Traveling Art Journal for May

It’s time for another spread from the Traveling Art Journal project for Canvas Corp Brands. My theme for this month is “Breaking Free” dedicated to all those people struggling with an illness and starting to feel more like their old selves again.  For me that was anaemia and after six months of tiredness and exhaustion I finally feel like I’ve the energy to get out there and do what I want.

Using my Glimmer Glazes from Tattered Angels in my favourite colours, I painted on the colour in patches then used the edge of an old store card to print lines. I splattered a few random dots across the page to add even more movement to the piece.

The little hearts are given a bit of a 3D treatment to fly free from the page.

To see more of this months pages from the other Travelers go to the CCB blog here.

I’ll be back later on in the week with more inspiration.

Jaine xx

Friday In The Studio and A Return Of The Mixed Media

This past year my art Journals have been left on the shelf while I concentrated on other things. I didn’t know how much I missed it until I got involved with a journal project with Canvas Corp called The Traveling Art Journal. Over the course of a year, a group of us are sending out our journals to friends all over the world where they’ll be worked in before being sent on their journey and finally arriving back home to the owners. Along the way it’ll make a fantastic monthly project on the Canvas Corp web site for anyone who wants to follow our progress.

For my journal I chose to make a Travelers Notebook style binding with two simple hand sewn books inside. The pages are watercolour paper so should stand up to most mediums and as the paper was very white and stark, I tea dyed every page to give it a bit more character.

I used, texture paste, inks and stamping to create a background and collaged some papers and images on top. At the time of creating the page, the weather was anything but Springlike so I added the title to reflect how I was feeling while I was working.

These are the tea dyed pages before putting them together  in the journal. I loved how they came out, it made them look so old.

If you want to see how everyone else created their journals and pages then go to the Canvas Corp web site here and follow along monthly to see how it’s going.

Have a good weekend

Jaine xx

A Week In The Studio – Digi Stamp With Craft Stamper

It’s been another busy weekend chez nous and I’m about pooped. I decided last week I’d start going out on my bike throught the forest as much as possible in a bid to get fitter before holiday and doggy. We live in a valley and every way out is up so the first push is tiring on the legs, however I’m pleased to say it’s getting easier and I can now cycle further up the hill before I have to stop which is my big goal and that’s just after a week. Update, I’ve now managed to go the whole way up without stopping once – I’m so chuffed.  I’ll carry on pushing myself every day especially as I can already feel a difference after only a week, and yes that is a jelly seat there.

my bike

I’ve also been madly making jam. It’s been a while since I made jam, in fact last years fruit harvest wasn’t the best and I only managed to squeeze out a couple of jars but this year I felt the urge to stock pile jam until next year so production has been high.

jam

Tomorrow the latest edition of Craft Stamper magazine comes out and while I’m on the subject of bikes I’m really happy to say I’ve a downloadable digital stamp with this months Craft Stamper magazine. I know digital stamps aren’t everyone’s cup of tea but I thought I’d show you a few different papers I’ve printed out my bike onto.

Firstly, I’ve not used a graphics program to print from just opened the image on my computer and chosen the print options. From left to right I’ve reduced the image, repeated it multiple times and printed it onto an already sprayed piece of water colour paper. Then I’ve used clear sticky label sheet, white card, water colour paper, coloured paper, sticky backed brown kraft paper and again multiple times onto plain printer paper.

bike 5a

I cut out the image from a clear sticky label sheet so I could put it on my journal background. If I hadn’t have been so lazy I’d have cut closer to the image so I wouldn’t have got that horrid line around it.

bike2 bike4a

bikea

Details of how you can download my image can be found on page 38 of the Craft Stamper mag.

Jaine x

Messy Monday in the Studio

What a crazy weekend it’s been here. Saturday we visited a balloon festival which was practically on our doorstep. We’ve been to this event before in Luxembourg but that was years ago. As well as the balloon competitions they were holding a fireworks and lazer show in the evening which we definitely didn’t want to miss. It was an amazing spectacle as you can see from these pictures.

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Brilliant night.

Sunday was just as full on but in a totally different way. After years of being nagged by the girls into getting a dog we finally caved in and on Sunday went to look at some gorgeous Australian – Shepherd – Collie puppy’s. It was love at first sight and we were all completely smitten by these little balls of fluff. We did decide on one though and in a little over a month this little ball of fluff will be coming to live with us. Isn’t he adorable?

puppyphoto by Kim Bruchle

I’ve decided he’s going to be my personal trainer so this morning I took my bike out into the forest for an early morning ride. Just to get used to getting up early and going out as I think that’ll be my job.

As it’s Monday it’s back to the studio and I’ve actually opened the journal after many weeks/months.  I’ve missed it but I’ve been too busy to think about painting anything. This background was one which I had already painted ages ago (just goes to show what a great idea it is just to make backgrounds) so I just finished it off with my new Houses in a row stamp and some off cuts of patterned paper.

colour houses

I hope you had a good weekend too?

Jaine x