Jun
27
Filed Under (Cats, Journalling, Paper crafts/ATCs/"Art") by jennyk on 27-06-2011

Well, the title says it all … and so does the page itself. What inspired me to choose that theme? My own procrastination, of course!

The page had been pre-painted a while ago with FW acrylic inks. I don’t have any stencils, so I cut my own square grid from an OHP sheet and used a stamp pad ‘direct to page’ over the over it. I then used a Marvy Le Plume II (brush end) to write the main word, then the fine end to write the text around the edge. The page looked too dull at that point, and the stencilled squares didn’t stand out enough, so I used a scarlet Le Plume II to do wiggly borders around the squares. OK, not brilliant, but not too bad.

Actually, I do have an excuse for my procrastination, as we’ve been dealing with a very sick kitty (CRF) for the past three weeks, so my mind hasn’t been on art or crafts, but I needed the distraction today. We still don’t know whether she is going to make it, but we are doing everything we can to help her.
What finally inspired me? My own procrastination!

The page had been pre-painted a while ago with FW acrylic inks. I don’t have any stencils, so I cut my own square grid from an OHP sheet and used a stamp pad ‘direct to page’ over the over it. I then used a Marvy Le Plume II (brush end) to write the main word, then the fine end to write the text around the edge. The page looked too dull at that point, and the stencilled squares didn’t stand out enough, so I used a scarlet Le Plume II to do wiggly borders around the squares. OK, not brilliant, but not too bad.

Actually, I do have an excuse for my procrastination, as we’ve been dealing with a very sick kitty (CRF) for the past three weeks, so my mind hasn’t been on art or crafts, but I needed the distraction today. We still don’t know whether she is going to make it, but we are doing everything we can to help her.

http://jennyk.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/Japanese-double-pamphlet-stitch.jpg

These two pamphlet stitch books were made from a single sheet of Gerstaecker cartridge/watercolour paper. I am considering using this paper for making journals, as it is very economic and it is supposed to cope with wet media. I made these small books so that I and a friend can test it.

The blue book is a single 4-sheet signature, with pages 6? by 5? (15.2cm by 12.5cm). The pink one is a 5-hole Japanese double pamphlet stitch binding, with two 4-sheet signatures, and the pages are 6? square (15.2cm). The card covers of both books are just slightly larger than their pages.

May
31
Filed Under (Journalling, Paper crafts/ATCs/"Art") by jennyk on 31-05-2011

The theme for the May Challenge on The Sketchbook Challenge blog is “Can’t Resist” – using resists or journalling about something irresistible or both. First I experimented a bit with resists:

I think the labels are clear enough if you click for the larger version.  The two I find most interesting are the white acrylic ink resist, which apparently only works for other acrylics, and the Crayola oil pastels.  The oil pastels resisted watercolours but not the water-soluble Neocolor IIs, and they actually took the water-soluble pencils more strongly than the non-resist areas – weird!

I decided to write a list of things I can’t resist – just a small selection, as there are a lot of things which I am not good at resisting.  Again, click on the picture for a bigger version.

I used a white Crayola crayon (title and left column) and a clear Sakura Glaze pen (list and right) for my resists, and Neocolor II for the colours. The Crayola didn’t work as well as I’d hoped, though it is more visible in real life, so I tried outlining the title using a white Uniball Signo pen and that helped.

I still haven’t scanned my drawings and prints from the second workshop – sorry! I’ll try to get around to it very soon. Meanwhile, I want to tell my readers (if I have any) about a blog and a giveaway. Green Isle Crafts is one of my regular blog-visiting stops. Tee posts tips, journal prompts (well, art prompts, really, not just for journalling), videos and step-by-step descriptions of how she made each featured page. Today I had two “oh, of course!” moments while watching the video – when she made a very simple torn paper stencil which gave a very informal effect, and when she used a piece of ‘retired’ bubble mailer for bubble wrap printing, which looks a lot easier than dealing with loose floppy pieces of bubble wrap.

I mentioned a book giveaway in the post title. Tee is giving a copy of “Surface Treatment Workshop: Explore 45 Mixed-Media Techniques” by McElroy and Duran-Wilson. I’ve been browsing the Look Inside on Amazon, and it seems very interesting. All you need to do to enter is comment on this blog post. That’s well worth the effort for a chance to win, and I hope that after checking out Tee’s blog, you’ll become a regular reader like me.

Jan
01
Filed Under (Fibre and textile crafts, Journalling) by jennyk on 01-01-2011

I had good intentions for today. I always have good intentions for New Year’s Day. They rarely work out. Last year ended as badly as it started, so instead of having spent the past 2 weeks getting this place organised enough that I could start journalling today (or this coming week, even) and start catching up on overdue craft projects, we have both spent the past 2 weeks hacking our lungs up, and we are still coughing. So, this is more about aims than achievements. Never mind, it was always supposed to be about the year, not just one day.

Other than catching up stuff, my main plan for this year is to make a serious attempt at journalling, so I’ve signed up for a series of Visual Journalling online workshops. Fortunately, they don’t have to be done at particular times, so I can pace myself. One of the tutors is Roz of Roz Wound Up, and as she is my biggest single inspiration for doing this, that makes me happy. Her blog and website have a huge amount of information on so many art-related topics – materials, methods and more.

I also read today on a friend’s blog about the Sketchbook Challenge, which seems like another good idea.  Again, there is no pressure involved, just a theme a month and a chance to look at other people’s work (and upload your own if you want).  I recognise the names of a lot of the people who will be setting the themes – in particular, Diana Trout.  Her book Journal Spilling is one I have been planning to use to help guide me through this journalling experiment.

Well, those are my intentions/aims/goals, but whether anything much will come from them remains to be seen.  Watch this space …

[PS.  just because I want to try journalling, that doesn't mean I won't also be doing other art/crafts during the year, so watch for some of those too!]