Another glorious day at Art From the Heart..

 

I had the chance to spend another day at my favourite place today, Art From The Heart in Harrogate with Dyan Reaveley.  If you enjoy arts, mixed media, journaling and all things creative, then this is the place for you....

 

It is a veritable crafter's paradise, full of fabulous things and the extremely talented and lovely Dyan Reaveley is always oozing with inspiration, amazing projects and ideas.

I find it so therapeutic coming here, and it helps me cope with the chronic pain I get with Fibromyalgia. I have a laugh and a good gossip with all my new 'crafty' friends as well as creating gorgeous things to take home with us.

 

I made two pages in my journal today, both very similar in technique, style and colour.

On both pages, I began by creating the background (as you do with all pages) and i had decided that I wanted both pages to be bold and bright. 

I used Postbox Red, Vibrant Turquoise, Fresh Lime and a little Lemon Zest on each page and waited for the ink to dry before I 'ghosted' with Dylusions stencils. To achieve 'ghosting', you apply a light mist of water through the stencils, wait for a few seconds and then blot off the remaining water with kitchen paper to lift the colour off.

 

I then used Archival Ink to stamp,Dylusions Alphabet Border stamp around the edge of the page.  I then stamped an umbrella from the 'Ruby Rainbow' stamp sheet onto a piece of copier paper and cut around it as accurately as possible, to make a 'mask'.  I stamped the first umbrella onto my journal page, then placed the mask over over the stamped umbrella, and stamped another image. I repeated this a few times. I think it gives some depth to the page.

I took a piece of stamping card and stamped out some images I wanted to decorate the page with.  The stamps I used were 'Doolally Doris', 'Ruby Rainbow', 'Bits of This' and 'Right up your Street', from the Dylusions range.  I coloured in the images using Dylusions Inks and a paint brush, to ensure the characters co-ordinated with the background colours. 
Once happy with your images, you then have to decide where to place them and how you want your page to look.
To arrange the hair/headdress on my character, a stuck a piece of double sided tape on the back of her head and position the cut out images, the way you like them.

As you can see, my second page is very similar to the first one.  The techniques I have used are exactly the same. I have 'ghosted ' with the inks and stencils, and even used the same colours, I think.

 

 

 

I made a 'mask' this time using the 'Toadstools' from the 'Bits of this' stamps plate, and did exactly the same thing.  I stamped my first initial stamp, masked it off and stamped around it, until you are happy with your little fungi family!

I bordered the page with a cobweb stamp, and then stamped the images onto a separate piece of card and coloured and cut out as before.  Then I just pieced it together until i was happy with the page.

 

I really enjoyed doing these two pages as I am learning new techniques and getting new ideas for pages all of the time.

I love sitting at my desk, with a new journal page in front of me, not knowing what the page will turn out like at the end, and just letting yourself go - it is so much fun, just getting covered in ink and paint - I think i have found my new addiction!!

 

I hope you have enjoyed looking at my blog, please leave me as message as I  would love to say 'hello' when you have popped by.

 

Happy Journaling

 

Gemma x