Another step on this journal's art journey!

Hi everyone!
I hope your Christmas preparations are going smoothly. I'm at a very 'relaxed' stage, having done all my Christmas present shopping and only just ordering the turkey today from our fantastic, local butcher - who I used to teach, actually! I'm popping by tonight with a short post explaining my latest contribution to Marie's Art journal. I'm currently hosting our third 'cycle' of a collection of art journals that are passed around a 'Circle of friends' month by month. The idea being that each of us complete at least one page of each other's journals before passing them on to the next person in the circle. It's great fun and very inspiring as the journals fill up with the most wonderful art as they progress around the circle. At the end of this cycle, a few of us are meeting up for an arty weekend together in the Peak District. So, what did I complete in Marie's art journal?

I really enjoyed completing this. I chose to use a little three-page booklet inside Marie's journal.  The image above are the three inside pages. The theme for this cycle was suggested by Julie Bell, to create our journals with envelopes. It's fascinating to see everyone's different interpretation of this theme. However, a three-page booklet resulted in me needing to complete six surfaces. As you can see, I decided to use some of my huge stash of Lavinia Stamps, available Here. I adore this range. The stamps are really good quality and deeply etched so the prints are always reliable. I decided to use Distress oxides for the backgrounds. Now I'm no expert with these and still learning what products work well/don't work well with oxides. 

I varied the colour combinations on the inside and outer surfaces and really went to town with my colour blending. I had already cut out a circle as I wanted to create a 'peep-hole' for the viewer to feel they were peeping through a landscape to see the fairies dancing in the moonlight. Well, that was the original plan, I'm not sure I achieved that but I am happy with the result. I hope Marie will be.

These are the colours I used for both the outer and the inner layers. I then splashed water across each of the surfaces before drying them off. You can't predict the lovely effects you get but each page was a lovely surprise!  Now it was just a matter of creating little fairy scenes for each surface while keeping the main focus on the centre page. It wasn't easy getting the main image absolutely central in the cut out circles but I don't think Marie will mind!

The page above is the first page. I just had to add some glitter to those fairy wings! 

When you open the first page this is what you see. You then open out the page on the right to reveal the centre, inner pages. 

And this is the final surface. I do hope you have enjoyed taking a closer look at this little booklet. Marie has Young children and it was with them in mind that I decided to go with this idea. I hope she, and they, will enjoy looking at it. Thankyou for popping by. I would love you to leave a comment. 

I wish all of you a very happy Christmas and look forward to another art-filled year in 2018!  Until next time! . 

'Ladies of The Forest' PA White on White challenge

Hi everyone
I'm here tonight to link up my project for the PaperArtsy Blog. This was a real challenge for me as I have never limited my colour palette to variations of white before but I'm so pleased Leandra allowed me to create a project on this theme.  I loved making this!

I didn't set out to create a canvas. I intended to create some Christmas cards as the theme seemed to fit this outcome perfectly. However, once I started to collect bits and pieces from my stash it was clear that I had everything I needed for a Mixed Media spread. Although the challenge theme is 'White on White' or 'Shades of White' I couldn't resist complementing the white with silver. 

The Lynn Perrella images (the sets they are taken from can be seen on the PA blog link) are stamped first in Encore Silver before being embossed with WOW embossing powders. As I explain in the main PA blog post, I 'borrowed' an idea from Lynne Perrella herself to stamp the faces again on PA Smoothy card, again in silver, to cut out and lay over the first embossed face. This has made the faces stand out more clearly. 

The main colours used to help create these variations of white were: Fresco Chalk acrylic paints in: Chalk, Nougat, Snowflake, and heavy Gesso. I have explained how I created each layer over on the PA blog which you can link to above. I'll leave you with a few close ups, but would love you to pop over to the PA blog as there have been some wonderful creations on this theme over the last fortnight. 

Perhaps you are inspired to create something on this theme? I'm off to create some 'white on white' Christmas cards. Until next time, Thankyou for popping by!