One for the Boys

It's all things Seth Apter over at The Craft Barn this week. If you don't know his style it is very industrial and loaded with layers and textures. I had very messy fun decorating a Kate Crane Tando planner. Each page has roughly 8 layers of paint and stamping on it!

For step by step details of how to achieve this effect have a look at The Craft Barn blog.

Thank you for stopping by.  xx

Grey Owl

With the first little sprinkle of sleety snow this morning I felt inspired to tackle the Craft Barn's November calendar challenge.  This month the theme is grey and owls which initially I thought would work well with a Kate Crane style Journal Soup approach.  Having got started though I decided to keep it a bit simpler and more muted.

First a generous layer of white with layers of shades of grey (not quite 50).  Then more grey and white through a stencil, with some dry brushing on top to create the feel of a blizzard.

Next edging with Gelatos and Stabilo All pencil, and a little shading to ground the owl.

The owl was cut out of a piece of card painted with darker shades of grey and some stencilling was added.  Wings and feet were added separately and his face drawn on.  'Snow' was added with a piece of crunched up tissue dipped in paint.

Actually I quite like him like that, but that wouldn't really work for a calendar challenge!  I won't stick the calendar on yet and maybe some lucky owl lover might get him as a Christmas card next year!

Wishing you all a warm and cosy weekend xxx

Materials used:

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint: snowflake, elephant, taupe, little black dress

The Crafters Workshop: mini circle explosion

PaperArtsy: PS002

Faber-Castell Gelatos: squid ink, chocolate

Ranger Multi Medium: matte

Stabilo All pencil: black

fine line pen

Gelli plate soup

Hi
On the very last day of my long summer holiday I finally had time to revisit the fabulous Journal Soup 2 tutorials by Kate Crane.   I had an enormous amount of fun getting messy with the Gelli plate and returned to work with paint encrusted fingers and nails.

People who know me will no doubt agree that I can't follow instructions without making my own changes and this was no different!  I chose the option of stamping on tissue paper, not to avoid mistakes, but because it allowed me to paint colour on to the back.  The result is that my creations are probably not as bold as Kate's.  I blended some Stabilo All pencil with water around the images to create a faint shadow.  I also used Fresco Finish Chalk Paint which dries quite quickly and so the background colours are not as blended.  Overall I was fairly pleased with the results and would definitely use the techniques again.

Materials used:

Gelli Plate

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish chalk paints

The Crafters Workshop stencil: mini circle explosion

Stampers Anonymous: stuff to say

PaperArtsy: EDY05

Pam Carriker stamp: Ophelia

Katzelkraft: KTZ118, Chatool KTZ63

Kaisercraft Clear Stamps: edges, film edges

black and white gel pen, Stabilo All pencil

The music of her dreams

Hi there
At last the chance for a whole day of peace and quiet and time to try out the next tutorial in Journal Soup 2 by Kate Crane.  Part 4 is about drawing and painting whimsical figures.  As anyone whose courses I've been on will know I'm not very good at sticking to the instructions, but I did my best this time, even going with the pink patches under the eyelashes.  I did deviate though, from arms holding a cup of tea, to arms waving in the air.

Materials used:

Gesso

Paper Artsy Fresco Finish paints: chalk, jade, amethyst, orchid, haystack, chocolate pudding, little black dress

Spectrum Noir pencils: 033, 034, 096

Faber-Castell Gelatos: coconut, passion fruit, metallic mint, banana

Stabilo All pencil

Signo Uniball white gel pen

Letraset fine line drawing pen

All the things I try to be

Six weeks after my first Journal Soup 2 online tutorial I decided it was time to try another one.  In Part 3 All the things I try to be, Kate Crane's video gently guides you through the steps to create a journal card with a whimsical face.  As a first attempt I'm fairly happy and have a few ideas of what I could do differently next time...

Materials used:

gesso

PaperArtsy Fresco Finish paint: little black dress, snowflake, mermaid, 

Bora Bora, London bus, limelight

Spectrum Noir pencils: 24, 29, 33, 34, 65, 66

Faber-Castell Gelatos: cherry red, margarita mix, cotton candy, acqua dolce, snow cone, blueberry

Hero Arts stamp: life of the party dots

Meli-Melo stamps

Ranger Multi Medium, Matte

Stabilo All pencil

white paint marker

washi tape