A Wintry Introduction to Art Journalling

Posted: March 1, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Art Journal, Classes | Tags: , | 3 Comments

My Art Journal Adventure workshops kicked off last Saturday with this wintry page. As I mentioned yesterday I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was great to be in the room as the creating happened. I know not all my readers live near me but if you are in Ottawa and would like to do some art journalling there are still a few places in the next two Wintry Introduction sessions (March 4 & March 12). Hope you are not too tired of seeing all things winter but at least I have titled the above pages ‘winter’s end’!

This is another take on the wintry theme. If you haven’t tried art journalling before you will not be alone. Click over to the Crop A While website to learn more or register. If you drop into Crop A While one of my journals is there to give you an idea of what we’ll be doing this week and in future episodes of the Art Journal Adventure.

Tomorrow we will return to regular programming…

Gel printing & a new crafty crush

Posted: February 28, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Ciao Bella, Darkroom Door, gel press, patchwork, Penny Black, tall flowers | Tags: , , , , | 5 Comments

I had a couple of opportunities to gel print last week and it was, as always, most enjoyable. The prints did not all work out but I have a couple that made me very happy.

Now would be the time to tell you I have a new crafty crush! Not a crafter, a craft company. I have fallen for the beautiful stamps, stencils and papers from Ciao Bella. The stencil I used to create today’s prints is called ‘patchwork’. I bought it because it features eleven different patterns that will be good for adding texture to art journal pages. I had no idea how beautiful it would look when I printed it as a whole! (Both Crop A While and Ecstasy Crafts carry Ciao Bella products; if you shop from Ecstasy make sure you use my link to get there and the discount code heathertecs10 for a 10% discount at checkout.)

I brayered some blues and browns on my gel plate then placed the stencil over the top followed by a piece of paper so I could remove some of the paint. When the first layer was dry I brayered a layer of white over the top and pulled the print. This is only a small section of the stencil but it was the best part of the print. I used adhesive sheets to attach it to the card base then added three Penny Black ‘tall flowers’ die cuts.

I used browns and black for the base of this print then light browns and white for the second layer before pulling the print. (yes I will do a video sometime soon)

The sentiment is from the Darkroom Door ‘long distance’ sentiment stamp.

I have no immediate use for many of the prints but they will go in my collage collection for now because they might come in handy for art journalling.

I taught the first Art Journal Adventure workshop on Saturday and enjoyed it so much. The workshop was held at Crop A While; there are spaces in the Friday workshop this week, March 4, and the Saturday March 12 workshop.

Supplies

Doodle on Kraft

Posted: February 23, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Art Journal, Hand drawn | Tags: , , | 6 Comments

As you know I’ve been enjoying the 6″x 6″ white Dina Wakley journal; I have two on the go now full of experiments and ideas for my upcoming Art Journal Adventure workshop. Ranger has also made a kraft journal the same size so yes, I had to try it.

As you can see in these photos working on a kraft background tones down the colours used on top. I could paint the pages white before starting but I am interested in experimenting with kraft backgrounds for now. I also bought a few distress oxide sprays the other day. I love the traditional distress sprays but hadn’t tried the oxide sprays before. They are a good match for the kraft journal as a little ink soaks in while plenty of pigment sits on the surface.

I used prize ribbon and worn lipstick sprays on this page then doodled with a black gel pen. For inspiration I looked at zentangle pages I’d saved on pinterest and instagram and adapted them to spread across the pages. I also found pink and blue metallic gel pens from years ago and did some colouring in. I used a white gel pen to highlight parts of my design.

As I worked I wanted to make everything brighter to compensate for the brown background but that is an experiment for another page. If I had started my doodling in white the overall effect would be brighter but I like the opacity of the black.

I found the quote in a book I am currently reading and it seemed to fit my meandering pattern.

The art journal workshops that were originally planned for January have been rescheduled in late February and early March. You can find out more on my classes page or on the Crop A While website where you can register for either the March 4th or 12th workshop.

Supplies

AI Brussel Sprouts video

Posted: February 18, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Alcohol Ink, Concord & 9th, grafix, simple serif alphabet dies, Tutorial | Tags: , , , , , , | 9 Comments

If you are a little baffled by the title of this post don’t worry no brussel sprouts were harmed or eaten or even incorporated into the making of this video! But would you agree that the little patterns formed inside the circles on the panel look a bit like brussel sprouts?

You will see in the video I didn’t set out to make a brussel sprout pattern; I actually changed track part way through the process. The video shows the technique I started with along with stencil technique I ended up doing. So it’s basically a 2 for 1 deal.

There are several ways to use a stencil with alcohol inks and this is just one. Make sure you check out Ardyth’s youtube channel for more ideas. I mentioned in the video that some alcohol inks tend to be a bit pushy and end up taking over a colour scheme. The lime green did so on this card but I’m glad there are some blues tones still visible at the base of the card.

I finished the card with die-cut letters and a single word from Paper Rose Studio’s So Extra sentiment strips.

You can see other cards made using this technique here and here.

Supplies

Trilling Duo

Posted: February 16, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Brusho, Penny Black, trilling trio | Tags: , | 7 Comments

A couple of weeks back I created a card with the cardinal stamp from the PB set ‘trilling trio‘ and promised to be back with the other birds before too long. The set is called trilling trio because there are three bird stamps. I have paired up the other two for this panel and used brusho watercolour powder to add colour to the images. I love brusho powders but have not had them out much lately.

To stamp these two sweet birds I used neutral inks, water and the powders. I worked in a stamp positioner so I could stamp multiple times adding a little this or that each time. I used antique linen and hickory smoke inks for the first impression. Antique linen is pale and hickory smoke is grey so I put them where I wanted the light and dark areas to be but neither colour was so strong it couldn’t be diluted. The second time I stamped I spritzed the stamp with water so it was transferring ink and water. While the image was still wet I sprinkled some brusho very sparingly. If you haven’t used black brusho before you should; it is the absolute bomb because it is made up of other colours. The cute bird on the right is sprinkled with black brusho which resulted in spots of black, red, blue and grey. I also sprinkled some brown brusho.

On the left hand bird I used some black brusho as well as some sandstone on the lower front feathers. I blended the stamping a little with a paint brush but not much as I wanted to see the magic speckles where the brusho lands and dilutes. I drew and painted the little branch with watercolour pencils and some black soot ink then added the ‘thank you’ from PB ‘ever thanks’ set. I just realised as I stare at the bird on the left that it appears to have three legs! That’s a twig on the far left just in case you were wondering!!

Supplies

Crumple & Colour journal page

Posted: February 14, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Art Journal, gel press, Hand drawn | Tags: , , | 6 Comments

While creating art journal pages lately I’ve noticed that they often look a bit rubbishy until the end or just before the end! It’s a good thing to keep in mind throughout the process, especially as the process sometimes stretches over a few days.

I started this page while I was at Crop A While and a friend looked over at me and said, “Heather is having fun playing with toilet paper!” For the record I was having fun with tissue paper not toilet paper! Working in the 6″x 6″ Dina Wakley journal I glued crumpled tissue paper over the whole spread with gel medium, scrunching it as I went to make folds and texture over the pages. (it didn’t look at all special at this point)

Later I used my Dr Ph Martin’s hydrus watercolours to drop blue, yellow and red ink over the pages. I worked one ink at a time tilting and diluting the ink so it would spread over and around the crumpled paper. (still underwhelming)

I let the watercolours dry and left the page for several days. The colours were bright and there were some nice blends and patterns but too bright for me so I painted over the spread with white gesso. My aim was not to totally cover the watercolours but to soften their impact and highlight the texture of the paper. I used my fingers to move the paint and a baby wipe to remove it where it was too thick. (looking better but still messy)

Settling on a focal point for an art journal page is sometimes hard; I don’t always begin with one in mind. You won’t be too surprised to see I chose flowers. I have a box of gel printed panels, some on rice paper and some on light card or computer paper. I found several prints on rice paper that matched the colours on the page and doodled flowers and leaves on them with a permanent black marker. I cut them out and started arranging them on the pages. (it was beginning to show promise)

After quite a few rearrangements I glued down the flowers and leaves making sure I didn’t cover up all the yummy colour and texture but also didn’t cover up the important white space. (it was finally looking ok) With the elements in place I continued to doodle more foliage on the pages including a border around the whole spread. I scribbled some thoughts around the flowers then splattered gold paint over the finished pages.

I am very happy with the final result but had no idea it would end up like this. At one point during the process I thought, “hmmm, I don’t think I’ll do this technique again…”

But I will.

Supplies

Winter Sky

Posted: February 11, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: panoramic, Penny Black, Picturesque (trees) | Tags: , | 4 Comments

I’m teaming up with the Foiled Fox today to bring you this wintery sunset sky. Make sure you pop over to the Foiled Fox blog and online store to see what they have been creating lately. This slightly unrealistic scene features stamps from Penny Black. The telegraph pole and little plant on the right are from the ‘panoramic‘ set, the plant on the left is from the ‘picturesque‘ set and the sentiment is from the ‘ever thanks‘ set.

I worked on a piece of hot pressed watercolour paper but you could do this design on normal white cardstock by leaving out one step. I splattered masking fluid over the panel then when it was dried swiped it through some kitsch flamingo and faded jeans ink. The swipe gave me a pale blue, pink and purple background. I stamped the telegraph pole first with jet black archival ink then decided to mask a snow bank at the base of the panel. Even though the panel was already coloured I blended more colour above the mask to make the sky darker than the foreground snow. While the mask was in place I stamped all the plants along the edge.

I used blending brushes to add the colour using the original two inks plus chipped sapphire and tore more masks to create clouds/snowbanks to fill the top of the panel. I hadn’t set out include all that masked blending but it looked so pretty I just kept blending! So if you wanted to work on normal cardstock and do all the colour with blending brushes you would just omit the ‘swipe through the ink’ step. Hope the sky is looking pretty where you are; I have seen some beautiful skies lately, both morning and night.

Supplies

Far North Village

Posted: February 9, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Penny Black, picturesque, snowy village | Tags: , | 18 Comments

It is a little while since I stamped and watercoloured a card. It’s been all alcohol-inky and art-journally around here lately. Yesterday I stamped, painted and blended three cards with PB stamps which was a nice way to spend the day.

I had two pieces of inspiration for this scene. One is a youtube channel I have been enjoying for a year or so about life in Longyearbyen, the world’s most northern town situated on Svalbard, an island between Norway and the north pole. The other inspiration was a watercolour painting I saw on instagram by Evgenia Gorbacheva. My scene is different from both inspiration pieces as I featured the PB stamps, ‘picturesque’ and ‘snowy village’.

My panel of cold pressed watercolour paper already had masking fluid splattered over it so that is why there are random white ‘snowflakes’. I worked out roughly where the mountains would go then stamped the village below in soft sky ink. The first impression included the church spire but I left it un-inked for the second print so the building would look different. After stamping I sketched the snowbanks and coast line in pencil then painted over the church spire with liquid frisket (masking fluid).

I stamped the mountain stamp in chipped sapphire (also known as absolute favourite blue ink) taking care to leave a bit of the stamp un-inked so there would be an open white area of snow. I blended some of the stamped ink, adding black here and there but kept some untouched to look crisp.

I painted all the buildings with distress inks smooshed on my glass mat (iced spruce, hickory smoke, rustic wilderness and candied apple). While they dried I painted the water and the snowbanks around the village. After that all dried I painted the sky with chipped sapphire then returned to the buildings to add grey shadows on and around the snow covered rooftops. I added the windows and doors with a grey marker and extra definition to the shore line with a black marker.

Not sure if I will send this one anywhere; I’ve grown a little attached to it!

Supplies

2022 BuJo – February theme

Posted: February 8, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Bullet Journal, Dingbat notebooks, Hand lettered, Penny Black, Soft Grace, Spread Cheer | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

I am a week late with my February BuJo set up; we are already 25% of the way through the month! I went with the snowflake theme as we have plenty of snow now and I assume more to come. It is a pretty simple layout on account of the need to get it done so I could record and plan in the journal rather than on scraps of paper!

I lay a piece of post-it tape across the page then used brushes to blend memento inks above the tape. I used three blue inks (listed below) and used the same inks to stamp snowflakes to decorate the top half of the page. I’ve found post-it tape to be very safe on these pages. Washi tape and painter’s tape (delicate) have both taken some surface off if I have not been careful. I wrote ‘February’ with the Bahama Blue memento marker but haven’t linked it as I am not sure where to get them these days. I was delighted to find mine still worked and had plenty of ink in it.

I ruled up the calendar grid as I often do then used strips of post-it tape to mask as I blended ink around the edges. Once again I stamped snowflakes from Penny Black sets to decorate the spread. As we are already a week into the month I added the to do list to the calendar page. The important thing at this stage is to do the ‘to-dos’ not to decorate them!

If you are in the middle of winter right now what are you up to? Are you hunkered down inside or braving the outdoors? I am definitely doing both; we have enjoyed several cross country skis and a few walks but I have also been busy with journal projects, sorting and organizing supplies and planning future classes and lessons.

Supplies

Trees over Gel Print

Posted: February 2, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: Darkroom Door, gel press, majestic mountains | Tags: , , | 7 Comments

Sometimes a background scrap can make a whole card. If you have done gel printing you probably know how beautiful the leftover edges can be. As you make print after print, excess paint layers up on the edges of the gel plate. I like to ‘collect’ those edges at the end of a gel printing session by brayering white paint over the top then lifting the whole section onto a last print.

The horizontal lines of blue and green you see here are from cleaning up edges. I thought they looked like the edge of a lake or river so I stamped trees over the top. Even the blue and white paint in the background looks a little like clouds and mountains.

I used tree stamps from Darkroom Door’s ‘Majestic Mountains’ set and Catherine Pooler inks to add to what was already a landscape. I had my gel plate out again yesterday after quite a break and once again saved some textural edges .

Supplies

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