Challenge: Inspired by Paige Evans

Last month, my local craft/scrapbook store PaperoAmo had a workshop with Paige Evans in Prague. I didn't attend it because I don't do scrapbook pages but when the girls at PaperoAmo announced a quick challenge, I decided to give it a try. Well, at least the prize (a kit from the workshop) was worth the try...

We had to do a project inspired by the work of Paige Evans. Her pages are so full of colours. I knew I didn't want to do a scrapbook page but some of the ideas could be used in an art journal. We were limited by one condition - we had to use a white background. Now, that was more difficult than not using paints, multi media and texture pastes...

First, I cut the quote from a piece of white cardstock on my Silhouette machine. I attached some colourful washi tapes to another piece of cardstock. I glued the paper with the quote on the washi-covered paper using foam tape. Then I added the central cluster of patterned paper and some wood-cuts (covered with gold embossing powder).

Unfortunately, I didn't win anything, but I really love my page and I'm glad I discovered some new techniques.
(You can see all the entries here.)

PaperArtsy Theme 7: Niches

The new PaperArtsy Theme is "Niches". Wait... Niches? In an art journal? No way... Well then, why not?

PaperArtsy Challenge Journal cover

We have one extra week to complete the latest PaperArtsy Grunge Paste challenge so I took advantage of this "free" time to finally do the cover of my journal I use for the challenges.

PaperArtsy Theme 6: Grunge Paste

The new PaperArtsy challenge is about Grunge Paste. I never tried this particular paste (I'm adding it to my wish list) but I'm currently in my "stencil madness" phase so I have plenty of structure and texture pastes - some I love, some I don't, some were super expensive, some were cheap (actually, one of my favourites is from Lidl), some I just had to try because someone said so...

Documented Life: March

I must admit - this whole month was a nightmare for me. I just didn't get the prompts. Lost in the translation, I went thought the posts on the Art to the 5th Academy webpage and nothing... So I decided to let my Muse guide me and paint whatever was on my mind.

Learning to love the uglies

At the end of the day, you need only be satisfied with the performance

of one person: YOURSELF.

  

Documented Life - Weeks 8-9

Week 8
Art Challenge:  Repeating Elements
Journal Prompt:  It's Worth Repeating

I felt like I needed to do triangular shapes - I even cut a special stencil for this page...

First I started to add the triangles without any particular rhyme or reason.

When I added a bit of white ink drippage, I found out the thin Moleskine pages were starting to fall apart...

I fixed it with pieces of tissue paper and went on adding more triangles.

Finally, I added the journaling spots - triangles, of course.

Note on the crumbling journal:
I cut the spine of the journal open a month ago to allow it to expand because of all the paper and paint I had been adding to it. Now it seems I need to reinforce every page with something - gesso is wet so it wouldn't help so I'll be using tissue/deli paper. Which means the journal will expand even further. 
I'm thinking about removing the hard covers as they are very constricting...

[Update: the covers were removed after Week 12 - and I think it was a good idea.]

Week 9
Art Challenge:  Using at Least Five Layers
Journal Prompt:  Give Me a High Five

I wanted my 5 layers to be distinguishable - so I divided the page into 5 strips masking one out at each step.
The bottom layer is a grey tissue paper. I used different stencils for each layer.
I added the quote using tiny alpha stickers.

Note on (the lack of) journaling: 
I'm way behind with the weekly journal entries. I keep a regular daily diary. So this is a bit redundant. Also, I don't feel like I should be adding something personal to my art. I might write something later but I think it's highly improbable.