Dyans Couture Collection Stencils!

HI folks here is a page I started in one of my classes with Dyan and you will be surprised to hear I never got round to finishing.  Well I found time today to finish it off.

Its very different from my usual style but I like the way it turned out.

I loved the couture collection stencils that Dyan released this year but I wasn't quite sure how I would use them.  Fortunately however Dyan has already planned a workshop with this in mind.

 So on this page you can see various different ways of using the inners and the outers!!

With the additional use of some of her background stamps and one of her hilarious quotes I put this together and did some doodling to finally finish it off.

Hope you like it and give it a try yourself!

XXXX hugz XXXX

May Calendar Journal Page

Hi folks its that time again - need to have the calendar journal ready to use on the first on May!

Unfortunately the image doesn't do this one justice but I don't seem to be able to get it any better.

I liked what I did last month, masking with paper strips, so this month I thought I would try it with masking fluid.  I painted the squares with the fluid and left it to dry overnight.  The next day I rubbed away a little of the fluid in each square then sprayed with Dylusions ink sprays.  I stamped, stenciled and splattered to my hearts content.

Then I gently rubbed off the remaining fluid - this took a while.

I stamped and painted the Stampotique bee and added some distress rock candy to the wings.

I drew round the squares with an aquatone watercolour stick and smugged it with a waterbrush.

I added the 'May' and '2013' in metal embellishments and stuck them on.  The addition of the quote finished it off.  I reads 'May bee we will see a little sunshine'!!!   

Fingers crossed.

Have a great month.

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Day 7!!!

Hi folks - well I have done it!!  Posted 7 days in a row - amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it!! LOL

So here's today's offering.

Ok the background on this one had a bit of everything.  Acrylic paint, distressed stains, Dylusions ink, Aquatone watercolour sticks, and anything else I could lay my hands on!  Layered up to within an inch of its life.  

Magazine images collaged for the main figure and as always a quote and some doodling!!

I have enjoyed doing all of these this week and I'm glad I set myself this challenge!!

Now I need to go lie down to recover!! LOL

I hope this week you all managed to create time to be creative!!

xxxx Hugz xxxx

Re Inker background

Hi Folks well day 6 and I'm sure after yesterday you will not be too surprised that I did another re inker background on a gesso page!!! Love this techniques!!

I stamped this very nice girl stamp and coloured her using distress ink pads - love using the ink pads to paint with!.

The quote was very appropriate to how I was feeling today.

However I felt it was a bit too normal and wanted to put something weird on with her, but as I'm away from home my normal supplies were not available so I had to do without.  

I cant believe I have done 3 cute girl pages in the same week!!!  Girly is not usually my thing - now weird is more up my street, but this week I'm girly I guess!! LOL

Anyway I tried my hand at some scroll doodling at the top of the page as it looked really bare and nothing I put on it worked.  Not sure this really works either and I really do have to practise doodling more, but I guess it finished the page off ok. Had to add some stickles on at the end just for that little bit of bling!!!

Wishing you all a great weekend.

xxx hugsz xxx

Playing with new stuff!!!

Hi guys - well day 5 - I think I actually might manage to blog for the 7 days in a row after all.  I wasn't sure I would be able to do it but thought it was worth a try.

So today I decided to do a page in one of my smaller journals just for a change, also I decided to do the background as well rather than use an already made one - as a treat for keeping up with blogging this week. lol!

So I thought I would also trying using things I have never used before, so this is what I did.

I put some Gesso on the background using a splodger (or in my case an old gift card as it was handy) so that the gesso went on unevenly to give me some texture.  While I had it out I did several pages in other journals as well.  Why not when you have the stuff out anyway.

A couple of weeks ago I bought 3 Adirondak re inkers to do a project by Dina Wakely (still haven't got round to that one) and I thought I would try them on this background.  So I put a little drop of each colour on the top of the page (because it is a re inker the colour is very intense) and used the gift card to spread it down the page.  Then I splattered and sprayed it with water to get the colours running.  

The photograph doesnt really do it justice

I was going to do some more work on the background to build up the layers, but I liked it so much I left it as it was.

Stamped with a Kaisercraft stamp and put on the quote I saw this morning and liked and it was as simple as that.  Probably one of the quickest pages I've done.

I really like the effect of the background done like this so think I might have to go back and play around with it some more.

Hope its given you some ideas.

Happy playing!!

x HUGZ x

Day 4 - using unusual backgrounds!

Hi folks welcome to my day four efforts.  Today's is rather a strange page!

As I'm sure you have noticed I often mention I end up using a background I have had in my journal for a while.  Today is no different.

When I started art journaling nearly 3 years ago I wasn't comfortable constructing pages but I loved making backgrounds, so I have journals part filled with lovely backgrounds!!  The problem is I end up falling in love with the background and then cant figure out what to put on it.  So it gets abandoned and I move on to a fresh page.  So this year I have given myself a challenge - where ever possible - to use some of these backgrounds for my current projects.

This is one of the dribble pages I made using Dylusions inks (I went through a phase where that is all I wanted to make) in one of my old ledgers.

So today I decided to go through my cut out boxes (I have assorted boxes filled with images or part images which I have cut out of paper or magazines - done while watching the TV) and see what took my fancy.  Once I had a couple of element's I liked I looked through my unused stamps and tried putting them together.  

The cage and the wings were stamped onto watercolour paper then coloured with distress markers.

I printed out the quote and coloured the paper with distress ink pads and stuck it on.

With the addition of the Stampotique crow line stamp, at the bottom and some shading.  

I felt I was finished.

So one more old background used only a few million to go LOL.

Catch ya tomorrow.

XXXX HUGZ XXXX

Geli plate background

Oh here we are day 3 and I am blogging again.  I spent quite a bit of time doing some work on May's calendar journal page so it didn't leave me much time for anything else.  So I decided to finish off this page which has been hanging around for a while.  Its been visited about 4 times already so I'm glad I finally got it finished.  

I went to a class last year to have a go with the Geli plate and had fun with it but didn't find I liked many of the backgrounds I had made but I think I just need more practise.  This is one of the ones that I did like but it was a blot off page on a scrap torn piece of paper.  So I tore the edges some more and stuck it into my journal.  The next time I worked on it I added the leaf stamps made by designs by Ryn.  (I'm looking forward to receiving some of her new water droplets what she has just released).  Third visit had me add the stampotique figure to the bottom.

Then finally today I added the quote did some colouring in and some doodling and it was finished!!!

Its a bit different from what I normally do but I'm pleased the way its turned out.

Happy creating folks!!

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