Art Journal Journey - Autumn Colours & Inspiration

 Hello All.

I'm thrilled to be the October host over at Art Journal Journey with the theme Autumn Colours & Inspiration.

Here is my sample page for the challenge.

I started with a layer of collage, then painted over it with a light layer of quinacridone nickel azo gold acrylic.

More collage was added, some leaves stamped with one of my hand-carved stamps, a teabag collage, some lace, a bit of gold leaf, and a Tim Holtz phrase sticker.

I look forward to seeing you over at Art Journal Journey with some Autumn inspired art journal pages.

Wishing you a happy October,

Alison

Junk Journal July

 Hi everyone.

I'm trying to motivate myself to get back to art journaling again, so I thought I'd join in with Meg's Junk Journal July challenge on Instagram.

Here's the junk journal I made, using Amazon packaging and various papers.

I glued a downloaded list of the prompts to the first page.

Here are a few of my pages so far.

Day 1 - Spark

Day 2 - Postcard.

Day 3 - Fold.

I'll try to remember to post a few pages every few days, but my blogging is a bit erratic these days as you may have noticed 😀

Thanks for visiting,

Alison

AJJ - On All Fours

Hello Friends.

Today I have a page to share for Chris' On all fours theme at Art Journal Journey.

 I used some of my recent gelliprints for the background. The rabbit was a picture I found in a magazine, that I paper-pieced some of my gelliprint papers to, in order to make it more colourful and match it to my background. The nose was pretty fiddly, but that's a tiny piece of gelliprint too, as well as the inside of the ear. I also used a light wash of orange acrylic to paint the rabbit's white face.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

March 2024 Art Journal Calendar

 Hi Everyone.

I have my March art journal calendar to share with you today.

Here are my two tortoises who recently came out of hibernation, and they are the inspiration for my new calendar spread. They are the same age, but males are smaller than females, half their size! As you can see I have one of each. I need to separate them soon, as little Ollie is constantly pestering poor Josie. I'm hoping my son will adopt one of them.

And here's my March calendar spread...

I started with a collaged background, then stamped the Stampotique tortoise 4 times on painty paper, cut them out and glued to the teabags, which were then glued to the spread. 

I hand cut a flower stencil, and used Butter Fresco acrylic to stencil them, and used my finger to add an orange centre, then doodled the outlines and dots.

I sponged some Butter Fresco acrylic at the top, and stamped my title using Darkroom Door Alphabet & Number stamps. I added a few orange paint dots, wrote the day numbers on the flowers, and inked the edges of my spread with black ink.

I'm linking my calendar to Chris' On All Fours theme at Art Journal Journey, and also to Try It On Tuesday's Spring theme.

Here's my completed February calendar...

I hope your March has got off to a good start.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

Seek Gather Create - Week One

 Hello Friends.

I'm joining in with the Seek Gather Create challenge on Instagram. It's a weekly challenge, just for one month, but it usually happens a couple of times a year.

 The Week One items to use are...

Something blue, something see-through, a fish and a circle.

I had fun creating my little collage fish :-) 

My something see-through is part of the top of an organza bag that yarn comes in when I order it online. The fabric is very light and shimmery, so I'm linking up to Vicki's Keeping it light theme at Art Journal Journey.

There's also some shiny gold shimmering on the light blue circle.

Thanks for dropping by,

Alison xox

28 Hearts - Week One

 Hello All.

This time of year it's so hard to get motivated, but I'm getting there, and I decided to join in with Marie-Josee Brillon's 28 Hearts February challenge on Instagram.

Here are my first week's hearts.

Day 1 - Cut from a gelliprint. I used my hand-carved heart stamps on the gelliplate.

Day 2 - Gelliprinted.

Day 3 - hearts painted with ink, then I cut one out and collaged onto a teabag.

Day 4 - Layered hearts cut from gelliprints.

Day 5 - Watercolour.

Day 6 - Watercolour.

Day 7 - strips of home-made washi tape applied to cardstock, then a heart cut out by hand.

Thanks for visiting,

Alison xox

365 Somethings 276-283

 Hello All.

I've been catching up with my mini collages for the 365 Somethings challenge. I hope you enjoy seeing them.

Days 276-279

Days 280-283

You may have noticed some coloured teabags in the first set. I had a lovely session colouring teabags using PaperArtsy Infusions coloured ink powders, and also 3 coloured Bistre powders. The first photo is the Infusions, the second is the backs of those teabags, and the final photo is the Bistre powders. I was very pleased with the results. 

I just spritzed the empty teabags, sprinkled on the coloured powders, then spritzed again. No other mediums were needed.

Thanks for dropping by,

Alison xox

Wanderlust Live Day Two

 Hi Everyone.

I have a few more projects from the Wanderlust Live weekend to share today.

First up is a pile of gel-printed collage fodder created with Iris Fritschi-Cussons. 

This was a fun exercise, using printer paper, book pages, tissue, teabags and a brown paper bag, acrylic and watercolour paint, Stabilo Woodys water-soluble crayons, pens and pencils.

Next I created a mixed media tag art journal spread with Arlyna Blanchard.

We created beautiful loose watercolour flowers with Francisca Nunes.

And finally for today, we created space for our inner light with Christine Karpiac.

There are more classes from the weekend I haven't yet done, so watch out for those.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Alison xox

Seek, Gather, Create Week Four

 Hello All.

This is the final week of the Instagram challenge Seek, Gather, Create, hosted by Tina Hois, Laura Denison, Lisa Goddard & Melanie Theriault.

This week's items were...

The letter 'M', Mustard, Stitching, Shells.

As the letter 'M' is stitched onto a piece of book page and a teabag, I'm linking my page to Elle's Tea, Cats, Books theme at Art Journal Journey.

Thanks for dropping by. I'm off on my holibobs tomorrow, so will try and visit your blogs when I can.

Hugs,

Alison

Seek, Gather, Create Week Three

 Hello All.

I have a junk journal page to share today for week 3 of the Instagram Seek Gather Create challenge.

These are the items we had to use...

A leaf, Something smooth, Something red, A repeating item.

I wonder if I can link this to Elle's Art Journal Journey challenge, since I used a teabag? There's a map and some music to read too! 😁

Thanks for dropping by,

Alison

September 2023 Art Journal Calendar & AJJ - Books, Cats & Tea

 Hello All.

It's been a couple of weeks. maybe more, since I last posted here. Our son moved into his new house on 21st August, and we went up to help clear out the old rented flat, move him into the new house, then lay some flooring and put up curtains. It's a brand new house in Salford, Manchester, taken an age to build, and lots to do. Thankfully, the kitchen and bathrooms are all fitted out, at least we haven't got that to sort. It's getting there. 

I'm glad to be home for a little while, before we head off on our hols, and I've been catching up with some artyness. I'll be sharing a few bits and pieces this week.

Today I have my September art journal calendar to show you. Over on the Art Journal Journey blog, Elle has challenged us to use Books, Cats, & Tea. I've used books and tea on my calendar. One of my favourite books is Thomas Hardy's Far From The Madding Crowd. 

I used collage with teabags over the top as my base layer. I created a little teapot stencil, the stenciled my journaling teapots in pale blue, adding details with a red paint pen.

I added some book text from my spare copy of Far From The Madding Crowd, around the edges and bottom right.

I used a PaperArtsy stencil for my title with the pale blue Fresco acrylic and red paint pen outline. I finished with some black paint splashes.

A little close up shot of the quote from the book that I used.

Before I go, here is my completed August calendar.

I apologise for not visiting lately, I'll try and catch up with some of your blogs this week.

Alison