Tag Archives: collage

The Second of the Colorwash messes

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For this spread I used the Wild Plum and Cranberry sprays and the Papermania Birdsong cut paper as a stencil.  I really made a horrible mess on the page,  just a big purple splodge, nothing pretty about it at all.   So to try and retrieve it I cut some of the paper I had used as the stencil and collaged it on top.  The purple colour made me think of Purple Haze and Jimi Hendrix so I found a picture of Jimi and collaged it onto the page and I tore some pink tissue paper to collage over the top of that.  I used a really cheap, in fact it may have been free, foam craft stamp of a star, and then I wrote one of the verses from the song in white to finish it off.

To be honest in the whole journal I think visually, it’s my least favourite spread, but nevertheless it does say something important to and possibly about me…

… when I was 15 years old I saw Jimi Hendrix play live at the Isle of Wight Festival just a few weeks before his tragic death at the age of 27.  I was at that massive festival (about 65,000 people) on my own!  I think my brother, who was 17, and I lied to my parents and said we were going together, but of course he really didn’t want his baby sister hanging around and cramping his style.  So there I was wide eyed and innocent and all on my own.  My mum would have had a fit if she had known!  Anyway I came to no harm and I was close to the stage when Jimi was playing.   Always when I hear the opening riff of Purple Haze it takes me back to my youth.  Around about that time I met and fell in love with a boy, my soul mate – I still love him today.

The first of the Adirondak Colorwash messes ;-)

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Hello friends

Hope everyone is well & happy.

A while back I bought 4 bottles of Adirondak Colourwah sprays – Lettuce, Expresso, Wild Plum and Cranberry.  I was so excited to use them, probably over-excited, but all that happened was that I created a big, big mess.  This is the first spread I created using the Colorwash sprays and I mainly used Lettuce and Expresso with a touch of Cranberry:

Still without any stencils I used some more precut paper,  this time it was cut with big swirls.  In the end I did quite like how the spread turned out, it has a kind of surreal feel to it which is why I put the quote “It started out like any ordinary day”  Have you ever had days like that when everything starts out normal but things just get stranger and stranger?  No! well maybe it’s just me then. 😉

It took a lot of work before I was even slightly happy with the pages, there are layers and layers of paint, paper, gesso and stamping.  I can’t remember where most of the collaged images came from –  this is the troube with creating pages and then not putting them online until some time later, if I was organised I would keep a note of how each spread was made as this would help me to learn, I could give credit to others where it’s due and explain my process, but if you knew me you would realise that’s never going to happen, because ‘organised’ is not an adjective anyone would use to describe me!

I do know where the image of the Cheshire cat came from though, it’s from the Graphic 45 Halloween in Wonderland Collection. I bought 2 sheets of that paper when I purchased the colorwash sprays.  I had to take a deep breath before I could bring myself to cut into that beautiful paper.  I’ve always loved the Alice books and the image fitted in with the surreal feel to the pages.

Big love

AJ

Think outside the box

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Hello, I hope everyone is well and happy 🙂

After watching some of Journal Artista’s stencil tutorials I desperately wanted some stencils, but couldn’t find any locally.  Then I found this filigree cut paper and I used it as a stencil with some newly acquired Adirondak colourwash spray in Wild Plum and Cranberry.  I was so excited to try the spray, but so disappointed that all that happened was it made one almighty mess!  You’ll see the messy results next week, but I did like what happened to the paper it turned a deep purple.  This spread had already been created and I thought it was finished until I noticed that the filigree paper matched the design on the scrapbook paper I had used.  It is from the Papermania birdsong collection so I decided to rip it and add it to this spread.  The music paper came free with a craft magazine I bought years ago.  I really like the way these two pages turned out.

Big love

AJ

I’m so happy!

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I have actually completed my very first journal.  I am only about a third of the way through sharing it on my blog, but it is actually complete and I love it.  I am now working on several other projects – five journals and a mini book made from envelopes, plus some boxes and various other bits and pieces I am altering.   There are other things I really should be doing but I am becoming addicted to creating and collecting useful stuff!

Anyway here is a sneek peak at the completed journal.

Big love

AJ 🙂

Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try

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Every accomplishment startswith a decision to tryThis page came out a bit different.  In one of those pound shops I found a die cut set of the alphabet, unfortunately the letters are BIG, but after I had pushed out all the letters I decided to use the cardboard blank as a stencil to outline the letters.  I used a lot of different paper for the background of this spread, and I am beginning to realise that I have a passion for paper of all kinds.

I’m happy with this spread and I like the sentiment – I should try more things…

Big love

AJ

What’s the story?

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Whats the StoryMorning GloryDon’t know what to make of this spread, definitely not my greatest achievement, but it is still part of my journal and contributed to the learning process.

I used acrylic paints, a Tim Holtz mask, images of bird and bees from the Graphics Fairy and images of Morning Glory searching the web.

Oh, well… onwards…

Big love

AJ

 

The Journey

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Page 16Page 17This spread combines two passions – art & history.  I wanted the pages to have an aged and vintage look.  The background for both pages are old maps, the first page has an old map of London and the Thames and the second page has a very ancient map (a copy) of the island where I live.  The collage images are my attempt to give depth to the pages, while also prettying them up, the piece in the corner of the second page is an extract from a story I found on Google Books.  Sketches of a pedestrian in the Isle of Wight was published in the New Monthly Magazine in 1816 and tells of a walking holiday on the Isle of Wight at a time when there were few roads and many of the small towns, villages and hamlets were fairly isolated.   The story is serialised in the magazine over a number of months but unfortunately is not complete.  I have transcribed all of the episodes that were in a magazine to put into a folder for my local history group.

I realised a few days ago that some of the images in recent post has been resized incorrectly when I saved them for the web.  The images look a little ‘squarer’ than they should do, but as I didn’t notice for a while I won’t be resizing them.  In future though I will keep the pages to the correct dimensions.

Big love

AJ

French Connection

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I do have a French connection, one of my brothers married a French girl and they live near Paris with their family.  I’ve never visited France though even though I always love to see my brother and his family when they visit England.  We had French lessons when I was at school, but I didn’t get on with it very well so I can’t even speak basic French, I’m a typical Brit and can only speak English!  Shame on me, my brother and his family are all bi-lingual.

This spread came about because I wanted some script on my pages and I haven’t got a script rubber stamp.  I found this hand written letter in French on the internet and then found images that I thought would compliment it.  For the background I used various shades of blue acrylic and water colour and stamped over it with white ink.   I don’t think you can see it online, but the lady from the Folies Bergeres was coloured in with glitter pen and on the page she really sparkles.  I quite like the effect but I think I need to try and find a way to lighten my pages, they all look too dark to me.

Make my dreams come true

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Today is another chance

I’m not sure if the image of the Gold Dust Twins is really politically correct so just wanted to say I mean no offence, I had never seen this American advertising before, it’s from the late 1800s/early 1900s, and I just liked the image of the two children juggling the plates.

I’ve been watching lots of YouTube and Ustream videos made about mixed media and art journals and I am blown away by the talent and creativity of so many people, they are really inspiring.  However I have become aware that watching these videos is also making me want more and more things, I’ve been thinking “I’ve got to have this and I’ve got to have that, how can I do art journaling if I haven’t got all these things”.  But now I’ve decided that I really need to try and be creative with what I’ve got, and use what’s around me or what I can find.  I have a few paints, stamps, papers, pens and a few basic masks and stencils so I will just have to make do with those until I can get to a decent craft store (there isn’t one anywhere near where I live) or go online when I can afford to buy stuff.  I will have to buy more gesso fairly soon but apart from that my challenge to myself is ‘Let’s see what you can do with what you’ve got’.

This spread uses a Tim Holtz mask I purchased, some advertising images from the web, a white paper border I found in my craft box, some acrylic and water colour paints.

Live Life Out Loud

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Live LifeOut LoudThis spread was inspired by some old music paper I found in an art magazine I bought years ago and never knew how to use before, fortunately I didn’t throw it away as I always knew it would be useful one day :-).

I did some layers for the background with acrylic paints and gesso and collaged torn pieces of the music score, some musical instruments I found in some vintage adverts on the internet and the laughing man, from an old advert for a comic act (I think).  I also used a Tim Holtz mini mask and I printed the heading on my computer.  I’m pretty happy with the finished spread, I like the light and dark effect.

I’m not sure I do live my life out loud though, generally I don’t like being the centre of attention I’m more the kind of person who just gets on and does things in the background.  Today though I did two things that did put me ‘in the spot-light’ (as it were) and whereas I would normally have been awkward and self-conscious today I felt confident and relaxed,  lots of people smiled at me and that made me feel good.