Evolution of a page - Fun with tissue

 Hi all,
Thought I'd record the progress of a page, for the blog and for myself, just for fun...not often we stop to 'freeze' those moments between layers ;)

I started this journal spread with a technique inspired by my online friend and fellow Aussie, Giovanna http://giovannascott.com/ in this video http://vimeo.com/giovannascott/purpose

As I've mentioned before, I adore using tissue in my mixed-media work. I haven't quite used it in this way before, stamping a bold black & white background sheet, ripping it up into strips and using it as a base layer (I mostly use it in the top layers and often use the existing image or pattern to add extra dimension).

 So...after separating the top layer from a 3 ply tissue, roughly stamped it all over.

 Tore it up into strips and glued it randomly onto the page.

 Filled in some spaces with oil pastels and rubbed them in.

 Dripped some blue ink and sprayed some orange/yellow through a doily stencil. Didn't quite come out very well as the oil pastels provided too much resist. Oh well, all part of the fun with mixed media. Moving on....;)

Then I randomly stamped some text in black ink and white paint using bubble wrap.

 A close up.

 I pushed my boundaries a bit with my colour choices. It was all looking a bit bright for me and I wanted to dull it down a bit to let my chosen images stand out so I smudged white paint around the spread with my fingers.

Then I glued down my main magazine image. Isn't it beautiful? I have had it in my images folder for years, waiting. It's so serene...I feel peace just looking at it...

I chose the flowers for their colour relationship to my page (oranges and yellows are not my usual choice) and the words all seemed to fit into a loose meaning to this spread. 

I have to apologise for the terrible photos (especially the lighting in this one). They were all quick shots with my mobile phone. Didn't want to disturb the creative flow when I finally managed to sit down at my craft table to keep going with this page.

Then for the fun part - doodling! Without much thinking, I painted some white vines which I thought were not prominent enough so I outlined and dotted them with a black gel pen and proceeded to add shadowing with a black watercolour crayon.  Added some doodling around the words to finish off.

Well that was fun, will have to do it again (may be will pull my camera out next time) ;)

Until next time,

Lena :)

Messy Fingers

My latest page was inspired by a quote I heard in a YouTube art journalling video (sorry don't remember who from) :/

So simple but it really 'tickled my fancy' ;) I proceeded to create an art journal page keeping in mind that considering the central quote, I had permission to be more detached from the outcome and be more messy than usual. As I often do, I started with a spread of 'blotches' of left-over paint from other pages. In no particular order...( I really should try to keep track of the layers one day)....There's wrapping paper that I kept for a long time waiting to be used in a page. Loved the repetitive hearts pattern on it. I sprayed through a found object stencil (the sparse purple circles on the left), stippled white paint through sequin waste, stamped a large background stamp with black ink & stamped tiny black hearts to tie in with the wrapping paper. There's a scalloped doodle stamp at the bottom of the page spread with white dots made with my favourite Uniball Signo white gel pen.

 This page features one of my most favourite collage elements of all time. Paper flowers and circles that I did according to instruction from here http://almastoller.blogspot.com.au/2010/06/how-to-make-paper-flowers.html  They are so much fun to make! Because they are coated in gel medium they are quite plasticky and sturdy. I made a batch a few years ago, they still make me happy when I 'play' with them ;)

Until next time,

Lena :)

I'm baaaack....

Well that was quite a break...my poor neglected blog...
This time I do have a good excuse. Since last July, I had a life-changing experience that had taken over all my focus and energy. Without going into details, I have had a health challenge occur seemingly out of the blue and apparently now have a chronic inflammatory condition :/ So, have been preoccupied with regularly attending Hospital Outpatients Dept, learning about and  improving my diet, while continuing my part-time work and the normal day-to-day management of my family.

I have always known that allowing myself time for creativity is a part of my mental health but now it's even more significant - it's my 'meditation', calming of the mind, de-stressing. This 'allowing' has been difficult in the past and continues to be a challenge. There are always 'more important' things to do...

With the resolution to make art a priority, in the last few months, I have been immersing myself in the online art world again. One of the first things I did at the start of the year was to join the "One Little Word" movement. My word for 2013 is COMMIT. This is my page.

The other major news, I have been extremely fortunate to grab a place in the very popular art week-end, "Paint Mojo" with the wonderful Tracy Verdugo http://artoftracyverdugo.blogspot.com.au/p/workshops-and-retreats_1.html Tracy has spent a large part of 2012 travelling and teaching in the US and Asia and is planning to again very soon so I consider this a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn from and be inspired by an amazing woman and talented artist. Very excited and cannot wait for mid-June :)

Lena :)