Get Artsy Week 4 - Fiber Paste

This was such a fun technique, using the fiber paste leaves a texture like handmade paper.  I began by adding the paste through stencils then covered a texture plate with the paste to see how that came out,, I had to be patient and wait for it to dry which was not easy!  It worked great, it peeled of the plate easily and I wondered how it would work through a die cutter, I used the Tim Holtz doily die cut and it worked fine.

When the textured papers were dry they were cut into squares and rectangles and placed around my photographs.  I used water colours to colour them.  I placed the doilies each side to balance the page.

Need to catch up with weeks 5 and 6 now!

Week 4 of Get Artsy and Sadness

This has been a sad time for us, our lovely old puss cat babies have died, Tabby, the star at the top of my blog died last week, They had lived with us for 13 years and we miss them loads, his sister Tara died in January so at least they are now together.





I also had some spinal surgery on Tuesday so catching up with my online class has taken a bit of a back seat.  I got myself motivated today to get it done and I am really happy with the results.

Week 4 of my Get Artsy class was Fiber Paste, which gives the effect of handmade paper.  Using various stencils I applied the fiber paste to water colour paper.  When it was dry these were cut into small blocks to arrange around the photographs.  The blocks were then coloured with Gelatos, Distress Stains, crayons and inks. I also spread some of the paste over a texture plate to see how that would come out.  I had to be patient and wait for it to dry (something I an not always good at!!) which paid off as it came out really well.  I  then put it through a doily die cut.  It was coloured with Gelatos and India Ink.

Fiber Paste on a texture plate then put through a die cutter.

The Fiber Paste through the stencil

Have to watch week 5 video now!  I think we are onto water colours.

Get Artsy

I couple of weeks ago I signed up for a class at Big Picture Classes called Get Artsy, a mixed media class with Mou Saha, each week we cover a different technique using a different medium.  Mou has some great ideas and I love her style.

The first week we used gesso, the technique was to paint a thin layer of gesso over the page, the scribble over with gelatos, dry blend with a make up sponge then lay a stencil over.  Using a baby wipe over the stencil takes the colour off which leaves a great background.

The second week we used soft Gel Medium as a resist, I drew a title very lightly then painted over with gel medium, I also used a cat stencil.  When the gel is dry watercolours are painted over then wiped away, the gel forms the resist.  We also used the gel medium to collage papers around the photo.

Using the soft gel medium on black card

and on white card

The third week has been working with Modelling Paste. Using stencils and embedded die cuts to give texture, again painting over with watercolours gives a lovely mottled effect.

A close up of the modelling paste

Looking forward to this week using Fiber paste.

Kate Crane Art Journal Day

For my Birthday this year my Sister in Law took me to The Stamp Attic for a day with the lovely Kate Crane.  The class was "Drawing in your Journal", everyone can draw, I guess I just need more practice!

We started the day with a few drawing techniques, sketching without looking, then drawing the person opposite you, sorry Alexa!  We tried drawing the person opposite with your non dominant hand, surprisingly my left hand drawing was better than my right!

For the journal pages I drew a funny bunny character and some houses, the first journal page was painted with acrylic paint then used stencils and bottle tops to add textures.  The second page we used the Dylusions spray inks with stamping over.  I still need to finish them off but here is the work in progress: -

My Bunny Page

Close up of the Bunny

Houses on the inked page

House close up

Inked page

Here are a couple of photo's Kate took of me busy spraying and all the ladies on the day.

Whilst I was browsing in The Stamp Attic (as you do!) I spotted this really cute paper by Prima so just had to buy a couple of sheets and made this page of Mark and I in Kefalonia last year.

Back to Life!!!

Anyone who knows me will know that I have been having another battle with the big C, just after my last post I became quite ill with back pains and lots of sickness which was eventually diagnosed in late October.  The breast cancer had returned in my spine.  But thankfully after 15 weeks of chemotherapy and Herceptin it is now inactive.  During that time I didn't do any crafting, my mojo had been lost!

In February I decided it was time to get back to it, Linda from Just Scrapbooking was holding an Art Journal day class in Stevenage, as I was feeling well we made a weekend of it and drove up on the Friday, stayed in a Travel Lodge for the bargain price of £19 (no expense spared!!), had a lovely dinner in the local pub with my friend Alexa who was also attending the class.

It was great to be playing with paints and inks again, we made a journal with various types of papers and hard covers, the book was bound with hand stitching.  The front is covered with torn book paper which has been slightly rolled at the edges then covered with beeswax.

Here are a few of the pages.

The Front Cover (not yet finished)