Magic of Three - Journal page

It's the beginning of the April challenge at A Vintage Journey; Annie is our lovely host this month and wants us to focus on using three of something on our projects. It is said that three is a magic number and adds more interest and power when using it and everything comes in threes right?

It seems ages since I created a journal page so I decided to get my large A4 black journal out and use some of the inspiration learnt from Seth Apter and added a collage (I seem to be so into these again at the moment). I also decided my collage would not contain lots of ephemera but use some of the diecuts I seem to be hoarding that didn't get used on past projects. But as always things change lol.

I began by brayering layers of chalky finish paints in lace, primitive and eternal.

Then black gesso, yes black to get the darker page back again and hoping there would be some lovely peeled paint like textures showing through. But it didn't quite work like I imagined, so I stamped over the page with the eternal and primitive chalky finish.

So now it was time to build the layers. Taking a piece of card and the chalky finish paints with burnt umber and raw umber media fluid acrylics I monoprinted some random mixes of colours over the surface. Then stamped with black archival ink. 

I repeated these two layers again only this time stamping with everlasting -

To start the collage I cut Seth Apter's pocket watch from a piece of card I had already created a rust and patina effect on .....

.... and then  using the same die I cut a vintage photo so that it fitted perfectly inside. Don't you love this old photo of the family of three?

Next to collect together the elements to for my collage. I tend to build a composition like a 'jigsaw' 

so I rifle through boxes and tubs and choose pieces to fit together that look right to me. Here's where I play at putting pieces together before I make my final decisions. (sorry about the photo but it was taken at night with an overhead light on).

As I refine and start building the layers some pieces get discarded and others are added in to create balance or dimension etc. Here's the top layers beginning to take shape ....

..... and the base layer.

I love how the photo fits exactly in the watch frame ........

.. and the stamping on the little tags adds interest to the composition.

This even smaller tag is hidden away in the pocket.

It seems to have taken me ages to get the photos and post done this time but I'm really happy with the page.

 And here are my  'threes' -

and

 I hope you'll pop over to AVJ to see all the amazing inspiration we have for you and I hope you have a fabulous weekend whatever you have planned.

hugs Brenda xxx

Update
The lovely Susi from Froebelsternchen has suggested I link this to Art Journal Journey for their Magical Mystery Tour theme - the magic is there and I'm always wandering into the mystery of heritage photos and people so I'm off to link up. Thanks for the suggestion Susi xxx

watercolour tag with oxides

It's Friday #5 for March and when that happens over at AVJ we have a Tag Friday post (there are usually about 5 of them a year so are something that's just a little bit special).

Of course we get to create whatever we like so I had to have a vintage playtime. 

Don't you think the background looks a bit like an old very distressed wall paper?

I cut my own tag from a piece of heavy watercolour paper and stamped it using picket fence distress paint.

I dipped it several times in iced spruce and walnut stain oxides, drying inbetween dips, until I was happy with the background and then just blended a little of each colour around the edges. I also wiped over with a damp baby wipe which helped bring the pattern back to life.

To create the collage I gathered some ephemera from the new Tim Holtz collector layers set and from previous collections of his as well as some small paper offcuts and also I took one of Tim's paper dolls (kindly sent by a lovely friend I caught up with in Birmingham last month). I bought some of the gorgeous quote chips with the ephemera and chose one of them too.

Here you can see more of that background poking through around the girls' feet and the fabulous dimensional word chip.

I wanted that shabby vintage feel to this project so I added a  dyed seam binding bow and just glued it to the top.

I have to say I was really quite please with the effects.

I had dyed a piece of lace and gathered a couple of other bits to use but in the end I opted to keep it less cluttered as I really wanted that background to show through.

I'm so happy to have had this vintage playtime and use the oxides again, they really do have a wonderful chalky finish to them. For more amazing inspiration do pop over to the AVJ challenge blog to see what all the other amazing Creative Guides have made - you are sure to find something you like.

Have a great weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

Discovery - canvas board

Happy Friday

This board started life as 'let's use up this paste' panel. I had a mix of white modeling paste and sand texture paste left over from another project and just couldn't let it go to waste, so I grabbed Andy Skinner's fossil stencil and one from Seth Apter and just used up the remains and left the board to dry.

Once dry I decided to use this as my February challenge sample for A Vintage Journey where the lovely Jennie has chosen 'Special Words' as the theme for the month. With the stencilled ammonite shape and word suddenly a walk along the beach came to mind and memories of various places where I have picked up shells and discovered beautiful patterns and designs through sea creatures, footprints and the print of the waves left in the sand. So the start of my creation began to emerge in my head and I gathered a few bits together to get me more focussed in.

 The colour combination I have chosen was from a palette I found on Pinterest and I added grey to each one to tone them in with each other. As always by the time I had finished the background I had added more which included some cobalt blue hue and prussian blue.

To get some colour on the board I decided to use a brayer, I haven't used it much for a while and I used several colours layering over the top of each other to get this background.

Then I dribbled, dripped and finger painted in some washes of the same colours to fill in some of the gaps before brayering over with some titan buff and titanium white mixed together to lift it all again.
WHAT DID I LEARN? - That next time I will brayer the paints first and get the background colour on before adding the stencilled texture. Hmm I might be trying that over the weekend lol.

So now I wanted to highlight the textured areas, I decided to replace the fossil stencil and add embossing ink and gold embossing powder. Great but again WHAT DID I LEARN? - I should have brayered over the raised area first with a brayer and a gorgeous deep golden brown colour because the gold has touched most of the texture, not all of it.

So that's what I did with the number and word at the top with prussian blue. But no that didn't work either ....

.... so out came the fine brushes and the titanium white to add to the blue to fill in the gaps. Yay, more contrast this time. So I went over the fossil as well.

Onto to creating the feature and embellishments. First I decided to paint the shells gold.

Next came the little box and I got so carried away I forgot to take any more individual photos but here are some close ups. To make it work with the background I decided the outside needed to be blues and the inside the yellows, I used the fluid acrylics and they blended in beautifully over the wood and kept the rustic  effects.

At this point I changed my mind completely on the design that you saw at the beginning of the post and decided to carry the fossil shape further over on the board, I just laid the stencil down and rubbed over the embossing ink pad and gold embossing powder.

I rubbed a cornflower blue and the coffee archival ink pads around the edges and gave them a good blast with the heat gun before using an embossing pen to add some gold over the numbers nd around the edges.

I assembled the box using some muslin dipped in the prussian blue and adhered it to the canvas and glued the little crustacean piece on the top.

With an easel on the back this stands beautifully.

What do you think of when you read the word 'DISCOVERY" for me it makes me realise that I am still learning new things every day, it might be when I experimenting with my paints, inks and mediums, it maybe in a discussion or chat with a friend, it might be something from the tv or even better when I'm away on a trip or holiday - when I'm exploring and learning about the past history of the place.

Do you think I am now thinking ahead to warmer weather? I could do with some sun on my back right now but that's always the case when January is out of the way.

Looking forward to seeing the entries for this challenge and I highly recommend this post for some amazing inspiration from the Creative Guides.
Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your art.

hugs Brenda xxx

Tag Friday at AVJ

Yay it's Tag Friday over at A Vintage Journey and time for the Creative Guides to have some time to create a tag that is totally their own without any constraints whatsoever and I have to say I really enjoyed getting out some new (to me) dies from Seth Apter and my box of left over backgrounds to create one with a grungy, timeworn feel to it.

I cut the tag from a a piece of card that I had obviously been experimenting on using both my treasured DecoArt media fluid acrylic paints and much loved distress inks. Later I added some stamping using one of Seth's background stamps.

Using more leftovers I die-cut shapes that would fit together to make up a design and several of those shapes I cut several times to create strong, rigid pieces that when layered together produced a fabulous 3d feel.

I built up the focal section and then layered it using foam squares to create height and more dimension.

I love it when rusty elements can be created from dies and scraps of card on which I have had fun practising techniques to create timeworn effects .....

..... and when those pieces fit together quite naturally without too much effort.

The focal word came from Tim's Big Chat stickers and the only deciding factor for my choice of the word was it's length - it just fits neatly into the frame.

So there we have it .......

..... a battered, weathered construction that has a bit of an assemblage feel to it.

Thanks for coming over to see what I have made for the Tag Friday line up and do pop over to AVJ to see the most amazing inspirational pieces from the rest of the team.

hugs Brenda xxx