February Journal Recipe Day 9

Hello Everyone!

It's Day 9 of my February Journal Recipe Instagram collaboration with Shilpa, and today our prompts are...

Colour - Turquoise.

Shape - Scribbled Circles.

Technique 1 - Draw a quick self-portrait.

Technique 2 - Add paint splashes.

You must use a minimum of 3 prompts.

Here's what I came up with...

 If you follow my blog, you'll know that scribbles and paint splashes are my style, as well as quick faces occasionally. 

I'm linking my page to Elizabeth and Bleubeard's What's Your Style theme at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks for dropping by,

Alison

Creative JumpStart with Mary Beth Shaw

 Hello All. 

Day 40 (9th Feb) of CJS was A Patchwork Of Your Own Life with Mary Beth Shaw. 

I created a mixed media canvas using Mary Beth's stenciling techniques.

I started by creating blocks of white, black and gold gesso, then used a variety of stencils with embossing enamel and Lumiere metallic paint. I used watercolour paint to stencil on some music paper, then adhered this across the centre of the canvas, then stenciled on that with black gesso, and added marks with a gold paint pen. I stencilled the small squares between the blocks, then finished with splashes and drips of black india ink.

I'm linking my canvas to Valerie's Heavy Metal theme over at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks for dropping by,

Alison xox

30 Days of Mixed Media with Ana - Days 16-22

Hi Everyone!

I've got another week (8 days ;-)) of mixed media art for Ana's challenge to show you today. Get yourself a cuppa!

Day 16 - Watercolour. I really loved the results I got with my watercolour paint, and added a few doodles.

Day 17 - Rust. Love, love love making rust with water and vinegar! And look at that gorgeous rusty paper!

Day 18 - Wax. It's been a while since I used the wax. I made a card using a piece of the rusty paper, and some rusty elements, together with Carabelle Studio stamps and stencils, Distress Oxide inks and natural wax. I love how the wax made the rusty paper transparent, it was the back of one of my old Downe Village paper round sheets :D

Day 19 - Oxides. I inked up the background stamp with the only 3 distress oxide colours I have, then misted with water and stamped. Stamps are from Carabelle Studio. Oh yes, I added some watery splatters of the ink too :-)

Day 20 - Stencils. You may have seen this photo a couple of days ago, as I doubled up with Gio's challenge. I used lots of stencils on my Gelli Plate, and to finish a couple of tags.

Day 21 - White. Using one of my gel printed tags, I stamped and embossed with white EP. I finished with some white ribbon, which I curled by heating with my heat gun. Haven't done that in a long while!

Day 22 - Collage. I made a collage with some gel prints, and also made a collage of different stamped images.

Bit fuzzy, but hopefully you can see the dimension in that last photo.

That's all for now, thanks for dropping by,

Alison xox

More Crafting With Gio Gio

Hi Everyone!

After a weekend of feeling very poorly after eating some unripe pineapple (who knew that would cause vomiting etc. for a whole day?!), I'm now caught up with my Instagram challenges and 366 Somethings.

Today I'm sharing my art for Giovanna's challenge.

Geometrics Galore (17 April) - I made a geometric bird art journal page, paper piecing with gel prints. I'm linking this page to Valerie's Geometric Shapes theme at Art Journal Journey.

Tag It (19 April) - I made a bundle of tags using my Gelli Plate.

Silhouette (21 April) - I used a couple of That's Crafty Stencils to decorate one of my gel printed tags. I'm linking my tag up to Tag Tuesday's Anything Goes Challenge.

I was feeling much much better today, and spent the morning cleaning out my guinea pigs and tortoises. Then I bathed the piggies and trimmed their nails, which was a challenge. I gave them lots of snuggles and some of their favourite treat parsley to make up for it.

Here's Angus...

and here's Elliott...

Hope you're all keeping safe and well, thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

Crafting with Gio Gio Instagram Challenge

Hello Again!

After yesterday's mega post, I thought I'd bring you up to date with another Instagram challenge I'm taking part in. My Italian friend Giovanna aka GioGio is giving us a prompt every alternate day.

I'll start with the prompt for 7th April, which was Pocket. I made a teabag pocket, to put a tag into.

9th April Prompt - Spring Is Sprung. My little bird made another appearance.

11th April Prompt - Steampunk. I used some Carabelle Studio stamps. The background was made with Distress Oxide inks.

13th April Prompt - Books. I used some book page gel prints to make two mini books, then decorated them with Carabelle stamps and stencils.

15th April Prompt - Animals. I made a background with my 5x3" Gelli Plate, then used a cork and white paint to create the sheep, adding details with a black Posca Paint Pen, then hand-writing the sentiment and adding some dots. I might save this for Hubby's birthday next month ;-)

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

30 Days of Mixed Media With Ana - Days 7 - 15

Hi Everyone!

I thought I would bring you up to date with my entries for Ana Bondu's challenge on Instagram.

Day 7 - Embossing - I used stamp, texture plate & stencil.

Day 8 - Texture Paste - DecoArt modelling paste, stamped into, then PaperArtsy Infusions added.

Day 9 - Acrylic Paint - Had fun with some mark-making with PaperArtsy Fresco Acrylics.

Day 10 - 3D - Added some dried paint tops to acrylic paint drips.

Day 11 - Paper - My friend Sam gifted me some ephemera, which was perfect for this prompt.

Day 12 - Black - Stamping on black gesso with PaperArtsy Fresco Acrylic and Carabelle Studio stamps.

Day 13 - Faux Wood - check out the process photos to see how I did this.

Day 14 - Bleach - Background made with Distress Oxides. Then I painted out the colour in the stamped Carabelle Studio flowers with bleach.

Day 15 - Gel Printing - Always fun, and some great collage papers made too.

Apologies for the long picture heavy post. I should have told you to get yourself a cuppa!

Happy crafting, and thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

30 Days of Mixed Media with Ana - Days 4 - 6

Hi Everyone!

Here are some more fun techniques for Ana's Instagram challenge.

Day 4 - Glue. I made some masks with my glue gun, then used them with spray inks. I also drew circles on card with my glue gun, painted with acrylics, then highlighted the glue circles with Treasure Gold.

Day 5 - Gesso. I used black and white gesso through a Carabelle Studio stencil. I added distress ink to the black one, with splashes of water. On the white gesso, I spritzed with water, then dripped Liquitex Acrylic Ink.

Day 6 - Stamps. I got my 5x3" Gelli Plate out, applied acrylic paint, then stamped into the paint with Carabelle Studio stamps. I printed sections of each colour of paint on the cards. Then I added stamping with paint and black archival ink. I'm linking these cards to the More Mixed Media Challenge, Anything Goes with Optional Yellow.

I hope I've inspired you to play.

Love & blessings,
Alison xox

Instagram Challenges

Hello folks!

I've joined in with a couple of Instagram challenges this month. Gio is giving out prompts every other day in April, and Ana every day of April. These challenges are fun to play along with, and are keeping me busy and motivated.

Gio's first prompt was rainbow, and I used the theme for my calendar pages.

The second prompt was Home Sweet Home, and I used some of my gel prints to create a card...

Ana's first prompt was Brushos. It's been a few months since I used these! I used them with Carabelle Studio stamps, stencil and texture plate.

Ana's second prompt was Crayons. I used Gelatos with a Carabelle Studio stencil and texture plate.

Ana's third prompt was Distress. Distress inks are another product that I rarely use now. Wrinkle free distress used to be one of my favourite techniques. Again I used Carabelle Studio stamps, stencil and texture plate.

Wishing you all a happy and healthy weekend,

Alison xox

Art Journal Journey - Words & Numbers

Hello everyone! I have an art journal page to share with you today, for Yvonne's Words & Numbers theme at Art Journal Journey.

I used some collage materials I had lying on my desk, including part of a Christmas cracker that my friend Jan gave me. After adding some white gesso, stencilling and stamping of dots, I wrote a quote from a beautiful book that my son gave me for Christmas, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy. The pen and ink illustrations, and the words on love, friendship and kindness are simply stunning.

Love & Blessings,

Alison xox

Kasia's Advent Calendar - Day 8 - Snowflakes & Doilies

Hello Everyone!

Here's my page for Kasia's Day 8 prompt of Snowflakes & Doilies. I'm also linking up to Yvonne's Words & Numbers theme at Art Journal Journey.

Bits of book page and teabags for the background, then I cut a snowflake and used it as a stencil with paint. I then glued my 'snowflake' to the RH side, added stencilled numbers in green, some Christmas traditions layered on washi tape, black watercolour pencil outlines and paint pen splatters.

Happy second Advent Sunday, and wishing you all many blessings,

Alison xx

Kasia's Advent Calendar - Day 6 - White on White

Morning All!

Day 6 of Kasia's Advent Calendar Challenge was a tricky one for me. I do love some colour! However, I did my best, and used white gesso, white crackle paste, some net and sparkly organza material left over from my daughter's May Queen dress many moons ago, and some silver star confetti.

I don't know if you can see, but I stapled 3 little squares of the organza on the RH side. This was very tricky to photograph, as the light was fading too.

I'm linking up to Yvonne's Words & Numbers theme at Art Journal Journey.

Have a great weekend, & thanks for visiting,

Alison xx