I live in my own little world .....

I have finally got round to playing in my journal again. And I have also been playing with Distress Mica Sprays. I have had the originals - Tarnished Brass, Antique Bronze and Brushed Pewter for quite a while, and I find them quite muted in both colour and shimmer - which isn't a bad thing. So, when Tim Holtz announced that he was bringing out some additional ones in new colours for Halloween, then I was very interested. I don't do Halloween, but new colours in something Distress is something I am always interested in.

Before I started playing, I sprayed them all out to see what the colours and shimmers were like.

     

Like the originals, the shimmer is quite muted, but the colours are great! I decided to stick with two colours - Jack O Lantern and Hocus Pocus.

The background is created using Distress Oxides in Milled Lavender, Wilted Violet and Dried Marigold, onto which I added the sprays. You can see the shimmer is much more evident where the drops are larger. I did the same on a piece of card to stamp the Visible Images sentiment stamp.

The flowers are from Lisa Horton's Trellis Blooms - stamped onto card and coloured with a combination of Distress Oxides and Sprays.

The background was added to with smaller stamps from the Trellis Blooms, stamped with Distress Inks - Wilted Violet, Dried Marigold and Black Soot.

Happy crafting!
Cxxx

Be Incredible....

Another Journal piece today. The background is using Candied Apple, Wild Honey and Scattered Straw Distress Oxides, with Imagination Crafts Mixed Media Sprays in Yellow and Orange. I used Lisa Horton's Trellis Blooms to add texture to the background, stamped with Black Soot, Candied Apple and Wild Honey Distress Oxides.

The main image is an old Leonie Pujol stamp called Everlasting Love. I stamped this on card and coloured using the Distress Inks. The words are from Crafter's Companion Textures collection.

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

Love the life you have ....

It's taken a few days to put this one together. I did the background a couple of days ago, with Kitsch Flamingo and Broken China Distress Oxides, sprayed with Imagination Crafts Fuchsia Mixed Media and Silver Shake and Gilt.

I then found the text in my box of random things, and had already planned on using the Creative Expressions Stamps to Die For - Butterfly Meadow. However, for the third time, I have not managed to get a good impression in this art journal, leaving me having to try to sharpen it up with a fine-liner. Am going to have a think about this for the next one. Will probably stamp it separately on my stamping platform and glue in. 

To even up the blackness, I used Black Soot Distress Oxide with a few different Imagination Crafts Texture stamps to create a black edging all round.

Happy crafting,

Cxxx

If nothing changed ....

I really enjoyed working in my new Arteza journal yesterday. The process felt more comfortable for me, and I like the end result. I know that, sometimes, you need to go outside your comfort zone, but for now I am happy doing what I know and love.

Today, I chose to use brighter colours - but stuck to two. I wanted to include sprays as well as inks today, so pulled out all my Imagination Crafts Mixed Media sprays. Sad to say that some of the bottles were clogged - but a bit of flushing with hot water seems to have sorted them out. In the end, I chose to use yellow and green. To go with this, I used Squeezed Lemonade, Mustard Seed, Cracked Pistachio and Rustic Wilderness Distress Oxides. After inking the background, I added the sprays over the top.

For more texture, I used Sara Signature Flutterby stamps - Scripture and Textured Elements - with Rustic Wilderness Distress Ink. The wording (which unfortunately is a little blurred) is from the Fly Away stamps, while the large butterfly is the Botanical Butterfly stamp - both stamped in Versafine Onyx black. I used my watercolour tin to colour the butterfly.

 Happy crafting.
Cxxx
  

Pause, Relax, Unwind

I have recently been trying out art journaling as a way to just create and try to unwind. I started with Everything Art's 5 day re-boot. I enjoyed having a go, so signed up for their 100 small steps. I have completed a few of the days, but have come to the realisation that I am not enjoying the process at all, and that the journaling side is really not for me. I also was falling out of love with my spiral bound journal, as I just wanted to cover the whole page with colour - and that was virtually impossible. It also meant that the two pages did not flow together. Don't get me wrong - I LOVE the Pink Pig journals, and have invested in both an A4 and A3 version so that I have scope for much larger areas - but, for this, I wanted something fairly compact and not spiral bound. I have ended up with Arteza's 14cm square (roughly 5 1/2 inches) watercolour sketchbooks. The paper is 230gsm - and seems plenty heavy enough for what I want to do.

Rather than trying to follow a prompt - which I think was another thing I was struggling with - I decided on a colour palette, and just spent some time looking through my stamping stash to see what jumped out. I ended up with the mandala - Spectrum Noir Colorista Background 3 stamp - texture stamps from Crafter's Companion Textures collection, and words from Crafter's Companion Destinations.

I used Antique Linen, Tea Dye and Ground Espresso Distress Oxides for the background. I stamped the mandala with Harmony Waterproof Ink in Pebble (was meant to be Rustic Brown but picked up the wrong one). It didn't stamp very well, so I went over it with a brown Sharpie. I then painted it using my ancient watercolour tin. 

I have to admit to being happier with the outcome of this than perhaps I was with previous pages. We'll have to see how it goes - and whether I can follow my own advice to pause, relax and unwind. 

Happy crafting,

Cxxx