My Little Pocket Sketchbook

I have finally managed to make my little sketchbook which I mentioned in a previous post.

It measures 6"x5" and the cover is made of  watercolour paper which I painted etc. as mentioned in my previous post. I applied a layer of acrylic wax to seal it and bound it with thick black thread which I coated with some Dorland's wax. I did not have any waxed thread (which is ideally used for book binding ) so I thought I would try coating the thread with the wax to see if it helped to stop it from slipping as I tied it and it did seem to make a difference.

For the inside of the cover I decorated a page from a glossy magazine in a similar design and attached it with some gel medium. The paper inside is not watercolour paper but a cheaper heavyweight paper which stands up pretty well to mixed media.

I am looking forward to working in it and will share the completed pages both here on my blog and on The Sketchbook Friends Flickr page.

Thank's for visiting.x

Two Tags

Hi Everyone,

It has been a long time since I have made a tag so I thought I would get out my Brusho Sprays and some paint and have a play. I had no plan in mind I just added some colour to a couple of tags I cut out myself from some card.

I first sprayed some Brusho Sprays to a sheet on my pallette pad and mopped the colours up with the tags.

I then added some acrylic paint with a pallette knife.
After some more layers which included some modelling paste, stamping and some Treasure Gold they ended up looking like this.

I have started to put together my little sketchbook mentioned in a previous post and I hope to share it with you in my next post.

Bye for now. x

Changes

Just wanted let you know that if you are visiting my blog and it looks a bit strange. It is because I decided to try and make some changes to the basic template and as I have previously mentioned I am not very technical and have already made a mess of it by downloading a picture for the header which is too big.  I can't seem to revert back to the original so I am currently trying to re-size the original image so I can try again.

So if you visit and everything looks a bit strange bare with me as I try and get to grips with it.

Wish me luck. x

Hi, I thought I would just share with you a couple of pics of my latest little creation.

I picked up a piece of watercolour paper that was left over when I made my Art Journal 'Hearts and Flowers' and got out some stencils and stamps and this was the result.

This was how it looked at first but I didn't like the heavy circles in  the bottom right hand corner. So I went over them with gesso and before it dried I wiped it off with a baby wipe.

You will notice that it wiped away the little white flowers that you can see in the previous image and now that I look at it again I may add some back in.

This piece measures 6"x10" and folded in half it is a nice size for the cover of a little pocket sketchbook so I think that is what I will use it for.

I want send a big THANK YOU to those of you that have been kind enough to leave such lovely comments. They are very much appreciated.

Bye for now x

Stitch and Distress

Hi,
This week at my textile class we did a little work with tyvek and some sheer fabrics. When the tyvek is exposed to heat it bubbles and distorts which enables you to produce some very unique pieces.

I started off with a piece of tyvek ( in this case it was a piece of a tyvek envelope). I painted it with watered down acrylic paint and then on top of that I layed two layers of organza with some gold metalic fibres sandwiched between. I then machine stitched a random pattern to join them together.

I then used a heatgun to burn away the organza in places and to melt and distort the tyvek and finished off byI adding a piece of gold fabric behind. You can then go on to use the results as either an embelishment for other pieces or it can be a piece of artwork in its own right.

I have done this in the past and forgot how much fun it is and I thought it might be interesting to some of you to see the process so I will come back soon and show you another piece in more detail.

Thank's for visiting. x

Journal Pages 6

Hi,
This is just a quick post today to show the last page in my 'Hearts and Flowers' Journal/Sketchbook. I decided to work on the pages before I finally put it together so all that is left now is to do the binding.

I applied some acrylic paint onto a layer of  newspaper and leftover papers with an old credit card. I applied gesso around the shape of a tulip leaving the layer beneath showing through forming the basis for the tulip.

I applied more gesso to form a boarder and used a woodgrain stamp and a chicken wire stamp to add some detail. (which is not vey noticable in this image). I finished off with a black oil pastel.

I would have liked to share some images of the process but I cancelled them off my camera by mistake.

Hope you like it, bye for now x

It Started with a Mouse Mat.

Hi there,
I just wanted to share with you the end product of what started out as an experiment with a mouse mat.

I have been looking online at peoples mono prints using a Gelli Plate. Unfortunately I don't own one so I had an idea of using a soft mouse mat instead. Let me just say that it was no substitute. Here are the best of the results.

Anyway, afterwards I was left with some paper with leftover paint on  so I decided to do something with it. This is how it looked after I painted on some gesso.

Then after a few more layers of paint and a bit of stenciling it looked like this.

I didn't like it so I covered it with Pan Pastels leaving circles with some of the original design showing.

I started to get a liking for it but  still wasn't sure so after a few more changes using more acrylic, dye based watercolour paints (used for the drips) ,oil pastels and cut out circles from leftover painted papers, this is the final result.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the process. Your comments are very welcome.

Thank you  for visiting x