Art Journal Journey - Having Fun

Happy Sunday Everyone! Hope you're all having a good weekend. It's turned chilly here again. I can't believe I was in shorts last weekend! I'm back in woolly jumpers.

As we're nearing the end of Birgit Koopsen's Everything Circles challenge over on Instagram, I have three more entries to share with you.

Day 26 - not a journal page this time, but some gel prints I made, using hand-cut circles as masks, and Dylusions acrylic paint.

I also now have some beautiful painted circles to use on a page...

Day 27 - This journal page has a few layers. After adding the turquoise drips, I decided to brighten it up with some contrasting yellow acrylic, and then the pink joined in, and I outlined the circles with black Bombay India ink, and added scribbly writing! A very fun page for Wendy's Having Fun theme at Art Journal Journey.

Day 28 - Heading away from the bright acrylic paint, today I used up some collage scraps that I had on my desk.

Two more days to go!

Thanks for dropping by my blog,

Alison xox

Circles Again

Hi Everyone!

I'm back with some more of my circle pages.

Day 23 - I created a pocket with canvas, added washi tape, book page circles, then marks and doodles.

Day 24 - Used Dylusions paint, stencils and mark-making tools. I created this at my crafty friend Hazel's (of Hazel's Creative Moments) yesterday. We had a fun play day, and Hazel cooked a delicious chilli for lunch. I'm linking this page to Wendy's Having Fun theme at Art Journal Journey, as Hazel & I had such a fun painty play day.

Day 25 - Found an old gelli print and just added some book text from Oliver Twist. I love this gorgeous print!

Hope you're having a fun and creative week too,

Alison xox

Everything Circles

Hello Everyone. It was a busy Easter weekend, catching up with family, and our lovely daughter came down to stay for a few days too. So today I have six pages to share for the Everything Circles Instagram challenge.

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Day 21

Day 22

I hope you enjoyed seeing them, I certainly enjoyed creating them.

Have a wonderful week,

Alison xox

Happy Easter

I hope you all had a very happy and blessed Easter.

Alison xox

Everything Circles - Days 15 & 16

Hi Everyone. Hope you're all having a good week.

We're over halfway through the April Everything Circles Instagram Challenge now, and here are my latest pages.

Day 15 - I printed some circles with a small round gel plate, then some colourful stencilling. Then I drew circles with my black Bombay ink dropper, lifting my journal to create drips. I filled in the background around the circles with orange acrylic, added dots of black ink with my finger, drew white circles inside them, then added a quote sticker on a piece of painted masking tape. Finished with white paint splashes.

Day 16 - A background of teabags, Seaglass fresco acrylic applied with a palette knife, then the fun part...dried paint from my paint pots that I've saved for ages, glued in a circle and randomly dotted on the page. I'm linking this page to Wendy's Having Fun theme at Art Journal Journey, because it really made me smile.

Thanks for dropping by my blog,

Alison xox

Circles Galore!

Hey Everyone! I'm still having fun doing circle art every day, and I have some more pages to link to Wendy's Having Fun theme at Art Journal Journey. 

Here are my latest three pages...

Day 12 - I used a small circle gel plate with blues and black, then painted oranges around, and wrote the lyrics to 'The world is a circle' with black bombay ink and my glass dip pen. Splatters made with black ink.

Day 13 - I collaged some gel prints that had circle designs, cut out three small contrasting circles, used a lid to stamp circles with black paint on them, then used my glass dip pen and black ink to journal about animal rescue around. Splatters were made with watered down black paint.

Day 14 - I found some of my teabag art that had circle designs, and simply stapled three of them to a hessian page in my journal. No splatters today...shock!!!

Hope you're all having a smashing weekend!

Alison xox

More Circle Fun

Hello Everyone. I have another two pages to share today for Birgit Koopsen's Everything Circles Instagram Challenge.

Day 10 - Adhered a manual page, added a light layer of gesso, sketched circles with Dina Wakley Scribble Sticks, activated with water, then stamped a Carabelle Studio circle design with black ink. Finished with a Tim Holtz phrase sticker and some pink splatters.

Day 11 - I was inspired by a fun technique from Kim Dellow today, she called it Paper Doodling. I'm linking this page to Wendy's Having Fun theme at Art Journal Journey.

Have a great evening everyone,

Alison xox

PaperArtsy Topic 5 Challenge - Maps

Hello Everyone! I'm over on the PaperArtsy Blog tonight, sharing an abstract floral card tutorial for their Topic 5 Maps Challenge.

Here's a peek at my project, you can see it in full HERE on the PaperArtsy Blog.

Thanks for dropping by,

Alison xox

Teabags & Circles

Hello Everyone! Today I have two more pages for Birgit's Everything Circles Instagram Challenge.

These pages both started with a collage of gel printed teabags.

Day 8 - I sketched a simple plant design using Posca Paint Pens.

Day 9 - I used a black gel pen to scribble around the circular teabag, add some circle doodles, and wrote the lyrics to Justin Currie's song Walking Through You. I'm a big fan, I've seen him in concert lots of times, and even been photographed with him at a London music festival. 

Finally I adhered a Tim Holtz phrase sticker and finished with white paint splatters. 

I'm having so much fun with this challenge, so I'm linking up with Wendy's 'Having Fun' theme at Art Journal Journey.

Hope you're having a fun day too!

Alison xox

Everything Circles 6 & 7

Happy Sunday Everyone!

Here are a couple more circle pages for Birgit's Instagram challenge.

Day 6 - a little collage of tags I had left over from a Gel Plate play. I used a Carabelle Studio stamp, and added doodles with a white Posca paint pen. The tags are stapled to a canvas page in my DWM journal.

Day 7 - On a watercolour paper page, on a background of turquoise and lime DWM acrylic, I used some different items to create circle designs...

Below you can see the 'tools' that I used, a plastic aida circle, a pencil end, Lego, a wooden drawer knob, and plastic tubes. I hand-wrote CIRCLE FUN, and I'm entering this page in Wendy's 'Having Fun' theme at Art Journal Journey.

Hope you're having a creative day too,

Alison xox

Everything Circles - Days 4 & 5

Hi Everyone. I have a couple more art journal pages to share for the Everything Circles challenge on Instagram. I'm using my Dina Wakley journal.

Here's Day 4, on watercolour paper...

And here's Day 5, on canvas...

The round teabags have crocheted black circles with wooden buttons attached.

Thanks for dropping by,

Alison xox

A Surprise, My Art Journal Calendar, & A New Instagram Challenge

Hi Everyone!

It was Mothering Sunday here in the UK at the weekend, and I had a huge surprise last Thursday. Hubby announced that we were heading up to the Peak District for a hiking weekend. He'd hoped that we could meet up with our kids as it was Mothering Sunday, but unfortunately they were both busy.

But, as we arrived at the cottage, our daughter hung out of the upstairs window, shouting 'Surprise!!!' She called me inside, and presented me with these gorgeous designer boots she'd bought in Spain. They fit perfectly!

We then walked down to the village pub for some dinner, and our son was there to greet us, holding out a beautiful bouquet of roses for me.

I can't tell you how blessed I felt! We spent a wonderful weekend, hiking in the sunshine.

After spending yesterday cleaning out the guinea piggy and catching up with washing, I finally found time today, to create my April art journal calendar. As I used a PaperArtsy stencil for the journaling flowers, I'm sharing my pages at Try It On Tuesday's 'Use A Stencil or Two' challenge.

And Birgit Koopsen is hosting an Instagram challenge called Everything Circles, asking us to create circle themed art for every day in April. My April calendar pages are for Day 3, and here are pages for Days 1 & 2...

The next page has a window cut to see the previous page through...

I have been suffering a bit with a creative block lately, so I'm hoping this challenge will bump me out of it!

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox