New Year's Eve Worldwide Streamathon

Join me for the 2nd year of the New Year's Eve Worldwide Streamathon!

In my time block, I will be altering a cover of a Moleskine journal. This is a prototype I made:

If you want to follow me, you will need:

• a notebook - any notebook, it doesn't have to be a Moleskine, but it has to have an alterable cover (preferably one without glossy finish) - I will be using Moleskine Squared Cahier Journal (it comes in a set of 3 in various colours)
• tissue paper*
• some kind of multi medium or glue to stick the tissue paper down
• acrylic paints
• other embellishments

* Decorated tissue paper (such as Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap) is really difficult to get in my country, so I make my own. I use deli paper - I colour it with distress inks, stamp on it, even print on it. You may find a short tutorial here. If you are interested, we can discuss this during my stream.

I will be giving away both the prototype and the journal I'll make during my stream and some of my stencils (yes, I finally got a Silhouette!!).

I will be streaming from 16:30-17:30 GMT (that is 3:30-4:30 AEDT / 12:30-13:30 AST / 11:30-12:30 EST). For more details, go to Jen's page. There is also a video wall showing when a stream is live. 

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Update
This is the journal I altered during the Streamathon:

Alpha Journal - getting near the end of the alphabet

At the beginning of December, I was only slightly behind the schedule with my Alpha Journal. With only two letters to go, and the closing page and the back cover to decorate, I felt confident I could finish it on time. But then I got stuck. Now I know it won't be finished this year - but who cares, it's my journal, isn't it?

J is for Jewels

 [quote by James Allen]

I was experimenting with my Gelatos again. I mixed the Gelatos with gel medium again and wanted to use the mixture for dippage - but it wouldn't drip. So I just used them without the medium. The black drippage is black Distress paint. See how it slides off the Gelatos covered backgound?

T is for Time

[quote by Harvey MacKay]

I had so much fun with my new Tim Holtz stencil and DRIPPAGE!

Y is for Yearn

[quote by Jose Ortega y Gasset]

I really wanted to try something different here - a predominantly white page. That's something I'm not entirely comfortable with...

washi tapes

white gesso + stamping

a little bit of drippage

drippage detail

For more photos from my Alpha Journal, go to my Flickr page.

Autumn leaves

I figured out how to die-cut simple shapes without a die-cutting machine (it involves a pasta machine - don't ask me more, because it is a bit un-scientific approach to die-cutting) so I got a set of leaf dies from Clearly Besotted Stamps and started making leaves.

First, I made a small project - a tag inspired by Tim Holtz's September tag. And it turned our awesome. The leaves were painted with Distress Paints and sprayed with Perfect Pearl Mist.

So, after the initial success, I started to mass produce the leaves...

... and I made this autumn wreath...

I didn't stop there... I painted this page in my Priority journal. It has some real leaves and some stencilled leaves (I kept some of the shapes from the die-cutting to use as stencils).

I did a little bit of drippage for the background. First, I used acrylic inks on black gesso but the inks didn't show much when they dried, so I went over it with white gesso and started again - so much better.

I didn't stop there... And I swear, this is the last leaf-inspired layout of this season - because I'm really tired of leaves...

I first started with drippage - what else - and a Prima stencil.

Then I added leaves cut out of deli paper and baking paper. And more drippage (this time using Distress paints).

For more photos from my journals, go to my Flickr page.

Northern Lights

I like to work on square-shaped backgrounds, so I created my own narrow journal that is a perfect square when opened.

This page was created for Faber-Castell "cherished secret dream" challenge. I used FW Daler Rowney acrylic inks on black gesso and then some shading with PITT pens. I originally wanted to use Gelatos for the drippage but I wasn't getting the right colours for Aurora Borealis.

acrylic ink drippage on black gesso

Second time lucky

I had a clear picture in my mind how this page should turn out. And... it didn't. Don't you get me wrong, I like it very much but I was aiming for something else. As I couldn't get the thought out of my head, I had to recreate it in my other journal. This time, it turned out perfect.

This was my first attempt:

My Priority Journal doesn't allow much collaging because of the canvas paper, so I used paints to create the collage effect.

(happy place - bottom left corner)

And this is how it was supposed to look like - repeated in my Alpha Journal:

Z is for Zeal

[quote by Kahlil Gibran]

Here, I glued down pieces cut from various backgrounds I'd painted and kept for future use.

(This page is dedicated to Joyce, aka Noodle, because without her help - and her Zee brainstorming stream - I wouldn't have so many Z words for my page.)

For more photos from my journals, go to my Flickr page.

'Tis the Season for drippage

I think drippage is my favourite technique of this year...

(remains of the Basic Grey alpha sticker sheet - the negative
space you get when you use up all the letters - and some
stencilled letters on top)

(acrylic inks)

  (this makes me sooooo happy)

 finished background - sometimes I wish I had the "undo" button

And the finished page in my Alpha Journal - W is for Wisdom:

[quote by Doug Larson]

For more photos from my Alpha Journal, go to my Flickr page.

Handmade washi tapes again

Over the last couple of months, I became a washi tape addict. Not only do I buy a roll whenever I see one, but I also make my own. This time, my washi tape obsession was triggered by Darcy's blog post at PaperArtsy.

A while ago, I posted this tutorial about how I make my own tapes out of deli paper. This time I took much bigger packing paper (at least 3 feet by 5 feet) - as if I didn't have enough of handmade tapes...

I sprayed the paper with inks... 

Then I attached double-sided tape to the back of the paper.

Then I cut it into strips and stamped on the strips. As you can see I made quite a lot of them this time.

First ,I created this page in my Priority Journal:

 Here are some photos of the process:

And because I liked the layout (and had plenty of tapes), I copied it for my Alpha Journal page.

H is for Happiness

[quote by Frederick Keonig]

For more photos from my journal, go to my Flickr page.

Faces

In April, I signed up for Andrea Gomoll's FACEcinating Girls class. No matter how many classes I take, the faces I draw always look like zombies. So, you may ask, why take another class? What intrigued me about this particular class was, that apart from videos, you get a set of stamps to build your face. So you don't have to care (much) about drawing eyes or mouth, you just pay attention to the correct proportions.

These were my first faces...

I wish the set came with eyebrows and eyelashes...

I was so encouraged by my results, that I wanted to paint a face in my Alpha Journal. I first painted the background with just outlines of the face. And then I waited... and waited... Then I added the lettering and went on waiting... I was so afraid of ruining the page so it took me several weeks to muster all my courage to shade the face.

I think this turned out to be the best face I'd ever drawn. I still struggle with the flesh tones - my faces always end up brownish rather than pinkish - but I'm happy with what I have here...

 I is for Improving (Alpha Journal)

Update on faces: After several months without practice, my faces, again, are beginning to look like aliens...

BTW, Andrea is now offering FACEcinating Girls Volume 2 - with two more stamps sets!