The Stencilfied Journal Prompt 8

This latest spread for #thestencilfiedjournal didn't quite turn out as planned. Personally I blame the weather! As you can tell Prompt Eight told us to stencil with glue. I immediately thought of all those foiling sheets lingering in a cupboard, and so I made the background in readiness for some foiling.

I used collage with Tim Holtz's tissue wrap as well as stamping with some art foamies designed by BalzerDesigns. Then I added stencilling with some stencils by Stencilgirl  Products® (one of the requirements of #thestencilfiedjournal project). I used the big stencil from the May 2018 Stencilgirl®Club as well as the small stencil from the October 2014 set of Club stencils.

Then I grabbed a red metallic foiling sheet and some Aleene's Tacky Glue and stencilled the circles with the glue through the large stencil from the May 2018 Club set (as above). Then as per the instructions I let the glue dry for 30 minutes. Alas, due to our highly unusual tropical conditions here in Scotland the glue was a bit too dry already by the time I applied the foiling sheet. Just as well I like a distressed look! So my circles are not perfect, but on the plus side they perfectly suit the words I found to use on the spread (in a 9 x 14cm journal).

Art Cards 170 - 178

 Here is the next set of 9 art cards. Remember these cards are part of the #365somethings2018 project on Instagram where I hope to end up with 365 cards, one for each day of 2018. If you want to see them appear individually each day you can find them all on my Instagram feed.

Art Cards 71 - 79

Here is the latest batch of nine artcards. They are part of my #365somethings2018 project on Instagram where I hope to end up with 365 cards, one for each day of 2018. If you want to see them appear individually each day you can find them all on my Instagram feed.

Check out the labels (tags) below for techniques and materials used. 

Art Cards 62 - 70

Here is the latest batch of nine artcards. They are part of my #365somethings2018 project on Instagram where I hope to end up with 365 cards, one for each day of 2018. If you want to see them appear individually each day you can find them all on my Instagram feed.

I'm really enjoying how they all end up looking very differently. I make backgrounds usually in groups of 9 cards, then add collage, rubber stamping, stencilling etc. And then every day I finish one or more cards completely and stamp a day stamp on for the day I finish them. They go in a pot and then I select one to take out and post every day.

Art Cards 28 - 36

 Here is the latest batch of 9 art cards made as part of the #365somethings2018. I am posting them each day on my Instagram feed and am adding here on my blog whenever I have 9 or so ready. Check out the tags (labels) underneath this post for techniques used. All stencils used so far are by Stencilgirl Products.

Here are all the individual art cards:

Art Card 28

Art Card 29

Art Card 30

Art Card 31

Art Card 32

Art Card 33

Art Card 34

Art Card 35

Art Card 36

Those were the Days

The prompt on Joggles Art Journal Adventures this week was: to include song lyrics or title. I could have chosen from so many favourite songs but the choice was made for me before I started this spread in an A5 sized journal. I am in the process of destashing my "stuff" and have found many items that I had totally forgotten about. The vintage image I used in this spread was one of them. As soon as I saw her I knew she had to be my focal point this week and the song Those were the Days by Mary Hopkin seemed to suit her melancholic and sad look. I love this song from way back when and as I am growing older I understand it better and better.

The background was made using stencil L605 Soulful Scribbles Dots Dash stencil from Stencilgirl Products as well as L606 Soulful Scribbles Flourishes, both designed by Traci Bautista. I added stamping with an art foamie designed by Nathalie Kalbach

The text was added by the same rubber stamping method I mentioned in the post a few days ago using a mix of alphabet stamp sets and a piece of scrapbook paper.

I found text that to me related to the lyrics of the song on a rub on sheet from Tim Holtz and tried to rub it on, not perfectly but so that remnants of text can be seen. The vintage image was glued on and outlined with a black Stabilo All pencil.

Art Cards 24 - 27

Here is the next lot of art cards. I'm aiming to catch up with the cards so that I upload one to Instagram every day till the end of the year. Because I made a late start I'm slightly behind. The cards are done to date but uploading them takes a bit longer as I don't want to overload my Instagram feed.

For techniques and materials used check out the labels below. All stencils used are by Stencilgirl Products.

Art Card 24

Art Card 25

Art Card 26

Art Card 27

Art Cards 20 - 23

Slowly I'm catching up with myself and here are art cards 20 -23 for my #365somethings2018 project. For techniques check out the tags underneath this post. All stencils used are from Stencilgirl Products.

Art Card 20

Art Card 21

Art Card 22

Art Card 23

Art Cards 18 and 19

Art Card 18

 Two more art cards have been completed for the #365somethings2018 project. They were produced using collage, rubber stamping, stencilling (all stencils by Stencilgirl Products), washi tape and art foamies (from Balzer Designs).

Art Card 19

Detail Art Card 19

Seven

The prompt on Joggles Art Journal Adventures was to use the number 7 and as an optional extra to add a border. At first I didn't feel like adding a border as the journal I'm working in is only small (A5 size) but I wasn't all that happy with my spread once it was done (hey, it happens!) and thought a border might help, and it did. It looks a lot better surrounded by that black.

 I started with the background that was done with acrylic paint and the L564 Impressionist Brush Texture stencil by Stencilgirl Products.  To this I added some stamping with a Dylusions stamp as well as with an art foamie called Ring Hopscotch designed by Balzer Designs.

I glued on the number 7 (from a piece of wrapping paper) onto previously painted deli paper and then added it to the pages as shown. Part of a quotation were done on a Dymo writer and self-adhesive transparant tape. It reads: "7 colours make a rainbow, 7 chords make a music, 7 days make a week". Also added was: "7 continents make a world", but that has now vanished into the border.

To make the border I used the Dylusions Journal Block (by Ranger)and a permanent black marker. I'm still not over the moon with the pages but this was a week where snow shovelling and dog walking in snowy conditions took up most of my time  and other art stuff sort of fell by the roadside.

The snow has now iced up and it's very slippery under foot. We managed a walk in the forest without finding a deer's hoof (unlike the previous 3 days!), but that might be because we kept Flora on a very long (15feet) lead. Hopefully when the snow has vanished we will be able to conduct a full search and clear up any deer remains that haven't been taken by foxes or other dogs. However more snow is expected by midday so all bets are off!

Choices

Our prompt on Joggles Art Journal Adventures this week was to use a quotation. As it happens I have used quotes on every single spread I did for the Adventures this year and on most of my other art journal pages. I love words on my pages and quotations are a great way to add them. I also collect them, either cutting them out or writing them down manually, and also adding them to a digital Word file. That means I always have lots of choice which one to add. Therefore it seemed appropriate to use a quotation about choice for this spread, done in an A5 journal.

The quotation I used is by John C. Maxwell and it reads: "Life is a matter of choices and every choice you make, makes you". I decided that Frida Kahlo was a great way to illustrate those words.

For the background I used acrylic paints and S433 Amsterdam 6 stencil by Stencilgirl, designed by Nathalie Kalbach. I collaged on a collection of text (some vintage) and added some self adhesive stickers from my collection (the circles are by Robin Marie Smith). I also added some stamping with a text art foamie called Writer's Block designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer

I then spray stencilled on Frida's face using the large stencil from the September 2013 Stencilgirl Club. The other Frida figure on the left comes from a set of Artists Notecards (produced by The Unemployed Philosophers Guild) .

The words of the quotation are a mix of words cut from magazines and letters from a self-adhesive alphabet set. Finally I did some outlining with black and white markers and the pages were done.

Conversations like this

As part of the series of Wanderlust 2017 classes we received a monthly prompt for a collage. It told us what to do on it in a timespan of just 5 minutes. The clues will remain secret but this is what I ended up with, sized 9 x 12". I already knew what might happen last as I had done the same project during Wanderlust 2016. The collage is to be cut up. To  my shame I must admit now that I never cut up the 2016 one as I liked it too much. I feel less of an emotional pull about this one, perhaps because I surmised I would be told to cut this one up too. So you will eventually see how this one ended up but I thought I would share it here first before getting the scissors out.

The entire collage started with a layer of vintage text where we had circled some words. I kept the full text that I had circled and it read:

"importance to the world

filling it with words

the good became characteristic

old black silk gown and grey shawl

a waste of valuable time

conversations like this

with great sinners

turned austere"

Other words were added as per the instructions where we were to write down how we were feeling on a given day. There is also more collage, as well as rubber stamping with art foamies and other stamps, as well as lots of doodling in both the back and foreground

I also added some random items (such as washi tape) simply because I felt like it and thought the collage needed it.

Now for the cutting up!

There will be another series of classes: Wanderlust 2018, and I hope there will be another collage activity like this one too.

The Greatest Bliss

You may remember that back in June I was one of the Guest Designers on the Artful Adventures, Stroll through the Hood project, initiated by Nathalie Kalbach to celebrate the publication of her book with the same name. There was a step-by-step tutorial from me for this project on her site but I wasn't able to share a picture of the entire page then. Enough time has passed to enable me to share it with you now.

For the Stroll we were given prompts and we could interpret them any way we wanted in photographs. I chose the Penicuik Estate for my "hood". The estate surrounds Penicuik House.  The house dates from the 1760s but sadly burned down in 1899 and only the walls were left standing. There was no money to restore the house and it remained in a ruined and dangerous state till 2007 when the Penicuik House Preservation Trust took on the huge project of stabilizing the house which is now finished. The Trust then started on a long term (till 2035) plan to restore the various built structures within the landscape of the estate.  One such structure is the Chinese Gates, as seen above, dating from 1758. These have now been fully restored as close as possible to the original structure. 

You come to the Gates from the Lime Walk extending from the side of the house and when you look into the far distance you see the Allan Ramsay Monument, erected in 1759 by Sir James Clerk, 3^rd Baronet of Penicuik, in commemoration of the Scottish poet Allan Ramsay (1684-1758). He has been called one of Scotland’s most important literary figures and is now mainly known as the author of Scotland’s first folk opera The Gentle Shepherd, set in the countryside around the nearby village of Carlops, that also has a lovely pub named after him.  The Gates and Monument were simply perfect for the prompts Fence, Sky, Sign, Pattern, View, Boundary, and especially Geometric which was the prompt on the day I posted my project  

 I used the L457 Santiago stencil designed by Nathalie Kalbach for Stencilgirl Products in the background and the L456 Buenos Aires one for the Monument. This last paper was done on a gelli plate and then cut to shape.

For the gates itself I used the Chicago art foamie, also designed by Nathalie and in the background I stamped with her Kaffee Klatsch rubber stamp set. Of course I had to include my constant strolling companion, the lovely Miss Flora. She was printed out to size from my computer. I used a quotation from Allan Ramsay himself to finish off the page.

I had a lot of fun making this project and in fact with the entire Stroll through the Hood. It helped me to pay even more attention to my surroundings and I have been keeping that up ever since.