Artsy Ornament

With only three more art journal classes to teach for the year, and no more promised projects to complete, I am starting to feel like I can play again!

2014 Twelve Artsy Ornaments has been just the thing to enjoy. Today, I had a lot of fun creating Jane Davenport's Christmas fairy. It was a great idea of Jane's to start by drawing her on an already prepared background and I just happened to have one in a journal... waiting.

Here is the full spread. I thought the right hand page looked a bit like a fairy glade. I used Grunge paste through a stencil and coloured over with acrylics, Neocolor 11 watercolour crayons and gold Izink. The left hand page has torn edges, because of what I did on the previous pages (see below). It was coloured the same way as the left page with a flat stenciled background to create a mottled look.

Next step will be to create the real project, a Christmas fairy on a substrate......maybe tomorrow..

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Here is the torn edge journal spread. I have no idea why I tore the edges! Perhaps I was feeling frustrated that day....it did make a difference to what I could put on the pages either side though.

This bird, the leaves below it and the flowers above were a photocopy of a vintage fabric that I used as a collage over a painted background. I added more collage images and paint pen doodling, even some stamping which I embossed.

 The large bird is drawn on top of white gesso then painted and doodled on as well. I do have a tendency of over working my pages and often come back to them several times before I am satisfied. I do love the texture on this guy.

Truest Wisdom Journaling Page

Tonight I am sharing with you my latest project for the Crafter's Cupboard blog.

 I've used the new Paper Artsy Eclectica stamp sets by Sara Naumann and some other great products from Crafter's Cupboard

I have also used some of the new Jofy Paper Artsy Fresco paints and a stencil by Crafter's Workshop, which has just become my favourite!

Pattern Strips by Crafter's Workshop

I'm working a small journal with loose pages. It's loose because it fell apart!  I will bind together when all the pages are finished. Each page measures 20cm x 14cm.

Anyway, start by applying gesso lightly to the two journal pages that will become your spread. 

On an extra piece of journal paper, paint some swatches with Cherry Red, Chalk and Claret. Yes, Claret not Plum that is in the set. I think Claret works better for this project.

Stamp the hearts from Paper Artsy ESN11 with Versa fine Onyx Black on each of the painted backgrounds..

...and fussy cut the small hearts. Set aside for later.

Back to the journal pages..

With a brush apply Slate, Turquoise and Mermaid in the places shown. Work quickly and use a baby wipe to blend the colours into each other.

Spray lightly with water and leave for a minute before wiping the water away gently with a clean baby wipe. You should have lighter speckled areas where the water was sitting.

Now for some more fun! Stamping, I used the text from Paper Artsy ESN12 stamp set and the grungy 'whatever-it-is' at the bottom of the Paper Artsy ESN11 stamp set with Archival ink Carnation Red and Versafine Oynx Black as shown here..

More stamping...the bricks from Paper Artsy ESN12 and Black Oynx 

And my new favourite stencil! For the red on the left hand page I used the plain strip stencilled with Paper Artsy Fresco Cherry Red and also for the white with dots, I used the plain strip stenciled with Paper Artsy Fresco Chalk and the dot strip with Cherry Red.

In the photo below you can see on the left hand page I went over the red strip with Chalk stenciled through another design from the stencil.






Next came the hearts adhered in place with gel medium and a few red stamped texts...at first sight...from ESN12

Now for a few Cherry Red  watered down splatters and a few Chalk ones for good measure.

On a small piece of journal paper paint a strip of Mermaid and when dry, stamp the quote from ESN11 in Carnation Red. Ruler tear around the words and paste in place.

I used the stamp text phrase 'My Heart.' from ESN11 with Onyx Black but it didn't show up as much as I  would have liked......

......so, I stamped it on white journal paper and ruler tore it out and placed it with gel medium over the top. Much better.

Finish off by softening around the hearts and texts with a black charcoal pencil. I hope you try this project or at least one of the techniques. These stamp sets work so well together and can be used for many projects. Enjoy!