Public/Private Double Page Spread

I came across the mugshot of Frank Sinatra and it made me think of the sides of our personalities which we show/hide. My usual combo of paint background and collage.

Watercolour Poppies Page

During some freezing cold days last week, I was really longing for the summer to hurry up and arrive!

I did some loose paintings of poppies a while ago using watercolour paint and watersoluble pencils, so I cut one down to journal-page size. I didn't want to risk making a mess of writing on the picture, so an acetate overlay seemed a good solution. I like the simple summery feel.

Back to Art Journalling After a Long Break...

Well, I'm back again, after another of my mysterious six-month disappearances, and I've been sketching and journalling and making collages for a week or so now. My creative mojo is gathering pace, I've got loads of ideas, and I'm enjoying getting my hands dirty and making art again.

The pages I've made this last week have been quite personal, and one even has several sentences of journalling (which is a lot for me!)

I am getting tired of my beloved turquoise, so orange has recently taken over as my favourite colour. This is a simple collaged page with a watercolour background.

Night-time Art Journalling

I am going through one of my phases of irregular sleep at the moment, so I've been getting up in the early hours and working on my art journal pages in the quiet of the night. I started this page at about 3.30am on Thursday morning. I actually felt fresh and inspired at the time, but the tiredness always hits the next day.

Soldier ATCs

Haven't done any ATCs for a long while so took a break from the art journals to make this simple trio. I did make more than three but I didn't like the busier/fussier ones.

Week-at-a-Glance Journal Page Spread

I don't normally write that much on my pages so I'm trying a bit of a diary-type approach for a change. I chose just one thing from each day that I did/saw/felt/noticed. There wasn't much room left for any images so I just stamped and doodled a bit (well, a lot). Very different from my usual style, where the focus is always an image or two.

Step-by-Step Journal Page (for J)

Had a request for a step-by-step tutorial, so here we go... (Here's the finished page...obviously!)

Ingredients: Paints (I used liquid acrylics this time), lacepaper for stencil, handmade and patterned papers, alpha stamp set, watersoluble crayons, pablo pencils, fancy trim. (Oh, and grubby kitchen towel - that's crucial! Sorry - I should have tidied up before taking photos!)

I started with a patchy turquoise wash, then used a darker colour to stencil and outline the page.


The stencilled pattern didn't really match the image though, so I used gesso to tone it down to almost nothing, then added the collage elements, including stamped journalling. I stamped onto mulberry paper, which goes semi-transparent if you use wet glue to adhere it, so it blends into the background colours.



I brought it all together using watersoluble crayons and pablo pencils to scribble around and over everything, to create that scrappy/arty look. The final touch was a bit of turquoise trim, to add dimension and texture (and just because I really like it!)

You need to scroll back up now to see the finished page (seemed a bit pointless to post the picture twice).