Creative weekend 7 - "A fashion moment"

A fashion moment - an art journal page in Seawhite hardbound 7.5"x7.5" (ca. 20x20 cm) journal.

Simple two colors watercolor background in pink and violet with pattern of ferns (Inkadinkado stamp) stamped with clear Versamark ink all over the page and covered with silver Pan pastel. I used gray Distress ink and the same stamp for the stenciled silhouettes.

I was extra happy doing this page, because I made these stencils myself using Dingbats PC font of women's silhouettes. It is "Sewing patterns" font from dafont.com - every lower-case and every upper-case letter on your keyboard is a different silhouette. And there is a whole large category of Dingbats fonts on this web site prepared to be used :0).
I changed this font into .svg file in Inkscape program and then transformed this "3 letters-silhouettes" file in Brother Scan-n-cut canvas on-line program into a great custom stencil pattern I cut with my Scan-n-cut cutting machine.
It was fast and easy, even if I tried it for the first time. I followed some youtube tutorials from applelover53. This lady has really awesome tips and tricks for Inkscape and Scan-n-cut including several nice and easy videos how to use dingbats e.g. HERE or HERE. Or just write "dingbat" into the searching box on her youtube channel and you will find much more :0)

I finished the page with the beautiful circle stamps (Lavinia stamps), a stitch stamp (Technique Tuesday), black archival ink, white chalk marker and a small label maker :0)

14. 2. 2017 A fashion moment

Playful art journal page 9

Today's journal page is just a simple combination of some elements I wanted to use once. And topic... "Around the world" :0)

Background is made with stamping and Pan pastels again, postal stamps die cuts were embossed with embossing folders with script, travel and postal theme sprayed with Distress inks with some Pan pastels on it for more matte look. A globe is a gorgeous die from Tim Holtz. And than these nice stamps I have from my parcels and letters with crafty things...irresistible :0)

So no special technique today, just a little challenge with grey background...it is really not a color I would use a lot :D Just one funny thing - when I took my photos of this page, if the sunlight came from other side, the embossed parts looked like deeply debossed. Very cool - but not truth :0))

3.5.2016 Playful art journal page 9

Playful art journal page 7

Playing with Pan pastels is fun still, so this journal page has a whole background made with Pan pastels, Finnabairs clear gesso and stencils in Seawhite hardcover art journal (25x19 cm / 10"x7.5") :0).
At first I used foam applicator with light blue Pan pastel for whole background, than I used a waved stencil from Simon says stamp with darker blue pastel and than I covered whole page with two layers of clear gesso (just to be sure that I will not destroy my thinner journal paper later). Finnabair's gesso is quite smooth, so I could easily used it for my next step - I covered whole page with third - darkest - blue color of Pan pastel. Clear gesso holds pastel beautifully, but I was still able to remove some of this third color layer with wet baby wipe through circle stencil. Final result are the lighter circles with visible wavy pattern from first two layers of Pan pastel.
Then I used Tim Holtz white texture paste with TCW Nautilus stencil and I reduced the shine of the white color with light blue pastel applied with brush. The structure of the paste is a little bit rough, so I didn't want to use my foam applicator for it and I had a better blending possibility.
At the end I embellished whole background and shells with Indigoblu gilding flakes and I wanted to have at least the central circle a little bit dimensional, not just flat. Here I found out one important thing (for next time), that I really don't like the Indigoblu special gilding glue for this kind of gilding. Maybe it was because of the layers of Pan pastel, but it did not hold the flakes well when I brushed the excess flakes off (some parts ended scraped, although I did use a quite soft brush) and on some spots it left some "rubbery" sticky lumps....so for example the gold circle I gilded three times and rest of the page two times. In the end, for the last trial I used Design-Metall liquid gilding milk from Efco instead (you can use any gilding liquid). You can put the leaves on it in 15 minutes after application, it holds the leaves with no problems and with no sticky residue. I also applied the protective varnish for metal leaves from the same company, so it could keep the shine of the metal leaves and protect them from scratches for a longer time (unfortunately metal leaves are not the real gold, so they will not stay shiny forever). Outcome of this experience is, that next time I will use the white gesso or a texture paste to build a dimensional objects and than lay the metal leaves on gilding milk.
The sea horse was stamped with Indigoblu gilding glue, gilded and colored with Dylusions sprays in waterbrush. I also re-gilded some parts of it with gilding milk and used the gilding varnish.

At the end I must say, that this page was a great creative adventure and I really enjoyed all new techniques, although it was a bit difficult in a few moments :0) 

2.4.2016 Playful journal page 7

Playful art journal page 6

Today I tried another variation of Versamark and Pan pastel technique background. I have a new 6 Dylusions paints in my stash, so I wanted to see how would they look like in my journal book. When I put these colors in my Dylusions color swatch, I cleaned the foam applicators in my journal. And than I decided to transform this really colorful background in a new journal page :0). I used Versamark stamping (few different stamps at one time) and white Pan pastel over it again. Than I recolored roses with black ink marker. Border, on the other hand, I stamped in black Versafine ink and than put white pastel on it, so the result is more grey now. And the Pan pastel covered the shapes perfectly again. After polishing the page with dry cloth all was perfectly fixed.
There were only two surprises - when I wanted emboss the words under the shoe (clear embossing powder over black stamping), I did not use the baby powder first, so embossing powder covered also the surrounding of the letters, especially the parts stamped with Versamark and covered with pastel. Another thing was, that when I stamped my quote with Versafine, this Versamark/pastel text was still quite visible through the ink, so I went with my black marker over it again. The images of the shoe and owl are also stamped in black and embossed with superfine clear embossing powder, so I could colored it easily with Dylusions sprays in waterbrushes with colors corresponding with background Dylusions paints. I finished the page with white Signo uni-ball pen.

So there it is, a result I like a lot, colorful journal page Nr. 6 in a Seawhite hardcover art journal (25x19 cm / 10"x7.5").

25.3.2016 Playful journal page 6

Playful art journal pages 4 and 5

Another two small art journal pages today. It is mostly about background. I wanted to try a Versamark or Watermark ink technique with a combination with Distress ink pads and Pan pastels.

I need to say, that first trial - Nr. 4 is a quite out of my comfort zone - red color for the background and green (complementary color) leaves in foreground, that is definitely not my cup of tea. On the other hand I wanted something a little bit romantic what would fit with my background Vintage alphabet stamp. Unfortunately this time I did not the technique correctly and the final result was not according to my expectations, so I also used some stencils to finished it. But I like a lot the watch and squirrel :D

Second trial - journal page Nr. 5 - is much much better :D. I like it a lot. I used Distress ink pads, stamped the lattice background stamp with Versamark ink, spritzed the page with water and dried it with heat tool and paper towel. I used Distress ink pads again a little bit to softened some lighter spots. Than I stamped the leaves and applied the white Pan pastel with Distress foam applicator. The result was magical, especially when I burnished the whole page with dry paper towel, so the Pan pastel was fixed on the stamped places and the colors became a little bit more pastel. Finally I used this technique again with music notes stamps. For the image I wanted to use a one layer technique, so I stamped Gorjuss girl stamp, masked it with low tack paper mask and stamped a beautiful tree stamp from Chocolate Baroque over it. The tree stamp was originally bigger and there were two birds, but i masked them out with masking tape before stamping and than I used just a part of the stamp, so it is narrower now :0)

For both pages I used Seawhite hardcover art journal again (25x19 cm / 10"x7.5").

20.3.2016 Playful journal page 4

23.3.2016 Playful journal page 5