First post back in 2 years! Mixed Media Monday!

For the last two years I've found it difficult to get creative and be inspired. I packed my craft stuff away and got on with life, mainly focusing on photography and self improvement. I always felt something missing though.

I guess you could say I had quite a depressive slump. In January I had enough of myself (and had a few health scares) so I decided to join a gym, to get healthy and lose weight. So far I have lost 20 Kilograms (44 Pounds). It has done wonders for my health, but also my confidence and self-esteem, as well as my motivation. It also helped me feel ready to craft again.

So I've set up an interim craft desk in my bedroom until I can get a better system sorted out.

I did my first mixed media art journal page last night:

 I'm a little Rusty, but I hope it's not terrible! My Inspiration for this piece was from a Mood Board over at Our Mixed Media Moods and their group on facebook, it had a great beachy theme which really spoke to me, since I live near the ocean!

Here's a couple of close ups of my page:

I hope you liked my page after a long absence, here's to more Mixed Media Monday's coming out more regularly!

Be Fearless - Mixed Media Monday

Good Monday morning to you reading this, I hope it finds you well!

I have a page from my Art Journal to share again, for Mixed Media Monday.

Check it out:

A very blue page, done with Dylusions sprays first off. Then I used a damask stencil and sprayed through using white Dylusions spray. I used a female figure stencil and stamped through it with a damask background stamp. I also went around and outlined it with black and white Big Brush markers.

Then it was just a matter of using some other texture stamps in the background, and adding some further details in, like the 'bubbles' up the side and top. 

Which tied in with my letters that are round rub-ons which spell out

BE FEARLESS.

I hope you enjoyed my page today, and will stop by again soon.

Thanks for visiting and commenting!

Mixed Media Monday - Umbrella.

Hi Friends! It's a bright new week, which means it's time to see another page from my Art Journal. It's Mixed Media Monday time!

For this page I put down some of that meshy wall tape you can get from the hardware store. I thought it would give neat texture. I then went over it with Gesso and dried it. I sprayed some Dylusions spray inks onto my page, and blotted it off, to give it a more faded effect. I didn't blot the drips for the pink rain.

I sprayed some white ink through a raindrop stencil, but it didn't come out that well. So I used some blue and purple inks with a dot stamp for added texture and interest.



For my figure in a rainbow, rainboots and umbrella I used some papers I made on my Gelli Plate. Which is a new purchase I made. Wow it's so fun! A great way to make neat papers with lots of textures for my Mixed Media work. I simply drew the shapes on the papers and cut them out and inked around the edges, and added some detail with big brush markers.

For the flower I used texture paste through a stencil that I heat zapped, and them went over with Faber-Castell Big Brush markers. I liked the idea of the raincoat figure sharing the umbrella with the flower.

Which brings me to my quote:

Isn't that so true?

So Thank You for being my umbrella dear friends, and I hope you liked seeing my page today. Thanks so much for stopping by and all your lovely comments!

Love Collage - Mixed Media Monday

Good Morning friends, I hope you have had a great week!

I have a page from my Art Journal to share that was collage based - check it out:

I just started with scraps of patterned paper, some had flower punchouts in them, and I just collaged them down onto my page to cover the whole thing. 

I then went in with some love themed painterly rub-ons I had in stash for these squares of colour and hearts and sentiments.  

Also some flower and butterfly rub-ons. 

 This photo strip of vintage images is from Darkroom Door. I love this cute victorian valentine couple!

I am happy with this collaged page in my journal and the love/Valentine theme.

I hope you like it, too! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Late Mixed Media Monday

Hi Friends, sorry for break in blogging again. I've been a bit ill for the past week and a half, but thankfully I'm feeling better now.

So I have a page from my Art Journal to share:

Just a painted background with some stamping, and the figures are a dylusions stencil sponged with some paint. I like the bubbly texture effect the sponge I used made.  All the leaves were fussy cut. 

I'll just keep it short and sweet. Any questions let me know. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Mixed Media Monday - Girl/Woman/Lady

Good Morning all, time for a new Mixed Media page from my Art Journal.

 This is a page I wasn't entirely happy with, mainly because it was done in a cheap journal with thin paper and everything just reacted differently on it. But I figured it was worth sharing anyway. 

I really loved this quote I came across for this piece: 

It was done with various paints and stamping for the background, the lady's head is a wood stamp from my stash, and I drew in a body and coloured and painted it with big brush markers.

I had a brilliant weekend, where I went to the local 'seaworld' type place and saw gorgeous seals, dolphins, penguins, turtles and fish. I will have photos to share soon.

In the meantime I hope you all had a brilliant weekend, too and have a brilliant new week, also! 

Hugs

Elephant - Mixed Media Monday

 

Good Morning friends! I have some Art Journaling / Mixed Media work to show you, that I created.

I recently got a new Dylusions journal, the pages are thick and stand upto lots of paint, spray, ink and water, and don't warp like my old journal did! So I'm really happy with it.

Here's my first double page from it:

 For this page I started with multiple colours of Dylusions spray inks, and just covered my page with them, and sandwhiched the pages together, to get even covering on both sides. I inked through a numbers stencil with black dylusions spray on a sponge. Then added washi tape, and lots of stamping, in white and other colours to form interest in my background.

My main focal image was this elephant I cutout from a magazine! 

 I found a couple of quotes I liked online and printed them out from Word, and clipped them to pop them onto my pages. Beforehand, though, I went in with some texture paste and paint mixed together and went over some stencil images as more focal points for my page. Such as the key, the hearts, and the large heart bottom left.

 Here's a close-up of the heart done in texture paste:

 and the quotes:

 "Love will draw an elephant through a key-hole." 

 "Have the heart of a poet, and the skin of an elephant."

I hope you liked seeing my pages from my Art Journal today, I will be back next week with another page or two! Stay tuned Friday for some more photos, as well! Thanks for stopping by!!!

Stars - Mixed Media Monday

Happy Monday, friends! That means it is time for another Mixed Media Monday.

I am still participating in the Journal52 Art Journal prompts, I am about 2 weeks behind but hope to get upto speed soon!

Here is my page for Week 11's Prompt, which was Stars: to take inspiration from the nights sky.

Shoot for the moon, even if you miss - you'll land among stars.

I started my going over my page in purple and then blue paints, the paints I used were quite thick and also had a metallic shimmer to them, which added to the night sky look.

This next picture should show the metallic shimmer a bit more:

I used stencils and gold paint for my stars and free-hand painted the moon. 

The quote was printed from a free PDF Printable I got HERE. I just minimised the poster sized pages down to fit onto 1 A4/Letter sized page, and cut each word out with pinking scissors. I also water colour painted each cut-out word with blues and purples to give a bit of colour. 

Just a simple page, but I am happy with the results and I love placing inspirational quotes in my Art Journal to reflect on at a later date.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to be back soon with some more artwork.

3 for Journal 52 - Mixed Media Monday

Hello friends! How are you this Monday? I have 3 pages to share with you from my Art Journal today, all as part of the challenges at Journal52, where each week we get a different prompt to creative with. Here are my pages for the prompts from weeks 8, 9 and 10. 

Week 8 - Found Poetry

For this prompt it was suggested to use an old book page or magazine and highlight words in the text to use as the basis for your page, to create a poem or story. I clipped parts out of a book page and made up a bit of a story/scene. Then illustrated it.

 

The clippings say;

Overnight imagine escaping from the real world. A fairy story. 

A drumroll of thunder wakes me, go back to sleep. 

I paper pieced the bed, pillow and blanket, and went around them with markers. 

The girl image is a stamp from Paperbag Studios. 

I just used lots of random stamps from my stash in the 'dream bubble'.

Week 9 - Colour Swatch Inspiration
As you can guess, the inspiration was to come from colours. I used a Blue/Green/Yellow colour inspiration with a touch of purple and white. 

 I used stamps from Unity Stamp Co.

 

The quote to the left says:
Happiness is a direction, not a place. 

and the quote on the girls dress says:
'She decided to leap'

Week 10 - Create for a Cause

This prompt was about causes that you are passionate about, or even to ask if there is a cause to your art/craft. 

 I decided to embrace the reason why I make Art and Craft.  

'Cause it makes me happy!

 I used lots of bright colours for my background, and added some stencilling and doodling as well. I wanted this page to be bright and fun, and full of things that make me happy. Like rainbow colours, flowers and butterflies.

So there you have it, 3 pages from my Art Journal all for the latest 3 prompts over at Journal 52. I hope you liked seeing my pages this Mixed Media Monday. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Hearts and Clowns - Journal 52 - Mixed Media Monday

Good Afternoon Friends! I hope you have had a great week since I checked in last. I have been keeping busy here, and should have some photos to share on Friday.

But today, I have two pages from my Art Journal to share.

I did these as part of the challenges happening over at Journal52. Where we get a different prompt challenge each week. I'm a bit behind, and have 2 more challenge weeks to catch up on. But here are my pages for Weeks 6 and 7...

Week 6's Challenge was "Love Letters"

I immediately envisioned a large envelope with lots of hearts flying out of it! So I went about putting that thought onto the page:

 I used paints and water to make a semi water-coloured pink background. I Sketched my envelope, and added script text stamping, and postage mark stamps on my background, to add to the letter theme. Coloured my envelope in with Gelatos and Big Brush markers, cut out my hearts with some book text, and coloured them the same, and outlined them.

 I was going to find a quote about love letters to put on the page, 

but I couldn't find one I liked, so just left it as is.

Week 7's Challenge was "When I grow up"

I struggled with this one, and didn't know what to do for the theme. I decided to start with just a blank face, and try and build from there. Well after that, I came up with the idea to create a 'Pierrot' clown. In completion, I felt the character looked quite forlorn compared to the zany outfit. I tried to find a quote to express the contrast of the happy clown facade we put on, especially as adults, compared to the (sometimes) opposing reality. So I just made up my own quote to tie-in the theme.

 I kept my background simple, just painting through a arrow/triangle stencil, 

and doodling around them when the paint dried.

So, there are my two pages for weeks 6 and 7 of Journal 52, and that's it for this weeks Mixed Media Monday. I hope you liked seeing them, and I hope you have a great new week! Thanks so much for stopping by!