Closing eyes, dreaming big...

Today I created for you a joyful tag with mixed media painting and drawing.







 It’s created on the cardboard piece which was left over from one of Finnabair products (maybe mechanicals?). So instead of throwing it away I started with thick layer of Dina Wakley Media Line white gesso and then applied some random papers and bits of newspapers using gel medium from Dina’s range again. I love that gel medium as it also creates a very good surface for application of inks, sprays and any wet mediums. Here is work in progress photo just to confirm that there is nothing like clean desk when creativity hits!

This tag was a gift for a work friend who was leaving due to end of the contract and asked me to do something for her. I decided to make a dreamy girl with closed eyes so it’s all left to interpretation.
















Drawing was done by using combination of Neocolors II and Inktense pencils and again white gesso. To manage smaller elements and all details I used my beloved Posca pens in white and black.
I imagined her hair in some sort of chaos but still in shape and after building small buns with Noecolors I used Bombay India Inks in Aqua and Teal to draw same sort of snail shapes. By adding a little bit of water spray, then letting it dry and then repeating process I built layers of her funky hair. In this project I used Neocolors in two ways- wet and dry. Wet for more full background result (full colour on hair) and dry for volume effect (thick lines on her hair). Playing with Neocolors is such fun!:)

Finishing touches were stamps and distressing edges with Adirondack Dye Ink Pad in black. I also added bits of jewellery for her earings and wrote some thought in my messy handwriting style.
My girl left me now but will stay happy with my friend - so she is in good hands…

Hope you like her too!

Big hugs...

Honorata

Mixed media stripped back.

I had the urge recently to use my water colour journal, one I've not used since.......since......that long!!!

I love water colours, it's my favourite way to add colour but despite this usually my journal pages are full of mixed media goodness but in fact I thought I'd go simple for a change and really take it back a notch. Mixed media doesn't have to be about tonnes of different products and in fact if you've put two different media on a page you can call it "mixed media".

So with that in mind I masked off a border in my book and stamped Agatha Crown by Magda at Stampotique with a Waterproof ink.

I painted the whole page around her with clean water then using my Neo-Color crayons, I made pools of paint and dabbed this around the wet paper.

Once it had dried I went around it again with more watered down colour to make the paint darker. I painted in some of the image with my fine brush and used a skin tone alcohol marker for her face.

I simply added a few spots of paint and stamped the "When Pigs Fly" also from Stampotique next to her and gave her a little grounding with some MME washi tape. This one is a really shiny blue but its not easy to tell from my photo. At the moment I seem to be into ripping it in half and using little bits of it here and there. This photo taken later in better light shows the tape in all its shiny goodness.

Have a good day

Jaine x

12 Designers of Christmas : Day One: WELCOME!

HELLO!

It's December 1st...so that means.....drum roll...... the start of our 

HUGE,

 MASSIVE, 

GINORMOUS,

 12 Designers at Christmas blog extravaganza!

Right up until Christmas Eve, we will be featuring a fabulous project by a guest designer, or showcasing an exciting big Brand every single day! Yep, you read that right.. 

Every. Single. Day!

So, bookmark the blog and check back often, we have loads to share in the run up to Christmas 2014!

Right..best get on with it then.....

I've drawn the short straw (!!) and I'm up first! Now, I need you to be gentle with me today, this is the first time I've shared one of my 'people' with the world. Up until now they have been creations for my eyes only, but I thought I should get a grip and show you lot as well! Here is my Sprinkle Fairy...

 My background is a simple painty creation. I gessoed my cardboard base, then whilst it was still wet, smeared on some blue and green. More gesso stencilling, and printed on gesso dots for snowflakes. I used a Posca paint pen to draw on some flakes too!

Then, on to the figure. Sketched out roughly, then coloured with a mixture of Neocolours, paint and watercolour pencils. A little fineliner black pen to highlight a few details, and my Sprinkle fairy was born....

ASOI products used:

Gesso

Paint

Neocolour 2

Watercolour pencils

Fineliner pen

Posca pen

And now the exciting bit! As well as our 12 designers, we will be showcasing 12 brands this December too. We have a large prize box all ready and waiting, containing one product from EACH of those 12 showcased brands! To win this box of fabulousness, all you need to do is leave a comment on EACH of the blog posts of our 12 designers. My blog post today is the first, you'll need to comment on the post of each of the eleven designers that will be coming along every other day until the 23rd. The posts will be open for comments right until the end of the month, then a name will be randomly chosen and announced as the winner on 12th Night (6th January)

So.....we're up and running! Don't forget to check back tomorrow to see which big brand is being showcased!

Have a fabulous week!

Love, Trish

 xxxxxxxx

Journal play

Here's a page which didn't take too long to do or much thinking about, it just happened.

I started out giving the page a coat of gesso, spreading and making marks in it as I went along. Once dry I used Caran D'Ache Neo colors to scribble all over the page and because the base was gesso and non-porous I could add water to activate the paint in the crayons and get it all to blend in nicely.  I glued down a few bits of paper and added more colour but that was about it. 

I cut the figure of a child from a magazine and pasted it onto a piece of black card, then fussy cut around the shape even getting into that little bit at the nape of her neck. It's fussy alright but so worth doing.  

The balloons were drawn on some coloured paper and cut out and details added later with a Sakura Micron pen. You can see on the silhouette, the more time you spend fussy cutting the better the detail will be. 

The flowers are Dylusions 'How does your Garden grow' and again my Micron pen was used for the stems and border details.

Have a good weekend.

Jaine x

Waiting...

I'm sorry to say that this is one of those looong posts with loads of pictures but that's only because I got carried away with the process and wanted to share it with you at every stage! 

It did start as an experiment which I'm happy to report worked a treat, so here it is;

My page started with a coat of black Claudine Hellmuth Studio gesso just for a change instead of white. I wanted to see how other paint colours looked over the top. I also had the idea to create an area of negative space so I die cut a border of birds from a piece of sticky masking tape (you could use something like stick and spray too) and stuck them down to my page. 

With Neo Colors II by Caran d'Ache in my usual favourite colours, I added colour to the background going right over my mask.

I added water to activate the paint in the crayons being careful around the mask so as not to let paint get under the birds. 

Using a Balzar Design Stencil (mini pomegranate) I sprayed water through then used a piece of kitchen towel to lift off the paint. I loved how the black gesso is now peeking through here. Those Neo colors are really shining on the black background too.

To lift the page further I added some marks in white acrylic paint.

I lifted off the mask and woah, I was so pleased at how pretty it looked.  I added some torn pieces of Tim Holtz tissue paper and drew around the circles.

Finally my title "Waiting".  I like to get the most out of my alphabet stickers so I use my negative spaces too.  I also created some borders with some pieces of Glitz Design papers color me happy.

I'm really loving using the black gesso as an under layer and experimenting with what I can use on top, each time I'm amazed.

Happy thursday

Jaine x

A journal page with confidence.

Confidence; n firm belief.

I had the firm belief that the black gesso would work it's magic on this page of bright, colorful lovliness, well it's only a page right? I can start again if I don't like it right?

My base was paint, die cut shapes and stencils by Crafters Workshop and Dylusions along with some texture paste.

Next came that moment when I just had to go for it and covered the whole lot up with Claudine Hellmuth black Gesso. I didn't go for an even coverage so some of the colour would shine through from underneath.

My next stage was to bring back out the texture so I rubbed all over with a white crayon. I used a Neo color crayon but an Inktense pencil would work too. Skim over the surface and watch as the shapes reappear.

To create my confident girl, I stuck a magazine image to the back of a piece of patterned paper, in this case by Glitz Design, then I fussy cut her out. This needs to be done slowly and the more detail you can cut out the better the end result will be.

Here I've glued her to the page along with my phrase "Stride out with Confidence".

I hope this gives you the confidence to just go for it. Black gesso isn't to be feared and can add so much depth to a page. I'm certainly going to need to purchase a bigger pot.

See you next week

Jaine x

Big tag mini journal.

Ha ha it seems to be tag week here!!

 

I love manila tags and to find out that Ranger have made them bigger is fantastic. When I say bigger I mean BIGGER!!

This one is 22 x 10.5cm and it's not the biggest.

I started out wanting to make a decorated tag but given it's size I thought of a tag card which then developed into a mini journal.

I thought I'd emboss it first of all and so started by folding it in half to find the centre.  This way I was able to fit it into my Sizzix embossing folder one half at a time. 

I used a Prima chalk fluid edger in Lime pie to rub over the raised parts of the embossing to show it up and add some zingy colour. 

The inside page is a piece of Glitz Colour Me Happy paper, a doily and some die cut stars. 

The middle pages were coloured using Caran D'Ache Neo Colours  by just scribbling on the page then wetting it. 

This is a closer look at the front where I die cut some flowers from left over scraps of Glitz papers and added a Prima Metal paper clip.

Happy thursday

Jaine x