31 Products Challenge

Hi Everyone!

It's the final day of the 31 Products Challenge, and I have a journal page to share, with photos of the different steps.

Days 27 & 28 - I sprinkled some PaperArtsy Infusions onto a gessoed page, then used a palette knife to apply PaperArtsy Metallic Glaze all over. Then I wiped it away through a Prima stencil.

Day 29 - I coloured the wiped away areas with a brown Derwent Inktense Pencil, and activated with water.

Day 30 - I added some die-cut Gelli Plate prints.

Day 31 - I drew a flower, using Lumiere Light Body Metallic Acrylic in pearl turquoise. The bottle has a fine tip applicator. Before the paint dried, I pushed a button into the flower centre.

That's it for the challenge, which was great fun! To finish my page, I added a quote and some black Bombay Ink splatters and drips.

I'm entering my page in Try It On Tuesday's Thankful Challenge.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

Try It On Tuesday Challenge - Thankful

Hi Everyone! Today, I'm thrilled to be a guest designer over at Try It On Tuesday, for their Thankful Challenge.

I created an art journal page for the challenge.

I started with some collaged book paper scraps, then painted over these with a thin layer of gesso. I used DecoArt Acrylic sprays with a heart stencil, then added scribbled outlines with black Bombay India Ink. I stencilled some more with contrasting turquoise and gold metallic paint, did some doodling, hand-wrote the sentiment, then finished with some painty splatters.

Thanks for visiting! I hope you'll also pop over to TIOT's Blog, to see what their amazing team have created, and don't forget to join in with the challenge.

Alison xox

365 Somethings Week 43

Hello Everyone! As usual, I have some Teabag Art to share with you today, for Week 43 of I Hanna's & Daisy Yellow's 365 Somethings Challenge.

I got inspired to use some images of eyes, by Tiffany aka Southern Gal's live video on YouTube today. I cut the eyes from magazine pages, adhered them over stencilled chalk paint flowers, then just doodled with pencils and a white paint pen.

Hope you've had a creative day too!

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

Home Comforts

Hi Everyone! Today I have another page build up for Birgit Koopsen's 31 Products Challenge on Instagram.

Day 21 - Collaged Under-Papers

Day 22 - DecoArt Sand Texture Paste scraped through a stencil

Day 23 - DecoArt Traditions Quinacridone Gold Acrylic Paint, a thin wash applied all over

Day 24 - Swiped an embossing ink pad over the texture, then used Stampendous Frantage Shabby White EP to emboss

Day 25 - Pebeo Prisme Fantasy Paint, Turquoise and English Red. As these paints are rather old, there wasn't the usual effect of the colours mingling and creating cells sadly

Day 26 - Highlighted the diamonds with a black Stabilo Aquarellable all surface pencil, and used a wet paintbrush to activate. Then I finished with a book text quote.

As home is always a comfort, I'm entering my page in Linda's Creature Comforts Challenge at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks so much for visiting. Wishing you all a very happy Sunday.

Alison xox

365 Somethings - Week 42

Hi Everyone! As promised, I'm back again this morning, with my teabag art for 365 Somethings Week 42.

I must say, I really enjoyed putting these together! For each teabag, I stapled together some small pieces of map, music sheet, notebook page, and envelope, then simply stapled each one to a teabag. I found some Friendly Plastic charms, I'd created using moulds many eons ago, and used them to embellish the collages.

Here's a close up of the dragonfly...

And I really love this leaf... appropriate for the season I thought, and suitable for the Moo-Mania Autumn Challenge I hope...

Thank you so much for dropping by,

and I wish you all a wonderful week!

Alison xox

31 Products Challenge - Days 13 - 20

Hi Everyone! I've been a bad blogger this last week! Colds do that don't they? They zap your mojo. I've still been keeping up with the 31 Products Challenge on Instagram though, and I've a page and all the steps to show you today.

Day 13 - Fibre Paste

Day 14 - Alcohol Ink

Day 15 - Mica Flakes

Day 16 - Faber-Castell Whipped Spackle

Day 17 - Inktense Blocks (various blue shades, used to add watercolour to the whipped spackle)

Day 18 - Tim Holtz Rub Ons

Day 19 - Paper Flowers, & Day 20 - Dr PH Martin's Bombay India Ink (drops added to the paper flowers)

I also finished my page with a Tim Holtz quote sticker, and splatters of black India Ink.

Keeping up with this challenge has been such a comfort to me this week, so I hope it's ok to link this page to Linda's Creature Comforts Challenge at Art Journal Journey.

I'll be back soon with my latest teabag art. This Monday morning has been a productive one, and all before 8am!

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

365 Somethings - Week 41

Hi Everyone! 

This week I experimented with using some clear tar gel on my teabags. Whilst they were still wet, I dripped some alcohol inks on, then left them to dry for 24 hours. The tar gel made the teabags transparent, so I painted the backs with white gesso. I outlined the alcohol ink colours with white paint pen. I added collage circles and word stickers, then finished with black pen outlines around them.

The clear tar gel was an interesting experiment, I've had it in my stash for a long time!

It's wet and dark and miserable here, but my cold is gradually going thankfully.

Happy Monday,

Alison xox

31 Product Challenge - Days 9, 10, 11 & 12

Hello Everyone! Today I'm sharing a page that I built up over 4 days for the 31 Products Challenge.

Day 9 - DecoArt Crackle Paste - I prepped my page with a page from my London A-Z, and added white gesso. Then I used a palette knife to apply the crackle paste, and used a bottle top to make some circles in it.

Day 10 - Walnut Ink - I lightly spritzed the walnut ink through an alphabet stencil, added some splashes and drips, and highlighted the circles.

Day 11 - Portfolio Water-Soluble Oil Pastels - I added some colour to the circles using two shades of blue oil pastels, and blended them with a wet paintbrush.

Day 12 - Rubber Stamps - The Postie brought me a lovely PaperArtsy stamp set by Sara Naumann, so today I inked some of the stamps up and finished my page.

I linking my bumblebee page up to Linda's Creature Comforts Challenge at Art Journal Journey. I've been suffering with a horrible cough and cold the last couple of days, and managing to make a little art has really helped.

Happy Friday! Hope you're all well, have a lovely weekend.

Alison xox

365 Somethings - Week 40

Hi Everyone! I forgot all about my teabags this week, only remembered today! So here's my teabag art for week 40 of the 365 Somethings Challenge.

I still had my acrylic inks out from my last post, so after I'd prepped the bags with white gesso, I brayered some brightly coloured inks onto them. Then I added one drop of black acrylic ink to each bag, and had a lot of fun tipping them to let the ink run randomly in different directions. I used a white paint pen to add marks, then finished with splatters of gold acrylic ink.

I'm still doing the 31 Products Challenge, but at the moment I'm building up a page with different products daily, so I'll share the steps when it's finished.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

Warm and Cuddly Aliens?

Morning All! For today's 31 Product Challenge, I got out my acrylic inks. I used mostly Amsterdam Inks, but one was Liquitex. I'm going to try not to let these gather dust again, as they look fabulous!

I started with some pieces of book page, covering them with a thin layer of gesso. Then I drew circles, using the acrylic ink droppers, lifting my journal to let the the inks drip. I then spritzed with water and let that drip too. I used permanent red violet light, azo orange, reflex yellow, and deep gold Amsterdam inks, and quinacridone magenta Liquitex ink. I finished with some book text, layered on gold mesh.

My son reckoned he could see aliens in this. Well, we did watch the first episode of the new Doctor Who together last night! It/She was amazing by the way! ;-)

I'm linking my warm and cuddly aliens to Linda's Creature Comforts Challenge at Art Journal Journey.

Happy Monday to you all!

Alison xox

31 Products Challenge - Days 6 and 7

Hi Everyone! I have a couple more pages to share for the 31 Products Challenge.

My page for Day 6 features Liquitex Glass Bead Gel. I used drips of watered down red paint to highlight the fabulous texture.

And for Day 7, I've used vintage book pages to make a collage, then used a wet paintbrush to create splatters off a charcoal stick. I also used the charcoal stick to outline the words on a piece of vintage paper from an old book belonging to my engineer hubby. I activated the charcoal with a wet paintbrush. I've stencilled on some numbers with black paint and a PaperArtsy stencil. I've always preferred to solve mathematical problems against writing essays, so I'm entering this page for the Art Journal Journey Creature Comforts Challenge.

Hope you've all had a great weekend,

thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

31 Products Challenge - Day 5 - Black Gesso

Hello Everyone! 

Today I used black gesso for the 31 Products Challenge. Acrylic paint colours look amazing on top of the black, but you have to remember to use opaque paint. I created an ombre effect with PaperArtsy Fresco Acrylics and a Seth Apter stencil, outlining with a white Posca Paint Pen.

Happy Friday,

Alison xox

31 Products Challenge - Day 4

Hello Folks! Today I am using heavy body paint for Birgit's 31 Products Challenge.

I used Daler Rowney and Golden Heavy Body Acrylics. I had these in my stash, but they don't get used a great deal, hardly ever in fact. I applied them with a palette knife, then used the end of a paintbrush to draw circles. Circles are my comfort, go to shape, so I'm entering my page in Linda's 'Creature Comforts' Challenge at Art Journal Journey. I finished with another fab found phrase from a book page. I love this one!

Have a happy day,

Alison xox

October Art Journal Calendar & 31 Products

Hi Everyone! It's a new month (well, 3 days in!), so today I'm sharing my art journal calendar for October.

I started by using my finger to make the circles of Fresco Acrylic paint, then I sprinkled on some warm shades of PaperArtsy Infusion powders and activated them with a spritz of water. I stamped a Carabelle Studio leaf with white and black ink, added white paint splatters, then stamped the title and added the day numbers. I've used warm shades and my comfort colours of blue and green, so I'm entering this spread for Linda's 'Creature Comforts' Challenge at Art Journal Journey.

Next I have a couple more pages to share for Birgit Koopsen's 31 Products Challenge on Instagram.

Day Two - Modelling Paste - I made patterns with the end of a paintbrush, splashed on some tea and finished with some found book text. I couldn't find a tea-related phrase, so the coffee one was the next best thing! Lol!

Day Three - Adirondak Colour Wash Spray - I spritzed Raisin, Terracotta and Cranberry through a Seth Apter stencil, outlined in black, then added some found book text.

Hope you're all having a fab and arty week,

Alison xox

365 Somethings & 31 Products Challenge

Hi Everyone! I'm back after a lovely week away in The Derbyshire Peaks. As well as lots of fab hiking, we got to spend time with our lovely children. And to top it all, the weather was amazing.

So today, I'm catching up with a couple of weeks of my 365 Somethings teabag art.

First of all, here's week 38. Jo of Let's Art Journal asked me if I had used washi tape on my teabags. I hadn't, so this is what I used on these ones. I added some book text, outlined with Posca paint pens also.

Next, here are my week 39 teabags. PaperArtsy's Topic 17 Colour Challenge is A Box of Eggs. I used Fresco Finish acrylic paint and Sara Naumann stamps.

Birgit Koopsen has set another challenge on Instagram called 31 Products Challenge. The idea is to use a different product every day in October. The first product I decided to use was Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks, and I used them on an art journal page.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox