Art journal page - Boo and welcome

Hi and welcome :0) Today I would like to show you a new page in my Canson Mix Media middle art book - 17 x 25 cm (cca 6.5" x 10").

This page is an entry for Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge "Stamp it".

This page is about an idea of one friendly night visit - a little bit interactive page. I created my background with Distress Oxide inks and a moon mask from Tim Holtz. Than I stamped a tree and a grass and stenciled the bats with very dark black Versafine Claire ink. But later I also traced all these images with black acrylic pen, so they ended up much darker. 

I used some patterned papers and dies from my stash to create a house, a path and a door (I embossed them with Tim Holtz 3D embossing folders lumber and cobblestone) and stamped my monster's friends, an eyeball and a pumpkin with Gina K. amalgam obsidian ink. I coloured them with Ohuhu water based markers and Seedless preserves distress ink applied with a brush. This ink I also used to create my wallpaper in the house - I darkened light violet paper with Seedless preserves distress ink and stamped with the same ink a damask background stamp on it. The result is very nice. 

Finally I added some lights with a white gel pen, shadows with the markers and I darkened again every stamped line and every single edge of my die cuts with the black acrylic pen so they stand out nicely against the darker background.

I'm happy with this page and I although I spent a few nights with this page I don't regret the time :0)

Thank you a lot for your visit, have a nice day and see you next time :0)

11. 9. 2022 Boo and welcome

Playful art journal page 12

Obsession, that could be a topic for today's journal page. But the official name is "Halloween again?" ,0)

You probably also know it....sometimes you have an idea, you try to bring it to the life and the final result is....anything else :D. So you try it again (and maybe again and again) :0) That happened to me with last two journal pages. Page 11 was a little bit Halloween, but completely differently then I wanted. And the initial idea in my head was not fulfilled and became a kind of obsession.... That's why I offer you a new page with different point of view :0) Unfortunately I need to admit that even if I love this new page really a lot, the obsession remains :D. Please forgive me, but there will be probably another Halloween page in the future, although it's only May now :D

I'm very proud of this page, because it is 97% one layer page (except of the pumpkins green parts). Normally I would use paper piecing technique, but this time I decided to try it with masks. And it was a lot of thinking about the right order of working steps I must say and paper piecing would be much much easier (but more bulky). Also, I would not worry so much that my next step destroy all the previous work .0) But I think that it was worth it. I love the color combination, shining pumpkins and my cute skeptical owl :0))
There is only one disappointment - my mobile phone camera is not able to take full spectrum of colors. Violet (Distress ink pad Wilted violet) is almost invisible, blues (Distress ink pads Faded jeans and Chipped sapphire) are faded and orange color of pumpkins (Distress ink sprays Fossilized amber and Carved pumpkin) is too dark, even in the sunlight. I spent a lot of time just with taking pictures of this page and I unhappily think that this photo is the best I can make with it....

But I used Distress ink pads and sprays, alcohol markers and for the first time in my crafting history colored pencils also. I learned how to make darker orange color for shading of the pumpkins (according the color theory I mixed orange Carved pumpkin and it's opposite color Wilted violet, so I received darker, muted, but still very nice color), I successfully used colored pencils (and I will use them again) and I made my own masks for each object.... hurray :0)

Please enjoy this page with me and have a very nice day :0)

19.5.2016 Playful art journal page 12

Playful art journal page 11

Today a slightly different page - with a little bit more painterly look. Although it was not intended to be like this, I learned a lot with this page - especially about "how important sealing the layers" is :0)

This page started light blue - I wanted to use Faber-Castells gelatos, but I was not completely satisfied with the intensity of colors. So I dried this first layer and used Distress inks over it in two shades of violet - Seedless preserve and Wilted violet. I used "halloween" stencils and moved the page into a little bit "darker" mood. Than I painted a moon, stamped the crows etc.... The page was almost finished and everything was good as long as I decided to make a final sealing of whole page with clear gesso, because without it I was not able to achieve pure white color of the birds and feathers. Every coat of white became slightly violet after I applied it. And then it happened. Even if my brush and all layers on the page were completely dry, the violet colors of Distress inks smudged or disappeared and the covered first layer of light blue gelatos became visible again. Quite a disaster. And the white moon? There was no white anymore :0O
What happened? It emerged that gelatos, even dried, did not hold Distress inks well. It was only sit on the top of gelatos. If I would sealed gelatos first with the clear gesso or mat medium, it would be much better base for Distress inks and if I would later sealed Distress inks with e.g. microglaze, it would be even better.

So what I did with it? I left the "clear" gesso coat to dry and than started with violets and black again. Of course, It changed the background pattern of the page a bit, but the outcome was not so bad at the end. Than I stamped my crows in white and black and when the stamped images were dry, I sealed only the white part of the crows (it was not important that they become violet again, because when the sealer - mat medium - was dried, the violet color was finally and safely locked into it and was not smudgeable anymore) and repainted it again with white marker. Success :0)) And do you see the flash of genius - when I did not sealed whole page again but just the crows, so there was no danger that I will move the Distress inks again? .0)) That kind of clever ideas is usually coming when you really need to solve some problem or save something you accidentally destroyed :D

So in fact I should thank this accident for opportunity to learn something new. But to be honest, next time I would prefer things to go more smoothly and cleanly .0)

16.5.2016 Playful art journal page 11