Art Journal Journey - Ducks

 Again this is a page in my Pan Pastel Journal but this time I used a stencil with my pastels.  I am sorry but the stencil is one I have had in my stash for quite some time and so I have no idea who made it.  I chose this one as it reminded me of a pond where you might find ducks swimming happily on with some greenery surrounding it.

I have no idea what the ducks actually are but no doubt someone can tell me.  They came from my stash of magazine cut out pictures but they are obviously different species.

This brings my time as Guest Host with Art Journal Journey to a close and I hope that you have found this theme, "It Must Have Wings", exciting to take part in and derived as much enjoyment from it as I have in making so many pages.  I would like to thank all of you who have entered into the challenge, it has been a joy to see so many of you bring 'wings' into your work in so many different ways and I have enjoyed looking into how you arrived at your final pictures and commenting on my thoughts on your work.  I hope I did not sound like a teacher but someone who enjoyed art as much as you all do.  I can get carried away commenting lol.

Finally thanks to Elizabeth, Erika and Mia for trusting me with their blog for a month, it has been hard work, but pleasurable and getting most of my work ready well in advance meant I created lots - and derived so much pleasure from doing it.  So many many thanks to the moderators, your work with bringing Art Journal Journey to us is much appreciated.

Art Journal Journey - Mona's Scene

 This is my penultimate piece for Art Journal Journey where my theme is "it must have wings" and was a copy of a piece made by one of the Designers for Lavinia Stamps I made short time ago.  Mona is from Norway and creates very intricate and beautiful pieces.  I fell in love with this and decided that I just had to try it out, so, carefully watching her video I worked at it, step by step and although it is nowhere near as good as Mona's I am well pleased with it.  Mona uses lots of masking fluid in her work so I was reintroduced to it when making this page lol.

This one features the beautiful hummingbird along with Lumus the fairy and some tiny bumblebees and with various floral stamps.  As usual I used Elements inks for the background and Versafine Clair Nocturne for stamping.  Colouring of the flowers and wings was done with Inktense pencils. So here we have a hummingbird, a fairy and some bees all with wings which fulfils the challenge "It Must Have Wings" for Art Journal Journey this month.  

Today would have been my mum's birthday, she never got to see my stamping but I am sure she would have liked this one.  Happy Heavenly Birthday Mum. 

Jeudi Journal - Happiness

 Today Wendy gave me the quote "Happiness is a habit - cultivate it" to work with.   This challenge is also for Art Journal Journey where the challenge is "It Must Have Wings" and so I have to include wings on my page somewhere along with Dylusion figures which is part of the challenge that Wendy and I have set ourselves. eg it must have a quote one of us finds, it must have a figure of some kind from the Dylusion range of rubber stamps and it must fit in with the challenge at Art Journal Journey.  Thank goodness chooks have wings.

"Clara Cluck and Henrietta Hen were best friends in the farm yard.  'A couple of busybodies' were how they were known by all the other animals in the farmyard. Always good for a bit of gossip Clara kept her beak to the ground most of the time and knew all that was going on, not only in her farmyard but also in all farms in the County.

"Clarissa Cow over at Johnston's Farm has had a big falling out with Billy the Bull.  She accused him of having an affair with her friend Buttercup" she said to a wide audience at the farmyard.  Dilly Duck' s beak fell open at this news and she said she simply did not believe it.  Whereas Charlotte Chicken's eyes widened so much that she looked as if she was going to burst.

Just as Clara was going to continue with her story Camilla Cow came around the corner and said in her usual loud voice "That's a lie, where is your proof.  In fact where is the proof in all the stories you and Henrietta spread around the farmyard?"

"It's not a lie" squeaked Clara nervously, for nobody challenged Camilla, "I got it on good authority from my cousin Deirdre."

"You know what", bellowed Camilla, Happiness is a habit - cultivate it.  That would be much better for you and your friend over there than all this gossip you seem to thrive on.  I suppose your cousin Deirdre, like you did not come from a box of Happy Eggs at Asda."

(For those who are not familiar with egg sales in the UK, Happy Eggs is a brand that is sold in Asda supermarkets over here.)

Art Journal Journey - A Leggy Bird

 No it isn't a top model with wings, it's a bird with wings - and long legs.  This is an image by  Stampotique from way way back.  I never bought the stamp myself as I had a friend who was happy to stamp some images for me to use.  I think Stampotique is now a brand sold under the name of Katzelkraft.

To begin with I used an existing background which I had made by using metallic sprays.  I just wish you could see the sheen and sparkle on this page.  Can you just about see the tiny border at the base of the page - it is a piece of card I found on my desk, no idea where it came from but I liked it.  Maybe orange and pink are jarring but somehow it works.

I decided to add a large flower to work with the long legs of the bird which I coloured with Inktense Pencils.  A long stem would not have worked so a large head on the flower to my mind works far better and the words 'Beautiful Summer Days are Fun' are certainly so true.  To finish off the page I added a diecut feather which was one of many, I was given years ago.  I wonder if it was one of her tail feathers?

Well, it is almost the end of the month and there are still some pages to show you at Art Journal Journey with my theme whilst being guest host, "It Must Have Wings".  I wonder if you have something you could show us.  I'd love to see it.

WOYWW 834

Well, I haven't done much crafting but I have done a change of direction thanks to Angela (Felix) and today, on my desk is a little mushroom.  I've wanted to do some needle-felting and make a figure for such a long time but gave up as I never followed the instructions properly and ended up with a MESS!

Then I saw a Fly Agaric mushroom that Angela had made and I loved it.  Bless her, she offered to show me how to make one at the Crop this year.  Unfortunately the Crop didn't happen and so my mushroom session didn't  either.  Then I saw an online workshop and guess what they were making - Fly Agaric's.  Turned out it was the same workshop Angela had done and I joined and on Monday we made this little mushroom, or shroom as I like to call them.

Today we are going to make a picture of the same shroom so I will show you that next week and maybe, just maybe, a more perfect little Fly Agaric - I want to make a tiny one.  Can you see the kind of line just below the cap?  This is called the volva (I think) and is the veil that the mushroom has over it as it is growing and as it grows the veil leaves behind the white spots.  Did I get that right Angela?  (I never knew that before and I have never ever seen one in real life.)

Last week I showed you what I had made at a workshop in Cumbria, here are the first couple of pages finished off and now in the book followed by another two pages.

That's me for this week, now to my workshop - well, get ready for it and have a nice hot shower first.  Then later today I'll be over to see Sarah's Craft Shed and see what everyone has been up to.

Art Journal Journey - She Has Wings

 This is one of my favourite stamps from Aal & Create.  In fact the figure was a favourite of lots of crafters when it was first brought out and I can remember people using it in many different ways.  Today I am using two of Aal & Create's images to make a journal page in my square journal for Art Journal Journey's challenge, 'It Must Have Wings'.

She did not have wings but I thought the wings from Pink Ink Designs "Bee-utiful" worked quite well with her and the words below.

I stamped the magnifying glass image first of all with Versafine Nocturne and then stamped her so she just fit inside.  Her wings were stamped separately and covered in Stickles Ice to give them some sparkle.  The remaining images on the page were coloured with Prismacolor coloured pencils.

It is nearing the end of the month of May but there is still time for you to enter my challenge at AJJ, I would love to see your entry there.  Remember to read the dreaded rules as to what is accepted eg no cards, tags, index cards, ATC's or coins unless they are part of a journal page. 

Art Journal Journey - Sorry

Don't lnow what went wrong with Saturday's blog post but I was sick - had eaten something which diod not agree with me and so I suffered all weekend with an upset tummy.  Only found out early Monday morning that my post didn't show properly.  Sorry - trying again:

This is a picture I made with what, at the time, were my favourite little characters, the Herbalums.  I just adore them and thought I would do a page using them busy gardening.  

I began by stamping the Tree of Courage and the Tree of Hope to frame the picture in Versafine Claire Nocturne.  Next came the bench and then the three Herbalums, masking out the watering can that Ben was originally holding and making it appear he was holding the top of the bench, whilst he debated where to put the plant he was now holding in his other hand,  The other two Herbalums, Baz and Bob came next followed by flowers etc at the base of the picture.  

Then it was time to make a sky and ground using Elements inks Della Blue and Avocado.  Finally a pastel pencil to create a more solid look to the trees and rocks and it was complete,  Because it was created for Art Journal Journey we needed some wings so I put three butterflies in the sky which I fussy cut out after colouring.

I hope you like my page and join us at Art Journal Journey with your interpretation of something that has wings.