Art Journal Sunday

On the last Sunday of every month we welcome Art Journalers into our studio. Whether you have been journaling for a time, or are just curious and would like to give it a go to see if it might be for you, you will be very welcome. We provide everything except the journal, but don't worry if you don't already have one as any notebook or stack of paper that is sturdy enough to take ink and paint will do. All our workshop stamps, stencils, paints, inks and other consumables are available for you to use.

You don't even have to book, just drop in between 11am and 3pm, grab yourself a cuppa and stay as long as you like. The cost of the session is just £5, but do remember the sandwich bar is only open Monday to Friday excluding Bank Holidays but we have a fridge and microwave if you want to bring your own lunch.

Everyone tends to work in their own journals, sharing ideas along the way and some are following the Kate Crane Calendar so work on that. This month I was working on my April calendar page on what turned out to be a very wet and wild day, so thought I'd have a go at creating my own rainbow to cheer me up.

I gathered together some stash on a theme but ended up using very little of it which is not normally the way my journal pages go!

Using Tsukineko Memento inks I started by blending two shades of each ink colour onto the stamp to give me some shading from the top of my stamp to the bottom - this is a favourite Hero Arts stamp from a couple of seasons ago so I am not sure it is still available. I stamped the green of my rainbow centrally on both edges then continued out from there overlapping each image to give me a wider spread of shades. I repeat stamped the month along the central space of the piece using the same colours of ink blended each time.

I'm afraid I then got very absorbed and forgot about taking more step out photos but it seemed to take me an inordinate amount of time to do very little!

I cut myself a little square stencil from scrap paper and used thin layers of gesso to create semi transparent areas for each day as I didn't want to cover all the lovely drips - I used three thin layers letting each dry in between but only used the stencil for the first layer and just did the others by eye. I cut a piece of stiff card the same length as the squares and used that to roughly stamp the frame of the squares in white acrylic paint.

I then masked the gesso squares and stamped the umbrellas which are from Dylusions Ruby Rainbow plate, in black Versafine so I could paint in the spots and stripes on them with colours blended with Dylusions inks to match the original stamping. I often use Dylusions ink sprays to paint with as you get that wonderful combination of fabulous vibrancy of colour with translucence. All that was left to do was to use some small number stamps to add the dates.

I had such plans for this page with spritz and drips plus coloured texture paste raindrops but, unusually for me, I managed to stop myself and kept it very simple with some white space left too!

Not at all what I had 'made in my head' but I think I like it, what do you think?

Thanks for stopping by, if you want to come along to next month's AJ session it will be on Sunday 26 April.

Back soon, hope you will join me again x

 

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It's all about the workshops! (Part 2)

Today I'd like to share a little about my Layout Workshops. I always found teaching scrapbooking a bit of a conundrum as everyone has a unique story to tell with their photos so need to create unique pages. So, my layout workshops are small, never more than six, always offer a free choice of papers etc and definitely encourage the creation of your own embellishments. The starting point is always three or four ideas or techniques which you are then welcome to alter to suit your taste and story.

Layout Workshop Sample February 2015

This month I had a couple of not very good snaps I took on my walk into work on a very bright and frosty December morning. The photos were definitely imperfect specimens as I am no photographer but somehow they captured my love of walking on a crisp and cold day.

I wanted to share the idea of hiding any imperfections in photographs whilst still retaining the 'feel' and although they were chopped up, using basic shapes of nesting dies, I did incorporate the 'leftovers into the layout too. As an addicted stamper I had to add in a couple of background stamps, and the technique we covered was alcohol inks on shrink plastic to create custom coloured embellishments.

Here's how the layouts turned out.

 

 

 

Unfortunately one of the ladies had to leave early so I didn't get a photo of her finished layout but every month it is wonderful to see how different each layout looks to the workshop sample.

Next month's layout is quite different as I do like to mix it up. It uses much smaller photos with the journaling hidden under the slightly larger, central photo, plus stamps, stencils, die cuts and texture paste on layers of paper. I'm not convinced it is finished so I may add some washi tape or some more stamping by time the workshop comes around!

Layout Workshop Sample March 2015

Full details of this and all our other workshops in March, with images of the workshop samples for each class, can be found at http://sosimplysnazzy.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/march-workshop-schedule.html

 

Thank you for dropping by, I will be back later this week with Part 3 of this series of posts. I hope you will join me then x

 

 

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