Sunday 6 April 2014

Cherry Blossoms

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.
Well, here I am again and with yet another Art Journal page.  For someone who really only does these once in a blue moon, I've been quite prolific lately.  I've been experimenting because I could not get the hang of using gesso to seal the pages  and stop everything from seeping through the paper.  Every time I tried coating my page with gesso first I seemed to lose all the colour once I started spraying.  Used a few different brands but all I would be left with is the shimmer and not much colour at all. Well, this time I coated the page with watered down gesso and, when dry, sprayed with watered down acrylic paint and the colour actually stayed on the page.  Woo!! Hoo!!
Once the paint dried I was able to spray with Distress Inks as well, and it all worked.  I haven't quite got the effect I was after, but I'm hoping that will come with experience.
As stated before, I coated the page with watered down gesso and while doing that I added in a few cotton threads for a bit of texture. The orange  colour is the acrylic paint.  I simply mixed some Vermillion with Ochre Yellow  until I achieved the shade I wanted.  Then, when that was dry I also sprayed with watered down Broken China and Mustard Seed Distress Inks.  You can just see the watercolour type blotches on the side.  That was the effect I was trying for.  Hopefully, one day I will get it all over. 
 Used Urban Artist  'Mt. Fuji Blossom' Stencil with some homemade texture paste, coloured it with watercolour pencils and highlighted with a white gel pen and a black sharpie.  Then went around the blossoms with a black watercolour pencil and a wet paint brush so they would stand out a bit more.  Not sure if I should have done that actually as it turned out a bit messy.
Unfortunately I forgot to do the stamping before I did the stenciling so the surface wasn't exactly smooth and the stamps didn't work too well but, I'm just going to say it adds character to the piece. LOL.  The stamps used are Kaisercraft's Tiny Dots and a Chinese or maybe a Japanese Script stamp.  It is also a Kaisercraft stamp but I haven't got the name of it I'm afraid.
 I searched the net for a Confuscius quote, but they were mostly quite rude except for this one which I quite liked.  'Wherever you go ... go with all your heart.'
So, there you go, I finally managed to do an Art Journal page that didn't seep into the back of the paper and make a mess of the next page.  Yay!!
This will actually be the last of my Journal pages for a while.  I have also been making cards as usual, but I can't show any of them here just yet as they are mostly DT projects although I've also been working on a project I purchased from Marion Smith Designs and I will be showing that in the next few days so do please come back and take a look at that.
I thank you so much for visiting and enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.
oxox Marg
 



11 comments:

  1. Your art journal is just beautiful with the different colours, doing the flowers must have been quite tedious,but rewarding in the end ...I find liquitex gesso the best..xo

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  2. A lovely art journal page Marg. I was wondering what the cotton threads were...what a great idea to add extra interest. As always a great piece. Karen.x

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  3. You're doing super well with your pages Marg.

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  4. Beautiful art journal, Margaret!! Lovely design and colour! :D

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  5. Such a gorgeous subtle page Marge, and I love the different effects of the colours playing together! The stenciling looks amazing and I actually think that yes, the imperfect stamping is perfect for a page like this. Glad you are getting the hang of the Gesso. You may know this already, but baby wipes for blending and kitchen roll scrunched up for texture are great tools for playing with Gesso and Acrylics. Do you know the work of Jenny Marples from "Pushing the Right Buttons? http://pushingtherightbuttons.blogspot.co.uk/ She is a card maker like you, but does a lot of mixed media work on the backgrounds to her cards and gives very clear tutorials and step by steps. Have a good week!! xx

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  6. Hi Marg, your page is lovely, I love the oriental theme and love the cherry blossoms. Wonderful texture too, love kaiser stamps and when they don't turn out perfect they look really good! I hope you keep creating your art pages, they are lots of fun and a great way to learn techniques too! I hope you have had a good weekend,

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  7. Hi Marg. I love your journalling and hope you can start to carry your experimentation over to your card making. It will definitely make you stand out from the crowd.

    Suggestions if that's ok. Distress Ink sprays tend to pale somewhat so it's not always necessary to add gesso, especially if you want stronger colour. Dylusions and other inks are, in my experience, much more highly pigmented so it's best to use gesso with them until you get the hang of using them 'raw'. If you want stamped detail over your textured surfaces I suggest stamping with Archival or Stazon ink onto a single ply of tissue, drying it, tearing around the edges and then sticking it down with a mix of water and matte PVA.

    Thank you to Astrid for passing on my details to you. I'm lucky enough to work with some of the most talented creatives in the industry (including Astrid) and the best part is they are all keen to pass on their knowledge and ideas to help everyone else grow and improve.

    I look forward to seeing how your work develops as you become more confident with different media and experiment even more. Jenny x

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  8. I think it's lovely & don't think the black was a mistake at all! Thanks for the write-up. Interesting to know. I have thus far not done an art journal page yet. Just one of those things still to come!!

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  9. glorious piece of art Margy, lovin gthe stencil/masking and your colors are glorious , love that quote too ... beautiful x

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  10. Amazing page art yournal Mag!!! Beautiful!!!

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  11. Another gorgeous art journalled piece. I am so glad that there are people like you out there who will try try and try again till they get it right and then pass on their findings :D I don't want to play and mess up :/ thats just me... Love the cherry blossoms and I like the quote done like that...

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