Incorporate your own sketches into a collage 3

 Pen and Ink sketches on distress ink backgrounds with collage.

POTENTIAL

Following up two posts earlier in January (see links below) this is #3 in my pen and ink, flowers and seed heads, collages journal. It is dated 27/02/21.

I love seed heads, I pick them in the wild, I save seeds from the garden and grow them and I love drawing them.

Poppy seed heads always make me happy to look at and .... to gather the hundreds of tiny seeds that fall from those beautiful pods.

Like the previous 2 collages in this collection I have used papers, ephemera, die-cuts and a focus word.

Thanks for looking.

xx

Links to previous collages

 CREATE

http://www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com/2025/01/during-pandemic-i-did-very-little-art.html

CONSERVATION

http://www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com/2025/02/incorporate-your-own-sketches-into.html

Incorporate your own sketches into a collage 2

Pen and Ink sketches on distress ink backgrounds with collage.

CONSERVATION

Following up a post earlier in January (see link below) this is #2 in my pen and ink, flowers and seed heads, collages journal. It is dated 24/02/21.

The drawing is on a distress ink panel .....

.... incorporated with papers, ephemera, tag, die-cut leaves and word.

The stars on the bird ephemera have been stamped.

Thanks for looking.

xx

Link to first collage CREATE

http://www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com/2025/01/during-pandemic-i-did-very-little-art.html

Framed pen and ink over gesso #2

A quick share today of the second of my pen and ink over gesso media boards which I have mounted in a deep Ikea frame but reversed it to look more like a shadow box. If you missed the first one you can see it here.

Again I have used a Tando Creative media board .....

.... and black sharpie pen ...

.... with DecoArt media acrylics to give me the light colour wash.

I really like the quirkiess of putting the art in back to front , it really works for me.

Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful week.

hugs Brenda xxx

Pen and ink over gesso

I had this idea that I wanted to do some pen and ink drawings over gesso and decided to revisit the dandelions and seed head drawings I did earlier in the year - (here) and this is what I came up with.

I took a Tando Creative media board and scraped gesso over it with a palette knife and let it dry - I did help it along a little bit with a heat gun 'cos when I when I get an idea I want to get going on it - impatient me????? I then took a thin sharpie pen and set about drawing, I was really pleased how well the sharpie drew over the textured surface.

I took a small text stamp and black archival and stamped over the bottom of the image and even added a little of my own writing to help out the balance of it.

Now came the test - will it cope with water being spritzed all over it? Yay, yep it was absolutely fine and having mixed my own custom colours of DecoArt media paint I just dripped them into the water and they spread around beautifully. In some cases I spritzed a little more and dabbed away with a dry paper towel as well.

I wanted the edges to be vintaged and create a frame around the board so I sanded all round and then blended ground espresso distress ink along all four sides. I flicked on a little water to distress it more before heat drying. 

I finished by painting the stems very lightly and dried it off. When full dry I sprayed with Americana gloss spray.

The frame is one from Ikea which has deep sides and for some reason (I don't know why!!!!) I decided to turn it back to front to add the media board so it sits in the recess with the glass over it and the little metal retainers are on show. You know what I really quite like it.

I think I might try some more and make a set of them.

Thanks for stopping by, have a great week and wishing all my American friends a great 4th of July.

hugs Brenda xxx

Dandelion inspiration

I promised to show you how my muse took me off onto a completely different path after covering Beckah Krahula's Wanderlust lesson. If you missed my tangled journalling post you can see it here.

 I have been saving photos, paintings and drawings of dandelions, aliums and seed heads to a Pinterest board for quite some time and the shapes of these natural beauties intrigue me.

So I used my new found motivation and interest to doodle draw some of these shapes on small pieces of card ....

and made a new folder for them. 

As you can see there is no zentangling but that's where the inspiration came from to sit and have fun with pens, line, shape and perspective.

I even made my own reference drawings and notes on the back for future use.

I had made the cover from some paper that I had dipped and sprayed with bisters so I did the same to some good quality card that take the washes well and cut them up into the same size as my little learning cards and I am now playing with my designs over the top of the colour wash backgrounds ....

.... and I have plenty cut ready to pick up this little folder when I am sitting quiet and wanting something non-messy to do.

Who knows, you might see some of these turn up on my journal pages sometime.

If you are inspired to have a go at doodle drawing do let me know here or on facebook as I would love to see what you create.

See you tomorrow to find out who is the winner of my little give-away.

hugs Brenda xxx

Wanderlust Tangled Journaling

Part of the Wanderlust journey is to look at zentangles, a perspective from Beckah Krahula and although I don't consider myself to be a zentangler in any way, shape or form I was very interested in her processes and ways of keeping her zentangle experiments and ideas together. She uses what she calls decks and going through the videos I was totally taken in by her love of line, colour and experimentation creating little 'packs' of cards that remind her of a time, place or feeling in her life as well as the practice she puts in to create her wonderful work. She is a teacher and author and her work can be found on the internet. If you like doodling I recommend you go find out about her.

 

I've made several of her folders and added a cover to mine ....

 ... it fits right round the folder and allows me to put a belly band over it to keep it closed.

I've been playing with Beckah's ideas making a little pen guide and experimenting with a study in line to begin with .......

 I got so involved I ended making a whole deck of cards from her teaching.

... even adding my own notes on the reverse so I can just pick up the little folder and have  a way to remind myself of the learning.

 I think these study cards and practices will be useful when I want to pick up some pattern making and doodling again.

 And here is the little folder, closed up and ready to keep in a folder for another day.

Now as I said I am not a zentangler but I love little drawings and this work inspired me to go off in my own direction of creating another little folder with some simple designs I could use on journal pages. Pop back on Friday to see what I have been playing at....... oh and don't forget Friday is the last day to enter my give-away - see the details on my side bar.

Thanks for reading and sharing something different for me.

hugs Brenda xxx