Lost in words

Please welcome my mixed media painting today of a little bit lost girl. Is she lost in words, forest or in her thoughts? Interpretation is left to you...
This piece is made on heavy watercolor paper and the main principle is layer, layers and layers. I started by painting the face and using mixed colours from Dina Wakley Heavy Body Acrylics range. I also built up some details with Posca Paint Pens in green and violet.

My plan was to somehow get her lost in some words prints but I didn't want to use collage as that would cover her face up to much. I decided to do gel medium transfer from the magazine pages. Have you tried it?

It's becoming one of my beloved techniques recently. Dina Wakley gel medium worked just perfectly for this project. I prepared few strips of magazine pages and covered them generously with gel medium, then just simply glued them to the page bearing in mind that  the reverse site is what is going to appear on the page. The secret to a successful transfer is to let it dry properly. Once you pass that stage the paper has to be sprayed with water and rubbed off to reveal the reverse page.

For some splashes of vibrant yellow I used Dylusions Ink Spray in Lemon Zest and finish with writing the word "Lost" wit my favourite Bombay Indian Ink in Aqua!


The last part was using white gesso for creating texture with some random stencils.








And here are some more images with close up and how she looks on the wall.

Big Hugs!

Honorata

Going Dotty

I love creating circles and dots and they do feature in a lot of my journal pages. For me there's something very comforting about circle shapes. My journal page this time is inspired by a trip I'm on as you read this to trek across part of the Tyrolean mountains with my best friend. If you don't hear from me again then I'm lost!!

After adding gesso to my pages the background was simply sprayed which gave the page some immediate colour and a touch of grunge. I sprayed through a home made stencil to add my circle shapes. Once they'd dried I drew in the circles again with a black pen but very loosely, more like a scribble.

I love Magda Polakow's stamps with Stampotique and this one called Romek is so cute. A few pen lines up to some of the circles gives the impression he's flying with bubbles and a small shine line on each one helps to give that feeling.

The stenciling around the edge is created with Graphite texture paste by Finnabair which I think is my favourite at the moment. It has a slightly grainy texture when applied which dries with a beautiful sparkle.  It dries as hard as granite so you need to put your stencils in a bowl of water as soon as possible if you don't want to ruin them. The stencils I used are Tim Holtz layering stencil Dot Fade, Prima and Dylusions Number Jumble.

See you next time (hopefully) ;)

Jaine x

2 lovely wedding cards

Hello my dear friends!!!
Elena hire with you.
The communions have almost finished and it is coming the season of weddings. For this occasion I have created these 2 cards of lilac tones. The backgroung is made from white watercolor paper as a base. To create the texture I used White Gesso, and Finnabair Art Basics: Light Paste with Stencils. For the color, I have used some of  Dylusions Ink Sprays and for more contrast, I put some freehand  Darkroom Door Background Stamps. A bouquet of flowers and the text ended the composition. So we have a fresh result with a romantic air.

Here you have more photos with some details.

I hope it has inspired you to create your projects! :)))
Thank you very much and see you later!

Much kisses. xxx

Daydream Believer

Hello!
Still in my drawing people phase.... so I decided to create a 'part two' piece to my last project. Last time it was a simple blue background, this time it's red. Great way of stretching your skills, creating an interesting background with just one colour!
A song is involved again too.....

A short 'how to' to show how my person evolved!
Sketch her out first....

(I use watercolour paper for this.. I'll explain why in a min...)
I want the wings to be text paper, so I need to trace them. I use deli paper as I've got loads hanging around (don't much care for it as a substrate for some reason!)

Cut them out, then trace and cut the shape from text paper....

That will get stuck on later. Now to do the colouring. I've tried all manner of things in various combinations for colouring faces, and right now my favourite things to use are watercolour pencils! Hence my use of watercolour paper...

Her dress is coloured with watercolour pencils too, and her hair is black acrylic ink applied with a waterbrush. Cut her out, and stick her to the background...

The background is a simple smeared red paint affair, with a little gesso here and there. Stencilling, and stamping using the Prima Coffee stains stamps. A little white pen doodling and the background is complete.....

I drew in the details with a fineliner pen, and outlined the wings, dress etc....

 I also drew around the whole thing with a black watercolour pencil, and smudged it with the waterbrush again. I like how this gives a messy outline!
The final touches were the typed words...

And a wooden star sitting on her hand!

Hope you like her!
It's a bank holiday weekend here in the UK, so an extra day to craft. Yay!
See you soon
Trish xxx

Secret Diary - Journal Page

Hiya!

Georgie here today and this time I'm sharing an art journal page from my Moleskine. :)

A messy page, probably my state of mind coming through - lol, the idea with this was to just create and go with the flow.

I used strips from 7 Dots Cold Country 6x6 Paper Pack and layering them randomly and interspersing with some dry wall tape.

I stuck the strips with Rangers Collage Glue Stick.

I also layered some Cold Country Elements, like the hearts, circular 'Love' and the 'Find Me'.

In between the layers I used also used Tim Holtz Sketchbook Tissue Tape.

I also added some Cold Country Word Stickers for my diary sentiments, the idea behind choosing these words is that I will follow my art wherever it will take me :) 

Some Tim Holtz Rub Ons: Elements were used to offer a little interest in places and the Stamp and Add: Butterfly Wings.

Here I used the lid from Tim Holtz's Distress Paints to create arty paint rings! Who doesn't love these?!!

I edge some strip edges with Derwent Inktense in Ink Black - cannot live without this pencil now, it's just perfect for shading :)

I chose only three paints from Tim Holtz's Distress Paint line: Peacock Feathers, Chipped Sapphire and Black Soot. With the blues I created washes of colour over the top and splatters of paint with all three to finish up!

Have a fabulous day,

Hugs,

Georgie xx

Special Guest Designer: Tracy Easson

Hello!

Not one...but two projects today from our special guest designer:

Tracy Easson 

From: www.queeniesscrapmad.blogspot.co.uk

How lucky are we!

I'll pass you over to the lady herself...

"Hello everyone, it`s such a pleasure to be back here sharing my addiction to doodling and painting  with my latest love Dr. Ph. Martins Bombay Indian Inks.

When they arrived all wrapped up in pretty tissue paper it was as if Christmas morning had came early, swoon!

{ Little bottles of the most gorgeous jewel like colours, such treasures }                                    

They work a treat on watercolour paper, I dropped a little into the tray they arrived in, a dash of water and of I went using them as watercolour paints to colour in my doodles.

A few dots of a Sakura Gelly white pen, a scribble or two added around the doodle to tell a story and I was done"

 A close up of her top...

and a little bonus project.. a fairy dress and wings!

Love these Tracy, it's really wonderful to see just how versatile these inks are! Subtle colours as well as the bright vibrant rainbow tones!

Thank you so much for being our special guest designer for May, we've loved having you! 

Supplies used:

Moleskine Large watercolour Notebook
Dr. Ph Martins Bombay Indian Inks 15ml Set 1
Sakura Gelly roll white pen

Painted Canvas Shoes !!

Hi lovelies !!

Tracy here with today's post !!

So I've had a few days off from the day job this week to have a bit of a spring clean and whilst going through the wardrobe found an ugly pair of black pumps that had hardly been worn (because they were ugly, I don't like ugly things....see where I'm going with this !!). Well I was just about to toss them away and thought I might be able to do something with them........

Ta da !!!........

Not looking so ugly now ay !!

I started by covering all of the canvas parts with a couple of thin layers of Dina's gesso (slightly watered down) allowing the layers to soak into the canvas and build up slowly....

Once completely dry I added my base colours using Dina Wakley's fab acrylic paints in Lime (used for the tongue see pictures of completed shoe), Turquoise and Magenta, again applying them in thin layers to build up the colours, I used Dina's fabulous brushes for this job. The bristles are stiff enough to get into to all the fabric of the canvas and give a good coverage .....

Once I was happy with my colours I started to sketch my design, first in pencil and then went over in a black waterproof marker, I decided for my first attempt not to try anything too complicated and just go with simple shapes and patterns....

When I was happy with my design I took a small brush and black and white Dina acrylics and began painting in the detail tidying up after with the black waterproof marker.....

I used a splatter stamp and some black archival ink to stamp onto the pink parts surrounding the lace holes and down the back of the shoe and then used a white fine line paint pen to add my finer details, sealed with 3 thin coats of modge podge and allowed to dry thoroughly, finally I raided my ribbon box and found the perfect piece to use as my laces

I'm sure you'll agree that they certainly don't look ugly anymore !!!!

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you are inspired to give it a go. Have a fabulous week

Tracy

X

Emotional Art Journaling

Today I am opening for you my mid size art journal page. My mixed media journey started from art journaling and it is still the most favourable part of my creative activity. I can't help it but when open up the book, smell (yes! smell!) the pages and then put the first layer of gesso- the magic simply happens!
My art journal pages are messy, intense, emotional, free and definitely not pretty but they are reflection of life the way it is. This page spread is a very spontanious creation as my room where I keep art supplies is being decorated at the moment and I am simply not able to find anything so had to create from what I found :)

The page started with layer of Dina Wakley white gesso plus some scraps of paper. Then I used two Dina Wakley paints to create the colour part. I used Balckberry Violet and Lapis.To achive  sort of ageing effect I spread paint with the old credit card.

The collage part is the technique I invented a while ago and call "left over collage" - that means that the paper is left after the image is cut out can be used as well- you can see that here as an empty person shape. Even if the image is not full you can add the rest like here by drawing the missing part.

I added some yellow accents by using Color Wash spray in Butterscotch (dropping from the bottle) and black from the Archival Ink range (Jet Black).

I wanted to somehow age the images and used Montana acrylic paint pen in white to make some scribbles, that have to say I quite liked;)

Art Journaling is a free and emotional expression so I hope you like this a little bit crazy lady looking for her soul, that happens to be on the next page...

Wishing you a Happy Art Journaling!

Honorata

April challenge winner

It's that time again to announce the winner from the latest challenge this time for April.

Thank you very much to everyone who entered. As usual the standard was incredibly high but there has to be a winner though.

For originality and beauty the winner has to be 

Number 22 Moira with her altered spoon. 

 

Moira we absolutely loved it, thank you. 

If you want to see more of Moira's work you can visit her blog here at The Altered Ego. 

Moira, use the contact form on the left hand side (scroll down a bit ) to claim your prize mentioning that you're the winner from the April challenge.

A new challenge will be issued on Friday so look out for that.

Collage "Hi there!"

Hello my friends!
This week I have prepared a mixed media collage.

I used as the base an old paper craft that was a folder before.
I began to apply different templates using Prima Color Bloom Sprays with White Gesso. I caught a herbarium and I glued it with Finnabair Art Basics: 3D Gloss gel. To create more contrast I put some freehand Background stamps and added a few drops of color.

I also cut a cardboard frame and covered it with Finnabair Art Extravagance: Gold CrackleTexture Paste. To fasten it, I turned to the stapler instead of glue. I love the effect of an old framework, with the already worn paint.

To decorate, I took a bit of lace, newspaper, raffia, flowers Prima Marketing among other things. For title I chose letters of different sizes to provide visual interest. To give an uniform finish and integrate all the elements, I went over with white gesso brush and Finnabair Art Ingredients Glass Glitter - Gold Rush.

It is an easy work, so I hope it has inspired you to create your own fantastics projects! :)))
Thank you very much and see you soon!
Much kisses. xxx