Art Journaling Page Debutante!!!

So, she said she wasn't going to do this, didn't she???

But she has gone and started a journal!!!

I know I have been saying I would not start an art journal, but the temptation to play got the better of me, folks!!. This is NOT the first page to be started, it is the second in the book - which I made myself, incidentally, from cut down A3 watercolour paper, and bound using my Bind it All FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME!! Yey!!! Cynthia (aka Rainbow Lady) will tell you I have had that beastie almost as long as I have know her, and NEVER had the gumption, nouse or wit to use it before!!!

 Well this was the page at an intermediate stage - thought I had taken a piccie before this one, but no!! I began by drizzling pink and orange acrylic paint randomly on the page, and smoochy-spreading with an old RAC card!! I then dried it and dribbled a bit more - the paint, not me, you understand!!! The odd red dots you can spy are my fired brick distress stain, which dried with a shine on the acrylic base... very interesting... I also did a little direct to paper with a multicoloured, shiny ink pad...

This shot looks different colours, but it's just the lighting, when the sun's not in my craftly'oom... the difference really is down the centre, where I hated the white join, so I took my inktense pencils and scribbled and washed with a water brush... Then the tearing began. I recently could not resist some oriental papers Dawn was showing - might have been last at QVC - well they are beautiful, but just had to be used - it's ok, she has two other sheets in the pack!!  One is patterned and the other has faint oriental script on it. The stamped script is a true old favourite called plum blossom from Stamp Addicts.

 Next it was even MORE of a wrench to cut into a sheet or two of my Kodomo, 12"x12" papers, bought for me moons ago by my lovely daughter, Miranda... The lady was the main image to use, but I cut up the patterns round her for a "Teecha Moore" border. I also dotted some of the flowers around...

 This is my mantra - "Keep Your Balance" but I am finding it very hard with all that is going on with my mum... so I thought I should remind myself, on my debutante page... oriental is all about balance, so it seemed fitting... I don't yet have any large alpha sets of stamps, so I used my TH die, cut out of black card... I think it works...

 So, here is one of those blousey butterflies, up close and personal... I saw Hels use it a long time ago and HAD to have it - great saleswomanship there, darlin!! - I think it is by Jo Capper Sandon for Stampotique - oh my, there are SOOO many of her stamps I MUST have... I stamped and embossed with black archival and clear ep - well it would be rude not to now, cos she always does folks!!! - then scribbled inside the images with my inktense pencils and Lyra crayons, wonderful for this kind of work... my waterbrush smooched the colour around, making the images pop, but stay strangely semi-transluscent... How could I have refrained from playing like this for so long, silly ole me!!!!!!!

 There are other ickle flutterbies knocking around, and the JCS one here is stamped separately and cut out.
To follow, are some more detail shots showing the collage and stamping, and the JCS butterflies up close again, just cuz!!!

So there you have it - my first ever finished page. I am lovin it actually - and she's not at ALL big-headed folks!! - it's a long time since I did something so purely and blatently oriental, but it is STILL a great GREAT favourite of mine, and what I was originally known for - hence the name and the blog design and music ... which seems to soothe and please a great many people, I am told!!

Well, that was a marathon, but I hope you enjoyed my journey, and will pass a comment, as usual, cos that's what it is all about - sharing and caring... Thanks for looking. I am for my bed now, perchance to sleep, let alone dream!!!

Love and Light

Frankie

xx

I would like to share this at

Stamp Something - anything goes, cos they are closing... :(

Stampman DT Piece - Monochrome +1 "Lost in Time"

Wanted to do something different this time... you know how you sometimes get stuck in the mud, and always seem to make the same sort of thing?? Ok, maybe YOU don't but I do... so I went for my melting pot - inspired by Jennie at The Artistic Stamper, who has made a fabulous melty tag+butterfly, and entered in to TIO... well it IS very RED!!! I used some black UTEE and my faces mould, and poured into these three faces - they are a bit odd looking eh??

 I smooched them with purple Viva Gold paste, to show their features and wrinkles... The background is a mixture of dusty concorde, chipped sapphire and black soot surrounding purple and hemetite Viva, scraped on with an old credit card.. do you know what?? I think she is a little obsessed with this Viva stuff!!!

 The stamps are a mixture of Wendie Rhodes  (@ Kanban Crafts) cogs and gears and Katzelkraft, clocks etc, stamped in black archival and clear ep'ed... well, that's a first, she NEVER does that technique!!

This shot shows my lighting scheme!! I have a couple of daylight lamps and an ordinary light - NO prizes for guessing which side is the latter!!! But I like the play of light on the shiny surfaces... it adds a bit more dimension... ohh get her being all arty then!!

So that's me for tonight.. must get off now and try to sleep!! But why not go over to the Stampman  Challenge blog and see my teamies' work, it's always inspiring, and then join in, cos Jill offers a great £10 voucher to spend for a lucky winner... The theme is monochrome, hence my restricted colour pallette, however, either I boobed - well THAT's nothing new!! or Lisa slightly changed the rules when she wrote it up, cos I did not know it was "white and a colour"... oh well, not making another piece cos I like these guys - perhaps "like" is a bit strong!!!

Thanks for visiting and commenting... I am really grateful for all your wonderful support...
Love and light
Frankie
xx

I shall also enter this into
Try it on Tuesday - monochrome

WOYWW #117 - Seeing Red!! and Ready to Swap

Someone on the wireless this morning, said there are 108 sleeps until ... well you know when!! I can't bring myself to say it... but the way this year is flying, it will be here before we know it!! And whatever happened to the summer???... two weeks today, it's my 66th birthday!!! so I KNOW the year is fleeing.

Not surprising then that another week of WOYWW has come around!!! Visit Julia, the misress of the desks if you are new to this... it's the best blog hop every week!!But to join in, you have to show your shame desk!!! So here's mine, uhggg!!!

 It's a small area you can see and I can actually fit all my bits for the tag on to it... but, to the sides of this bit, it is rather grim!!! The tag is for TIO, chosen by Helen - one of her famous, or infamous colour challenges, to use mostly red... well I DID!! starting with fired brick stain..

 I stamped with an Artemio script clear stamp, and a Stampman stamp, which is a net... one of my first ever from Jill. Next, I took a lovely mask and some wondrously red Viva Inca Gold paste... a palette knife did the trick.

 The script shows very well from under the paste, and some perfect pearls in red. add a wonderful lustre...The paste dries with great texture, which can be smeared with other stuff!!

 LONG time since I made my fab Lynne F roses - do go check out her tutorial - so out came the grunge paper and glue. Umbrella man makes an appearance, minus umbrella!!! Stamped amd ep'ed, I thnk he looks great!!!

So here they are in all their sprayed and smeared glory... so yumminess, thanks, Lynne xx....I seem to have got a lot of texture this time, too...

 Here it is then, all put together... umbrella man sporting a fetching flutterby!!! More of them hover top right corner, with fetching spinner bods!!

 Here is a closer up vision of umbrella / butterfly man, stamped, embossed and smeared with rub 'n buff and Viva Inca Gold...

 I coiled some copper wire and added it like hat pins of a different sort. I love wire, and my coily thingie makes it really easy to work with...

 The ribbon bow is made from dyed seam tape - lurrve that stuff!! - and a letter R for red swings from it...

So that's it for that... it really is VERY red, Helen!!! And so full of texture - you might know that's one of my fave things... I enjoyed this one and look forward to hearing what you all think of it...

Bird Cage Swap News
By now, you should all have received your swap partner!!! cos today is finally THE day, so take some photos and send your cage off to it's lucky recipient!! I have THOROUGHLY enjoyed organising it, and hope you will join me again for another great adventurous challenge, in the not-too-distant future!!! So we shall show and tell next week, by linking our OWN make here...

And Finally...
I offered my followers and commentors a shot at getting my tag book, from the travel set I made with the suitcase... I have done the draw and the lucky recipient is.... tada!!

Helen of Stamping by H...

So let me have your addy babe, so I can send it off to you

Well, that's about all for this week - hurrah I hear you cry!! Have a great week and thanks for coming over again ... please leave me a comment, cos I love to hear what you think... and the more you visit, the higher I jump up the rankings!!!! tee hee (gosh, but I am vain!!!)
Love and Light
Frankie
xx