Secretive: An Art Journal Page with Image Transfer

Hi everyone, and happy Friday! Happy November, too, since this is my first post this month. The darkest time of the year is falling upon us but I have a pretty bright journal spread here to cheer it up.



Inspired by the October Challenge at Wanderlust Class 2017, I tried image transfer with acrylic medium for the first time. I have previously tried packing tape transfer and found it fun. Here, I was excited to see the image lifting directly onto the page, whereas in the tape method the tape remains visible and you need to glue it down.

The images I have used here are inkjet printed and my medium was Liquitex acrylic matte medium.



You can see I have used two different sized transfers of the same vintage image, showing a mysterious woman with daisies and a veil.



I had prepared a background on my square Dylusions Creative Journal collaging bits of gelli printed and die cut book pages, and then added acrylic paint.

What happened with the transfer was that it seemed easy at first but then I did rub too hard and lost quite a few pieces. This was my first try, directly onto the journal background. Luckily, I had printed a smaller version of the same image and tried it on a separate painted paper, and it worked better!



I didn't want to give up my background and taking a second look at it, I came to think that the smaller image on the orange piece of paper might look cool mounted on the side of the more broken image, so this is what I did.



At the same time I was trying to learn from a recent lesson by Kasia Avery at Wanderlust 2017, about the use of Black and White as Contrasts, and how they can work to calm down or unify a page with many colors. I think the final spread is still slightly too busy/colorful for my mood at the moment, but I didn't have time to work it any longer, wanting to make the challenge deadline.



I also used some lace and machine stitching as effects. The (originally white) lace had been used as a stencil in Gelli printing, so it already had those cool darker and lighter areas. Then some Gelatos around the edges, plus some black stamping, marker and white paint pen. I love the image, she reminds me of a good fairy with a secret that makes her smile!



The image, by the way, is printed from The Graphics Fairy, who offers thousands of good quality copyright-free vintage images for free. (There is also a paid Premium membership option, but I haven't felt the need for it so far. It would especially benefit someone working digitally, since it offers a lot of special effects for editing programs).

This site is a great resource for finding images for transfer techniques, and its search engine helps to find images in the theme that you want.



I am also linking my project to this week's challenge at Take a Word. The theme is Family Albums, meaning the use of old photos to create some altered art. Photos from other sources are ok, if you don't have family photos, says the challenge guideline.

Happy weekend everyone and thanks for taking a look!

Mixed Media Summer ATC Swap

Hello! Here's what I made for an ATC swap here in Finland, themed Mixed Media Summer and organized by Taru.



I had plenty of gelli prints with summery colours, so I began to work my backgrounds from them. I also added some mists in different shades of green, and was happy with the colour palette that reminds me of a summer evening just before dark.

For inspiration, I had several challenges, starting with Mixed Media Place and their gorgeous mood board, also with a feel of a summer evening.



The mood board has some delicate white flowers and seeds, and I decided to decorate my ATCs with lily-of-the-valley shaped chipboards from Wycinanka.



Before glueing them in place, I gessoed the chipboards to make them completely white and heat embossed them with an embossing powder that has a particularly lovely golden white shade. It's called Angel Wings Gold by Lindy's Stamp Gang, and it is indeed white with a hint of gold. The colour was very hard to catch in the photos, I'm afraid. But try them if you get a chance. I only have a couple of Lindy's powders but they both are this kind, shining in two different colours and with a high gloss, enamel-looking finish.



At Art-Piaskownica, the challenge theme was Stamping.



The stamped part in my project are the dark blue leaves. I first stamped them on a tissue paper, tore pieces of it and glued them in place with acrylic medium.

I have previously used stamped tissue paper on my beeswax collages, and recently I realized they are a cool thing to add to other mixed media projects, too. The white tissue paper becomes invisible and the stamp shows very well, even on uneven surfaces where it would be harder to stamp directly. You can also prepare these papers in advance, if you feel like trying some new stamps but can't think of a project just then, for example.

Like this:



I'm also joining the challenges at

Craft Stamper: Anything Goes
and Mixed Media Monthly: Altered Embellishments

(For the Craft Stamper magazine, I hope my submission counts as one project, since this is a set of very similar cards. If I were so incredibly lucky to be picked as the winner, I do have three of the ATCs still left that I could mail for publication.)



A few more photos to follow...







I'll end today's post with the full set of 12 cards, photographed with my unfinished acrylic painting as background!



Thank you for popping in and commenting, as always. Welcome back next week to see another post with the cards I received in this Mixed Media Summer ATC swap!

Mixed Media Greenhouse ATCs

Hello springtime, flowers and greenery! To welcome the new season, I enjoyed joining a Greenhouse swap at ATCs for All. This was a mixed media swap and another cool twist was that the cards were to be actually house shaped. They were so much fun to make and I can't wait to see the returns I get!



I was inspired by the following challenges:

The Artistic Stamper: Springtime
Crazy-Lab: Spring Feeling
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge: Layer it Up!
We Love 2 Create: Anything Creative/Mixed Media Goes



For the spring themed challenges, the inspiration is quite obvious, I guess! As for Simon's Layer it Up challenge, I actually tried something new with layering. I'll get back to that a bit further down!



In all the four cards, I began cutting the background and roof from different papers. I included both DIY papers, like Gelli prints, and scrapbook papers and magazine pages.



I then added collage elements like postage stamps, washi tape, magazine cuts...



And some colour with Gelatos and Crayola crayons.





And then to the last layer! I had done some stamping on tissue paper and other nearly see-through papers earlier this week. I've been wanting to build a pre-made stash for beeswax collage, which is where I have previously used stamping on tissue. The thing is that the paper becomes invisible with wet media, and only the stamping shows. This is a cool way to add stamping on surfaces where the stamping ink alone might not show very well, or might bleed, depending on what you're going to add next.



I usually only make beeswax collage when I can dedicate a whole day or longer stretch of time for it, since it takes a while to take the supplies out and clean afterwards. Mainly it is that I use the same ironing board that I use for clothers so I need to cover it properly before I get started. Anyway, I'm glad I thought of using the stamped tissue in another way! And acrylic medium worked in a similar way as beeswax - the paper seems to completely disappear.

Remember that for both beeswax and acrylic medium, the stamping ink has to be permanent! I always use Staz-On.



Thank you for your visit!

Mixed Media Christmas ATCs for Scrap Africa

Hello again, and happy December! I created this set of Christmasy ATCs inspired by the December Mood Board at Scrap Africa.



I was particularly inspired by the textures, glitter, festive mood and shades of red. The rose in the top left corner made me think of using a stencil, so I started the background with stenciling some structure paste.



I worked the background in one large piece, about A3 size. I actually started it with a scrapbook layout in mind, but couldn't think of an inspiring photo to combine with it, so I decided I was more in an ATC mood this time.



When creating with a paper of the size A3, there's actually enough for both scrapbook layout and a row of ATC backgrounds. A3 short side is a quarter inch short of a regular 12x12 scrapbook paper, but I don't mind a difference this small in my projects. I think it's handy and economical to buy art paper for mixed media scrapbooking, even though the sizes have not been created with scrapbook albums in mind.



Can you guess what other media I have used?



There are quite many layers actually. Over the stenciled paste, I first painted some parts with tube watercolours and other spots with acrylics. You can perhaps see the fluorescent red that pops out a bit. That, for example, is an acrylic paint.



I used two different lettering stamps that are among my very favourites at the moment: historical script-looking Liesbeth's Letters from Art Journey and an old one that looks like scribbly handwriting.



For the main embellishment, I used wood veneer Christmas trees that I had first gessoed white and then heat embossed with a white gold shade.



I also used paper scraps, washi tape and a velvety flourish fabric tape.



I am also joining the following challenges: Christmas at the Artistic Stamper, and Merry & Bright at the Mixed Media Monthly.



Thank you for popping in! Do check out what the rest of the DT did and join our challenge at Scrap Africa until the end of December!

You are Here: Stamped Art Journal Pages

Hi there! Just in time to write the last post of November, I'm posting this art journal spread inspired by the monthly challenge at Viva Las VegaStamps!



Here's what the mood board looks like, accompanied by inspiration words: gold, warm, yellow, tans, browns, vintage, black and white, background stamps, doodles, harlequin, diamond, distressed, polka dots, swirls, circles, hearts, stripes and more!.



I used many of the mentioned elements indeed!



All stamps are from Viva Las VegaStamps.



I'm also joining the following challenges: Altered Eclectics, and We Love 2 Create. Both of these challenges run with the same theme every month, Anything Goes as long as it's Mixed Media.







Thank you for your visit and comments!

Red Shades and Hexagons: Another Mixed Media Fall Colours Tag

Hello! Here in Finland the winter has come early and the earth is already covered in snow. It came so early indeed that I'm still finishing my last pieces with fall colours!

Today I'm posting a tag similar to the one I made last week as the DT for this month's Scrap Africa Sketch Challenge.





A couple of process photos, the first depicting how I used Glossy Accents in some of the hexagons and the second trying all the elements in place.





I am entering my tag in the following challenges: Bumaga-Maraka: It's All in the Details. I chose Bright/Shiny Accents, Circles and Hexagons. And Crafty Life: Anything Goes.













Thank you for your visit, and especially all the comments, as always!