Hello everyone!
Welcome back to another blog post, this time for Day 20 of the Blog Along with Effy (details below). Today’s post is another art journal post as I made some Wanderlust inspired pages over the weekend. This is Kate Crane’s lesson from Week 15 and still in the silhouette theme. I’ve been jumping back and forth with lessons and managed to do three different classes, just not in the right order lol. I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I am doing FOUR year-long classes this year and I am of course, behind with all of them, and then I decide to do more things like the 100 Day Project, Sketchbook Revival and of course this blog along haha!
Anyway, this class involved making pages using a gel plate or a brayer if you didn’t have a gel plate. As I ended up making three pages in total I decided to split them into two posts, one for the gel printed pages and one for the brayered page. This is a class lesson so I am only sharing a few photos to show colours and some of the choices I made and then the finished page. I did start with the gel plate pages first but I’m posting about the brayered page first just to confuse things!
The journal I use for Wanderlust is the small one that I made from 12.5 x 9.5 inch cold pressed watercolour paper, so that is the size of the double page spread you see below.
I love making brayered pages, it’s so fun to do. You can see more examples of brayered pages I’ve made previously Haiku Kitty, Wild Nature Love, Toilet Paper Tube Tag Book and Handmade Art Journal.
We are in the silhouette theme and were adding cutouts and windows. My windows appear on the other pages but I was pretty determined to make it work having a window on this page lol. This is a good example of what not to do – don’t try to force it – I wasted a lot of time trying to squeeze a round window on a square page haha. Here’s a photo I took while I was losing my mind with the round window shapes I cut out
It was clear I needed to step back and regroup. I do NOT need a window! Remember back on Day 12 when I was colour co-ordinating all my saved bits and pieces? Well I had all these lovely but unloved diecuts that were just asking to be turned into black silhouette shapes! These are all leftovers from past projects and all cut with my Big Shot at one time or other. I hate waste, so they were all saved in a big box just waiting for a chance to be made useful!
So I painted all of them with Little Black Dress fresco paint.
Now I had a ton of black silhouette shapes to choose from for this page and guess what, I still tried to squeeze a window on there hahaha. I need a support group!
After convincing myself I really did not need a window, I played around a bit more with some of the newly black painted shapes. I didn’t mind that and I could see that it was starting to look like something but the butterflies were wrong so I swapped them out for the other kind and played around some more…
Until finally, we had a finished page! I like how the leaves and the butterflies look like they are revolving around the flowers. I guess my brain really did like something about that round window shape after all lol.
I finished it off with some Tim Holtz stickers in black.
This quote just jumped out at me last night as I’ve been dreaming a lot of about living somewhere else but feel a bit stuck for various reasons, so I all I do is look at houses online and dream…
Coming soon is part II which has the gel printed pages and a window! But also I worked on more ATC book covers for #the100project today so if I finish those soon, they might be next! Spoiled for choice really lol.
Let me know what you think in the comments, and as always, thanks for reading!
Challenges
Blog Along with Effy – Day 20
Links to all the days of the April blog along
April 1st – Day 1 – You don’t have to be perfect to be amazing
April 2nd – Day 2 – Cat hammocks and sneak peeks
April 3rd – Day 3 – Favourite Children’s Books
April 4th – Day 4 – Green Crochet Socks Story
April 5th – Day 5 – A Short Family History of Scones
April 6th – Day 6 – Happy Tartan Day
April 7th – Day 7 The Unbearable Lightness of Old Wallpaper
April 8th – Day 8 Off with their heads my Queen
April 9th – Day 9 – Andy Warhol Cat
April 10th – Day 10 – Tiny Book Covers WIP
April 11th – Day 11 – Happy National Pet Day
April 12th – Day 12 – Collage Fodder, Recycling, Stealing from Kittens
April 13th – Day 13 – Company of Liars ATC Book Cover
April 14th – Day 14 – This is What Happens when you Make all the Things
April 15th – Day 15 – A Short History of Blogging, Tips, Tricks, AMA
April 16th – Day 16 – I just want to drink tea, pet cats and read books
April 17th – Day 17 – You can never have too many cats
April 18th – Day 18 – Days 61-70 of #the100DayProject 2021 – Book Quotes on ATCs
April 19th – Day 19 – They Were A Thing of Strange Wild Edged Beauty
April 20th – Day 20 – today!
This month I decided to join in with Effy Wild’s blog along – 30 posts in 30 days and hope I can think if enough things to say. every. day. I’ll do my best to keep up. The idea is to blog every day (obvs) but also to comment on other people’s blogs to keep the conversation going. There is a facebook group where you can link your posts and find other people’s to go visit and comment. During April you can find all the Blog Along posts linked on my home page for convenience. If you leave a comment, I’ll be sure to return the favour!
Art Journal Journey – Inspired By… April Challenge – This is my third page entered for this month’s challenge. This page is inspired by the Wanderlust lesson but also by all the little unloved diecuts that were in my stash and asking to be made useful and not discarded. I was really pleased to have made these little diecuts useful again by painting them black. I try to recycle as much as possible, plus Earth Day is coming up soon so I’m trying extra hard to do more this month.
I actually realised it’s Tuesday and so I am also joining in with T Stands for Tuesday. I always forget what day it is until it’s too late and suddenly Wednesday lol.
Here is an ATC of a little cat holding a cup of steaming tea, maybe she is a helper kitty and the cup of tea is for me [icon name=”cat” style=”solid” class=”” unprefixed_class=””][icon name=”mug-hot” style=”solid” class=”” unprefixed_class=””]. Can you see the white wisps of steam coming off the cup? You can see the whole post, process and closer looks by visiting the post – I just want to drink tea, pet cats, and read books.
What’s better to go with a cup of tea than a great big scone with strawberry jam! This photo comes from the Short Family History of Scones post I wrote recently as part of the blog along with Effy, and includes more photos of scones and my recipe so you can make your own giant scones!
Ingredients
homemade art journal, paints, stencils, more paints, diecuts, stickers etc
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I really enjoyed this lesson and it looks as though you did too! Great result. Your scone looks DEEElicious, Happy T Day, Chrisxx
The giant scone looks WONDERFUL! Love the kitty ATC, and your journal pages came out wonderful. Cool background and your choices were the best ones – how fun to see how you got there. Lovely work, but the scones win. I may have to try them – thanks for sharing, Elle. Hugz
Whoa, you do have a lot on your plate, no wonder you’re behind in them all LOL I’m exceedingly jealous! I love doing all the arty lessons but alas, uni is taking up all my time these days. I love your spreads. I seriously love silhouettes and your spreads are so well composed. Beautiful.
Such beautiful artwork! I love the bright coloured backgrounds with those silhouette die cuts – amazing ?. Happy T Day wishes! Hugs, Jo x
*wow* is that magnificent!!!The background is beautifully thought out, the colors and shapes.
Hug Elke
I love how you took us through your thought process on that latest spread. I was waiting to see how you created the window, and soon you decided you didn’t need one. Still, I loved the background and the finished project. I’m also delighted you once again shared a lovely journal entry with us at Art Journal Journey.
I also love your drawing of your cat drinking tea (or at least holding it). It’s a beautiful entry and I also want to pet cats, drink tea, but I need to make art instead of reading books. I am now hungry for a scone, especially since I’ve never had one I didn’t make myself. Thanks for sharing your incredible art, Elle, along with your tea and scones with us for T this Tuesday. SO glad you were able to remember to join us this week.
Wow I love seeing how you create. Wonderful pages. Definitely try the scones. Have a nice day.
Your black pieces on the colorful background make the whole page pop. I love that delicate butterfly die cut. Who makes that one? I’d really love to have it. I keep my rejected thoughts in a small box. I hope it stays a small box. I quite often try to use what’s in it and invariably end up adding to it instead. So fun reading how you worked out your page. I too also get an idea of something I want on the page even getting to where I need a hammer to force it to fit! The page is always in control…will I never learn. Your window insist is like that and made me chuckling thinking of myself doing that. Your page is so pleasing to look at.
Delightful journal pages and I enjoyed watching your process. Had to laugh about trying to get the round window on the page. I like the way the black silhouettes make the colors pop. Cute kitty ATC and the scone is a bit of heaven. Happy T Day
I love seeing ATCs, having dabbled a bit with them a while ago. I like yours 🙂 I’ll take you up on your scone, thank you 🙂 I’ll have to learn to make those one of these days. Happy T Tuesday!