5 Minute Art Journaling Day 3

Hi Everyone!

My 5 minute journaling today was inspired by a wonderful visit to the Frida Kahlo exhibition with my daughter, at The V&A museum in London. It was amazing to see Frida's art, her beautiful clothes, and the awful corsets she had to wear after her many operations. Also lots of photos of her looking so beautiful. She really was an amazing and inspirational woman and artist in my opinion. The exhibition is well worth a visit if you can get to it.

Anyway, here's my page. I got a few elements ready this time, as the 5 minutes goes so quickly! It really is a rush! Hahaha!

Hoping to enter this page last minute for Chris' Art For Art's Sake Challenge at Art Journal Journey.

Hope you've had a great day too!

Alison xox

Five Minute Art Journaling and 365 Somethings

Hi Everyone!

This five minute art journaling is scary! What a mess I created today, and I confess I added more black splatters and outlined the word sticker after my time was up. I used paint, and mint & liquorice teabags that were lurking on my desk. Anyway, here is my spread for Day Two of SouthernGal's Challenge, and I'm also linking it to Art Journal Journey. It's definitely Art For Art's Sake! Hahaha!

I also have my seven teabags for Week 30 of the 365 Somethings Challenge to show you.

Painty scraps with black pen marks, torn pieces of Asian newspaper (that our presents from Beth and Gordon came wrapped in), paints marks stamped with Lego, and splatters made with a gold pen. 

A tip for you... If you want strong tea colour and marks, leave the pile of sodden teabags lying on a plate overnight, before squeezing, drying out and emptying.

Have a happy day,

Alison xox 

Southern Gal's 7 Day 5 Minute Art Journaling Instagram Challenge

Hello Folks! 

Over on Instagram, Tiffany of @Southerngals_designs has challenged us to create a 5 minute journal page a day, for the next seven days. Here's my Day One spread.  I'm using my little 6x4 inch art journal. I'm also sharing this page at Art Journal Journey.

I just used some paint and scraps that were on my desk, and teabags of course.

I went about 30 seconds over as my black paint pen hit some glue, and I had to re-activate it.

Also, most of you know that my daughter has just returned from 8 months of backpacking in SE Asia. We've been having wonderful catch-ups with her and my son (he went out to meet her in Myanmar for the last 3 weeks of her trip). Anyway, I just wanted to share some pics of the bunting I made for the big homecoming.

I used some really bright Gelli Plate prints, to which I added lots of extra stencilling.

Beth will being staying at home with us until September, when she is off to Derby to begin her working life as an engineer with Rolls Royce.

Wishing you all a happy and creative Sunday,

Alison xox

Hours Not Days!

Hi Everyone! I've been counting down for weeks, and it's now only one more sleep until our daughter arrives back in the UK. The house is clean, the fridge is full of salad, fruit and beer, so I did some art journaling in my little 6x4 inch book.

I collaged some music text and partial teabags, covered with gesso, added 3 more teabags, book text circles, lots of doodles with Posca Paint Pens, and some text from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

I'm linking my pages to Chris' Art For Art's Sake Challenge at Art Journal Journey, and also to the Book Paper Challenge at Try It On Tuesday.

Until next time,

Alison xox

365 Somethings - Week 29

Hello Folks! I'm a day early with my 365 Somethings for week 29 of the challenge. I even scheduled the post, as we're busy getting our daughter's room cleaned and ready for her return from South East Asia this week. I'm so excited to see her again! Eight months is an awfully long time!!!

These are pretty simple, PaperArtsy images stamped and white embossed, then colour added with PaperArtsy Infusions.

My favourite. I think this teabag was a peppermint one...

Happy Sunday!

Alison xox

Hearts and Butterflies

Hello Everyone! I'm back today with another page for Chris' 'Art For Art's Sake' Challenge at Art Journal Journey.

For those of you wondering where the teabags were on my last page, today's one was literally covered with them! I spread some DecoArt Crackle Paste with a palette knife, then stencilled some hearts with a That's Crafty dinky stencil. I adhered a music page hand-cut heart, and a couple of my 365 Something's stencilled teabags with France Papillon butterflies, then I finished with some Tim Holtz rub-ons and painty splatters. 

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend,

Alison xox

Art For Art's Sake - It's Weird Not To Be Weird

Hello Everyone. I've got another art journal page to share today, for Chris' Art For Art's Sake Challenge at Art Journal Journey, on which I used the 'Weird Is Good' stamp set by Dina Wakley, that I recently bought. I love the quirky circle images and phrases!

I used PaperArtsy Fresco Chalk Acrylics in Caribbean Sea, Claret and Gold, some Julie Balzer and PaperArtsy masks, and added shading with a black Stabilo pencil.

Hope you're all having an arty day!

Alison xox

365 Somethings - Week 28

Hello Everyone! It's still sweltering here (for the UK anyway). I've been hiding indoors, apart from popping the tortoises out into their garden pen, and topping up the water in the bird bath. I caught up with two of my favourite TV shows this morning, The Handmaid's Tale and Agents Of Shield, then I decorated my seven teabags for week 28 of the 365 Somethings Challenge.

I started by adding a base and some stencilled designs, using my large Gelli Plate and PaperArtsy Fresco Acrylics. I added some splashes of black Bombay Ink, then printed with plastic aida and Snowflake Fresco. I pulled a beautiful ghost print from the Gelli Plate, on which I stamped the Finnabair butterflies. The Finnabair phrases were stamped on the edge of a book page, cut out, then glued to the teabags along with the butterflies.

Here's the ghost Gelli Print I stamped the butterflies on. The masks I used are by PaperArtsy and Carabelle Studio.

Wishing you all a happy and creative Monday!

Alison xox

Playtime with Paint Skins in my Art Journal

Hello Everyone! I had a little play in my gelli-print journal this morning.

I first added a couple of extra paint layers with Slate and Turquoise Fresco Acrylic, then added some scraps of painty paper and book page, a decorated teabag, and a few marks with Posca paint pens. I also added some paint skins that I peeled off my brayer handle whilst cleaning it (you can see one on the right, in the photo below), then finished with some messy journalling.

I'm linking up to Chris' Art For Art's Sake challenge at Art Journal Journey.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

Alison xox

Mixed Media Birthday Card

Hi Everyone! Tonight I have a birthday card to share with you, that I made for my very best friend Karen. 

I used to enjoy cross stitching a few years ago until the mixed media art took over, and I recently found a few little pieces I'd made. I had intended to make cards with them, but they got forgotten. Anyway, I picked this little garden bench picture that I knew my friend would love, and teamed it up with a gelli print.

Can you spot the tiny butterflies? I'm going to enter my card at the Moo Mania & More 'Butterflies' Challenge.

Happy week!

Alison xox

PaperArtsy Challenge - Topic 12 - Transfers

Hi Everyone. I'm sharing a project over on the PaperArtsy Blog tonight, using transfer techniques on clay. Here's a peek, you can see my full project tutorial HERE.

Thanks for dropping by,

Alison xox

365 Somethings Week 27

Hello Folks! 

I almost forgot to do my teabag art this week! I blame it on the heatwave, it's been too much for me, especially the hot and sticky nights when I can't sleep. Anyway, I did remember eventually, and here are my 7 teabags for week 27 of the 365 Somethings Challenge.

A bit of gesso, a spot of cobalt teal hue acrylic spritzed with water, green gold printed with bubblewrap, a scrap of book page, some dried paint blobs, and finally, a few splatters of black and iridescent bronze paint.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

Teabag Art Journal Page

Hi Everyone! Here's a journal page I made a couple of days ago, which started off with the same background as my this page. By the way, thanks for all the lovely comments you left for that page, they were much appreciated.

Another page for Chris' Art For Art's Sake Challenge at Art Journal Journey, with lots of layers of collage, stencilling, stamping, splashes and drips. I used one of my teabags from my 365 Somethings week 26 collection.

Hope you're surviving the Summer heatwave, I've been hiding from it mostly!

Happy weekend,

Alison xox

Taking Risks

Greetings to all my lovely followers, and a very Happy Independence Day to my American friends.

Today, I'm sharing another art journal page with Chris' 'Art For Art's Sake' Challenge at Art Journal Journey. 

My inspiration was taken from an AJ video tutorial by Leanne Jago, using lots of DecoArt Media products I haven't used in a while, including Antiquing Cream and Interference paint. I also used Dina Wakley and That's Crafty stencils, and DW stamps.

Happy Wednesday Everyone!

Alison xox

365 Somethings 2018 - Week 26

Hello folks. Today I'm sharing my weekly teabag art for week 26 of the 365 Somethings challenge. We're already halfway through the year, it's crazy!

Today I've used some collage scraps that were lurking on my desk, stapling them on. Then I sewed on buttons with embroidery thread and added black paint splatters. I also used a sepia pen to circle a word on the book paper that I added to each teabag.

Thanks for dropping by my blog,

hope you have a great week,

Alison xox

Art Journal Calendar July 2018

Welcome to July everyone! I'm here today, to share my art journal calendar pages for the coming month.

I used my DecoArt Traditions acrylic paints for the first time in a while, a couple of blues and greens, to create a layered and stencilled background. Then I die-cut some tickets from some contrasting gelli-prints. I used various PaperArtsy stamps for my title, and to frame the pages, and I finished with some white highlights and splatters.

I'm linking my page to the new 'Art For Art's Sake' Challenge by Chris on Art Journal Journey.

Alison xox