Wanderlust Week05: Love Letter

I'm running a bit behind with this month's lessons. This one was in week five for Wanderlust with Amanda Grace. This page took me a lot longer to put together than I anticipated. I normally finish each lesson in the same sitting, but in this case I got stuck after the first few layers on my background and I couldn't proceed until I had broken through my barriers, which took me over a week! When I decided that it didn't matter what it looked like, the page just fell together.

The lesson included an image transfer with cellotape, which - although it was successful - didn't really work with my background, so in the end I just used some black and white printouts that were lying around. These were actually some failed prints - our printer is a bit temperamental and doesn't always print properly, but for some reason I felt these imperfect prints worked with the page.

I'll show you how my background developed through four stages:

I became a little too attached to stage three of the background and I couldn't proceed until I messed it up! After that I found it very quick and easy to arrange my photos, collage pieces and journalling. Almost like I was in a completely different mind set! It literally took me just 15 minutes compared to the week long struggle beforehand! This is how my page ended up:

I used the scribble type journalling, which is illegible. It does contain my deepest thoughts though but it is the only kind of journalling I feel comfortable with at the moment. It was meant to express my innermost feelings towards my husband and son. I would have felt constricted if I had had to use my normal handwriting. Illegible journalling is better than no journalling at all. Maybe one day I will feel more comfortable using my regular handwriting, but I'm not pushing myself towards that goal on purpose. I just let things evolve of their own accord and in their own time.

Wanderlust week #48: Art journal from recycled cards

We had an amazing Wanderlust lesson this week by Joanna Grant. Joanna showed us numerous ways to make our own art journals. My favourite was when she used recycled greetings cards to make a colourful journal with flip-out pages. What a great way to use up all those old cards! All you need is 4-5 cards, loads of paint along with a few stencils and some decorative duct tape. The duct tape is crucial for holding the cards together as it is incredibly strong.  I happened to have a roll, so I had no excuses but to go ahead and try this technique. I really love what I managed to create!

Here are some photos of the pages and the bound journal. It's all very bright and colourful. It will be my happy journal! (Scroll down to the bottom of the post for a video flip-through!)

4 cards of various sizes painted and stencilled on both sides

One of the pages close-up - I kept the same style throughout

The bound journal - I used some sari ribbon for closure

Some of the pages inside

The flip-out page (my favourite!)

Flip-out page folded

Flip-out page close-up

Another close-up

The journal stands on its side

It's very tactile and I can't stop stroking it!

Here's a short video flip-through to show you the journal in action:

I thoroughly enjoyed this lesson. In fact, I haven't had this much fun since I made my cardboard journal a year ago. There's something inspiring about working on more than one pages at the same time. Joanna shared lots of other ideas with us, including a journal made out of a recycled calendar. I will be very busy in the next few weeks, I expect! 

WOYWW #389: Painted leaves, a journal page and pet shaming

Good morning deskers! Boy, hasn't the past week gone fast! In some respects it did - in other respects, it's gone very slowly. I find it hard to believe, it's only been a week since the US election shock results - perhaps because there's so much going on in the news and on the net - it makes time seem go slower. But let's get away from all that carry-on, shall we, and visit some arty-crafty desks around the world courtesy of WOYWW.

Here's my desk a few days ago. I was working on  a LifeBook bonus lesson painting leaves. It's quite fun - try it! If you look close enough, perhaps you'll spot Oreo with his white whiskers overseeing the proceedings. He just has to be in the middle of the action all the time.

Here are some of the leaves I created:

I also have a quick journal page to share. This was a prompt for my Wanderlust book: if you could be an animal, what animal would you like to be? The obvious answer would have been a cat (lazy, selfish, independent LOL), but I went for something more deserving: an elephant for his strength, wisdom and loyalty. (But between you and me, I would really just want to be a spoilt cat!)

Talking of cats, have you ever seen those pet shaming photos on the internet? All you need is a mug shot of your pet and a written confession. We decided to do our own version and didn't have to wait too long for the photo op to present itself. Oreo is looking suitably sheepish, LOL! The photo credits go to my son. 

Thanks a bunch for visiting! 

Hope you're having a good week!

Wanderlust Week 46: Rag Journal

I will admit that I haven't been working on my online lessons as diligently as I did in the first part of the year, but once in a while a lesson comes along that makes me drop everything and dive in straight away. This is what happened with this week's Wanderlust lesson by Susie LaFond, who showed us how she makes her dreamy journals out of scrap fabric.

Used my beloved batiks for this purpose, although I found it almost painful to cut into my fat quarters. Luckily, I already photographed most of them for this post, so I can still marvel at them digitally in their full glory. I dusted off my sewing machine too. As you know, I'm not much of a seamstress, but this sort of messy sewing I can do! In fact, it was invented especially for me! The messier the better, and I'm really good at that, LOL!  Here are some shots of the completed cover, front and back:

I used a piece of dyed fabric for the ties, Initially, I cut the cloth for the inside cover, not realizing just how much it will shrink in the process. So I used another piece of patterned fabric instead to line the inside of the cover. I sewed some Khadi textured cotton paper into the middle (just simply machine stitched a signature of three sheets down the spine). All the pages have fold-out flaps for addition interest. I will use this as a collage journal I think. 

This journal is a simplified version of the one shown in Susie's lesson, which has a fold-out cover with pockets. I will definitely do one of those later. I just couldn't wait to finish this to see what it looks like. I love it and can't wait to fill it with yummy collages! Watch this space! 

Thanks so much for visiting! In honour of Remembrance Sunday, I will now observe a minute silence, remembering the young lives lost in WWI, whichever side they were on. I find it unbelievable that some of those lads were just a couple of years older than my own son now. Let's hope that something like that will never ever happen again. 

Wanderlust Week 42: Soft pastels over acrylics

Rachel Urista's Wanderlust lesson was published last Friday, but I didn't have any wood panels to try it immediately. I received some 6X6 inch MDF panels yesterday and had a go at this lesson. Rachel showed us her technique using soft pastels and graphite over acrylics and created an intuitive piece on four square blocks, which also stand alone as individual pieces. I didn't quite manage to achieve this goal, as I kept my pieces pretty abstract and geometric, but I still had fun experimenting. I'll show you my process:

paint and collage elements added

graphite and white chalk pastels

more chalk pastels and white acrylics added

This is what the individual pieces look like:

I think I started out ok, but then I got myself into a tight corner that I couldn't get out of - this always happens to me when I attempt making intuitive art! There's something blocking my creative process and it happens EVERY time, so I half expected it to happen again. It might be the compulsive outlining and doodling! As a  result, I ended up with something completely different from what I vaguely envisaged, though I still almost like it. I'll keep these panels for a while but I plan to use them later for another project. I like reusing by canvases unless I get too attached to them, but I can't see that happening with this piece. Good practice though! Have fun creating, everyone!

WOYWW #384: Derwent XL, a mini journal and two pages

Hello again on this somewhat overcast autumn morning. Didn't we have gorgeous sunshine yesterday? That's the kind of sunshine I can appreciate. We caved in and turned the central heating on, after all three of us came down with colds last week. I'm all cushed up in front of the computer (my spell checker tells me "cushed up" is not a valid word, but it darn well should be, as in 'feeling cushy')! So here I am, taking part in this week's WOYWW blog hop showing you my latest projects and purchases.

As you can see, my desk is staged as I had to clear it for last night's meal. Believe me, it didn't look this tidy just a few days ago! I'm glad to see some of the paint stains are coming back! Once we move (who knows when?) this is going to be my art table, so I'm not worried about messing it up.

You can see my Wanderlust journal in the top left corner. Underneath is a mini journal I made out of a cheap notebook. Next to that are my new Derwent XL charcoal and graphite blocks, which I just couldn't resist! I'll show you all these items a bit closer.

I saw a video of these Derwent XL blocks and just had to have them! They're both watersoluble and you can even  mix the charcoal with the graphite. I made this page playing with them (the pink comes from an inktense pencil, as all the colours are more earth toned in these two sets). 

I made another page in this journal for the Wanderlust October challenge with the theme "something I want to achieve by the end of the year". I'm not going to disclose the exact terms of the challenge as it might ruin it for others, but suffice to say, there's a clever twist in the conditions, which I didn't see coming!

The last project for today is this mini journal I made from one of those notebooks I showed you last week. I think it was Shaz (Silverwolf) who asked me how I use these cheap notebooks for art journalling. I remove half the pages and stick two and two of the remaining pages together with gel medium to make them sturdier. You can then gesso the pages or paint on them directly. I'm not bothered by the lines as they give me extra texture. I ended up with 25 pages for this journal. You can decorate the cover any way you like. Here's how mine turned out:

If anyone's still in doubt about the meaning of the phrase 'cushed up', here's a visual representation:

That's it for today!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

The sun is peeking through the clouds as I type this -

perhaps I can put the laundry out, after all.

edit: I'm #22 three weeks running!