In my Imagination

Hello everyone! I can’t believe that we’re at the end of January already. Where does the time go??????????

Today I’m playing in my A5 loose page art journal. This is the first journal I ever made, and the reason its loose leaf is because I can add pages whenever I want.  In other words if the page is a mess it can disappear into obscurity into the wastepaper basket.  Well, that was my thought process a long time ago.  Every now and then I get it out look through the pages and add another one.

Back to today’s page.  Firstly I must apologise for the quality of the images.  The turquoise is really a beautiful shade of turquoise and the lime green is bright.  For some reason the turquoise looks blue ad the lime green looks yellowy.  I think it could be the overcast day??????????

The inspiration is definitely the image.  As soon as I saw it I knew I had to make a page with it.  I took the easy way out and printed the image directly onto my loose A4 page.  My intention here was to use Gelatos so I gesso’d the whole page except for the image. BIG mistake. Water colour does not like gesso!

Add a few torn strips of tissue page and glue down with Gel Medium.

Use a text stamp to stamp text here and there using black Archival ink pad.

Use a little white Gesso to the page to knock back the tissue paper and stamped text a little.

For some reason I changed my mind about the Gelatos and used my water colour palette instead. 

Spray quite a lot of water onto the palette and pick up the colour using a waterbrush and fill in all areas.

Use a stencil and white texture paste to apply a little texture to the page.

Colour her lips with a coloured pencil.

Add sentiments. Mine are: "in my IMAGINATION " [Tim Holtz rub ons and words.  I added two more sentiments. "Truth be told" and "creativity takes courage".

In the end I went back and used Gelatos in lime green and turquoise on several places.

Last but not least, I went over the edges of the page with a broken china distress ink pad.

Supplies:

Image

Mixed media paper A4
Black Archival Ink
Text stamp
Stamped Tissue paper
Broken China distress ink pad
Water brush
Stencil
Texture paste
Gelatos: lime green and turquoise
Daler Rowney Water Colour paints in lime green and turquoise [I mixed yellow and green for the lime green]

Purple Rain

 

Hello! I hope you all had a wonderful break over the holidays.  Holidays for some but not for all I’m sad to say. I’m so glad to be back on the blog.

Today’s play is in my 6 x 6” midori type handmade journal.  What I really like about this journal is that the signatures are made up using different types of paper. Some of the signatures are already stitched but not all.  In this case I used a double page of water colour paper that wasn’t stitched yet only because I wanted a double page spread and couldn't find an unused one.  I’m also a bit of a messy crafter and didn’t want to spoil the other papers in the signature.  When the signature is filled I will stitch it and add to my journal. In the meantime it lives in my journal but remains unstitched.

 

There are many ways one can work with Brushos. They are such a versatile product. Here's how I created this spread.

 

 

Spray an acrylic block with water. Shake Brushos then sprinkle over the acrylic block adding colour where you want it. Just like adding salt or pepper. Remember a little goes a long way. Be patient and watch the colour spread.  I don’t have purple Brusho’s for some reason so used Pop Rock purple magicals instead.  You can add more water or more Brushos if you need to.  Spray the water colour paper lightly and lay it down onto the acrylic block. Apply a little pressure to the paper then lift off the bock. Repeat for the second half. If you’ve got a really big acrylic block you can do the whole background at once, I did the two pages separately. There's no way of knowing or even replicating how the crystals fall so the result will always be a surprise, even if you have an idea of how you want it to come out.

You can dry with a heat gun if you’re impatient, but I left mine to dry naturally. I added a little more sea green to  the page but this time I gave it a light spritz with a fine mister then sprinkled a little of the powder over the area and waited for the magic to happen. I love the little bursts of colour here and there.

 

For the next layer, add a little water to a small mister. I’ve got this really amazing straw with a little scoop at the end.  I used this to add a little Pop Rock purple magicals to the mister. Lay a stencil over the paper and spray a little colour. Lift the stencil and use it like a stamp on another part of the stencil. Leave it to dry.  It adds a little more interest to the piece.

 

Apply Wilted Violet Distress ink to the rain stamp {this is the only purple ink I’ve got} and stamp the rain across the top of the page. You can see that I’ve varied where I placed the stamp. Stamp the puddles and the girl with black Archival Ink. 

Water down a little white paint and splatter here and there being careful to avoid rain girl. I got a little white paint splattered on her and used my black Pitt Artist Pen to cover it up when it was dry.

The words come from the song Purple Rain by Prince. I used a White paint pen to write them but they didn’t show very well so I outlined with a fine black pen.

 

Last but not least, I like to go over the edges of the page with a black Pitt Artist Pen.

 

 

I hope you will try this.

 

Supplies:

Daler Rowney 300gsm hot pressed water colour paper

Stamps: Visible Image Sparkle in the rain
Stencils: Blowing Bubbles  and Rainy Days both A5,
Black Archival Ink
Wilted Violet distress ink
Black Faber Castel Pitt Artist Pen, White paint pen
Brushos : Ultra Marine, Sea Green, Turquoise and a touch of Cobalt Blue
Fine mister and water and a small mini mister
Acrylic block