Butterfly flourish......

I'm working in my large Dylusions journal which gave me lots of space to create this pretty (but not too pretty) journal spread.

The spread is made up of flowers left over from a previous project (hate to see them going to waste!) and a few butterflies created with one of the new Bright Rosa dies designed by Paula Pascual.
As soon as I saw the large butterfly I new it would look great with my big flowers so I bought it, along with the large fern die which will put in appearance soon I think....
When I started creating this spread I'd added big flowers (from JOYF73 and JOFY72) but decided they hid too much of the lovely swirly flourished background so I took them off in favour of the background.

I suspended the large butterfly on a piece of acetate so that when the pages are opening it 'flutters' on the surface.

I made the smaller butterflies 'solid' by die cutting a butterfly cut from book text.  I painted this with Pearl Glaze - this gave a shimmer to the butterfly and worked as an adhesive to attach the book text butterfly to the black open work butterfly.  win win!

Hope this inspires you to use your 'waste' pieces and turn them into something lovely.

Here's what I used:
Die:  'Butterfly Band', Bright Rosa
Stamps: JOFY61, JOFY75,
Paints:  Fresco Finish in Butternut, Cerise, Sherbet, Snowflake.

Thanks for stopping by

Remedy for a wintery day...

... a wintery day in JUNE!!  The heating has kicked in and I'm wearing a cardigan and socks! (and other clothes obviously but those noted are the NOT usual clothes for JUNE! in the UK!)... what is going on!!

Aaaanyhoo as a tonic to the dismal weather I sketched, stamped, painted and doodled this summery journal spread in my large Dylusions journal.

Stamps: in background, flower from JOFY77
Paints:  Cerise, Butternut, Snowflake, Stone, Caribbean Sea, Hint of Mint.
Pencils:  Faber Castell Polychromos


Thanks for stopping by

Ombre Art Journal pages...

I bought the Creative Expression 'Bluebird Edger' die a few months ago.  Its a clever die - cuts positive and negative elements, the bird's and butterfly's wings are cut so they lift away from the cut panel - its clever.

I made a couple of cards using the die but what I really had in mind to create was a tip in page in my small art journal... and ombre journal spread.

I love how dramatic the die cut looks against the hot colours of the ombre background (Cerise, Coral and Butternut).

I really wanted to keep the clean and simple look of the spread - otherwise the die-cut get 'lost' (imho) and so I only added a few flowers to the left hand page.

These Sizzix Thinlit dies (Wildflower 664163) are great silhouettes.  I added a single stem to the inside of the right hand page positioning it so it couldn't be seen until the tipped in die cut page was turned.

Its a relatively simple spread but it packs a punch!  I might have to try another one - maybe with a vintage vibe...

I'm not sure I ever put the cards I made here on the blog so here they are (just in case)...

Thanks for stopping by

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.. No' 2...

... another journal spread with touches of neon paint (and why not!)... 

I wanted to create a spread using one of my new word stamps (JOFY68) and one of the reasons I chose these particular words is that they can be used at other times than christmas (except for 'christmas' obviously!)

This spread is a bit 'motivational' -  and I like how all the different fonts mix together..

Paint splatters, die cutting, flowers (JOFY62) and some Tim Holtz Small Talk stickers make for a nice less-is more-spread - well, I say less is more but the background is made up of layers of writing (painted over), stenciling, a splattering of stamping, painting around the edges and then the main images.... 

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

JoFY Bingo Wk.14

Happy Monday everyone!  This week's Bingo numbers are 18 and 60!  These sets are at opposite ends of the JOFY range but I think I can still make them work together...

I started out by making a card using Distress Oxides (yummy!)....

and I thought I would make more... but then I spotted the little sign stamp on JOFY18! and thought how good it might look with the flowers on JOFY60... so I made a fairly quick, clean&simple journal spread..

I'm really enjoying art journaling at the moment and it might be because
1. I really like the size of this journal - its the small Dylusions journal
2. Its almost full! and I'm keen to finish it!

The blobby 'trees' in the background are a stencil by The Crafter's Workshop called 'Mini pods on sticks' (ref TCW546s) - I really like the way they look with the flowers... hhhmm would look great with doodles on them don't you think?!

I used Fresco paints and Tombow brush markers for colour, and paper piecing for flowers.

Another week of Bingo done!  If you have the stamps and want to join in then please do.

Thanks for stopping by..

JoFY Bingo Wk.13

Woo hoo!  Its Bingo time again!  Two flower sets this week - 25 & 33

Another journal spread...

I started on a page in my journal which was a clean up spread - one where I'd wiped a brush/gelli plate/roller clean - and it was not pretty! lol 
I painted over it using a slightly dry babywipe (leaving some of that 'nasty' showing through to add depth) using Snowflake & Sea Glass - one of the lovely new Fresco Finish colours by Courtney Franich.
If you haven't seen them yet - here they are:

l to r, starting at the top: Mustard Pickle, Lemon Meringue, Mulled Wine, Peach Nectar, Blah-mange, Vintage Lace, Twilight, Surf's up, Pine Grove, Sea Glass, Koala, Eggshell.

I used Sea Glass and Snowflake on the background and then for the stenciled thistles I mixed Koala and Slate (irl Koala is lighter than shown on the photo) to get a mid grey colour.  The die cut stems are painted in shades of Peach Nectar mixed with Snowflake. The small 'flowers' are painted with Snowflake and Blah-mange.

The Thistle stencil is from the lovely people at Stencil Girl Products - if you're a stencil fan go visit their site - sooooo many stencils! lol

I coloured the stems with FaberCastell polychromos pencils - very relaxing to just sit and colour isn't it. :o)

OK, feeling good - 2 more weeks done and dusted - I am back on track....

I've been doing a bit of planning for the Bingo project - seeing where it will now finish because of the unscheduled breaks... it finishes (IF I don't take anymore unscheduled breaks...) on the 31st December!!!  How neat and tidy is that!  Couldn't've planned it better if I tried! lol

Thanks for stopping by, hope to see you next week...

Take care

Size doesn't matter...

... when it comes to art journals... this one is at the smaller end of the scale....

This is my mini midori style journal, made with off-cuts left over from when I created a batch of leather bound journals for christmas 2017.

I've added a pencil to show the size of the journal - pages are approximately 5x5cm - not as mini as some journals out there but mini enough for me! lol

Its really a tiny junk journal created with 'HappyScraps' - those discarded pieces that are too nice to throw away...

(this is a flower from JOFY61, and I've doodled around the edges to make it larger.... nice!)

 ooooh doodling in white rather than black

Still enjoying working with watercolour paint - and I really like how different they look on different surfaces  - above is on canvas and below is on Smoothy card...

I coloured this page with Tombow brush pens (I like those A LOT) and then added some neon gel pen marks - it all looks quite subtle and 'normal' until its placed under a UV lamp!!!!

Here is the same page - left is daylight, right is UV light - crazy!!  Love it!
(could easily write secret messages only seen under UV light....... lol)

Working in this book was a lot of fun - no pressure - the pages are a bit 'goldilocks' - not too big, not too small - they were just right!

Have a go at working small - its fun - trust me! 

Thanks for popping by!