Digital Comment on yesterday’s circle page …..

I just couldn’t wait to play with yesterday’s circle page, so this morning I started playing! First I created these three 12×12 papers which you can download free by clicking on the link in the right margin.

Not content with that – I then created my own digital scrapbook journal page. I hope you like it 🙂

The circle inserts are taken from pages in my Wreck This Journal Book – Do you recognise them?

Challenge – Use Ordinary Household Objects to ‘Fill This Page With Circles’

I’ve always been a fan of recycled craft projects and using everyday objects in unexpected ways, so when I saw the instruction to ‘Fill this Page with Circles’ I took on the challenge to use ordinary household objects to create these effects.

I started off with a bottle lid, then moved on to a wine cork and its cover. Next I used the cardboard tube from the centre of a roll of tin foil followed by a small roll of electrical tape. Lastly I used the top of an empty jam jar. I’m quite pleased with the finished effect and will probably use the image to create some background papers.

Golden Gel Mediums

I’ve had my eye on them for some time now … coveting them!! Yesterday … I gave in and treated myself to this starter set of Golden Gel Mediums!!

Having waited so long … I just had to have a play, and what better place than on the Draw with Glue page in my ‘Wreck this Journal’ book. I wasn’t too sure how to go about using them, so I tried a few different approaches … but the one I liked best was using an old rub-on stick (like an old fashioned lolly stick but made of plastic) to dob the gels onto the paper and then add some colour in the form of lumiere paint. The scanned image really doesn’t do justice to the amazing textures …

… I just have to keep stroking the page 🙂 I can’t wait to use them on a serious project!

Altered Vans and pencil shavings …..

Altered Vans and pencil shavings are two of my latest experiments ….

The Vans (as in shoes) were on special offer, but I thought they were a bit boring being black and white, so I got my new Sharpies and coloured them in!! Now I can wear them with any outfit as they are all the colours of the rainbow 🙂

On a messier note … I have been glueing random items on these pages for a while now, but the other night when I was emptying my pencil sharpener after shapening all my water colour pencils I wondered what the shavings would look like stuck to this page. This is the result! No only does it look good but it smells good too 🙂 ( I love the smell of pencil shavings!)

Experimental Journal

It’s amazing how in the few short weeks since I acquired this book my perception of it has changed.

It is no longer simply a book I bought from Amazon …. it has become my treasured experimental journal. It has gone from being a pristine empty tome, to a highly colourful extremely tactile piece of art. It still has lots of blank empty pages waiting to be experimented on, but they are slowly disappearing.

I can’t remember the last time I got hold of some pens and just scribbled with them …. but I really must try to do it more often – it’s so liberating!! And it looks good as well 🙂

The left hand page above is the revese of the right hand page below which was made by made by scribbling on texture plates with a pencil (the left hand page below uses wax crayons over the texture plates)

I’m getting quite addicted to cutting holes in pages …. for this hole I used a grungeboard key as the template for the first hole, then made each successive hole a little smaller. I’m quite pleased with the way it came out!

I stuck the cut outs on the facing page.

I still have lots of fun pages to do and some major wrecking processes to try out, so keep watching!!

Smelly Plants, Messy Hands and Gooey Paint!

Smelly plants, messy hands and gooey paint …… mmmm …… now what could I have been up to? …. Yes, you’re right …. I’ve been playing with/destroying my journal over the weekend!

The hot weather has killed most of the weeds wildflowers that normally can be found in my garden, but I managed to find a few, and some lovely variegated leaves. I’m no gardener …. my thumbs are black – not green …. so I have no idea what any of the plants I gathered are called apart from the one at the bottom right corner which is mint …. It’s smelled the whole book out! Any ideas anyone?

Painting my hands is much more my kind of thing …..

…… and dripping and squidging paint …… Yes! Lead me there!! Just one slight problem ….. the paint was soooo thick (even after the squidging) that it didn’t want to dry. So I set the heat gun on it and nearly caught the page on fire!! Even though the paint is now dry … I still have to prise the pages apart as they keep sticking together 🙂

p.s. If you look really closely …. you can see where the paint bubbled and blistered!

Sew a Zentangle!

The minute I saw the instruction to “Sew this page”, I just knew I had to try to sew a zentangle! Check out the Zentangle website for all the info … but simply put it’s a styalised doodle! I’ve been drawing Zentangles for quite a while now (check out my flickr set if you’d like to see what I’ve done) but this is the first time that I’ve tried to sew one! It took a lot longer than a hand drawn one as I had to prick out the design with a pin before I sewed it, but I like how it turned out!

But I wasn’t happy with it as a journal page! So I got out my water colour pencils and coloured the facing page, then gave it a water wash and squished the two pages together to transfer some of the colour. It looked much better, but I still wasn’t completely happy so I added some Webbing spray in gold ….. et voila!!

Most people would leave it there, but once I have an image scanned into my computer … I just can”t resist having a little play!! This is my favourite digital enhancement (I pressed the Invert Button!)

Altered Business Meeting!

Today I took my ‘Wreck This Journal’ book to the Thanet Venture Group’s monthly meeting with a simple request ….” Would they please each do something on the ‘Hang this Journal in a Public Place’ page. I provided lots of coloured marker pens for them to play with and they added some coffee/tea and biscuits. The original intention was for them to complete it during the break, but the book was passed round continually throughout the meeting causing much hilarity and raising some really great issues. It definitely made for an altered business meeting! This is the result 🙂

The book is starting to look really battered now ….

…… but there are still plenty of pages left to have fun with – keep watching this space for further updates!

Take some wax crayons, a foil takeaway container, a pair of tongs …..

Take some wax crayons, a foil takeaway container, a pair of tongs and a sharp knife.

Use the knife to scrape some shavings from one of the wax crayons into the takeaway container (don’t use more than one colour or you’ll end up with a muddy brown colour!). Holding the takeaway container with the tongs, carefully heat the container on the cooker until the wax melts (it only takes a few seconds).

Remove the container from the heat and drip the melted wax onto your paper. Repeat in different colours until you are happy with the result!

The wax has a lovely soft feel to it. I may go back to it later and try scratching a pattern into it 🙂

All This Book Altering and Journal Wrecking …

All this book altering and Journal wrecking is having a profound and very freeing effect on my artistic endeavours. I’ve started this experimental journal …. and the first thing I did was cut a hole in the cover!!

The title I made from recycled magazine images and the flower from an old newspaper. The inside of the cover I created from an old book page crumpled and inked with alcohol inks.

The next page, Learning Curves, I cut the title from a magazine article. The facing page has a torn magazine image and some crumpled inked paper together with an aperture cut to accomodate the butterfly image which I stamped on the waste I cut from the cover of the Journal. [this is recessed within 4 pages]

On the next page I have used a complete newspaper page cut down to fit, then I coloured it with water colour pencils. I gave it a wash with water and shut the book to transfer some of the colour to the facing page.

Although it wasn’t planned, I seem to be documenting my work in this journal … it will be interesting to see how it develops!