Monday 27 February 2017

Wanderlust 2017: FEBRUARY

Here are the February pages in my Wanderlust journal.

Some pages were inspired by the videos, other were following a prompt from one of the many "activities" posted on the Wanderlust class webpage.

[Warning: rant ahead]
The first class of the month was about breaking the page, and that there was no need to complete the page. Don't get me wrong, I have a few journals with backgrounds in various stages of progress but I'm not enjoying the process of putting one element on a page and then moving on to scribble something on another page and then adding some paint to another. I don't enjoy doing this. I have no problems facing a blank page - I have several quick techniques to deal with breaking a page and I don't need to do this on purpose, just for the sake of doing it. I don't think I need to waste my creative time on this. Moreover, sometimes I find it distracting to face a page that has something on it that I'm not happy about at that particular moment. Sitting down for 10 minutes a day to add random things to random pages all around my journal is a waste of time for me. I'm sure each and every one of us has a different approach to art, this is not mine. But, because it was that week's lesson, I did it. And had to face the unfinished pages in the weeks to come. Not my cup of tea. [end of rant]


inspired by Amanda Grace's class "The Love Letter"

 inspired by Clair Bremner's class

 Prompt: "This month was… (insert at least six nouns)"

inspired by Guest Activity from Eliza - Quotes

The navigation in the Classroom gets more difficult for me as more and more posts are added - especially in the "Activities" section - some post are updated with fortnightly/monthly prompts, new ones are appearing. I need to be watching for when the post was last modified, which is annoying.

But I'm enjoying the format of my journal. I will be continuing in it - with or without the Wanderlust classes.


Sunday 26 February 2017

PaperArtsy workshops at CHSI Stitches 2017 in Birmingham

As I mentioned in my previous post, I took five workshops with PaperArtsy at the CHSI Stitches show in Birmingham.

Each workshop was 2 hours so I left home with 5 projects that needed more work and/or finishing touches. I didn't want to rush it so I took pictures of the sample projects and decided to finish them in my own pace at home. Knowing myself, I decided to focus on one project every evening after coming back from the show. Because if I hadn't finish them shortly after returning, I would never have done it.

1.  Jo Firth-Young (JoFy)

For those who know me, I have tons of patience for hand-cutting stencils but none for colouring in images. The colouring-book craze leaves me completely indifferent. Even as a kid, I couldn't be bothered. So, with this project, I came home with stamped flowers that needed to be coloured in. Well, it took forever... I also had to go over the designs with a black pen because I just simply couldn't stay within the lines.


2. Tracy Scott

There was a lot of fussy cutting involved in this project but it went surprisingly quickly. All that was left for me to do at home was to add some highlights with a white pen and a bit of glitter.
I really love those flowers. I can't wait to use them on other projects.


3. Lin Brown

Lin's new stamp sets are my favourite. They are absolutely ideal for backgrounds.
The original project used a grass stamp in the background which I chose to exchange for a different plant. For two reasons - I was impatient and didn't want to wait to share the stamp so I used one I had in front of me - and - I already have the grass stamp and overuse it because I love it.


We were also supposed to do the leaf in a frame of sorts. But I damaged my acetate sheet during the workshop and decided to do multiple separate leaves instead in the comfort of my home.

4. Leandra 

Leandra was demoing the new Zinski art stamp sets. They have a lot of these quirky "monsters" and flowers. We were doing this 3D box - with all the elements peeking out of a "drawer" at the bottom.
This one took some time as well - colouring in and shading and fussy cutting. But it was worth the effort.


5. Seth Apter

The last class was closest to the "art" that I'm doing. Seth is the master of layers and proficient in rust. It's amazing how he can create rust colour with several different colours. And his monoprinting technique - I adore it. As Seth says "more is more", I feel my canvas still needs a few layers. Normally, I would add some stencilling but unfortunately, I don't have any of Seth's stencils. So I'm keeping this canvas for future considerations.


I left home full of creative energy. [That might explain why I pushed myself to finish all the project in such a short time...] And with a suitcase full of products to use later. [Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, the paints proved to be an airport security problem...]

It was my first time visiting the show. Everyone kept telling me we were lucky to have a classroom outside of the exhibition hall. Later, as I took another workshop in the hall, I must admit, they were right. I would survive the open surroundings, and the buzz from the exhibition. Though, I found hearing the voice of the teacher in the workshop area next to us a bit distracting. But what annoyed me the most was the terrible lighting. There were strip lights behind our backs that cast shadows over what we were doing. And that was terrible. So all thumbs up to PaperArtsy for providing us with this quiet and well lit classroom away from all the buzz (and with our own toilet ;-)

Thank you Team PaperArtsy for making this happen!


Birmingham / CHSI Stitches 2017

Last year, I was invited to go to Birmingham for just a couple of days - to a class with Tim Holtz that took place before the CHSI Stitches show. We were leaving right after the workshop and didn't even go to the trade show.

CHSI Stitches - Europe's biggest trade show for the creative hobby and craft industries

This year, we planned it all well ahead, actually almost 6 months ahead. We got our tickets, booked our hotel and waited. Because Ryanair flies to Birmingham only 3 times a week from our part of the world, we had two options - arrive on Saturday evening, right before the show and miss any workshop that might take place on Saturday; or arrive on Thursday and hope there will be a workshop before the show. We took the risk and ... of course, there was no workshop before the show. So we had two free days to roam around Birmingham city centre.

Monday 13 February 2017

PaperArtsy 2017 Topic 2: Masks

For the latest PaperArtsy challenge - Masks - I decided to do an experiment with Infusions.


I like to start my journal pages with a layer of tissue or deli paper. Here, I put a mask on a wet sheet of tissue paper, sprinkled some Infusions on top and sprayed it with water. I used regular paper to blot off the mess on top - getting a great result here too. When I removed the mask, I was left with a very nice pattern.


I glued the tissue paper to my journal page and added some paint across the white edges.


Finally, I stamped the foliage using Lin Brown's ELB04 set and the quote using Words Plate 2 set.

I made several different backgrounds with different masks and stencils.


I got many prints for the price of one - the actual tissue paper (middle), the blot-off paper (left), and also the under paper (right).


ART MARKS / 30 day challenge

Over the last 30 days, I took part in Rae Missigman's 30-day challenge called Art Marks.


Saturday 4 February 2017

Wanderlust 2017: JANUARY

Because the Documented Life project was not continuing in 2017 [insert a very sad face here], I was looking for a year-long art "project" with weekly prompts. In the end, decided to take the Wanderlust class.


Thursday 2 February 2017

PaperArtsy 2017 Topic 1: Pink and Orange

New year, new journal, new set of PaperArtsy topics... The first one is "Pink and Orange".

This topic came a bit later in the month of January. I was very eager to start creating in the first days of the new year. I made a traveller-notebook-insert-style journal. I decorated the covers and made a couple of backgrounds and waited patiently for the "official" prompt.

Here is the page I created:


I used various acrylic paints for the background - you surely know the feeling... looking at your paint collection and there is not the right kind of pink and not the right orange to go with it. [sigh]

I stamped the patterns with Distress Paint. Something I like to do with these paints because they are liquid and also they dry a bit longer so you have time to fix the stamping mistakes.

I'm so looking forward to getting some of the new stamp sets from PaperArtsy - they are gorgeous. I should also get some more Fresco paints colours - pink, for example.