Speed Art Journal: Way Too Extraordinary

After taking a break from making art journal videos to knuckle down and finish my final dance teaching qualifications I’m pleased to say that I am back!  I really enjoy art journaling so I’m hoping I can get back into a regular routine for you. 

In this first video of the new series I’ve decided to demonstrate some of my colouring techniques with you as this will be my first video since becoming part of the Spectrum Noir design team.  This entire spread was inspired by my daughter (who micromanaged the different stages lol x)  (Scroll down for video…)

YouTube Partnership Changes

Before we get into it I have a few points to make:  firstly, my channel has been affected by the recent changes to YouTube’s policies and now all of my videos that I worked hard to make have become demonetised.  This basically means that I can no longer receive ad revenue (which was only pennies on my channel) but it was a very good incentive for me to carry on creating and sharing content.  It also helped me justify buying another art journal or replacing supplies that ran out.  In order to get monetised in the future I need to greatly increase the number of hours my videos are watched by people.  Each video takes several days to create, then edit the footage, produce the final video and give you the blog entry listing all the materials, etc.  If you would like to support my channel (for free!) then the best thing would be to subscribe to my channel and maybe watch a playlist or two on there from time to time.  This, as well as liking and commenting on my videos, lets me know that you like my content and that you’d like to see more.  Of course, if you’re a company and would like to sponsor me to make a video using your products then please get in touch too!

Voiceovers or Background Music

I’ve had a chance to reflect on comments made and there have been some occasions that people have said they would prefer a voiceover and/or more descriptions of what I’m doing to help them make similar artwork or learn from my techniques.  I am super happy to start doing voiceovers for you but I also know that other people prefer to have the background music as they find the videos quite relaxing to watch.  Therefore, for this video I’ve created TWO versions – one with voiceovers and one without.  To help me know which format you would like to see in the future please comment on the video that works best for you.

Materials Used

• Templates and Stamps from Paperbabe: Female Profile, Long & Fringe and Profile Face Stamp Set
• Spectrum Noir Colorblend Pencils
• Skin: Walnut, Saddle Brown, Vanilla, Peach, Cream and Linen
• Lips: Raspberry, Carmine, Peach
• Hair: Saddle Brown, Cider, Antique Rose, Peach, Vanilla
• Spectrum Noir Aqua Pens: Sandstone and Blossom
• Spectrum Noir Sparkle Pens: Starry Sky, Blue Topaz, Moonstone, Rose Quartz (lips)
• Spectrum Noir Artliner pens in black:  Brush, 08, 005
• Spectrum Noir Metallic Pen: Silver Ingot
• Ranger Archival Inks: Watering Can, Black, Red, Green
• Pebeo Decocreme Paints:  Pearl Violet, Matt Linen, Matt Royal Blue
• Texture Stamps by Craftwork Cards
• Cosmic Shimmer Flake and Glitter Glue
• Gilding Flakes
• Posca white pen
• Golden Gel Medium, Pebeo Drawing Gum, Pebeo White Gesso
• Tim Holtz Tissue Paper

Video WITH Voiceover:

Video WITHOUT Voiceover:

Which video do you prefer?

Art Journal: Hello Darkness My Old Friend

I’m pretty sure I’m going to divide opinion on this one – I wanted to challenge myself to create something in only greyscale this time.  The inspiration ended up being the music video for the cover of the Sound of Silence by Disturbed which has been beautifully directed.  I’ve used Pebeo acrylic paints in only mars black and titanium white, Tim Holtz tissue wrap and stamps by Sheena Douglass.  I’m curious to know what you think of this spread as I know it’s a lot moodier than what I normally do but art journaling is all about playing and trying things out!

Ingredients

• Pebeo High Viscosity Acrylic Paints – Titanium White and Mars Black
• Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap – Menagerie
• A Little Bit Sketchy Silhouette stamps by Sheena Douglass
• Black Archival Ink by Ranger
• Spectrum Noir pen in true black
• White Gesso by Pebeo
• Gel medium by Golden

Art Journal: The Family Tie is Like a Tree

I have taken a card which I recently made and turned it into an art journal page firstly because there were some really cool techniques involved and secondly to share with you how I can adapt cards for art journal pages and vice versa.  Included in this page is a simple watercolour background using Spectrum Noir Aquatints, colouring using watercolour pencils (Aqua Blend by Spectrum Noir), foiling technique using mixtion relief and a masking tape tree painted with Pebeo acrylic paints.  All of the stamps are from Sheena Douglass A Little Bit Sketchy range and work together beautifully.

Ingredients

• Aquatints by Spectrum Noir
• AquaBlend Pencils by Spectrum Noir
• Black Gesso by Pebeo
• Acrylic Paints by Pebeo
• Mixtion Relief and Gold Foil by Pebeo
• Modelling Paste by Pebeo
• Drawing Gum by Pebeo
• Archival Ink in Black and Watering Can by Ranger
• Stamps by Sheena Douglass: A Little Bit Sketchy (multiple A6 stamp sets)
• Masking Tape

Here’s the original card:

Art Journal: Your Wings Exist

I’ve pulled together a few techniques for this art journal page.  All of the stamps and stencils used are by Sheena Douglass.  The background is created by lifting off paint using water splashes.  It’s hard to see in the picture but by using a metallic base coat the coloured washes on top have a sheen to them.  It’s quite a masculine look but I like that the angel wings soften it.  The rust effect is a nice touch and is created by using texture past and distress embossing powder.

Scroll past the video for list of materials and close up photos…

Ingredients

• Acrylic paints in metallic silver, metallic black, blue and green
• White Gesso by Pebeo
• Texture Paste by Pebeo
• Distress Embossing Powder in Vintage Photo
• Stencils by Sheena Douglass: Distress Grid and Pop Dotty
• Stamps by Sheena Douglass: Falling Feathers and Divine Inspiration
• Embossing Powder
• Perfect Medium and Archival Black Ink by Ranger
• Distress Ink in Vintage Photo

Art Journal: Believe

This is a lovely technique that I recently saw demonstrated by Leonie Pujol.  I have used what I already had in my stash including these beautiful stamps by Craftwork Cards which were perfect for this.  They are the Scrumptious stamps and I used a few squiggles from the Scrumptious Sentiments stamps.  Ideally you need to use clear stamps for this so that you can get them very close to each other.  I’ve created my own mask using Pebeo’s drawing gum but Leonie also has reusable word masks for this techniques.  You could stop before colouring in your stamps or go for whatever colours you like.  I get a warm Indian vibe from these stamp designs so I chose my colours to match.  If you love this technique please have a look at Leonie’s blog here: http://leoniepujol.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/pattern-building-this-is-how.html

Ingredients

• Pebeo drawing gum
• Distress Inks: Tattered Rose, Dried Marigold
• Archival Black ink by Ranger
• Clear Stamps: Scrumptious and Scrumptious Sentiments by Craftwork Cards
• Spectrum Aqua pens in various oranges, pinks and reds
• Spectrum Noir pen in True Black
• Stickles glitter glue: Orange Peel and Orange Pieces

Art Journal: London

The techniques featured in this art journal spread was inspired by this month’s tag feature by Tim Holtz – namely the tissue tape resist.  The background was created using homemade spray ink with Aqua Tints.  I put texture medium through some stencils and then later caught it with gilding wax (I’m still waiting for shine-o-vision and sparkle-o-vision to be invented!).  The phrase written onto the postcard reads “Of all the places I have ever been – I have never known a place like London”.  Scroll down for a list of ingredients and close up photos…

Ingredients

• Spectrum Noir Aqua Tints (I didn’t have any distress ink sprays waaaaaaaaahhhh)
• Tim Holtz Distress Inks
• Tim Holtz Tissue Tape
• Stamps: Cityscapes and London by Stampers Anonymous / Tim Holtz
• Post card stamp (unknown origin)
• Ruler and Stars stencils by Tim Holtz
• Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Heart Charms, Photobooth, Memo Pin, Mini Screw Brad
• Archival Black Ink by Ranger
• Antique Gold Gilding Wax by Pebeo
• Pitt brush pen by Faber-Castell

Art Journal: Let’s Take Back Our Eggs!!!

Featuring Bird Crazy Stamps and Distress products by Tim Holtz, this is a fun page where I get to be silly again for a moment.  One of the birds is wearing the rabbit ears from the Crazy Things stamps and asking his buddies if they’ll come with him to get back “their” eggs.  These birds are so silly that they don’t realise that the Easter/Eostre Eggs are made from chocolate and they think that they’ll steal them back whilst pretending to be rabbits.

Apologies that you don’t get to see the very first step (I think the birds deleted it), but literally all I did was stick down some of the Tim Holtz tissue wrap, stick texture paste through the Blossom stencil with a spatula and cover the lot with gesso.  The rest of the background is made with Distress paints and inks.

Ingredients

• Stamps: Bird Crazy, Crazy Things and Feather Things by Tim Holtz
• Stencil: Blossom by Tim Holtz
• Distress Inks:  Lots of colours!
• Distress paints: greens, blues and pink
• Texture paste and white gesso by Pebeo
• Tissue Wrap by Tim Holtz
• Stamping card by Sheena Douglass
• Archival Black ink
• True Black Spectrum Noir pen
• White gel pen and black fine liner
• Liquid pearls in Daffodile
• Googly eyes
• Dark grey pitt brush pen by faber castell

Art Journal: Imagination (will take you everywhere)

It’s been a while since I did an art journal page using papers so here’s my urban/industrial creation using the Man Made paper pad by Craftwork Cards!  The quote is awesome and was apparently spoken by Albert Einstein.  I was very pleased to see that Craftwork Cards included a page printed with various bits of old newspaper – which I cut out to make a cool vintage cluster.  It reminds me of when the windows were being replaced in my house as a child, we found old newspaper stuffed in the brick wall cavity as though it was used as some sort of cheap insulation.  This background technique of sticking down papers, covering in watered down white gesso, then colouring back in works for all sorts of papers and is a great way of using up off cuts, etc.

Scroll down for the video, list of materials and close up photos.

Ingredients

• Man Made Paper Pad by Craftwork Cards
• White Gesso by Pebeo
• Gelatos by Faber-Castell in silver, grey, orange and brown
• Pitt brush pen by Faber-Castell in Walnut
• Micro glaze by Ranger
• Gloss Gel medium by Golden
• Cityscapes stamp by Stampers Anonymous
• Alphabet stamps by Craftwork Cards and Tiger
• Tissue Paper
• Black Archival ink by Ranger
• Distress inks in Vintage Photo and Black Soot

Art Journal: A Better Garden

This page features one of my own personal quotes which my head created when I’ve previously had to let things go or move on unexpectedly.  It reads “sometimes you have to remove some pretty flowers to allow a better garden to grow”.  I still use this quote to help me make tough decisions.  There’s a lot of die cuts today and plenty of sparkle and shimmer – including the background which is painted in Twinkling H2Os.  Scroll down for full list of supplies and further photos…

Ingredients

• Twinkling H2Os – various colours
• Distress inks – Lucky Clover and Black Soot
• Black Gesso by Pebeo
• A4 Embossing folder – Ivy by Sheena Douglass
• Dies – Labels One and Flutter Tree (inc. butterflies) by Spellbinders, Bird House by Diesire, daisy border by Sheena Douglass
• Archival Black ink by ranger
• Alpha stamps by Dovecraft
• Sakura quickie glue pen
• Cosmic Shimmer Flake and Glitter glue
• Gilding flakes
• Cosmic Shimmer ultra fine glitter
• Pebeo gilding wax in Empire Gold
• All stencils by Sheena Douglass
• Homemade mica spray from Spectrum Noir Aquatints

Art Journal: Forever Yours

I’ve had a play with Sheena Douglass’s latest stamp range Day of the Dead to create this spread.  The focal point is the watercolour effect created by stamping with distress ink and then blending the ink with water to create shading.  Additional colours were then added from Spectrum Aqua Pens.  The sentiment which comes in the set “Siempre Tuyo” translates to Forever Yours.  As for the background, acrylic dyna paints were stamped before the aquatints to create a resist.  Scroll down past the video for ingredients and additional photos…

Ingredients

• Watercolour card by Crafters Companion
• All stamps by Sheena Douglass (Day of the Dead) – including the stamp and die for the paper flowers
• Wild Rose die by Sheena Douglass (just the leaves)
• Distress ink in Pumice Stone, Mowed Lawn and Peeled Paint
• Spectrum Aqua Pens
• AquaTints by Spectrum Noir
• Pebeo Dyna paints
• Black Archival Ink by Ranger
• Pebeo Gilding Wax in Empire Gold
• Liquid Pearls and Stickles glitter in various colours
• Vintage Bronze Ultra thick embossing powder by Cosmic Shimmer
• White pen by Sakura

Art Journal: When You Believe

This page is my take on Tim Holtz’s March 2016 Tag.  I don’t have the Distress Crayons yet so I’ve substituted them for my Faber-Castell gelatos.  Until I get my hands on some I won’t know what the difference is but they are a fabulous medium to use.  When it comes to die-cutting in my journal I am fearless!  Just remember you won’t get up to the edge of the spine and don’t do this with an automatic machine as you won’t be able to stop when you get to the middle.  Scroll down for the speed video, list of ingredients and close up photos…

Ingredients

• White Gesso Pebeo
• Gloss Gel Medium by Golden
• Cosmic Shimmer Acrylic Glue
• Gelatos by Faber-Castell
• Silver Foil Sheet by Gedeo
• Tim Holtz Sticker words: Big Chat and Chit Chat
• Idea-ology by Tim Holtz – metal band
• Distress Inks: Walnut Stain, Ground Cappuccino and Black Soot
• Dies: Heartfelt over the edge by Tonic and Butterflies by Spellbinders
• Stickles – Cinnamon
• Ink spray made using AquaTints
• Distress Stain – Brushed Brass
• Scrap of corrugated card board
• Piece of twine

Art Journal: In Dreams

For a while I’ve been inspired by a my friend, Chloe Dawn’s, self-designed tattoo of dream catchers in the shape of an owl.  Harry Potter fans will recognise the quote from Dumbledore: “In dreams we enter a world which is entirely our own”!  Scroll down for full list of ingredients and close up colour photos…

Ingredients

• Pebeo White Gesso
• Faber-Castell Gelatos in all my blues and purples plus the white coconut
• Old book page and off cuts of white card
• Twinkling H2Os in a purple, a dark blue and pearl blue
• Faber-Castell pitt brush pens in a light blue, a dark blue, a purple and a grey
• Distress inks in blues and purples
• Spectrum Noir Sparkle pens in blues and purples
• Liquid Pearls in Royal Blue
• Stickles in Diamond
• Texture stamps by Sheena Douglass
• Alpha stamps by Dove Craft and Craftwork Cards
• Archival Black Ink by Ranger
• Light blue gems from the supermarket
•