Paper Artsy Theme 2: Shiny Stuff

The second PaperArtsy challenge is all about bling. I often use metallic paints but right now, I'm in love with glitter pastes (and also holographing embossing powders - but I'm not using it on this page).

Numbers Journal: Four

I had to create this page very quickly - it is on the back of the shaker journal page and it had to be created first. It would be extremely difficult to paint on the page once the shaker thingy was assembled.

I started with some sprays and stamping...

Documented Life - Week 3 and 4

I'm surprised that I'm still keeping up with the weekly prompts. Four weeks, four prompts done. 

Week 3
Art Challenge: The Color Wheel
Journal Prompt: "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way." (quote by Georgia O'Keeffe)

This page was a piece of cake - at least I thought it should be... I started with a lovely multicoloured background.

At this point, several things happened - and I failed to take a single picture to document the disaster that happened.
So, this is the "after disaster" photo where I gessoed half of the page and decided to start over. What have you missed? I stencilled some shapes on the right and did some drippage from the top. Then I added the planner part on the left with the numbers. It looked very busy, so I tried several things to visually divide the two parts. And then I snapped...

And surprise! It looked good with the white space so I kept it, only added splatters of colour.

Finally, I added a fragment of the prompt quote and stamped the planner part.

Week 4
Art Challenge: Writing
Journal Prompt: Words with Friends

I wasn't really in the mood for creating - my mind was, but my body was a bit useless - but I forced myself to overcome the initial lack of mojo.
I started with a deli/tissue paper background. Some of the papers were stamped with a handwriting background, others were printed with handwriten letters.

Then I added a little bit of colour using the Distress Paints.

I decided to go with the "friend" prompt by adding a friendship quote. The lettering is done with Posca paint pens. They write pretty much on anything.

BTW - I still haven't figured out how to prevent the pages from sticking to each other. I've tried all the usual mediums. For now, I just put a piece of paper in between the pages.

Shaker Journal Page

This piece was done for a Papero Amo "Shaker" challenge. Shaker cards are IN these days but I'm not a card-maker - so, I challenged myself to do a shaker element on a journal page.

Documented Life 2015

I was following the Documented Life project last year. In my own way... I didn't want to do the weekly prompts in a Moleskine planner and decided to use a hand-made art journal. I managed to keep up for about 3 months - then I got behind and also fed up with my journal. So I quit... But I still read the blog posts and admired all the pages others created. By the end of the year, I found out that the Moleskine planner wasn't bad at all and decided to give it a second chance in 2015. I bought one on sale and waited impatiently for this year's project to begin. And you know what? This year, we are supposed to work in a Dylusions Journal! Story of my life... LOL

I don't particularly like the Dylusions journal - I have the small one and it simply doesn't agree with my style and personality. [to be politically correct] The big one is not available where I live and shipping it from abroad is a bit too expensive (even Dyan informs you on her page that it is "considerable weight and this will push the postage cost up")

[warning - rant ahead] 
I am tired of paying a bloody fortune on postage! You get a free postage if you spend over a certain sum of money. As an international shopper, the more I spend the more I pay on postage. Postage usually constitutes up to one THIRD of what I pay for my order. 
[end of rant]

So I'm sticking with my Moleskine! Anyway, I will be covering it all with gesso or tissue paper so it doesn't matter that it's not a "proper" art journal.

Week One
Challenge "Book paper"
Journal Prompt: Be Your Own Goal Keeper

I used my hand-made tissue/deli papers for the page on the right - I usually colour the papers with distress inks and stamp (or print) on them. I made several tutorials on this - it is my trusted technique that always works for me. On top, I used a bit of gesso and various acrylic inks. I also tried watercolour inks but they didn't work well on gesso. The rest is just doodling with paint and markers.

I had this bold idea - to use my hand-made "tissue" tapes for the planner part on the left. It seemed like a great idea, at first... but I'm not so keen about it now.* But I'm going to give it a couple more tries before I come up with a different idea.

* It looks great but the individual tapes wrinkle the page a bit differently when I use wet media on it - sort of regularly, if you know what I mean. I might try to strengthen the page first before applying the tape. 

I don't set goals for myself - it simply doesn't work... ;-) So I used some "neutral" goal-like phrases all around the page.

Week Two
Challenge "Gesso"
Journal Prompt:  “The beginning is always today.” - Mary Shelley

Unlike the previous prompt, I struggled a bit with it because I use gesso on almost all projects. Does this mean that I can paint anything? Well, that didn't help me much... Even the prompt didn't exactly inspire me.

In the end, I decided to start by glueing down a piece of deli paper from my stash - it had some blue and yellow distress ink on it. I added some stamping. Then I used several circles as masks and applied gesso all around. I added some word stickers and stamped the words in the planner part. The rest is just playing with my black marker. (Uni Ball Posca paint marker - it works on all surfaces)

Other pages: 

As the first prompt came on the New Year's Day, which was on Thursday, I had a free weekend with nothing to do.
When you get a planner/diary, you have all these month-at-a-glance pages, personal details, time zones etc. I covered most of the pages with various tissue/deli papers to strengthen them. So they are now ready whenever I want to create a page. I was overflowing with inspiration in the first days of the new year so I created several backgrounds. The muse didn't tell me what to do with them next, so they are waiting there for me...

There is one problem for me to solve. I don't like working in bound journals for one reason - the pages stick together a bit more than they do in ring bound journals, especially near the seam in the middle. I'm trying various mediums to find some that would make the pages less sticky...

"Fragile Papers" - PaperArtsy challenge

I really like the new format of challenges PaperArtsy came up with for this year. Previously, all I could do during my busy week was to read the daily posts and when the weekend came, I was usually overwhelmed by all the creativity and didn't really do much. With fortnightly theme, I feel I have enough time to think it all through and create without any pressure.

I'm so excited I even decided to dedicate one art journal to the PaperArtsy challenges. (Only time will tell how long I will be able to keep up with it...)

The theme for this fortnight is "Fragile Papers".

My go-to art journalling technique is using tissue/deli papers. I print on them, I stamp on them, I gelli-print on them, I colour them with distress inks...

I chose these from my stash:

I glued the papers down with a decoupage glue.

Then I added a bit of texture using a stencil.

I used a crackle texture paste.

Then I added a bit of drippage using acrylic inks.

Finally I added a quote. I went over the letters with yellow, purple and black paint but they were still lost in the busy background...

... so I added more white and yellow ink in the area around the letters.

I still think it needs something more... maybe I'll add some element later...