Art Journal Page - The Documented Life - Weeks 14, 15, 16 & 17

Hello Everyone,

Although I am still behind, I have managed to catch up on a few more weeks of The Documented Life Project, completing the month of April...although I just realised, we're almost into July!! Eek!

April Theme

Color Safari (Exploring Inks and Paints)

April 4

Art Challenge:  Watercolors

Journal Prompt:  It's Water Under the Bridge

This page was inspired by a class I did with Danielle Donaldson via Jeanne Oliver. The girl is the first I completed. I really enjoyed working with the watercolours and creating a character.

April 11

Art Challenge:  Acrylics

Journal Prompt:  Cry Me a River

The girl and extra collage bits are from Rebecca McMeen, 'Milla' digital kit.

The page started life like this:

And a close-up:

April 18

Art Challenge:  Gelli Plate

Journal Prompt:  A lot on my Plate

This one was inspired by the art work of the late Rex Ray, which I just LOVE! You can see more of his work HERE.

I went through my stash of Gelli painted paper, and decided to cut it up the papers of the same colours. It came together pretty quickly. Initially, I wasn't intending to add any marks, but thought it looked unfinished (as below), so went ahead and added some.

April 25

Art Challenge:  Inks

Journal Prompt:  Before the Ink is Dry

This is my least favourite page of all the ones I have done thus far. It also took me the longest. I have no idea what I was doing, or hoping to achieve. It started life like this:

I used a number of different inks and stencils. At this point, I wanted to add more, but didn't know what, so I went and did this, and then thought, 'what am I doing??'

Which is why I then tried to cover it up, resulting in the final page.

If you are interested in finding out more about The Documented Life Project, check it out HERE.

Thank you for popping in.:)

Art Journal Page - The Documented Life - Weeks 10, 11, 12 & 13

Hello Everyone,

I am way behind with my Documented Life Project, but I have a uni break at the moment, so am able to play a little catch-up. Today I would like to share the month of March, weeks 10 through to 13.

March Theme

Making Your Mark (Doodles & Mark Making)

March 7

Art Challenge:  As A Layer Element

Journal Prompt:  Surviving the Elements

The rhinoceros is by the artist, Durer. I added some extra markings and colour to it. The paper with banners is from Tangie Baxter and the flowers are Kaiser.

March 14
Art Challenge:  Borders
Journal Prompt:  "Borderline feels like I'm going to lose my mind."

After painting the background, I added some die0cut borders and Gelli painted paper I had made. The circles are from Tangie Baxter paper and the butterfly is Sissy Sparrows, all of which I added markings to.

March 21
Art Challenge:  As a Focal Point
Journal Prompt:  Coming into Focus

Background is newsprint tissue paper with a piece of Gelli painted paper on the side.  For the giraffe, I used an image from the internet as a template

March 28
Art Challenge:  Make a Custom Element
Journal Prompt: "Ride the energy of your own unique spirit." - Gabrielle Roth

For the background, I used digital stamps and papers (and the girl)  from Rebecca McMeen's 'Carson'. I then printed it, added some extra paper and made more markings before adding my clusters.

To read more about The Documented Life Project go HERE.

Thanks for coming by. :)

Art Journal Page - The Documented Life - Weeks 7, 8 & 9

Hello all,

It's catch up time for me. I have been really busy of late so am now behind with my Documented Life, but I do have 3 weeks to share. I couldn't share earlier because I had trouble downloading the photos from my phone.

Anyhow, Week 7:

Art Challenge | Cover Up Good Stuff

Journal Prompt | Going Undercover

It started like this:

 Not sure why I spent so much time doing the doodles above, when I was just going to cover it up - but at the time of doing them, I didn't know I was going to do that.

Then it went through this awful stage, and I'm thinking, 'what in the world have I done?'

It ended up okay, but not my favourite bit of work.

And a couple of close-ups:

Week 8:

Art Challenge | Repeating Elements

Journal Prompt | It's Worth Repeating

I decided to do a really simple and quick page, and use a repeating element that I always like to use - circles:

I also used paper from a Tangie Baxter collage sheet.

Week 9:

Art Challenge | Using at Least Five Layers

Journal Prompt | Give Me A High Five

(apologies for the poor quality photo)

The layers: paint, gesso, stamping, pan pastels, paint markers, collage (using mainly Rebecca McMeen digital kits with some Kaiser paper), inktense pencils, paint markers.

It also has 5 butterflies.

Although I have really enjoyed working in the Dylusions Journal (loving the size, paper and mix of paper) I do find working in a journal rather difficult. I always want to add more dimensional layers. Layering and keeping it flat for a journal is a real challenge in itself for me. 

Week 13 has just been posted this weekend. You can find it HERE along with all previous challenges for 2015.

Thank you for popping in. I hope you are enjoying/have enjoyed a great weekend.

Art Journal Page - The Documented Life - Wk5

The Documented Life has the next challenge up already, and I have just finished the last! A week goes so quickly!

So the challenge for week 5 was:

Art Challenge | Under Paper

Journal Prompt | What Lies Beneath?

I found this challenge quite difficult as I don't really use under paper. This is all I had:

This is just copy paper I put around my journal:

 And some cardstock I kept under items I used in scrapbooking when I was spraying them:

So with a limited stash, this is what I came up with:

And the steps I took:

I sprayed the background through a stencil with some Glimmer Mist, then with Gel Medium, added my cut strips of paper. 

[This is actually upside down]

Then I painted over all of it with yellow, green and yellow/green paint:

At this point, I left it because I had no idea what to do, and didn't have time to continue anyway.

With all the green in my under paper, I couldn't help but think of leaves. Using a leaf stencil, I cut out the shapes and loosely placed them on my page adding some circles to give me an idea of where to gesso around. Here is my gesso progress:

Which led me to this:

I doodled in the leaves, inline with the stencil (a Ronda Palazzari design), glued them down and added my circles, before adding my finishing touches to get to this:

I have to say, I am not really fond of using Gel Medium as a glue, but it is friendly to the pens/markers I use on top. Any other glue ruins them all. However, I think double-sided tape would be a good option as well. I'm still experimenting.

The next challenge is up, and is available HERE.

Thank you for visiting! Wishing you all a creative day. :)

Art Journal Page - The Documented Life - Wk2

Hello all,

Today I am sharing my week 2 art journal page for,  The Documented Life. The challenge this last week was to use gesso. I love gesso, White, black and clear, I use it all.  There was also a journal prompt, 'The beginning is always today', but I forgot about that as I was just enjoying playing with gesso.

Anyhow, my page:

I used gesso as a background cover and with a stencil, then coloured it with a mixture of walnut stain and black gesso. I used white gesso again around my angel, and again for splatters.

The angel (head, body, arms and wings) is from Rebecca McMeen's digital kit, 'Milla'. I printed it, along with some of the paper on my inkjet printer using 120gm paper, then sprayed fixative over it before using Liquitex Matte Medium. This way, the colours don't run.

The large flower is a Hero Arts digital stamp I bought when I first started out doing digital work. I printed it on ordinary copy paper, brushed it with matte medium, and then coloured it with a combination of paints and pencil. I also used a few rub-ons. This was an experiment in seeing what works, how it reacts and how it sits on a bumpy surface.

I was also inspired by Jane Daveport's mini art lesson for 'gesso' which can be purchased HERE.

A couple of close-ups (I love the colour and texture of her skirt):

Thank you for coming by. The next challenge is due out today. Pop over HERE to check, if interested.

Art Journal Page - The Documented Life

Hello all,

I have a number of art journal books. They are all empty, full of blank pages that every now and again, I have the thought of making a mark on one of them. But it doesn't happen. That is, until now. In the past, the few pages I have done are all on pages I have torn from a paper pad. But I came across this art journal project via Roben Marie Smith: The Documented Life Project - The Journal, by Art to the 5th Academy.  It's a year long project, with prompts being released every week and loads of inspiration from the collaborative group that heads it. As a bonus for me, they are using the Dylusions Journal, one of the journals I've had sitting on my bookshelf for many months. YAY!

So for the first week, the Art Challenge was to use book paper, and the Journal Prompt, 'Be Your Own Goal Keeper'. The challenge and details are posted HERE.

This is what I did:

To be honest, I had no idea what I was doing.

I took a few snaps of my beginning process, I added some die-cut pieces from my stash on top of my book paper:

As you can see, I made a number of layers, using gesso after each layer of paint. I was just playing and getting comfortable with making marks in my blank journal which is the only reason I happened to do a number of layers - procrastinating about doing something more definitive.

Some of the paper for collage I used was from Roben Marie Smith and Rae Missigman, downloadable from their respective Etsy stores. The other paper, was left over Gelli printing bits in my stash that I had done.

I didn't list my goals, but just wrote some words around the page that I want to be conscious of during the year. Reminders.

The next journal prompt comes out on January 10. Be sure to go HERE for more info.

Thank you for coming by, and lasting this long on my unusually long and wordy post.

I'll leave you with some close-ups:

Hoping you are all having a wonderful day!