My Awesome Year...

The other day, I picked up a new journal and I had a great time using up a bunch of recycled bits and pieces, as well as some wonderful techniques as suggested in Creative Jumpstart 2014 (it's not too late to sign up!).

I love to hang on to all sorts of bits of paper from postage stamps, to tissue paper (especially the pretty printed ones), envelopes (especially pretty decorated ones...thank you Betty Franks!!!), old book pages, maps, music paper, newspaper text, magazine text, Gelli plate prints, pretty tea bag papers, etc., etc., etc...

Once the collaging was done, I got out the acrylic paint to add some colour and blend away some of the harsh edges.

Then I added some magazine text...a feature phrase on the front cover and several others on the back.

When I was pretty much happy with it, I added the title using Liquitex Paint Markers in white and black.  I used a black NeoColor II crayon and a water brush to create shadows for the text, a couple of extra doodles and now I'm ready to journal for 2014!

I'm hoping to do a lot more art journalling this year...after all, I've got to fill up this journal before the year is over...

Taking Another Creative Jumpstart

I had a couple of minutes last night, so I took another look at one of Nat's Creative Jumpstart ideas.  She used gloss gel medium as a resist by using a stencil and then when the gloss medium was dry she sprayed it with some spray inks.

Although my stencil was giving me trouble (very flimsy plastic, not best suited for this), I quite like the end result.  Because the medium had leaked under the stencil, I used my Uniball Vision waterproof pen to outline the features of the stencil as well as the entire medium marks.  That's the only pen I found worked really well on the gloss medium.

With greater care and a better stencil, I think this technique is fabulous for some lovely texture and shine!

Life in the 'Burbs...

Life in the 'burbs...peace and quite while still being close enough to the city to take advantage of the museum, art galleries and theatres.  Another spread, this time inspired by Karen Ellis' Creative Jumpstart video.  The background and papers were made using a Gelli plate, acrylic ink and stencils.

Art Journal Page...

After watching Louise Nelson's CJS 2013 video, I decided to explore crackle medium in this art journal spread. I had a little bottle of Decor Art One Step Crackle (from the dollar store) in my stash so I pulled it out and put it over the woman and let it dry for a couple of hours. I then added a watered down wash of white gesso, and as you can see in the close up, the cracks are quite evident.  As an afterthought  I added the crackle medium to the pendants at the top of the page, but this time I used a heat gun to dry them.  That seemed to be a mistake, since they really didn't crack much and when I applied a watered down black gesso it had almost no effect.  Live and learn...

I Love This Little Bird...

Another spread created after watching one of Nat Kalbach's jumpstarts.  I really like this idea of layering texture onto sponge stamps.  I think I got a little carried away (okay, a lot...) with the sequin waste, but as a record of the technique, it works.  I love the new bird stamp I got the other day.  I love anything with text on it so when I saw him I just had to have him.  And, again at 50% off, I don't even feel guilty!

Creative JumpStart Revisited

During January, I was watching the Creative Jumpstart 2013 videos, and I did try out a couple of techniques, but because of various other things I was doing, most didn't get too much attention.  So, I've decided to go back through the archived 'Jumpstarts' (click on CJS 2013 if you want to access them) and create a journal with the techniques and some notes for future reference.  

 I'm really enjoying the Glass Bead Gel and with a 50% off coupon at Michaels, the price was great. I love both the texture, and how it makes the Dylusions spray inks just pop!

Thanks to Nat Kalbach and all the other Jumpstart artists, these videos are full of lots of creative ideas for using things that you may already have in your stash in some new ways.
 

So...Now what?

I've been trying a few of the techniques, or variations of them, from Creative Jumpstart series.  In this case, I started with a page that had a bit of paint on it from a day when I didn't want to waste the paint left on my brush.  The page was actually like this for almost a year.

In addition to learning some new ideas, I've also pulled out a few materials that I have but haven't used for a long time.  I started with a couple of Pearl Pens, in blue and copper.  Their fine tips are great for drawing with the paint right out of the 'pen' (probably why they're called Pearl Pens).  I drew a bunch of circles and some spirals ('cause that's just what I do...).  I love the wonderful raised texture they give you when they dry.  

I thought I'd add some stamping, but because of the raised edges, it can't easily be done.  Enter that great tissue paper technique!  Stamp on the cheap tissue and then adhere it to the page using gel medium.  Very cool!

I also had some scraps of tissue paper on which I had hand written some text using a Micron pen, lying in my tissue paper bin so I added them too.


But, as you can see it needs more...

So I got out some white acrylic paint and a fine paint brush and I added some white around those raised blue circles.  Then, just because it was lying on my desk I picked up an empty tape spool and stamped it in the paint and added a few more circle with it.  I like the double concentric circles I get with this particular spool.  

But, I think it still needs more...

I got out the black paint and added some 'shadows'.  And then I stared at the page for a while and finally asked myself, 

"So... Now what?  And then it came to me...

Sometimes you just have to go with the obvious.  It's not a work of art, but it certainly was a great way to try out some new ideas.