Art Journal page tutorial, by ME!!!

Hello, so as I made a promise to a few people who wanted instructions for this Art Journal page: ALWAYS BELIEVE, here I go with the how to!! I created this page for one of the Art Journal classes I teach, and it was a big hit. The creations made by my students were awesome, and i loved seeing the different takes!!!

So, as with most journal beginnings,
1 .YOU NEED TO GIVE YOUR PAGES A GOOD COAT OR 2 OF GESSO!!!

2. DIG OUT THAT STASH OF LACE YOU HAVE, ANY COLOURS, RANDOM BITS, LONG, SHORT, ANY BITS, AND ADHERE THEM IN STRIPS DOWN THE LEFT OF YOUR PAGE. (I used multi medium for an adhesive, but any collage or fabric glue will work!)( I STARTED LONG, & STAGGERED THEM, GETTING SHORTER AND SHORTER.) I STOPPED ABOUT 3/4 THE WAY BEFORE THE MIDDLE OF THE PAGE.
3. DO THE SAME ON THE OPPOSITE PAGE, STARTING AT THE EDGE WITH LONG BITS AND WORKING YOUR WAY BACK TO THE MIDDLE, TOP OF PAGE, WITH THE SHORTER BITS. ONCE AGAIN, STOP ABOUT 3/4 OF THE WAY ACROSS.
4. NOW YOU NEED TO HUNT THROUGH YOUR STASH OF UFO'S (unidentified objects, we all have them, in a tin, or a jar, and you have probably been collecting them for years!!! Guess what, Art Journaling allows a space for you to use them!!!!)BY UFO'S, I MEAN, METAL TRINKETS, BEADS, BROKEN JEWELLERY, CHARMS, FOUND ITEMS ETC.
5. YOU WILL ALSO NEED OTHER EMBELLISHMENTS, LIKE FLOWERS, CHIPBOARD BITS, OLD KEYS!!!
6.  NOW BECAUSE I DO WANT TO CLOSE THE PAGES OF MY BOOK, I WENT WITH FLOWERS, & A CHIPBOARD KEY, BUT YOU CAN ADD EXTRAS, AS LONG AS THEY ARE NOT TOO BULKY!
7.  FORM A CLUSTER OF FLOWERS, OR EMBELLISHMENTS IN THE BOTTOM LEFT AND TOP RIGHT HAND CORNERS OF THE PAGES, AND WHEN YOU ARE HAPPY, ADHERE THESE THINGS TO THE PAGE. (Please note, I have gemstones on my flowers, but they will be adhered to the page at the very end!)
8.  ONCE YOUR GLUE IS COMPLETELY DRY, MAYBE THE NEXT DAY IF YOU DON'T HAVE A HEAT GUN, PAINT OVER YOUR ENTIRE LACE AND EMBELLISHMENT AREAS WITH MORE, WHITE GESSO. MAKE SURE YOU GET A SMALL BRUSH FOR UNDERNEATH THE FLOWERS AND CHIPBOARD BITS, TO COVER COMPLETELY IN WHITE!)
9.  WHEN COMPLETELY DRY, SPRITZ THE ENTIRE PAGE WITH A LIGHT COLOURED SPRAY INK. PREFERABLY ONE THAT HAS A SLIGHT SHEEN OR SPARKLE TO IT!(I used a perfect pearls spray mist I made up myself.)
10.  ONCE THIS IS DRY, GRAB YOUR STAZ ON OR ARCHIVAL INK AND SOME BORDER STAMPS, OR BACKGROUND STAMPS, AND STAMP RANDOMLY ALONG THE EDGES, OVER THE LACE, IN BETWEEN EMBELLISHMENTS, WHEREVER ELSE YOU FEEL IS GOOD AND DO SO ON BOTH SIDES.
11.  NEXT, PICK A LIGHT C0LOURED DYLUSIONS SPRAY, (or other spray in your stash), I USED FRESH LIME, & STARTING WITH THE BOTTOM LEFT CORNER, (TURN YOUR BOOK UPSIDE DOWN, SO YOU CAN SPRAY FROM THE TOP OF THE PAGE,) SPRAY SMALL BURSTS AND LET IT RUN DOWN THE PAGE. ( JUST DID IT OVER THE LACE AREA TO ONCE AGAIN CREATE A STAGGERED LOOK!) UNSCREW THE LID OF THE INK AND USING THE STEM, FLICK SOME INK DROPS RANDOMLY OVER PAGE.

12.  WHEN THE INK IS DRY, TURN YOUR BOOK UPSIDE DOWN AGAIN AND DO THE OTHER CORNER, REPEATING PROCESS. (IF THE INK DOESN'T RUN, SPRAY SOME WATER OVER THE TOP OF IT TO THIN IT OUT, MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A CRAFT SHEET OR NEWSPAPER UNDERNEATH!)
13.  YOU WILL WANT THE DYLUSIONS TO BE COMPLETELY DRY BEFORE YOU SPRAY YOUR NEXT COLOUR, SO A HEAT GUN WILL COME IN HANDY TO SPEED UP THE PROCESS!- CHOOSE A 2ND SPRAY INK COLOUR, MINE WAS BUBBLEGUM PINK, A REPEAT THE PROCESS FOR THE FIRST COLOUR, BUT USE IT SPARINGLY, JUST A FEW BURSTS, REFER TO MY PHOTO! (I have tried to keep the centre area clean with plenty of white space for your quote!)
14.  DRY 2ND COLOUR & ADD A 3RD LIGHT COLOUR, LEMON ZEST WAS MY CHOICE! (This is also a good time to add any small areas of stencilling if you wish, I used my honeycomb stencil as a stamp with Dylusions ink and did a little randomly on the page.)
15.  WHEN THE INKS ARE DRY, YOU CAN DO A BIT MORE STAMPING WITH YOUR CHOSEN BLACK INK, (I did some music notes, and Script& Newsprint stamping!) (See photo!)
16.  NOW, IT GETS EVEN MORE 3 DIMENSIONAL!!! CHOOSE YOURSELF A COUPLE OF STENCILS, SOME TEXTURE PASTE, MATT OR GEL MEDIUM, OR IF YOU HAVE NONE OF THOSE, GESSO WILL WORK. I ONCE AGAIN, FOLLOWED THE PATTERN OF THE LACE AND ADDED TEXTURE PASTE THROUGH ONE MY STENCILS, ALTERNATING DIFFERENT ONES, AND BEING CAREFUL AROUND THE EMBELLISHMENT CLUSTERS. DO THE SAME ON EACH PAGE. *Once this starts to dry, and over a few days, you will notice some magic. The colours of the Dylusions, will be soaked up by the texture paste and you will see the colour in areas of your texture paste.














17.  WHEN THE TEXTURE PASTE IS COMPLETELY DRY, PICK A DARKER SPRAY INK COLOUR, MINE WAS POLISHED JADE, AND GIVE A FEW VERY SMALL SPRAYS IN EACH CORNER, TURNING THE BOOK UPSIDE DOWN FOR THE BOTTOM LEFT, AS BEFORE! *I watered this colour down as it was quite dark! Spray over the top with the water spray.

18.  ADD ANOTHER LAYER OF TEXTURE PASTE, USING A DIFFERENT STENCIL, AND WHEN DRY, ADD A 3RD LAYER OF TEXTURE PASTE IF YOU HAVE ANOTHER DIFFERENT STENCIL.
*While you are waiting for each layer to dry, you can have a look at your stash for your quote. (I used up words from parts of rub on quotes, stamps, stickers, magazine cut outs etc. I backed all of my words onto cardstock.)
18.  CUT EACH WORD OUT LEAVING A SMALL BORDER OF CARDSTOCK AROUND EACH ONE, THEN BLEND AROUND THE EDGES WITH SOME DISTRESS INKS. * I used Shabby Shutters, Milled Lavendar & Peacock Feathers. Set aside till the wet mediums are all dry.
19.  WHEN PAGE IS COMPLETELY DRY, STAMP A DREAM CATCHER STAMP, OR STAMP OF YOUR CHOICE IN BLACK INK AT THE TOP LEFT AS SHOWN, AND AN ARROW STAMP DOWN THE BOTTOM RIGHT. I ALSO STAMPED A SMALL SCRIPT STAMP NEXT TO THE DREAM CATCHER. WHEN INK IS DRY, COLOUR THE STAMPED IMAGES WITH DISTRESS INKS & A WATER BRUSH. *I use my acrylic block to dab some ink on, then spritz with water or use a waterfilled brush.


20.  ADHERE YOUR QUOTE TO THE PAGE AS SHOWN, OR WHERE YOU WOULD LIKE IT TO GO.
21.  I ADDED A FEW MORE FLOWERS, WHICH I COLOURED WITH DISTRESS INKS AND A WATER BRUSH AS ABOVE.
22.  ADD YOUR GEMSTONES TO CENTRE OF LARGER FLOWERS, AND ICE STICKLES OR OTHER GLITTER GLUE TO THE CENTRE OF SMALLER FLOWERS. *The Dylusions magic will happen again with the glitter glue and will soak up the colours of the inks.

So there you have it, quite lengthy, but a really fun process. Can't wait to show you some more projects using these techniques. Make sure you leave me a comment if you are here, especially if you are going to have a go at this page, would love to see the end results!!!

Kraft Plus Handwriting Challenge

Well, I have always kept a journal, been a journaler, love Art Journaling, letter writing etc. But when it comes to my scrapbook layouts, I get so carried away with the photos and the design and the pretty stuff, that I never seem to save alot of room for journaling!!! So, am I ever thankful to Kraft Plus for setting this challenge this month!!! I think this has to be the most handwriting I have ever fit onto one layout, and used it as the background. Feeling very proud!
Here's the prompt from Kraft+


And here's my layout, showing a photograph of myself as a 4 yr old, with my Mum and her friend, and their enormous BEEHIVE HAIRDOS!!!

I started my background off with some texture paste & a  circle stencil, mixed with paint and it just evolved from there. I've used a little washi, which I picked up at Harvey Norman, and the majority of papers/PL cards are from Simple Stories. There's also some enamel dots from Francheville, chipboard title from Bella and Scrap Matrix and a bit of Heidi Swapp ephemera.

2nd layout for my Guest Designer spot at CSI

Case file no. 188 has just been revealed over at CSI-Color Stories Inspiration. And I played along again as a Guest Designer! Here is the Case file, it was bright and fun and included a sketch this month.

And below is my take on the sketch!I've used some Amy Tan, Echo Park, Heidi Swapp and Stampin Up papers! Some stickers from Echo Park, Washi tape Thickers, Collected and co. alphas & Kaszazz alpha die for the blue title. I did some journalling on the computer and printed and cut for this one, I like the neatness..lol!

                                                                                      

My Guest Designer spot over at CSI

So excited to share my layout I created for my guest Designer position over at CSI-Color Stories Inspiration. I was invited to be a Guest Designer as I was a Special Investigator for November!!!
Such a thrill, to be up there with a huge line of talented ladies this month. make sure you click on the link and take a look! Check out the Case File Scheme below!


This is the layout I created.
It's a favourite of mine, as it's a tribute to my beautiful friend who has had a battle with Breast Cancer in 2015. She has just finished her treatment, which made her feel very yuck at times and has been a huge jourrney for her and her wonderful Hubby. I am happy to say her treatment has just finished and she can now start a new year with a positive new energy and look forward!!!

I have covered all criteria for the case file! I used papers from 7 dots and Kaszazz, Stickers & die cuts from 7 dots, stamps-Amy Tan & Kaszazz, Ranger inks, for the background stamping, Scrap Matrix & Imaginarium chipboard, enamel dots, washi tape, Gesso & Dylusions sprays. there's a Heart sticker in there I have had in my stash for about 6 years from Christina Re, love using up old stash!