What no stamping?!?!!

... Nope.  No stamping at all.. not even a teeny tiny detail stamp!

I bought a large Dylusions journal recently and this is the first spread I've created in it - its liberating!! All that space to create on!

I've had a rotten cold all week (actually lost my voice for a few days!) so these pages were almost a kind of 'therapy' - made me feel better to do 'something'... so its not overly complicated...

I painted and stencilled 2 pages (Fresco Finish paints, Stencil Girl stencil, Crafters Workshop stencils).  Not planning, just playing - I sketched flowers onto scrapbook papers (siiiiigh... oh, Basic Grey.. how I miss your gorgeous papers..) and cut them out.

The journal is BIG.... here's my hand on the spread to give you an idea how big...

... well its big for me - I usually use the small or square journals... and my junk journals are only 4x6 (ish) inches.

I glued down all the flowers and then set about sketching and shading in the details.  I took before and after photos to show the difference - amazing what a bit of doodling can do:

I think adding the details is my favourite part of the page creation... though it is hard to know when to stop!

Here's the finished spread... it makes me happy - all those big bright juicy flowers!

See (or not see actually, lol!)  No stamping!!  (It was hard not to reach for the stamps.. but fun too!)

This was a lovely, fun way to attack 'The Stash' of papers.

Thanks for stopping by

Art Journaling....

... is a great way to 'play' in a constructive way... I use the Dylusions small journal a lot - I have a couple of the other Dylusion journals but the size of this one seems to suit me - in the same way as my thinking/planning journal (yes I have separate ones for that) is a 25x25cm spiral bound journal - I think the square shape fits my 'thinking' - not portrait or landscape... (and it obviously works for me  as I have a shelf holding 30 sketchbooks of that size - so it must a good fit! lol)

I think some of you must know what I mean - when you try a new journal, a different shape, or binding and it just doesn't feel 'right'... I once tried a rectangular journal where the binding was on the short edge.. shudder - that one just felt sooo wrong - I think I got about 5 pages in and gave up... it was stifling...

Aaaaanyhoo back to the small Dylusion journal - the thing I like about it is when its closed it is quite small (book pages are 5x8 inches) & rectangular but an open spread basically looks square - now you understand why I like it - its SQUARE!!!

#easilypleased

You might've started to wonder why I'm telling you all this... its just leading into showing you a spread from that journal...

look - no stamping!! none whatsoever.. not even a little bit in the background!

Its all sketches and doodles - and I think there's a little bit of stenciling under all the doodling and painting...  I worked on it (on and off) over the space of a week because each time I opened the journal and looked at the pages they seemed wrong... unfinished... unbalanced...

So I just kept working on it until it seemed 'done' - another set of doodles around the flowers... another flower.. just kept going.. and now its done.
I love the neon pink and 'Mermaid' blue colour scheme - and the black makes it pop!...

So, here's my 'advice' for the day - if I can call it that - try not to give up on a page: add something new, remove something - paint over something that bothers you and replace it something else...
If all else fails take a photo of the page (for reference - learn from what you did) and then glue the pages together! lol  I've done that several times because I don't want to keep seeing the spread when I look through the journal.

I'll post another page tomorrow.. with less waffle! lol

Thanks for stopping by

ALBOTAT: Spring is blooming!!

This journal page was inspired by the garden and the arrival of spring and, hopefully soon, summer! (fingers crossed lol) Our garden has been getting more colourful by the day and I love the surprises it throws up.

I like to keep some white space on my journal spreads but on this one I scribble wrote all over the page on top of the original sketch

I really like how it looks when you paint over it - just about visible but not legible.. its not interfering with any added layers...

Once I'd finished reinstating the design with paints and a Posca paint pens - love those A LOT!!) I scanned it on the computer. I cleaned up the scan by removing any background marks leaving only the scribble flowers.  I printed it out on my toner printer onto a vintage book page - ooooh that was a good print!  such a great image it was hard to cut it up!! lol

I carried on sticking and colouring- I'd originally planned to stick the printed flowers over the matching ones on the journal page but decided the spread needed more flowers (are there ever enough flowers!) - and I also kept thinking 'its needs more colour'  - until finally, with the addition of swipes of neon pink gel pen, I was finished!

I really like that the pages are bright and colourful but also still have a lot of 'white' space.. space to 'breathe'.

Thanks popping by

a learning curve...

 ... sometimes you have to revisit things.. I was trying to draw a circle split into 12 segments - its been a 'while' since I've done that, or needed to do that, but thanks to youtube I found out how...

.. which sparked pretty patterns - flowers, with the construction lines around the outside... 

.... I used to love drawing things with a compass when I was a child - patterns, rows of circles, flowers and faces - I tried to resist drawing a face, really I did - but in the end it was too hard to resist...

.... even the little character that evolved looks slightly disappointed with my lack of willpower... lol

Those of you who follow me on twitter might have seen these pictures over the weekend but I'm trying to post less to Twitter and more on the blog - poor neglected little blog!  I'll try not repeat myself too much!

Plants & Postcards

Art Trail in Leigh last week - the Studio gets cleared, prettied up and ready for the public to come and look at the work that's been produced over the last year... Tricia, Tessa & Bronwyn had some really lovely work on show.

Bronwyn, as well as her gorgeous photographs & prints (go here to see more), has these adorable little plants planted in vintage china (tea cups & saucers)... I really like the colours and the layers of the 'leaves':

I think the bottom right is my favourite - the way the colours fade from green to that aubergine/lilac colour.....

(and the way the leaves are just the right size on each layer- the repeats are almost perfect... aaaagh my neat and tidy side rears its head again!)

We take it in turns to sit in the Studio while the public visit.. and during my time there I sat and coloured, wrote and doodled these - they're just little experiments - postcards measuring 4x6in - and I just tore things and stuck them down, coloured on top - it was just about freeing up how I do things - not being concerned about whether its right, wrong, straight, smudged - just seeing how it goes....

Each one led to another - kept me quiet for a few hours! lol

I'm off to Chelmsford today to teach, shop, and then back home for a Hen Party - all of which are going to be fun in different ways! lol

Whatever you're up to - have a good day!

"I'm going to throw some paint at it & see what happens"...

...was my not very scientific answer when asked what I was doing...  Sometimes its the approach you have to take - and its all part of my free-er, less planned, mistakes-are-good-for-learning curve at the moment.

So I created the above, after this photo was taken I added black drawn line around the hearts and circles, added some phrases.. but it wasn't working for me and so I cut it up - nothing wrong with that - making something better (hopefully) - I tell myself 'its mine, I can do what I want with it!' 
It might not have ended up as planned but thats not always a bad thing is it.....  (yep, it ended up as tags - & you must know by now that I do love a tag or two.. lol) (they're quick and good for reference)

At the same time I was "throwing some paint" at these I was doing the same with different types of paper I'd just bought - pads of watercolour & acrylic painting papers - good to try/play with different media & papers to get the most interesting results.. pushing your own boundaries and knowledge.

So that's my experiments of the other day - Now its your turn - Go on - go and 'throw some paint at it and see what happens!'  Its just paper and paint - not rocket science - and its FUN!!

What I did on holiday.... Part 2

So here's what else I did on holiday.. (as well as laying in the sun, reading books (4), feeding iguanas (who are fond of bananas - who knew!) and drinking cocktails)(responsibly, obviously)....  I created these with my holiday art kit (see previous post)... Tags: decorated, simply- with just sketches & colour.

Each one has a memory attached  - its part of my holday scrapbook  - I think my favourite is the skull wearing a hat - makes me smile - a nod to the Mexican 'day of the dead' and its to remind me of the day I felt like death after getting heat stroke after 3 hours looking at Mayan pyramids! 

No worries- these episodes all add to the holiday experience don't they (not that I'm recommending getting heat stroke - oh no no no.... what I would recommend when sightseeing is an umbrella to shade from the sun, lots of water, loose clothes (fully covered) and not walking around in the bloomin' mid day sun for 3 hours!! lol) It was worth it though - the Mayan pyramids at Chichen Itza - amazing structures, I wouldn't have missed visiting those - how did they build them!!! Amazing.

... and to give you an idea of their size look to the right of the pyramid - the small white rectangle with red circle at the top - thats a person with a brolly.