November Calendar Journal Page

 Hi everyone - well the year is speeding past way too fast as normal.  Less than 8 weeks to Christmas - not that I'm trying to add to your stress or anything!! LOL!

Here's my November calendar journal page!!

When I started this at the beginning of the month I didn't really have any idea as to what I was going to do apart from the fact that I wanted to do mixed media on it.  I have been to a couple of classes in the last couple of months where we have layered up all sorts of different things to create a texture and I wanted to have a go at it myself at home. 

So I coated the page up with gesso using a scrapper (well in my case an old credit card) and left it quite rough.  Over this I randomly stuck down some lace curtain material, strips of me fix medical tape, Tim Holts tissue paper and and off cut of card which had a pattern punched into it.  Once the layers had dried I brushed on another light coat of gesso.

Once that  had dried Iadded some Dylusions ink sprays and some Fireworks mica sprays.  I sprayed some water on to get it dripping down the page and dried it off with the heat tool. It took quite a bit of drying as the background wasn't very absorbent.

In my paper stash draw (well its 2 actually - as I don't throw anything away) I found the embossed tree tag which I did a while ago and never used on the project it was intended for, a torn piece of embossed card and some tags, so I layered them up and glued them in place.

In my stamp draw I found this unused Octopode factory stamp and though he would work nicely as the focal point.  I coloured him using Inktense pencils and Dylusions ink and glued him on the front.

The date spaces were stamped in archival ink using a Tim Holtz stamp and I added some work stamping on the background.

The final touch was some doodling and blending some ink round the edge of the page with an ink blending tool.

I have to say as I only managed to do this in 10 minute slots, each time I returned to do a little more it changed direction, every time, so I'm quite pleased that I managed to pull it all together and make it work.

I will have to be careful what pen I use to write on it as most pens will smudge on this gesso surface.  

So all in all pleased with the result and I'm pleased that I had a go at the mixed media layering!!

Have a great month.

XXX hugs XXX

CC102 & Alcohol Inks

Hi guys - well I have surprised myself - 3 posts in one week!!! Don't faint, I probably wont happen again.

I have taken some time this week to sign up and do Tim Holtz Creative Chemistry 102.  I did 101 last year and totally love it so it was a no brainer for this one!!

If you have done 101 and haven't signed up for 102 get yourself over to this link Creative Chemistry 102.  Its $25 dollars which works out at about £17 and totally worth the money.

I haven't used the alcohol inks much apart from on the jewellery I posted earlier on this week.  I couldn't really get any nice results which I thought I could use on any of my projects!!!

Well today's class was all about alcohol - inks not drinks!! 

I totally love some of the things I have done with them.

My nod to Halloween!

Loved the colours on this one but the camera doesn't pick up all the gold!

They are much nicer in real life as they shine and shimmer!

I have made all of my attempts into tags so that I end up with a tag technique book so I haven't finished them off but I think they it wouldn't take much to finish them off and they would look so cool!

Hope you try something new this week while creating.

Have fun xxxx

Alcohol Ink Jewellery!

Ok guys just another quick post this week.  

One of the groups I'm in does a monthly challenge and this month its based on using Alcohol inks.  

So here is something different I have done with the inks.

I made some clay Jewellery pieces and fired them in the kiln to 1250 degrees.  

Then coloured them with neat alcohol ink and sealed them.

What do you think?

I might try some more unusual shapes next time and use them on a canvas!

Have fun and try something different this month with supplies you already own!!

xxx hugs xxx

October Calendar Journal Page - LATE!

Hi everyone - here is me finally managing to finish and blog Octobers journal calendar page.  So say I'm behind is an understatement!! Ive been a bit stressed and tasks have been falling by the wayside but I was determined to get this finished and filled in up to date!

So today all other jobs have had to wait till I got this finished.

So here is the masterpiece LOL!  I wish!!

Ok I did a nice ink spray background at the beginning of last month and then it sat there not touched for weeks.  

I got some fab downloads off Deviant Scrap and this lovely lady was out of one of the collections by Xquizart - ok she did come with a pretty head, which I mercilessly cut off and replaced with the skull!!!! It suited my mood better!

I then stamped round the top edges with a foliage stamp and decided that I wanted to do some stitching on it.  So out came my very old sewing machine which seemed determined to eat or snap the thread, but after 30 frustrating minutes I managed to get the edging and the day shapes done.

Some stamping with Tim Holtz alphabet stamps and his bird gave it a nice subdued looked.

I came across the quote by Dr Seuss and I fell in love with it and thought it would go on this page very well.

So with the quote and the figure stuck on and some green outlining it was done.

I can believe how much I like it - it felt like such a struggle getting it done that I got to the stage where I didn't care what it looked like I just wanted it finished.  

I guess that goes to the state of mind it was in!!!

As always I was helped through the process by my 2 cats,  Mishka and Marble.

  (Mishka was even determined to get into the act when I was trying to photograph it!!)

Don't you just love all the help you get!!! LOL

Have a great week and I hope your creativity flows this month!!

Take care

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Long lost journal page

Hi everyone - because I have been struggling to fine the time and energy to do much creating I have been trying to finish off some of the pages I have half done.

Here is one I tripped over the other day.

The background was originally stated just under 3 years ago.  It was mostly mop ups and blot offs as I was doing other pages. Its got loads of layers of inks and paints.  Then over time a couple of new stamps were tested out on it.  Then earlier this year I was playing with stencils so the figures got added.

So last week when I found it I realised that it only needed a little more to finish it off. 

So some doodling, stamping over the printed figure and a quote and it was all finished.

I am now looking for more pages that are partly done like this because they only take about 20 minutes to finish off and I feel like I have achieved something, where as if I tried to start a new project it would be another thing that would be added to the 'to finish pile'  which is now teetering dangerously and one of these days I will be buried by it LOL.

Have fun xxx

Small colour block journal page

Hi folks hope all is well in your world and that you are managing to find some creative time for yourselves.  I've found a little but not as much as my creative side would like.  So I have been finishing off some pages which have been in the making since I started journalling 3 years ago this month!! cant believe its been that long - also cant believe the changes that I have gone thorough in that time.

Anyway on with the page!

Rather different than anything else that I have done.  

I came across the nearly completed page recently and decided to add a few finishing touches.  I was going to doodle patterns in all the coloured areas but after I had filled in 2 of them I decided that I liked it the way it was and just left it.

So I scribbled a random pencil line over the page then painted in each shape in different colours.  

I then had a look to see if I could see anything in the shapes and these 2 figures popped out LOL.  

So I did some shading and highlights in each section and used a dark pencil to outline the main shapes.

Then drew in the features and did a little writing. With the addition of some doodling it was done.  I had thought of putting a quote on it but I keep looking at it and just think its fine the way it is.

Anyway I hope you have a chance to have a go at this yourself - its fun to do and took me back to my childhood.

Have a great week!

xxxhugsxxx

September calendar journal page

Hi everyone I hope you have all been enjoying this lovely summer weather!  hope it lasts for a while longer!

Well this months page was done well in advance, in fact I finished it by the 15th of last month!! So once in a while I can get my act together! LOL!

This is how it turned out.

As you might remember from last months post I had sprayed some small rectangular cards to use as the day journal blocks but ended up not using them.  Well they have been sitting there just begging to be used.  After inking them and giving them a spray with some mica spray they looked gorgeous!  But it didn't quite know how I was going to create a background to put them on that wouldn't detract from their lush vibrancy!

So I finally decided to just do something very simple, so used 3 colours of distress ink pads and gently blended them together round the edge of the main page.  This seemed to set the blocks off nicely!

Once the day blocks were in place I had to find a nice focal piece for the middle, and as I have had this wonderful Stampotique stamp for a while but hadn't got round to using it, this seemed a perfect opportunity.

I coloured the stamped image in with watercolour pencils and added a bit of perfect pearls powder to his wings.  Didn't want him to feel like he was being out done with all the bling around him.

Date stamps on the days, with a little drawn edging and some tone on tone stamping to fill in some of the plainer areas and all it needed was a quote!

Once I had put the quote on I realised that it still needed a little something else just to finish it off!!

So out came one of Ryn's beautiful trickling water stamps and the final touches were done!

I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks once I have started to fill in the days.  Just cant make up my mind what colour of pen to use!!!! Decisions decisions!!!

Hope you all have a bright creative September.

Take care

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