Art Journal Page - Love is magic! ...and troubles of art journaling!

Hi! Welcome to my blog!

Today I have a new art journal page to share with you. This style of art journal page is inspired by the amazing Vicky Papaioannou which is one of my very favorite artists! I LOVE her art journal pages and her cards, and I even learned about art journaling and started it because of her! If you don't know her already, you can find her beautiful art work here. 

One of my main trouble when I want to make an art journal page is that I can't find a focal point, or if I find a focal point I can't seem to find coordinating details to beautifully fill the page. I really struggled a lot with this issue in the past (and up to now!) so I have decided to think of a procedure that could help me, follow it and see where this gets me. The procedure I came up with is this: pick a beautiful thing from my stash that inspires me with an idea, then try to coordinate it with something that I like and I can make (also search in my stash if something combines with my idea), find a quote that I like for my page and put everything down. 

So this art journal page started following this procedure. I had these beautiful bottles' dies in my stash waiting and I really wanted to use them. The idea that I had in my mind for them was liquid flowing from one of them, so I started with it and this is what I came up with. 

(click on the photos to zoom in)

Here is a closer view of the book & papyrus shelf. I really loved making these small items!

For the bottles I used distress inks to color them and then I covered them with glossy accents to make them look like their are made from glass. Then I drew the liquid lake with TOMBOW markers and covered it with the Wink of Stella clear glitter pen to make it sparkle! Unfortunately, the sparkle doesn't really show in the photos but it is quite shinny in real life! 

Well that was my project for today. I would love to get your comments or your thoughts, troubles and ideas regarding art journal page making. I'm still experimenting with it, trying to find all the different parts and details that I love in art journal pages and combine them into my own style. I'm also trying to find a way to handle things that look like obstacles for me, like combining things around a focal point that I choose, and I would be really interested and happy to read your opinions or troubles or ideas on it!

Thank you for visiting my blog, wish you all many happy creative moments! 

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Card - Happy Halloween!

Hello dear friends and welcome to my blog!

Today I have a Halloween card to share with you! And it is quite special to me as in my country, Greece, we don't celebrate Halloween, but I love the Halloween theme and its colors and I love this card!

For the background I've used dusty concord Distress ink, using a circle mask made with the stitched circles die, to prevent coloring the space of the moon. After removing the mask, I used old paper Distress ink to lightly color the moon and to create the spooky clouds! 

I hand-cutted a piece of cardstock and painted it with brown Tombow watercolor pen to use it for the hill ground. I also stamped with potting soil Archival ink the plants on the background from the Docrafts the collector stamp set.

The pumpkin and the cute cat were stamped with the SSS Hey pumpkin stamp on watercolor paper and then colored with Tombow watercolor pens. After that, I hand-cutted the colored image, created its shadow with walnut stain Distress ink and glued it on the page. I've also used Distress crackle paint over the pumpkin to give it a more frightening look!

I have also created the spider web with its spider with a permanent black pen.

Finally, I've stamped the sentiment from the previous SSS stamp set over the moon and drew a spider coming down from it again with black permanent pen.

I love how this card came out, spooky and cute! Hope you like it too! I'll be happy to get your comments or questions.

SUPPLIES:

Thank you for visitng my blog!

Mixed Media - The story of my Quirky Birds!

Hellooo! Welcome to my blog!

Today I'm sharing with you my very first lesson on drawing and mixed media, which is Quirky Birds, by Tamara Laport! I love Tam's lessons, as she communicates her art lesson in a so relaxing, peaceful, understandable and joyful way, that she always makes me feel so well!

The plan for this lesson was to make (in mixed media) on an accordion paper, some quirky birds(!), which will pass a message to yourself on happiness and joy, through one of your favorite songs or poems, some quotes etc. 

I chose the song: "Dream a little dream of me" by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong (click here for the song's youtube video!). And these my version of her quirky birds!

(click on the photos to zoom)

The first one is a bit scary king owl, isn't it?! lol! But then again he reminds us of the shinning stars and the night breezes!

I think the second one is a cutie! And she could be singing in the sycamore trees!

The third one, is a wise, beauty owl that suggests to leave all worries behind! She is wise so I will listen to her!

And the fourth one is a sweet bird-princess that's gotta keep dreaming, and so will I!

Well, I really love these quirky birds' story! 

For the lesson, we could either draw our quirky birds on the back side of the paper or do something different, and so I thought about it and I felt I really needed to write the lyrics of my song! Thus, I painted the background with acrylics, I embellished it with stars and flowers, made my "quotes" as titles and I've written all the lyrics of my birds song!

(click on the photos to zoom)

You always have to remember, "STARS ARE SHINING BRIGHT"....

So you have to "KEEP DREAMING"!!!

And creating!

Thank you for visiting my blog! I'll be happy to get your comments! 

Card - Coffee Lover!

Dear friends, hi! Welcome to my blog!

After moving our home and trying to put everything in its new place, I, finally(!), managed to make some time for a new card! Our new home still needs a lot of work and time to become completely and entirely functional, but hey! my craft place is quite ready and I really need my creative time to relax and be happy! 

For a long time I wanted to create a watercolor background for my card but for some reason I couldn't make one that I really liked. After watching many video tutorials on how to make a watercolor background and trying different techniques, I believe I've found the one that works for me! 

So here is my new card with the watercoloring background! 

(click on the photos to zoom)

The process for creating this card is the following:

1. To create the watercolor background I've adhered my watercolor paper onto a thick cardboard, using removable paper tape, to avert paper buckling. With a big brush, I watered all the paper surface. I placed, on a transparency, ink from two Tim Holtz Distress ink pad colors, the Worn Lipstick and the Shabby Shutters, sprayed a little water on them, and with a smaller brush I started picking ink and placing it onto the watered paper. I've tried to avoid blending the two colors together since this would result in a muddy brown color! After my first layer of colors I heat setted the colors with my heat gun. I continued to place ink on the paper and heat-setting until I was satisfied with the result. Then I removed the paper tape which left the white border on the paper. I have seen this technique of watercoloring from the amazing Kristina Werner and you can watch a sample of her watercoloring background process here.

2. Using the Potting Soil Archival Ink, I stamped two images from the Prima Coffee Break Cling stamp set, onto some patterned paper from the Lost & Found paper collection of My Mind's Eye, and fuzzy cutted them.

3. I used a matching colored ribbon to make a bow on the handle of the coffee pot.

4-5. The cup stamp that I've used comes along with a sentiment and some coffee steam, thus, I have masked it with some post-it notes in order to stamp on the background only the cup and the steam of the coffee. I also stamped the coffee pot. 

6. I made a banner with some polka dot paper from the same paper collection, where I have stamped with the Potting Soil Archival Ink the sentiment and some coffee seeds from the previous stamp set. I've also used ZING Clear embossing powder to emboss the sentiment. 

7. I adhered my cutted images of the cup and the pot on the stamped ones, using Galleria Matte Medium for the cup and adhesive foam tape for the coffee pot to add some dimension to the card. I used a watered brush and ink from the Tombo Art watercolor marker 969 to make some shadow around the cup and under the pot. 

8. To add some details on the card, I glued three matching green gems and used the ZIG Wink of Stella Glitter Clear marker on the pot's dots.

9. Finally, I punched and inked with Worn Lipstick distress ink a small heart, I glued it on the banner and placed the banner with the sentiment on the bottom of the card using adhesive foam tape.

And here are some close-ups of the card.

And an other final view!

That was my card for today, I hope you like it! I would be happy to get your comments or any questions! 

With this card I participate into the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "We're Going Dotty!"!

I also participate into the Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Coffee or Tea?"!

Thank you for visiting my blog!

We are moving!

Dear friends hi,

We're moving, not my blogs this time, but our house!
I can't wait to get crafty in our new house but this might take a little time until everything gets in place and in order! I'll be changing my crafting "room-desk" too, so I might have some photos, organizing my new one, when I come back! See you soon!

Art Journal Page - Childish Dreams!

Hi! Welcome to my blog!

Today I have a new art journal page to show you. This page was inspired by Tamara Laport and her new awesome art work which can be found here! 

I have to admit that before meeting Tamara's art and watching some of her videos, my girl-painting skills were reeeeeaaaalllyyy poor! That made me sad as I loved seeing other peoples girl-painting but I couldn't make one myself (at least not one that I would like!). After studying Tam's videos and techniques on sketching, painting and shadowing a girl's face, I started feeling more confident about it and this journal page is my second try on it! And I have to say that, although I still find points that are not "correct" and that need more "work", I really like the outcome! Also, I can see the progress between my previous projects (see here and here) and this one, and this fact makes me hope for even better results in the future! I hope you will like it too!

(click on the photos to enlarge)

Here is a closer look on the girl...

 

and to the right page! I so LOVE this quote!

                

To make this journal page, I initially drew the girl's face with graphite pencil. Then, I colored the background using some stencils to give some pattern to it. I cutted some scap papers with different colors and patterns into small pieces and adhered them to different areas of the page. Then, I used some watered gesso and a brayer to tone down the background. After that, I painted the girl, I sketched and colored the flowers and I wrote the quote with black pen. Finally, I embellished my page using a stars stencil and the butterfly stamp, which I doodled with a black and a white pen.

In this photo you can see the different patterned papers and the small flower drawn on the girl's neck. 

And here is the cute butterfly stamp! You can see all the texture from the paper pieces and the gesso layer, and the background coloring through the stencil.

Well, that was my page for today, I hope you like it! I would be happy to get your comments!

With this art journal page I participate into two great challenges! The Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge "Anything Goes" and the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge "Anything Goes"! I love them both and I'm so happy that this week I have two chances to win their great gift! Keep fingers crossed!

PRODUCTS LIST:

• Prima Finnabair Stencil "Stars"
• Tim Holtz Stencil "Clockwork"
• Inkadinkado clear stamps "Fancy That"
• Lefranc & Bourgeois Gesso
• Dylusions Ink Spray "London Blue"
• Neocolor II watersoluble crayons
• Winsor & Newton Galeria Acrylics (Permanent Magenta, Pale Olive, Cerulean Blue Hue, Pale Terracotta)
• Faber-Castell Broadpen 1554 black pen
• Sharpie white pen
• Brayer