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?

Pebeo Mixed Media Canvas Set “LUCY” 4 of 4

Inspired by the recent Sheena Douglass shows on Hochanda I decided to give some of my daughters old wall art a revamp as I had everything in my stash.  The canvases were originally Disney princess pictures from the pound shop but I covered them up with black gesso.  All mediums used are by Pebeo plus a few bits and bobs from my crafty stash.  Here is a video on how I made the fourth and final canvas “Y”.  This has an under the water theme and I love the shells, sand and Punchinello.  This one was my personal favourite.

Scroll past the video for photos and a list of materials used…

Ingredients

• Pebeo Black Gesso
• Pebeo Modelling Paste
• Punchinello
• Shells (from a hobby store) and play sand
• Pebeo Mixtion Relief
• Pebeo Foiling Sheet in Green
• Pebeo Fantasy Prisme paints (in a green and a blue)
• Pebeo Dyna paints (2 of the blue/green colours)
• Glue
• Transparent Mixtion Relief (Pebeo makes one but I’m not sure what brand this one was)

Here is the finished set!  I love how they each have been made using the exact same techniques but each one has a completely different theme to it.

Part 1 “L” / Part 2 “U” / Part 3 “C / Part 4 “Y”

Pebeo Mixed Media Canvas Set “LUCY” 3 of 4

Inspired by the recent Sheena Douglass shows on Hochanda I decided to give some of my daughters old wall art a revamp as I had everything in my stash.  The canvases were originally Disney princess pictures from the pound shop but I covered them up with black gesso.  All mediums used are by Pebeo plus a few bits and bobs from my crafty stash.  Here is a video on how I made the third canvas “C”.  This one is covered in cogs and is actually Lucy’s favourite one in the set.

Scroll past the video for photos and a list of materials used…

Ingredients

• Pebeo Black Gesso
• Pebeo Modelling Paste
• Pebeo Mixtion Relief
• Pebeo Green Foil Sheet
• Pebeo DYNA paints
• Pebeo Fantasy Prisme Paints
• Sand paste made by mixing play sand in with the modelling paste
• Pebeo gilding wax in Empire Gold
• Cogs die cut from chip board
• Micro beads

Here is the finished set all together.  For “L” click here, for “U” click here.

Pebeo Mixed Media Canvas Set “LUCY” 2 of 4

Inspired by the recent Sheena Douglass shows on Hochanda I decided to give some of my daughters old wall art a revamp as I had everything in my stash.  The canvases were originally Disney princess pictures from the pound shop but I covered them up with black gesso.  All mediums used are by Pebeo plus a few bits and bobs from my crafty stash.  Here is a video on how I made the second canvas “U”.

Scroll past the video for photos and a list of materials used…

Ingredients

• Pebeo Black Gesso
• Pebeo Modelling Paste
• Paper flower embellishments (the ones without centres are Prima)
• Micro beads
• Pebeo Mixtion Relief
• Pebeo Gold Foil
• Pebeo Fantasy Prisme Paints in 2 colours
• Pebeo DYNA paints in 2 colours
• Pebeo vitrail glitter medium

Here is the set of canvases all together.  You can catch up on Part 1 here.

Pebeo Mixed Media Canvas Set “LUCY” 1 of 4

Inspired by the recent Sheena Douglass shows on Hochanda I decided to give some of my daughters old wall art a revamp as I had everything in my stash.  The canvases were originally Disney princess pictures from the pound shop but I covered them up with black gesso.  All mediums used are by Pebeo plus a few bits and bobs from my crafty stash.  Here is a video on how I made the first canvas “L”.  The buttons are a vey nice touch and the modelling paste really does hold them firmly in place.

Scroll past the video for photos and a list of materials used…

Ingredients

• Pebeo Black Gesso
• Pebeo Modelling Paste
• Random mixed buttons
• Pebeo Mixtion Relief
• Pebeo Gold Foil
• Pebeo Fantasy Prisme Paints in 2 colours
• Pebeo DYNA paints in 2 colours
• Pebeo vitrail glitter medium

Check back for the details on the other canvases.

5 Background Techniques with… Pebeo DYNA Paints Volume 1

What are dyna paints and why their own set of techniques in addition to regular acrylic paints?  Good question!  Pebeo’s dyna paints are part of the high viscosity acrylic paints that they do but are extra special – each one is made of a shiny pigment colour and a different interference colour, so when it catches the light they are effectively two-tone.  Even more magical is their ability to appear different depending on the colour of the background (i.e. white card vs. black card).  Until cameras and monitors become sophisticated enough to capture the shine I hope you will see some of the effect in the video, but believe me when I say that the effect is wonderful!  As with other acrylic paints feel free to pop on over to my acrylic paint background techniques as those will work with these paints too.  Click here for a full list of my technique pages.

Techniques covered in this issue are:

1. Simple blend
2. Stamping (on black surface)
3. Watercolour resist
4. Sponging (same two colours shown on black and white)
5. Gel medium tinting

1. These paints blend on surfaces very well and can take a lot of water to help with a smooth blend, not only do you end up with a blend of the base pigment but also the interference pigments too.

2. I have sponged two colours onto a background stamp before stamping onto black card to give this fabulous result.  Just remember to wash or at least soak your stamp as soon as possible.

3. I have stamped my background by sponging onto the stamp as before, but this could easily be any free hand paint on the background.  Acrylic will resist watercolours so I have washed over the top with aquatints.  You will still retain all the shine of the paints.  My personal favourite is stamping in a lighter colour and washing with a darker colour.

4. I’ve picked this technique to also demonstrate the difference between painting onto a black surface vs. a white surface by painting half the card with Pebeo’s black gesso.  Now you can see that the gold is actually green and the blue is actually pink in my example. 

5.  I wanted to test the effect out when mixed with gel medium.  This gives a different effect as now the colours seem almost pearly.  I’ve used a gloss medium for a high shine finished and both applied directly with a spatula and through a stencil.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel and/or subscribe to my blog updates to get alerted to the next edition to this series.

5 Background Techniques with… ACRYLIC PAINTS V.1

Welcome to a new collection of background techniques – this time with Acrylic Paints!  For a full list of techniques head over to this page and keep an eye out for future releases.  I am using Pebeo High Viscosity paints.

This time we cover the following techniques:

1. Baby Wipe Blending
2. Stencil Lift (from Gesso’d Surface)
3. Streaks with Titanium White and Buff Titanium
4. Printing with any objects or textures
5. Scraping on

1. This is simple to do and blendability is dependant on the surface you’re using and the paints.  Make sure you rotate the area of the baby wipe to keep the colours clear.

2. Working on a gesso surface means that the paint lifts off much better but isn’t necessary.  I love this effect, even though the image is completely flat the depth of pigment in this paint gives it a 3D effect.

3.  You can take any colour and paint it on with hardly any blending by adding Titanium White and Buff Titanium (pale cream colour).  This will work with any colour for a background that looks impressive yet subtle.

4. There’s no need to buy anything to apply your paint just use whatever objects and textures that are in reach.  The top picture shows the objects dipped into two colours of paint at a time whereas the bottom picture shows each object printing in separate colours.

5. I’ve left a couple of sides of an old card straight and cut into the other couple of sides with different sized notched.  You can try different ways to scrape the paint across your surface.  It also adds texture.

Mixed Media Canvas for Sheena Douglass

This is a mixed media canvas that I created for the designer Sheena Douglass.  The end result was really beautiful with all of its shiny parts and especially the mermaid whose tail catches the light beautifully.  I made it through to the 2nd stage of the recent Design Team Call out for Sheena Douglass and even though I wasn’t picked in the end I still wanted to share with you my makes and how I made my final round canvas featuring stamping, die cuts, stencilling and lots of Pebeo mixed media-ness!  The canvas had lots of super shiny elements thanks to the foiling and the Dyna paints.  For my samples that were made in the first round please scroll down past the video and past the ingredients list…

Ingredients

• Gesso in White and Black by Pebeo
• High density modelling paste and modelling paste by Pebeo
• Crackle texture paste by Golden
• Stamps by Sheena Douglass (mermaid and cracks)
• Stencils by Sheena Douglass (pop dotty and equalizer)
• Dies by Sheena Douglass (wild rose and day of the dead)
• Embossing folder by Sheena Douglass
• Acrylic paints by Pebeo (including Dyna colours)
• Gelatos by Faber Castelle
• Foil Gilding sheets by Pebeo (green and silver)
• Drawing gum by Pebeo
• Perfect medium by Ranger
• Archival ink in Watering Can by Ranger
• Spectrum Noir alcohol pens (skin tones)
• Mixtion relief by Pebeo
• Aluminium tape
• Black card

Here’s my three makes from the first round:

 

Day of the Dead Mini Canvas (click for blog post and video)

Savannah Family Card – I’m planning on making this into an art journal page so make sure you’ve subscribed to my YouTube channel.

Faux Leather Embossed Altered Box – click for the blog post

Upcycled Wooden Box: Faux Leather

Created especially for the recent Sheena Douglass design team call out, I turned this wooden box into something that will never end up on a craft stall!  The paper technique is called Faux Leather by Sheena Douglass and involves turning kraft card into a soft chamois leather effect using a mix of water and glycerine. 

Here’s a photo of the sorry looking box before starting… this is NOT a second hand box, this is exactly how on found it on the graveyard self in my supermarket – heavily reduced, scratched, chipped and dodgy decoupage peeling off.  It’s a good size and made from wood, so as a crafter I had to save it!

On the night before the renovation began I made up five sheets of A4 faux leather.  You can find a tutorial here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfunaRazSSo or on Sheena’s messy crafting DVD.  The next day I took some measurements and cut down some of the pieces to the right sizes for all of the panels on the box (with a little bit of overhang to get a nice finish later on).

For the background panels I used Sheena’s A4 embossing folder with the ivy leaves on it.  Using the remaining faux leather I die cut and embossed using Sheena’s fence, daisy border, briar rose and day of the dead dies.

Next came colouring up the pieces… normally I do a red-brown colouring (which I did do for the background) but I wanted to try making up green, blue, purple and yellow leathery pieces too.  To get that effect ink up using the base colour first, then go over with at least two different shades of brown.  I use distress inks. 

Then at long last came the assembly stage.  I adhered the background with Colall tacky glue and sanded off the edges with a sanding block. Then I went around the sanded edges again with my darkest brown ink.  Then I stuck down the fence, daisy border and ivy leaves before I sealed everything with Pebeo’s Bindex medium.  This is the part that gives it durability and a shiny/satin finish.  You can use gel medium or spray varnish for paper. 

It was this point that I realised that the original tassel on the box was half decent so I poked a hole through my lid leather and reinserted it.  Then I added all of the diecut flowers but only after sealing with the bindex separately (so that I could paint it on flat before shaping later on the lid). 

And here is the finished result…

 

5 Background Techniques With… Aqua Pens / Spectrum Sparkle / Etc Volume 1

I’ve used a mixture of Spectrum Noir’s Aqua pens and Spectrum Sparkle pens but these techniques will work with your other water based pens including Distress Markers by Tim Holtz.  Also I have used a mixture of watercolour card and Sheena stamping card which both work well.

Techniques in this part include:

1. Scribble onto mat, spritz and pat
2. Scribble onto acrylic block, spritz and drag
3. Air brush – with and without stencils
4. Salt Technique
5. Cling Film Technique

Scroll past the video for photos…

1. Scribble your colours onto a non-porous surface (such as you craft mat, or a piece of acetate), spritz with water and then use your card to mop it up.  I dried the first layer of colour and went back for a second round.

2. Scribble onto an acrylic block.  Spritz water onto the block and onto the card and then drag the colour through.

3. Using an air brush spray your colours down (I just have the hand held one by Tim Holtz).  I then laid a stencil and air brushed a sparkle pen on top.  BONUS: The second image is then spritzing water onto the stencil and rubbing it off onto a another background.

4. Colours were scribbled on randomly and plenty of water applied to get the colours moving.  I helped them along with a paintbrush to get them blending.  Then I chucked on some sea salt and left to dry naturally.  Once dry rub off the salt and you’re left with this beautiful organic look.

5. Like the last background, scribble on your colours, get plenty wet and use a paintbrush the push the colours up to each other.  Crumple up a piece of cling film so there’s plenty of creases and squash it onto your card.  You should see darker lines forming in the seams.  Leave it to dry that way.

Bird Crazy Picture Book 1: Part 3–Making and Assembling the Book

Hurray I have finally sat down to complete our first picture book!  The video walks you through the entire process of how we can collate our pictures which we made previously and bind them into a cool little book.

You can revisit the previous tutorials here:

• Book 1: Part 1 – Creating the Backgrounds
• Book 1: Part 2 – Creating and Assembling the Birds

List of Materials

• Chipboard
• A4 Black Card
• Stamping Card
• Distress Inks: Walnut stain, bundled sage, mowed lawn, rusty hinge and wild honey
• White Pen
• Tim Holtz “Bird Crazy” Stamp set
• Feather stamp from Stampers Anonymous
• Tissue Paper
• White and Black Gesso
• Die Labels 28 by Spellbinders
• Alpha stamps by Dovecraft
• Archival Black Ink
• Book Tape by Scotch
• Crop-adile and Eyelets
• Stringing Material
• Acrylic PVA and a cheaper PVA
• Matt Gel Medium