A Blossoming June -Artful Days new Goodie Box

Hi everyone! Hope this gloomy week of rain isn't getting you down! I'm back tonight with my first project for this month's fabulous Goodie Box. I've used a very large wooden Tag, courtesy of the famous MDF man! Hope you like it!

This month's Goodie box, as always, is full to the brim with luscious, top quality products. Julie has spoiled us with an abundance of gorgeous flowers. These include: mulberry, crochet, fabric, glass, resin, metal and 3D flowers. And that's just the flowers. Add to that a variety of paper, mulberry and metal leaves, crystal beads, assorted stamens...it just goes on and on!

Here I have just selected a few of the box contents to use on my project. I was lucky enough to be crafting on some lovely hot days, so transferred everything into the garden.

Started with a layer of gesso. Once this was dry I sorted some items from my junk stash to create a collaged background. This would provide an interesting textured foundation layer. 

I love this stage. I find it so relaxing just ripping papers and sticking them down, hoping I won't go too mad with subsequent layers and some of the text and colours will still be glimpsed in the final layer. Doesn't always happen as I'm pretty heavy handed with paints and inks! 

Once I was happy with my glued down collage pieces, I added some 3D balls. I had already decided on my main focal image so I had a rough idea where I wanted these little balls to be placed. I then added a watery gesso layer over the whole spread.

Now, not  only is the box beautifully wrapped in a complementary piece of tissue but so are the contents inside! This month's tissue is so pretty that I think all the design team this month has used the tissue on their projects! This was my next layer. I had hoped the colours would 'bleed' into the gesso but it's too high quality for that! 

Isn't it pretty? I have also prepared the Papermache wall hanging in a similar way for my second project that I will post pictures of over the weekend. Now for some paint! 

Unusually, I opted for Prima Colour Blooms rather than paint on this occasion as I wanted to spray colour in various places to complement the colours in the tissue paper and ensure the little porcelain balls were covered in colour.  These are quite subtle colours and quite shimmery, so I also added a stronger Dylusions pink to the mix. Delicious. Once I was happy with the colour, I dried it with a heat gun. Now, a word of warning here if you haven't used Colour Blooms before. Even when dried they tend to remain quite sticky. As I found in my art journal! However, a good remedy is to cover the whole surface in talcum powder then gently brush it all off. You do lose some of the shimmer but that's better than your pages sticking together! 

Finally, I got to play with this month's 'goodies'. Such fun. Most of what you can see is from this month's box but I couldn't resist adding some bits from last month's too. . I did add some of last month's pink shimmer spray over the metal flowers. A trick I learned from the fabulous Anna Dabrowska. 

That's the great thing about subscribing. You get to mash up and mix all your products. For more about subscribing go here. I do hope you have been inspired by this project to go and look at Julie's website. The products are so gorgeous and the price is really good! 

Until next time!

Journaling with JoFy stamps!

Hi everyone!
I'm so excited about this linked blog post tonight together with Paperartsy. On Sunday, JoFy launched her new stamps and they are fabulous! Jo is a great 'doodler' and her new images contain a lot of doodling. Right up my street! And perfect for art journaling. I had great fun producing this spread for the PaperArtsy blog, as I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of her wingmen for this launch.

Aren't the shapes fabulous? I think they lend themselves for all sorts of mixed media projects. I also think they will mix well with all of her previous collections as well as those of other PA artists.  I love this colour combo which I produced with a huge range of Fresco chalk paints and the gelli plate.

It wasn't particularly easy placing the gelli plate down on these pages, fortunately I have a huge acrylic block that has some A4 Carabelle Studios stamps on, so that was a perfect size for the gelli plate. Now, a little journaling was needed to create a background that wasn't too fussy (unusual for me) as I didn't want to detract from the stamped images which were also going to continue this colour theme.

 

These are the colours I started with but as you can see, I soon added a good deal more within these colour families. The great thing about PA Fresco chalk paints - there are zillions of them!

These are just some of the stencils I used on the gelli plate and later to add to the background.

I started off with stamping out a few main images just to get some balance to the page. I had great fun with that wonderful squiggly line. Jo often adds a stamp like this. I decided to make it into a flower stem as well as leaves and grasses.

Lots more stamping on Paperartsy 240gms Smoothy card - my favourite stamping card. All of these Images would be coloured in with a mixture of Prisma colour pencils and Ranger Distress pens, then layered up across the spread.

As you can see here...

And here...

"

They are such fun images to colour in. Although Clare Messenger showed us all last night just how effective they look stamped onto a gelli plate background. Something I will try next. Well, I didn't stop here! I was having too much fun.

 At the same time as I used the gelli plate to make my background in my art journal, I also made a few more on some Smoothy card. So then I was able to make these!

A closer look...

And again...

I do hope you have fallen in love with these new stamps, as much as I have! There are more examples from Jo and Clare on the PaperArtsy blog. My post can be seen Here

Thankyou so much for popping by. Until next time xxx

Masterboards with the Grandfairies!

Hi everyone! Lots of lovely photos to reflect the amazing art work my older two Grandfairies produced yesterday afternoon: Imogen, who is 9, and Niamh who will be 11 at the end of July. ("I'm almost a teenager, you know Nana"!!! Ha ha!)They are such lovely girls. I'm so proud of them and their art work continues to blow me away.  Although I show them art journaling techniques, their choice of colours and which tools they want to use is very much their own decision. In fact, if I make a suggestion I am always told, "No, I like it like that Nana". You will see from the photos, they are skilful stampers too, well able to manipulate a rubber stamp to use just part of it.  They love mark-making and continually save me bits and pieces they find to keep safe for their own and my art journaling. I learn a great deal watching them make art: sometimes free and careless, sometimes so very careful and precise, depending on their mood. It's a joy and a privilege to share crafty afternoons with them.

 

Here is Niamh, having completed the first of three masterboards. She was on a roll. She wanted to create some postcards to give to some of her teachers and classmates when she leaves next week to start at a new school a little closer to her new home.

And this is Imogen. She wanted to make 'small cards' for her teachers and friends when she also says goodbye to them this week. Sad, but necessary. They've been getting up at 6.45 am every morning to continue at their schools, followed by fairly costly bus journeys. They are both looking forward to making new friends at their local primary school. Not such an early start!

Niamh - concentrating hard creating her base layer. I love their colour choices. They are both getting a good understanding of the colour wheel.

Imogen loves using contrasting colours. Thank goodness she is out of her 'black' phase where everything she created ended up predominantly black! It's been hard sitting on my hands at times!

Niamh adding a stencil layer. They are both so good at using stencils. Never any need to tape them down.

Not the easiest stencil to manipulate! Not one I would have chosen for her, but she was adamant. That was the one she wanted. And of course, when you see her final result, she was absolutely right. So what do I know? I'm learning to trust their decisions.

Here is Imogen working on her second masterboard, Mark-making. They love using all sorts of tools for this stage. Coming along beautifully. I love her colour choices here.

Niamh, looking carefully for any spaces that still need more stamping. Just look how confidently she holds that stamp.

Imogen stamping with confidence too. You can see both her masterboards, side by side. Such different colour combinations. And all of this on just one afternoon. They are quick workers!

The completed masterboards. Now, they just need to be cut up to create Niamh's postcards and Imogen's 'small cards'. Back door open due to a lovely hot day. Bonus! 

Niamh, remembering to ink all the edges of the 12 postcards she created from her three masterboards.

Imogen, carefully inking all her card edges too. All ready to make up into some very impressive 

cards. I must admit to being rather envious of their results. 

So there we are! A very enjoyable, creative and productive afternoon. Apart from an ice-cream break, they both played happily completing their cards for about five hours! My gorgeous grandfairies. I love you both so much xxx

Until next time!