I am absolutely loving the course and I'm learning so much too!

The first page is for Air Week.  This week we had to practice free-writing around the idea of 'what I know for sure...'.  Free-writing is where you just sit for a certain lenth of time, in this case 15 minutes, and write whatever comes into your head.  Its a great technique if you're wrestling with solution to a problem as it can fall out of the free-writing.  The element of air is all about communication and words.  So of course me being me, I went down a different path from everyone else.  I looked at the other associations with air and discovered that smell and the colour yellow are associated.  As soon as I saw that the page came together easily.

Being a qualified aromatherapist, smell is very important to me and the first thing I thought of was lavender.  I used the free-writing as the background for the page, painted gesso over it and Claudine Hellmuth Yellow Pastel paint over that.  Once it was dry I rubbed Vaseline in parts over the page and painted Titan Buff over that.  Unfortunately I left it too long to rub the paint off the Vaseline and had to scratch some of it off ;)

I painted the lavender using Sheena Douglass' Paint Fusion technique.  For the other side of the page I left a portion in the middle unpainted and coloured it with a yellow Inktense Pencil and activated it with gesso to get a lovely pastel colour that I could write over.  The writing is my attempt at a poem-ish!!

The next week was Water Week which Effy gave us 2 weeks to complete as it is about our emotions and 'sitting with' the way we feel.  She suggested doing some writing about how we feel using water soluble pencils / crayons then painting a compassionate face over it and putting a loving sentiment on the page.  As I am suffering from depression this was going to be a step too far for me as I felt that it may drag me into the abyss I have been trying to get out of.

So I did an alternative page.  I did some 'sitting with it', but just to type out my problems.  Water is about 'daring' and 'dreaming', so this is what I did on my page.  I used lots of blue and green Inktense Pencils and activated them with gesso again to make the background.  I used the same pencils over the words and used water this time to activate them, then put twinkling H2O's over them.  I wanted the whole page to be irridescent. The bubbles are a tiny letter 'o' stamped in Golden Iridescent Gold paint. 

The Sea Horse is from Chocolate Baroque (previously Elusive Images) and I used it because they are very elegant, move so freely and ride the waves when they hit underwater. These are all things I struggle with. If a 'wave' hits me it'll knock me for six and moving freely is completely out of the question!

I am really happy with my page.  At some point I'll do the 'sitting with it' exercise, but not now.