Ventures into art journaling

I've been gathering courage to start with art journaling, and here's my first spread in the smaller Dylusions journal. I definitely needed help starting out, so I got some books on Kindle. This is based on Sue Bleiweiss' The Sketchbook Challenge.

I'll also enter with this to the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday-challenge for "Make your own background".

First I die cut some circle-shapes and glued them down with matte medium. The basecoat is teal acrylic paint, which I then coated with quinacridone nickel azo gold wash (yes yes, a total Donna Downey ripoff). I added some stenciling with light modeling paste, and then realized it should've been under all the paint, so I had to paint it again with teal (live and learn). After that I used Simon Says Stamp Lots of dots - stamp set to stamp both the open circles with Archival in Watering can (great grey!) and the filled in circles with Distress Paint in Seedless Preserves.

I used Unity's Layers of Life november 2013 kit in a couple of places too, in Archival sienna. The shading around the diecut circles was made with different Big Brush pens, and the doodling with various black and white pens. When you compare this photo to the full spread, you don't see any of the big shiny (white) splotches on the diecuts. That is because of it being pearlescent acrylic I spead on the circles and it only catches light in certain angles.

Stamped some gesso with bubble wrap and dripped some Dylusions in black marble on top.Shaded around the pages with some Big Brush too.

Had I gone for the traditional approach here I would've added some quotes, but I very seldom come across a quote I personally feel like fits me - unless you count Demotivational...

I'm really happy with the right page, not so much with the left one.

Wedding present / Häälahja

I made a mixed media wedding present that was given away last weekend, so I can finally blog about it... My original idea was a canvas, but after having seen Donna Little's video about her picture frames, I changed my mind.

Mixed media -häälahja tuli annettua viime viikonloppuna, joten tästä projektista voi vihdoin blogata... Ajattelin ensin tehdä canvas-taulun, mutta nähtyäni tämän Donna Littlen videon valokuvakehyksistä, päätin vaihtaa pohjaa.

Donna's video:

I couldn't find a picture frame with such a massive space around the opening, so mine became much less embellished. This one was a long process, and I went from sprays to full acrylic coverage (some Distress, some regular acrylics) and Inka Gold on top. I've spent so much time staring at it that I don't really know anymore how I feel about it... Without being too specific, the locomotive is there for a purpose, and actually was one of the very first elements I wanted in :)

En löytänyt valokuvakehystä, jossa olisi ollut noin paljon tilaa koristeille kuin Donnan videossa, joten omasta versiostani tuli vähän yksinkertaisempi. Prosessi oli pitkä ja värikin vaihtui matkan varrella mustesuihkeista akryyliin - osittain Distressiä, osittain tavallisia akryyleja ja Inka Goldia lopuksi. Tätä on tullut katseltua niin paljon, etten oikein enää osaa sanoa, mitä mieltä tästä itse olen. Menemättä sen enempää yksityiskohtiin, veturilla on tarkoituksensa ja oli yksi niitä ensimmäisiä asioita, joita tiesin haluavani laittaa mukaan :)

A little bit of extra exitement came from the fact that I had to fly to the wedding and had this in my hand luggage. Apparently it was not suspicious enough to merit a baggage search :D

Hieman lisäjännitystä tarjosi häitä edeltänyt lentomatkailu, kun tämä oli käsimatkatavaroissa. Ei sitten kuitenkaan ollut tarpeeksi epäilyttävä, että olisin joutunut tarkemmin esittelemään turvatarkastuksessa :D

Book of Secrets / Salaisuuksien kirja

During my summer vacation I found online crafting courses and indulged myself. Here is my finished Book of Secrets based on Andy Skinner's Book of Secrets -workshop

Kesälomalla löysin askartelunettikurssit ja tässä on Andy Skinnerin Book of Secrets -kurssittelun lopputulos.

Front:

Spine:

Edges: Archival inks and Vilda Stamps on Tim Holtz's French industrial-paper:

Details:

Back:

Since the material-listings are published outside the workshop, I feel comfortable to say something about my substitutions: instead of the Americana/Traditions I used Liquitex/Golden acrylics, Inka Gold, Mod Podge and Liquitex matte medium.

Koska kurssin tarvikeluettelo on saatavilla jo ennen kurssille ilmoittautumista, voinen tähän lisätä omat korvaukseni: American/Traditions maalien sijasta käytin Liquitexin / Goldenin akryylimaaleja, Inka Goldia, Mod Podgea ja Liquitexin matte mediumia.

Mixed media canvas with buttons

Simon Says Stamp and Show -challenge called for buttons, and I totally fell in love with the canvas made by Tracy Evans. I had to try a canvas of my own! Here's what I came up with:

The canvas measures 20x20 cm. I started out by gessoing it, and then adhering white tissue paper over the whole thing, all crumbled up:

I painted the background with some Vintage Photo Distress Paint with a wet paintbrush, stamped on the edges with some Archival Ink in Coffee with Unity Stamp's Layers of Life -june kit and added some structure with Liquitex Light modeling paste and Tiny circles template from the Crafter's workshop.

I layered on some more light modeling paste and arranged my buttons on top of that. After they were dried in place, I went over the bright red buttons with multiple layers of gesso. 

I sprayed the buttons with Dylusions ink in Melted chocolate and Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in Sand. This pretty much didn't adhere, so I went on to paint the buttons with Distress Paints in Vintage photo, Brushed pewter and Antiqued bronze. From here on I kinda forgot to take process photos, so these are from the finished canvas:

I stamped with the Layers of life -kit and Stazon ink in Stazon in Timber brown, as well as Urban Stamps Time Pieces stamp. These I ripped and adhered to the edges and corners of the canvas. On top of this I pounced some Antiqued bronze Distress Paint.

I adhered some cream colored ribbon to the canvas and painted it with Distress paints and black acrylic paint. The background is also in many places painted with Distress paints to make the color more intence.

I used Tim Holtz diecuts to make the pocket watch and wings, then stamped Bo Bunny Timepiece-set on the tissue paper and adhered it to the pocket watch. Wings are diecut from corrugated cardboard, and in the middle of the pocket watch is a small clock part.

 In the end I sprayed over the buttons with Tattered Angels Glimmer mists in Slate and the whole canvas with white Perfect Pearls mists.

Venturing into mixed media...

First off, this is going to be a long post, so I'll skip the Finnish translations, sorry about that.

Okay, this was a learning process, and I am not totally satisfied with the result, but oh well... My very first try in making a mixed media canvas: 

I'll try to retrace the process, as this has been on my table for over 3 weeks now... I started with a blank 15x15 cm card-like canvas from Søstrene Grene, grounded it with white gesso and then lay down some light modeling paste from Liquitex over a chicken wire stencil template from Panduro.

Sidenote here: I found out why I should pay a little more for my supplies... I got 4 stencils from Panduro with the same price as one "more known brand", but the Panduro stencils are very harshly cut (the chicken wire and brick wall), and I don't get the effect I want with them. You can see what I mean here:

90 degree angles on bricks? Going to have to find some better templates, ie pay more for them.

Anyway, back to business. I glued on some weaved ribbon and twine with Modge Podge matte. I should have used more as it looks a bit lonely now, but still these are the parts I especially love:

The diecut cogs are Tim Holtz Alterations: Sizzix Movers & Shapers - Mini Gears Set and Sizzix Bigz Die - Gadget Gears, cut from a thick cardboard and primed with multiple layers of white gesso and glued down with Glossy Accents. There's a metal brad in the smallest one. I tried adding some self-adhesive aluminium tape to one of the cogs, but the effect didn't come out quite as I wanted.

The metal cog accents are done by layering self-adhesive aluminium tape over a piece of thin cardboard and then running it through my Big Shot with an embossing folder from Cuddlebug called Clockworks. Then I painted it with black acrylic paint, let it dry a bit and then rubbed off the extra paint with a paper towel. I then fuzzycut around the larger cogs to get smaller pieces, which I then adhered with the light modeling paste.

When all this was dried, I painted everything except the faux metal panels with white gesso and then sprayed the canvas with ink sprays. I made a custom Distress Ink spray by mixing Antique Linen and Tattered Rose reinkers in a mini-mister and used that as the base. Then I continued with Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist in sand and some spritzes of Dylusions Melted Chocolate. The cogs are painted with Distress Paint dabber in Antique Bronze and with some Inka Gold in copper. I also used the DP dabber around the edges of the canvas. Afterwards I highlighted some places with the white gesso again. Finally I added the Dymo-label.

There were quite some "Oh crap"-moments during the way, but white gesso does save quite a lot :)

Lastly I want to share some YouTube-channels I get inspiration and great tutorials from:
Luvleescrappin's channel (mixed media canvases)
Sari Hänninen's channel (steampunk ideas and the faux metal technique)