Halloween Journal pages

I couldn't let October go past without recording Halloween in my visual journal, so here is a double spread to mark the occasion.

You might remember that my journal is in fact an old book called the 'Roadmender' and to get started I pasted in some tissue wrap using matte medium.

I painted on DecoArt media acrylics and before it dried properly I rubbed over with a babywipe to remove the intensity of the colour but still leave enough on to create a darkish background. See how you can still see the book text underneath?

I dried with a heatgun and then finger painted over some contrasting colours,smudging them to create interest.

Next I dipped the pages in watery picket fence distress paint, let it move around the page and heat dried......

.... and then randomly stamped some cobwebs using black archival ink and stencilled the arrows using gesso and a piece of sponge.

 Now to introduce some further colour - I applied water soluble wax pastel over the arrows, dabbed with water and coloured over with chalk pastel pencils.

Taking a sketch and wash pencil I added shadow around them and darkened the edges more with woodless charcoal pencils, this created more interest and focus.

Onto filling up the pages and die-cuts seemed my best option to create the atmosphere and give me the bold images I wanted. Once adhered I set about using white and black charcoal and aquatone pencils to shade and colour until I was happy with the balance and depth to the pages.

I stamped 'beware' and used black modelling paste and a stencil for the 'halloween' and then added more texture with silver embossing paste and the dot fade stencil.

Did you notice the lights are on in the house?

 Having used Ranger, DecoArt, Studio 490 and Derwent products and had fun painting, daubing, rubbing, colouring and texturing the pages I am pretty pleased with the results. This is #37 in my Visual Journal, there is very little room left in the book and the pages are bulging but it is the first ever one I have completely filled so I am feeling rather proud of myself too.

Thanks for stopping by on this wet and miserable day here in Surrey, have a gresat weekend.

hugs Brenda xxx

A Visual Journey #35

A season of mists and mellow fruitfulness

Continuing some experimentation with brusho crystal colours I have another autumnal double page in my Visual Journal using Tim stamps.

Both the background and the stamped papers were made using the powder spritzed with water technique and the wrinkle free technique together layering and blending colours and heat drying in between each layer.

I love the intensity of the colours and although they fade a bit when heat drying they really do hold the vibrancy and depth of the pigment producing some stunning results.

What I have found though that too much water with the spritzing creates very diluted colour that I am not so keen on.

I was going to paint some of the areas of the stamping in with a waterbrush bit I think it might well have spoiled it so I resisted (I must be learning when to say enough is enough before overdoing it).

I put the pages together collage style ......

... adding printed autumnal sayings ....

 

... and creating a riot of colour that I love.

The leaves on the trees in the garden have just suddenly deepened and remind me of the tones on these pages.

Thanks for stopping and taking a peek at my ongoing visual journey.

hugs Brenda xxx

Visual Journey #34

My first experiments with Brusho crystal colours.

At Ally Pally last weekend I sat at a make and take table to have a play with Brusho colours. I have used them in the past for simple watercolouring with 11 year olds but never really experimented and played for myself. In fact I had completely forgotten about them until they started becoming popular on the blogs. The colours are so vibrant, I love them.

Using pre-stamped and white embossed watercolour paper given to me and with two layers of brushos spritzed with water I was quite pleased with the effects so I've had a quick play in my visual altered journal and this time used black embossing powder and just a small range of colours that I bought to experiment with.

I prepared an A4 piece of  textured acrylic paper spritzing the brushos and then completing with a wrinkle free technique leaving some white space.The leaves are Tim's framelits stamped and die-cut.

When I saw these photos together the background colours reminded of blackberries - don't ask me why!!!!

I'm obviously still in that transition mode from summer to autumn with the greener colours behind the very autumnal leaves.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope your week is going well.

hugs Brenda xxx

A Visual Journey #33 with DecoArt fluid acrylics.

Everyday Moments

You know when you go through a bereft period with your art work? Well that's how I have been with my altered journal and my Visual Journey is in a hiatus as I have not had any new ideas for ages. So this week I got out an old gelli print and decided to play with my DecoArt paints.

I cut the print in half and added a piece to either page and using one of the large DecoArt stencils I sprayed through with my new ground espresso distress spray. Not wanting the ink to blend with another layer I sprayed it will spray and shine and left it to dry.

Over that I added modelling paste through a stencil and then played with the DecoArt paints until I was happy with the results and dabbed on a little postbox red and london blue dylusions inks to bring in some other hues.

I had some die-cut houses and played with paints over them using cadmium red hue, quinacridone red, phthalo green-blue, hansa yellow, dairylide yellow, phthalo blue and titan buff and I added some stamping to create more depth and texture. The quote is one of Tim's stamps.

Taking some stars and arrows die-cuts, I painted them black and used water soluble wax pastels to edge and shadow them.

The Tim sentiment was the last to be added.

I'm pleased to get creating in my visual journal again, let's see if I can keep it going.

Enjoy the rest of the week and have a great weekend. I will hopefully see those of you who are going to Ally Pally this weekend, I shall be popping in on Saturday and Sunday. Don't spend too much lol.

hugs Brenda xxx

A Visual Journey #32

Inspired by Wendy Vecchi

Following the fabulous day we had with Wendy Vecchi on the 2nd August in London I was so inspired by her style I just had to interpret it into some journal pages. I don't have too much of Wendy's products so I have incorporated stamps and stencils from Tim and other places to get the effects I wanted

Having painted gesso over the pages and let it dry I dipped them in spun sugar, dried marigold, tattered rose and aged mahogany distress paints.

Then dipped them in a small amount of hickory smoke and gathered twigs distress inks.....

.... and then stamped one of Tim's stamps from the distress damask set in black archival, covered with black embossing powder and heat set. Used a stencil and vintage photo DI and Tim's chevron stencil using victorian velvet and hickory smoke to create the top border (WV style).'

I stamped using Wendy's 'fashion style and art' set and coloured in with rusty hinge and ripe persimmon distress markers and painted it with a small brush and water. 

For the other page I stamped her dress form from a 'form of art' set onto an off cut left from another project and then blended abandoned coral and victorian velvet over edging with walnut stain. 

Stamping the base from one of Tim's stamps and drawing a line up I was able to provide a stand for it. The sentiment is one of Wendy's.

Finally I added some text stamping in the background, stamped and cut spools (Tims), used a white posca pen to add some details on the stamped elements and a black posca to do faux stitching round the edges.

I really enjoyed making these pages, I'm not sure Wendy would consider them her style but it was she who inspired me to make them.

Thanks for stopping by today to share in my Visual Journey for 2015. My old altered book is really filling up and it's already amazing looking back over what I have created. If you have been following or joining in then I will add a linky again next month, it's just that it has been so busy over the summer I haven't had much time to visit or comment, but I am ,looking forward to getting back into that routine.

Enjoy the last few days of this week and look for inspiration all around you.

Take care.

hugs Brenda xxx

Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

Francis of Assisi

A Visual Journey #31

I am on another of my inspiration visits today off to another blog and wonderfully creative journal pages I found and pinned on Pinterest. This time it's to Living the Creative Life with Shelley R Chavis and a Documented Life project she did. I do urge you to pop over to Shelley's blog to see hers and how she made the pages and you will see what I took as inspiration to make my own. This is my version.

I began by spraying vibrant turquoise dylusions spray through a mask, turning it over to use the ink on the back as well on my pages and not wasting it. I painted in some random areas of lime green acrylic paint and stamped my bees using watering can archival ink.

I took a piece of left over card that has some mottled green inks on it and sprayed through two stencils using ocean pie and lemon zest dylusions inks, then cut them up and added to the pages.

I shadowed the coloured strips with a black inktense pencil and waterbrushed round and punched some circles and an oval to add more interest. I also used the inktense pencils to colour in the bees. I took Shelley's advice and did some doodle sewing around the edges using the sewing machine, it is definitely something I need to practice more.

Next I made a flower petal and butterfly for each page by running some card through an embossing folder, layering on oil pastels and dabbing over with festive berries/peacock feathers distress stains and spritzing them with water before heat blasting them. I ran my hickory smoke distress ink pad around the edges - I do love this new colour.

It was just a question of  gathering a few other bits to add to the pages, printing out a quote that I found, assembling the pages together  .....

... and adding them into my journal.

So there we have my pages made taking inspiration from Shelley - her pages are very different and beautiful so please pop over to see what she did and check out all her process steps. Thank you Shelley for inspiring me to get some bright colours out and challenging me to make something of my own but I can still see the Shelley influences. I love what I created, these pages are so different for me.

This post and the next few are scheduled as I am off to Lanzarote today with the family. I hope you are enjoying some quality time with people you love and also getting in some wonderful creative time too.

Take care and enjoy your own crafty endeavours.

hugs Brenda xxx