JournalToad!

I made the journal page below using paint, 

stamps and stencils.

The toadstool image is by Bev Eden, I have

coloured it using Prismacolor pencils.

The quote from Judy Allen is inside a digi

box from Vera Lane Studios.

Something for Everyone

Below are several art journal pages

I recently discovered in my A4 Dylusions

journal. I have used a wide variety

of stamps, stencils & other bits n pieces.

 I adore the quote stamps from Dyan Reavely, 

I have many in my collection including

the ones below.

 Madonna was drawn and coloured by the 

incredibly talented Lily Chilvers, sadly taken

 from this world at the tender age of 21.

Such a huge loss to the creative world.

She left behind some incredible work which

I am proud to use.

 The stamp images below are from Lynne

Perrella at PaperArtsy. The fan die cut is by

 Tattered Lace.

 The photograph doesn't do the colours in the 

page below justice. I used lots of gold paint

and inks along with some super stamps by

Artistic Stamper.

 I wanted to keep this page simple 

by using only 3 colours as I felt the 

image was very strong and stood by

itself alone.

 As some of you will know the semi-colon

is a symbol of strength and survival

of people who are suffering and have 

suffered with a mental health illness. 

My page below is a very personal page

and I am pleased to say that I am a

SURVIVOR.

 A fun page using big lips and a great

zip die cut.

 Finally this last page features Totally Tracy
 flower stamps. The small flowers and butterfly 

were designed by Hels Sheridan. The butterfly

is on card that has been alcohol inked.

I hope the variety in these pages will 

inspire you to get creating.

Meow

I thought I would share a couple of cards and a journal page I made using the Tim Holtz Crazy Cats stamps, I love these quirky stamps, such fun images.

I used a mask and a brick design Washi tape for the above card.

I decided to use colourful watercolour paint colours rather than realistic so staying with the quirky feel of the stamps.

I made the background for the journal page using gesso to give texture, Gelatos and string.

You can be Heros just for one day...

Below are three art journal pages of inspiring people.

Anyone who knows me will tell you David Bowie was and still is a huge inspiration to me. His death in 2016 was a shock and left me feeling numb, sadly we lost many great people last year. 

 David Bowie

 Bob Marley

Audrey Hepburn

If you follow me on Facebook.....

Good Afternoon!
If you follow me on Facebook you may have seen some of the projects I will be posting over the next few weeks. Facebook seems to be the place where everyone show cases their latest projects but I am adding them here for those of you who prefer reading blogs.

A few months ago I joined an art journal group that 'Travelled the World' as a theme. Each month we were given prompts to aid out journaling. Below are 5 of my pages, I used the large Dylusions journal for my pages. 

My France page was inspired after a recent visit to The Moulin Rouge.

I have used many techniques and products on these pages, the Mexico page above is actually just one 12 x 12 stencil, I used Grunge paste through it and then painted each part using Americana and Fresco paints.

I'd like to teach the world to sing.....

 This is another of my journal pages, this time 8" x 8" in size. Inspired purely by this fabulous digi image from BlooBel Stamps. If colouring in isn't your thing then you can purchase these images precoloured (as above). I used a stamp by John Bloodworth for the background with Distress Ink pads.

Wanderlust 2016

Wanderlust 2016 started in January and is a year long art journaling adventure
It is the first time I have followed an online year long course and I am loving it! We are taken through stages and steps to various styles of mixed media art journaling, as art journaling is one of those crafts that cannot be 'right' or 'wrong' it is perfect for absolute beginners or experts.

Below are a couple of my pages following lessons from various teachers.

In the future everyone will be famous...

I thought I would post of my pages from my Wanderlust journal. This page was created from book prompt #8 'My Future'

I used the quote made famous by Andy Warhol 'In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes' as my thinking point. I then took a photograph of myself and using an app on my phone I changed the image to different hues, printed them out and did my own take on Warhol's paintings.

I have no idea if I will be famous in the future, I don't think I want to be if I'm honest but you never know what is round the next corner!

Wanderlust 2016

Wanderlust 2016 started in January and is a year long art journaling adventure
It is the first time I have followed an online year long course and I am loving it! We are taken through stages and steps to various styles of mixed media art journaling, as art journaling is one of those crafts that cannot be 'right' or 'wrong' it is perfect for absolute beginners or experts.
Jamie Avery produces some excellent pdf downloads offering information on pens, pencils, paints, mediums etc. these are a bit of a bible on what's what and what's not.
What I particularly like is that at no time do you feel under pressure to go out and buy new art supplies, there are no links to any shops only discount codes (from sponsors) should you wish to make purchases.
Below are a few pages of my journey so far.

Here I have used an 8" x 8" black Dylusions journal and covered it front and back using playing cards I made with Seth Apter.

Looking at these photographs I think I have added bits since taking these pics which is something I like very much, pages 'evolve' overtime until you feel you have finished.

The above page is in my tiny journal with pages 

approx 4" x 6".

Above is double page of my tiny journal.

Every other week we are given 'book prompts' which are there to inspire us, it is very interesting to see the differences between everyone's pages given that we all use the same prompt.

The above double page was the first 'prompt' which was choose a word which describes how you feel today.

Above is prompt #5 which was 'What do I see when I look in the mirror'

I will post more pages from my journey throughout the year.

Meow

Today I thought I would share a journal page featuring the amazing Crazy Cats designed by Tim Holtz. 

I created the background using gesso a little heavily, swirling and giving a textured feel to the page, I then coloured it using Gelatos to follow the flow of the gesso.

I added more interest to the background using embossed wallpapers as stamps and added a swirl of string.

The cats were stamped onto stamping card and coloured using Distress Inks pads and a water brush before being cut out. Once stuck in place I used Washi

tape, a die cut and a piece of wallpaper (BIG) to 'sit' the cats on. 
I finished off the page with bits of doodling.

I loved making this page, the colours are so me and as you may know Gelatos are one of my must haves.

CAT

This journal page is inspired by the movie Breakfast at Tiffany's. The background I made by smudging Gelatos before using black Gesso to add textured marks and some stenciling. I mixed the remains of the black Gesso with white Gesso and added some highlights. The cat images are peel offs which I very rarely use but they were perrrfect (sorry!) for this page. I used some Washi tape for the image of Audrey Hepburn to lean on and completed the page making a big sparkly diamond with a quote from the movie on it.