Joggles Art Journal Adventure - Week 4

Hi everyone! With Barb busy at Creativation, it's my turn again to choose the prompt and create a response for Week 4 at the 2018 Art Journal Adventure Facebook group. The prompt I have chosen for this week is the Letter O. You might choose to feature an object/image which begins with O, a word representing a feeling, verb, or other option (do you see what I did there...LOL) or include the actual letter O as part of your design. As usual, I chose a few of these...I mean why limit myself to just one.

Next up in my disc bound art journal was another 6 x 6 inch watercolour page. I grabbed three letter Os from different sized stamp sets, loaded them up with Versamark ink and heat embossed them with clear powder. This creates a resist for the next step. I wasn't worried about spacing, having them go the same way, or extra embossing powder blobs...all of that was just going to add to the texture and interest. Next Broken China and Salty Ocean Distress Oxide Inks were layered over the background with extra Salty Ocean around the edges. Any inks that remained on the letters were quickly removed with a baby wipe. TCW Mini Beaded Curtain stencil was placed over the background and water was spritzed through the openings. After leaving it for a few moments, a paper towel was used to remove the ink where the water droplets reactivated the ink. Manganese Blue Archival Ink was used to apply a solid circle stamp as well as the pattern from Carabelle Studio Weft Fabric & Numbers stencil in several places.Jet Black Archival Ink was used to stamp a scribbly circle as well as some mini dots.

In keeping with the O theme, I decided to use Jet Black Archival Ink to stamp Stampotique Originals Olive the Ostrich on white cardstock. She was then coloured with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils, some gel pens, and a white Sharpie Paint pen. Glossy Accents was added to her baby blues and the heart on her lovely outfit. She was fussy cut leaving a narrow white border, matted on black cardstock, and fussy cut again leaving a narrow black border. Usually this is enough contrast to let the image stand out against the background. However, Olive with her slim dancer's body was lost against the busy background so before adhering her with foam tape, I adhered two layers of cheesecloth behind her. It wouldn't do to have the star blend into the background.

To give Olive a place to stand (on tippy toe), two lengths of green washi tape were mounted on white cardstock, and cut into flag shapes. These ground Olive and also bring more of that green from her dance costume into the rest of the page. Two dimensional letter O stickers were placed on the two bottom pieces and a shorter flag was added to the upper left corner to create a diagonal flow.

The wording was printed onto white cardstock, fussy cut, and matted with black. The filled in sections of this font were coloured in with a green Sharpie marker and then glittered up with Lime Green Stickles. Love the sparkle and glam that adds. Her name, Olive, was printed with a Dymo labeller and adhered opposite to the glittery letters. To finish up the page, black Big Brush pen was used to ink the outside edges and the washi was outlined with a black pen to make it pop a bit more.

This page makes me smile. I haven't done embossing and a resist in ages and you've gotta love Olive in all her splendour. I had no idea where I was going with this prompt but I'm happy where I ended up :) I can't wait to see what the talented and creative members of our Joggles AJA Facebook group do with this theme, the letter O. if you haven't already joined our community, now's a perfect time.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Fly Away Love #1345 ~ a Sandra Caldwell New Release

Hi everyone! It's Friday and that means new release day at Sandra Caldwell's Etsy shop, Babycakes Digis and Designs. The one I have chosen to play with is called Fly Away Love 1345. I just love her wonderful hat and those flying pigtails. Her sweet face makes me smile :)

I coloured FAL up with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. Metallic gel pen topped with Glossy Accents was added to her hat pin and Icicle Stickles to the heart's wings. Fal was then fussy cut leaving my usual white border and then matted with black and trimmed out again. Foam tape was added to the back to pop her up. The chocolate bar image which she is resting her hand on was clip art from another Etsy shop.

The background, a 6 x 8 inch rectangle of mixed media paper, was printed with my Gel Press plate using two shades of blue Liquitex acrylic paint and then removing some with a plastic canvas circle shape. Forget-Me-Not Archival ink was used to apply Carabelle Studio Checkerboard stamp in a few places. The stitching stmp is from Viva Las Vegas and was applied with Jet Black Archival ink. The border along the top of the page was created with the same ink and Stampotique Originals Hanging Hearts stamp. Parts of the hearts were coloured in with coloured pencils and pens.

To add a little more texture and break up some of the more solid painty areas, Texture Paste was scraped through TCW Tiny Circles stencil in a few areas and allowed to dry thoroughly. The sentiment was printed on white card stock and then cut into individual words which were then matted with black. Each word was adhered to the background using Scor tape. The outside edges of the background were inked with Black Big Brush pen before the page was matted with black card stock to serve as a frame.

Thanks for popping by today. FAL and I appreciate that. To see the other wonderful new releases by Sandra and also the awesome DT makes with them, be sure and pop by the Sandra Caldwell Stamp Fans Facebook group where they will be posted throughout the day. You can also stop over to Sandra's Etsy shop, Babycakes Digis and Designs, to see not only these newbies but also all of the other wonderful images in her shop. There's something for everyone and every occasion.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles Art Journal Adventure ~ Response to Week 39 Use Pink

Hi everyone. Barb's prompt for Week 39 of the Joggles Art Journal Adventure series was to Use Pink. Now, I am a frequent user of pink so that in itself was not hard. However, she also doodled these awesome frames on her page and  frames are not something I include very often...actually only when challenged to do so. That became the part of this page that pushed my comfort zone out a little...just what I like to do. I didn't want to doodle my frames or my innards within the frames so I chose instead to use stamps.

I purchased a set of frame stamps ages ago and never used them...until now. I first spritzed a piece of white card stock with Hottie Patottie Hot Pink and Hi Maintenance Magenta Lindy's Starburst Sprays and let that dry thoroughly. Then I stamped the frames plus one extra label stamp onto the spritzed card stock using Jet Black Archival Ink. Each frame was fussy cut and matted with black to make it pop against the background.  Stampotique Originals Fleur Girl 3, Medium and Tiny Bee, and Home Sweet Home stamps were inked with Jet Black Archival and stamped onto white card stock. They were then coloured with Prismacolor, Polychromos, and Derwent Coloursoft pencils before being fussy cut and matted with black.

Stampotique Originals Hanging Hearts was stamped directly onto a medium label and coloured in with two shades of pink markers. The word fleur, which Barb also included on her page and happens to be the name of the flower image, was stamped directly onto the smallest label and the inside of that frame was deepened with coloured pencil. Two black rhinestones were used to cover the "nail holes". The letters for Maison were stamped individually onto white card stock, cut apart, and then adhered to a strip of black before being attached to the small label.

The background of the page made me think a bit. I wanted pink but not solid. I used Magenta Hue Archival Ink on a hero Arts plaid background stamp and repeatedly stamped until the page was covered. I didn't worry about making my lines meet up nor about getting perfect images. If I had wanted that look, I could have used designer paper. Black card stock strips were torn to frame the top and bottom and hide ant huge imperfections. Black Big Brush Pen was used to edge the two sides. Once everything was adhered in place, black punched circles were adhered in rows to finish off the page.

And that's it for my mainly Pink and mostly Stampotique page. I'm happy with the outcome and certainly enjoyed the process so it was win/win.  Thanks so much for stopping by. If you haven't already been following along with the Joggles Art Journal Adventure and Barb's weekly Monday prompts, it's never too late. You can join in at any point, catch up or not, and we'd love to have you join our wonderful AJA Facebook group as well. It's an awesome group filled with creative, friendly, and supportive people who share the same enthusiasm for this fun adventure.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles Art Journal Adventure Week 30 Response

Hi everyone! For Week 30 of Joggles Art Journal Adventure, Barb's prompt was Persevere which came out of a frustrating session where inspiration would not come to her and her mojo seemed to go for a walk-about. Been there!!It's such a horrible frustrating feeling especially when a deadline is fast approaching and you have thought and thought and still have NOTHING! She was going to pass on that week's page but decided to persevere and, although she didn't love her results, was happy she did. I have a few things I do when my mojo is absent...things like cleaning up my work space, re-organizing it, looking at older artwork of mine, and creating backgrounds. Everyone has to find the things that work for them and the more choices you have the better.

I decided to go back to a page in my journal where I had started a background and then moved on to something else. I couldn't tell you whether I was cleaning my stencil filled with Lindy's Starburst sprays or whether I sprayed through them onto the page with too heavy of a hand. I just know that I started and abandoned this background some time ago so today I decided to return to it and persevere :) I also chose to leave a lot of white space which always poses a challenge to me...although the more I do it, the less challenging it becomes. The large stars on the left side were Sticky Snippets that I had decorated previously using Brusho crystals, stencils, paint, and Texture Paste. The small stars on the right were punched from the leftover printed bits (the negative parts) from the same sheet. I never waste any bits of the Sticky Snippets sheets.

I inked Stampotique Originals's Bird Legs (Large) stamp with Jet Black Archival and applied it to white cardstock. It was then coloured with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. The image was fussy cut leaving a narrow white border and then matted with black cardstock and trimmed out again. This makes it pop against the background and gives strength to the skinny legs and hat brim.

Before adhering her to the background, three different washi tapes were applied to white cardstock, trimmed out, and layered below her feet and in the top left corner. This grounded her so she wasn't floating and also created a diagonal flow through the page. Cream enamel dots were added to the ends of the washi.

The sentiment was something my mom used to say. She was a great one for sayings and this one which is only part of a longer one would come out when she was trying to come up with an idea. It reminded me of Barb's message on her page and made me smile as I remembered my mom saying it and rolling her eyes. The words were printed in phrases onto white cardstock and then matted with black before being popped up on foam tape. Outlining and a doodled border were done with a black pen and the page was edged on three sides with Black Big Brush pen. Three glittery question mark stickers were added to complete the page.

Thanks so much for visiting today. Ms. Bird Legs and I are delighted you did. If you haven't already been following along with the Joggles Art Journal Adventure and Barb's weekly Monday prompts, it's not too late. You can join in at any point and we'd love to have you join our amazing AJA Facebook group as well. It's a wonderful group filled with creative, friendly, and supportive people who share the same enthusiasm for this fun adventure.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles Art Journal Adventure Week # 26 Response ~ Stripes

Happy 4th of July to all my friends in the US! 

Today I am sharing my response to Joggles Art Journal Adventure Week #26 where Barb's prompt was to use stripes. She also used the long rectangles Sticky Snippets and I decided to follow suit. However, instead of a layered painty background like she used, I decided to cover my journal page with Tim Holtz Melange Tissue Wrap which I applied with gel medium. I wanted black and white text as my background to contrast with my busy and colourful Sticky Snippets stripes.

While the Tissue Wrap layer was thoroughly drying, I played with the Sticky Snippets sheet. I had already brayered the entire sheet with three colours of Liquitex Basics acrylic paint: Cerulean Blue hue; Bright Aqua Green; Light Blue Permanent. I used my 2.5 inch brayer and very little paint which I rolled out thinly on mt craft sheet. This is a slow build up of layers and is repeated several times. Joggles Ancient Ruins stencil was placed over the page and white gesso was pounced through the openings in several places. Next, one of the wonderful designs from Stampotique Originals Kate's Doodle Cube was added to the background using Cobalt Blue Archival Ink. I also added Stampotique's Dotted Squares stamp to the Sticky Snippets sheet using Garden Patina Archival Ink. When doing the stamping and stencilling on the Sticky Snippets background, I add more than I normally would to a regular background because I know that the background will be used only in fragments and I want some of the stamping and stencilling on the individual Snippet shapes.

The 1 inch rectangles were peeled from the SS backing sheet and applied vertically to the journal page over the Tissue Wrap background. In order to vary the width of the stripes, I also used the skinny pieces which filled in between the one inch stripes to give me the skinny stripes and the top and bottom sections of the background for the wider stripes. There is absolutely no waste with these SS sheets. Black pen was used to outline the edges of the stripes to accent them. Barb featured black horizontal stripes over her vertical ones but I knew I was going to use a bird image so a branch was drawn on black cardstock and cut out. Gray Prismacolor pencil was used to draw in the bark lines and the branches were edged with Platinum Ink to highlight the edges. Birdy Shoes, another Stampotique Originals stamp, was printed on white cardstock using Jet Black Ink, He was then coloured with Prismacolor pencils, fussy cut with a white border, and matted with black cardstock. Blue Bayou Stickles was added to the dark blue section of his wing. Foam tape popped him up when he was adhered standing on the branch.

A cloud was die cut from a coffee sleeve and then the corrugated side was edged with gesso. A little extra was sponged over the center area as well. It was applied to the background with foam tape and then Diamond Stickles was applied over the top with a finger. While the Stickles was still wet, a small scrap of cheesecloth was layered over the cloud using the Stickles to adhere it. The words, Fearlessly Authentic, were created with shiny black puffy stickers for the first word, and Ransom Alpha Parts for the second. White paint pen dots were added to the letters of the second word. To better balance the page and add a little black to the left side, a .25 inch strip of black cardstock was torn on one side and then adhered slightly overlapping the first skinny stripe. Outlining was done around the tree branch with black pen and Black Big Brush pen was used to edge the outside edges of the page.

Thanks so much for joining Birdie Shoes and me today. You have brightened our day! If you haven't already been following along with the Joggles Art Journal Adventure and Barb's weekly Monday prompts, it's not too late. You can join in at any point and we'd love to have you join our fabulous AJA Facebook group as well. It's an awesome group filled with creative and supportive people who share the same enthusiasm for this adventure.

Joggles Art Journal Adventure ~ Week 25 Fantasy Colours

Hi everyone. I made some time to play in my Art Journal Adventure journal yesterday and today. This time I was responding to Barb's Week 25 prompt which asks us to use fantasy colours  on an object. Barb featured her awesome Jurassic Leaves stamps and since I just got mine, I wanted to play with them, too. I decided to make them into fantasy trees and add a crazy blue cat to the scene.

I stamped the Jurassic leaves #2, #3, #4 onto white cardstock and coloured them with Prismacolor pencils using the brightest combinations I could :) The cat, a Stampotique Originals stamp called Gucio Walking, was done in the same fashion as the leaves, although Turquoise Stickles was added to make him extra sparkly. All images were fussy cut leaving a narrow white border and then matted with black cardstock. Gucio was popped up on foam dots and the trees (leaves) were adhered directly to the background once it was done.

The background was actually one I had sprayed for an earlier page and then decided not to use it. If I remember correctly, the page was spritzed with Drop Dead Gorgeous Green, Freaky FrankenLime, and Bells of Ireland Green Lindy's Starburst Sprays. The Joggles Big Leaves stencil was placed across the background and spritzed with Tattered Angels Iridescent Gold Spray. This gave a very subtle shimmer which my camera skills could not capture. It's very pretty and subtle in real life. Once the images were all adhered to the background, 1.5 inch Sticky Snippets circles were peeled from a sheet  decorated previously and offset with black punched circles to create a shadow. They were then scattered around the page making sure that some were slightly off the page. Black pen was used to outline the circles and help them stand out since I was using green on green.

Barb used black painted circles in her inspiration piece. I decided to punch two sizes of little circles and adhered them around the background. Another green toned background which I had done at an earlier date but was having trouble making work was die cut a few times with a grass die and then layered over the bottom of the "trees". Gucio was placed on top of the grass so his little kitty feet still showed. Stampotique Originals Dot Swirl stamp was applied to the background with Forget-Me-Not Archival Ink and again with Library Green Archival Ink. Black Big Brush Pen was used to edge the sides and bottom of the page. To break up all the green and give the eyes a place to rest, white Texture Paste was scraped through TCW's Tiny Circles in a few places.

Thanks for joining Gucio and me in my fantasy forest. I thoroughly enjoyed creating this page and loved colouring those wonderful Jurassic Leaves. Pure play! If you haven't already been following along with the Joggles Art Journal Adventure and Barb's weekly Monday prompts, it's not too late. You can join in at any point and we'd love to have you join our fabulous AJA Facebook group as well.It's an awesome group and there's always something new to see and learn:)

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Talk to the Hand - A Bloobel Stamps image

Hi everyone! Recently I stocked up on several of Lisa Graham's Bloobel Stamps and I can see by her new releases that I will be doing so again soon. Anyway, the hilarious image which I am featuring today in my art journal is one of them called Talk to the Hand. I love her attitude and how she celebrates her individuality...and also that this was my favourite expression back in the day :) She makes me laugh.

I coloured her with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils. She was then fussy cut leaving a narrow white border and matted with black cardstock. Foam tape was added to the back of the image to create dimension and shadows.

The background, a 6 x 8 inch rectangle of mixed media paper, was lightlu spritzed with Bachelor Button Blue and Witch's Potion Purple Lindy's Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays, tipping the background to create drips and runs. Stampotique's Dotted Squares stamp was applied with Forget Me Not Archival ink in several places and Joggles Nonsense Latin Text stamp was added with Deep Purple Archival ink. Three sizes of circles were punched from book text which was then muted with gesso before they were adhered to the background. Two different patterned washi tapes were cut into fishtail flags and added in two places. Small black disks with printed stars were used to accent them.

The sentiment in its entirety was printed, cut apart, and matted with black cardstock. Foam tape adhered the first part to the background and the rest was glued flat. Outlining and a simple border were added with black pen and two die cut black arrows were stacked with foam tape in between the layers to finish off the top left corner. Black Big Brush pen was used to edge the background before it was matted with black cardstock to frame the page.

Thanks for popping by today. To see more of Lisa's fabulous images, be sure to check out her Bloobel Stamps shop. You can also see wonderful examples of how people feature them in their projects on the Bloobel Stamps Facebook group. We would love to see you post what you create on there, too.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Joggles Art Journal Adventure ~ Week 22 (Quilt Block)

Hi everyone! Look at me go...LOL. I managed to complete another art journal page from the weekly Art Journal Adventure prompts Barb Donahay is giving us on the Joggles blog. I was a little behind, not that it matters because you can go at your own speed and start anywhere you want but I do like to stay within  a couple of weeks of Barb. Today I responded to Week 22's prompt where Barb asked us to quilt with paper. We were to either create a quilt block or to feature shapes from a quilt block. The first quilt I ever bought was a log cabin one and I still love that pattern so that's what I went with.

I still had a number of designer papers in my Authentique Renew 8x8 inch pad and I love the soft colour palette and vintage looking patterns. I cut strips which were 1.25 inches wide and I started paper piecing using both sides of the paper. Each piece was edged with Black Big Brush pen and then faux stitched before being adhered to black cardstock. The black was trimmed slightly larger than the finished block to serve as a frame and make the block stand out against the background.

The journal page background was created by spritzing Yellow Rose of Texas and California Poppy Gold Lindy's Starburst Sprays through Joggles Wander stencil. Once dry, the edges were darkened with Butterscotch Gelato spread with a water brush. Once that was thoroughly dry, black pen was used to create a simple doodled border with a few cross stitches thrown in. The Stampotique Home Sweet Home stamp was applied to white cardstock using Jet Black Archival Ink and then coloured with Prismacolor and Colour Soft pencils. It was fussy cut leaving a narrow white border, matted with black cardstock, and popped up on foam tape. A tiny black punched heart was added to the upper window. Such a cute house!

The quilt block was adhered to the background using Scor Tape. A scrap of cheesecloth was adhered under three threaded vintage buttons, The sentiment was printed onto white cardstock, cut into individual words, and matted with black. Foam tape was used to adhere the words and three black rhinestones were used to make the dots. Expanding on the quilt theme, a small safety pin was adhered to the right section of the black. The house was placed in the lower left corner and some paper scraps were used to ground it. A die cut cloud cut from white and paint dots were added using Joggles Punchinella Quintet stencil. The cloud was adhered with foam tape and overlapped a punched "sun" shaded with the same Butterscotch Gelato used earlier. Two small threaded buttons were glued to the bottom right corner of the spread.

Thanks for stopping by today. If you haven't already been following along with the Joggles Art Journal Adventure and Barb's weekly Monday prompts, it's not too late. You can join in at any point and we'd love to have you join our fabulous AJA Facebook group as well. I am loving this journey and am really enjoying the wonderful and talented people in the group.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie

Art Journal Adventure Prompt Week 14 ~ Use Deli or designer paper

Hi all. I have fallen behind on the weekly prompts for Joggles Art Journal Adventure so I am determined to get caught up once again. Although there is no pressure to do so, I see all of the ones coming up and I want to play so I will do a couple this week. This one today is my response to Barb's Week 14 prompt where she asked us to use either deli paper or designer paper in our spreads. I had some papers which I had gelli printed so I chose one of those pages to tear up and add.

I began by scraping a thin layer of gesso over the blank page using a palette knife. When that was dry, I added Liquitex Brilliant Yellow Green and Cerulean Blue Hue to the page in patches using my fingers to apply it. Once that was dry and I was happy both with the coverage and the amount of white space left, I applied Liquitex Titanium White through Joggles Wander stencil using a mini applicator tool to break up some of the solid areas of one colour. Viridian Archival Ink was used to apply Joggles Nonsense Latin Text stamp in a few areas. This was rolled on so that no hard edges occurred. The strips of gelli printed white paper were adhered to the background with gel medium. Once dry, they were outlined with black pen to help them stand out. Torn black cardstock strips were added next to the printed strips in four places and strips of drywall mesh were added overlapping those.

Because the gel printed papers had black circles stencilled in places, I wanted to continue that onto the one which didn't have it. Instead of using the same stencil, I used the circle from TCW's Mini Specimens stencil and applied it with Jet Black Archival ...you can see it on the right side of the page. I also had previously cut three black scribbly circles using a TH die for another project. They did not have a successful audition there but they did for this page. I liked the continuation of the circles but in a different form.

The words were printed from the computer onto white cardstock. Once cut apart, each word was matted with black and popped up with foam tape. Black Marble Dylusions paint created lines with the edge of an old gift card. Once that was dry, the two image, Boots and Curlz, from Stampotique which had been coloured with Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils, were added to the two "steps" near the bottom of the page. The edges of the page were lined with black Big Brush Pen making sure that some overlapped the front to create a frame. The final step was to add a little white embossing paste through TCW's  Tiny Circles stencil in several places.

Thanks for joining Boots, Curlz, and me today. We are all delighted that you did that. We would love to see you play along with Joggles Art Journal Adventure and Barb's weekly prompts. It's a fabulous way to stretch your creative boundaries and there is the nicest group of people sharing their work and supporting each other on the AJA Facebook group.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie