Here comes the Sun

If only the sun was coming! I could really do with it but instead it's a damp and grey day so I will have to content myself with these sunny pages. They were inspired by the latest prompt on Joggles Art Journal Adventures that read: "Here comes the Sun".  This spread is also heavy influenced again by MaryBeth Shaw's lesson on Creative Jumpstart 2017. I'm working in the notebook I mentioned in earlier posts and to which I now refer as the Peacock journal because it features sparkling peacocks on the cover. To make the pages sturdier I'm gluing them together as well as added a hefty dose of gesso before I begin to work on them.

I used collage with vintage papers, tissue wrap, paper napkins, scrapbook paper, a postage stamp, and vintage  textured wallpaper. Then Distress markers and paint were added with stencil S314 Entangling Threads from Stencilgirl Products, as well as S191 Open Buildings. The sun was cut from that textural wallpaper and I added some gold accents as well as sparkles (sadly you will not be able to see this on the pictures).

 I also used a mica spray in red such as on the left hand side of the picture above. 

 Some of the stencilled images were outlined in white. 

Ready for Anything

Just like last year the Wanderlust 2017 set of classes also has a section for a Wanderlust Book where we get a prompt every other week and we can do with it what we want. I will be working in Finnabair's Mixed Media journal (with rings) that is a bit larger than the journal I used last year. It's 7.1/4" x 9.1/2".  This journal has both white and craft pages and I'll use whichever set I feel like but for this first spread I have simply used the first page.

The first prompt was: I am ready for......, and as you can see above I went with anything, even though I'm fully aware of the fact that it's not true. Sometimes you have to proclaim your courage to yourself before you're truly feeling it.

As I had such a great time with MaryBeth Shaw's lesson on Creative Jumpstart 2017 (see the New Doors spread here) I decided to use it again to make this page, hence no instructions here. I must mention though that it involves Distress Markers. I had a few but felt an urgent need for more so I'm very stocked up at the moment.

I collaged with a wide variety of papers, some from magazines and some wrapping paper, and used all the stencils from the January 2017 Stencilgirl Club.

I also used fluorescent acrylic ink as well as a mica spray but although you can see the former, the sparkle of the latter is lost in the pictures.

New Doors

For the second year I am participating in a series of classes known as Creative Jumpstart. They are organized by Nathalie Kalbach and are meant to jump start creativity at the start of the year with classes uploaded every day during January. One of the classes was by MaryBeth Shaw, the owner of Stencilgirl Products. As soon as I watched it I just wanted to have a go myself, specially after seeing the gorgeous spreads in her sketchbook. Therefore there will be no info about how this spread was made but if you are interested you can still sign up for Creative Jumpstart 2017

While I was in the process of working on this spread the new weekly prompt for the Joggles Art Journal Adventures arrived and it was: Doors. It was great to discover a door image that fitted the spread I had made perfectly! It came from the collage sheet Ancient Doorways from Lost Art Creations. The pages were made in the notebook I have mentioned earlier here. It has peacocks on the front (with sparkles) and although I have to glue pages together to make them more substantial I just love working in it. It's sized 6 x 8".  I'll refer to it as the peacock art journal from now on.

I used the following materials. For the collage it was a mix of vintage text and images (from an old technical drawing book) as well as wrapping paper (some sparkling), firework images from the Flow calendar, and postage stamps plus the door image as mentioned above.

 For the stencilling I used sequin waste with large circles as well as L456 Buenos Aires (designed by Nathalie Kalbach)  and S414 Grid Outline 6 x 6 (designed by MaryBeth Shaw) both from Stencilgirl Products.

I used a mix of fluid acrylics, Radiant Gold paste from Colourarte, and fluorescent acrylic ink in pink, as well as a blue Pearlescent spray. The spread has a most satisfying glimmer to it. Wish I could share that but the camera refuses to pick it up.

I used two quoations: "I am not who I was yesterday" and "Old ways won't open new doors".