Creative Process Ramblings On The Craft Stamper Blog

Hey guys how was your weekend? If you were lucky enough to have a long weekend with the Easter bank holidays I hope you enjoyed it and got up to lots of arty, crafty, chocolatey fun. 

I actually didn't do anything arty or crafty or in the end chocolatey either! What is that about? But we did have a lovely weekend with some catching up with friends and eating a lovely polenta cake that David made - mmmm....cake....You can take a peek at the cake over on David's twitter feed if you like! There is only one piece left and that is all mine to have with my afternoon tea after I have been a good girl and done lots of work of course!

So talking about work have you spotted that I have a guest blog piece on the Craft Stamper Blog? 

If you cast you mind back to my Art Journal Sharing Thursday post from the middle of February you might remember the art journaling I did as the basis for my Spoon Angel article for the March issue of Craft Stamper? Well I've expanded on this post and talked more about my creative process for the article and if you are interested then you can pop on over to the Craft Stamper blog to take a look.

Right, better get on and do some work to earn my piece of polenta cake for tea!

Catch you later artinators.

Kim

Art Journal Sharing Thursday - Waiting For News

I have a painty Art Journal double page today for my Art Journal Sharing Thursday, but I'm not 100% sure that it is finished. You can see it as it is but I might add to it at a later date, we shall see. If I let it sit for a bit then perhaps something will talk to me.

Anyway have a peek and see what you think, I've called it 'Waiting For News'

I'm working in my A5 Flier re-purposed journal and I started with some gesso for this one. The page already had some ink from a couple of Archival ink pads on it from an earlier experiment and I added some texture with Gesso through a mask to give the peacock feather in the centre of the double page.

I added some magenta acrylic paint then a glaze of blue followed by some gold paint in places for a bit of shine and contrast. Final touches from a coffee Archival ink pad and some brown paint.

The old photo is one from my collection of old photos and postcards and I just love her wistful look to the camera, the white dress gives a haunted look don't you think? She does look as if she is waiting for news, well that is how I feel today as I am also waiting for some moving house news which might be why the title jumped out at me!

So that is my share today, feel free to put some links to your art journals makes this week in the comments and I will pop on over.

Thanks for dropping in.

Catch you later Journalators.

Kim

Art Journal Sharing Thursday - Taking Time

Do you find that you have a strange relationship with time? I know that I have, really weird. Take this week for instance, it just vanished, one minute it was Monday then I blinked and suddenly I'm here at my Art Journal Sharing Thursday post. 

I wasn't sure what I was going to post today, I haven't done any art journaling this week, I've been finishing articles instead. I have lots and lots of unfinished art journal pages that are waiting for some inspiration but I wanted a complete page for my share today.

So this morning I made this page in my 12 x 12 Kraft journal.

I do love kraft with white and lettering! The page already had some gesso splodges and some tiny ink splatters too. I added the doily scrap and journaling card.

There is a stream of continuous writing of whatever was in my head at the time and I stuck the journaling card over the top. The card is actually one of the Becky Higgins Project Life Ledger cards, I *love* these cards, been using them in loads of things! So useful!

There was some other texture already on this page from a previous project. I had pressed a gesso-covered fly swot into the page at some point but it works so well with the journaling card don't you think?

The final adds where the sentiment 'taking time' written on the journaling card and the flower cut from canvas and decorated with some stencilling that I must have done a while back for something as it has been hanging around my untidy desk for ages. 

Time waits for no woman and I have some writing to do before starting on some more projects.

Thanks for popping by and do feel free to share you art journaling makes with a link in the comments box, I would love to see what you have been up to this week.

Have fun journalators.

Kim

Art Journal Sharing Thursday - Marrakech Sketching

Hey guys, my Art Journal Sharing Thursday this week is a travel sketching work in progress and a shameless excuse to share some travel photos from our recent amazing trip to Marrakech. Only a couple of photos, mind you, if I posted them all you would be reading this post for days!

Some of you might remember that last year I took part in a blog competition run by Cox & Kings. 

[My competition entry - a handmade sketch book]

The prize was a two night stay in the Mosaic Palais Aziza in Marrakech and much to my complete and utter amazement I won and we took the trip a couple of weekends ago in March.

Obviously we took a lot of photos, I mean A LOT of photos and as I didn't really get an awful lot of time to do a lot of sketching, we were just too busy sightseeing, I've printed some of the photos out to use as source materials for some sketching studies that I want to do.

I plan to fill up the sketch book I made for the competition (the first photo in this post) with sketches and memorabilia from the trip. So it will be a sketch / scrap / journal book for our weekend in Marrakech. At the moment the book is with the other competition pieces on display at the Cox & King Headquarters. But once it is back I will set about filling it up.

I'm a bit of an architecture freak and love all the windows and doors. The fine details and decorations are just so stunning and complex to sketch out, especially for a novice sketcher like myself so I'm looking forward to filling the book with all these details, plus perhaps a selfie or two of us...

and of course some pictures of markets, I mean you can not go to Marrakech without some market pictures...

Then there are the tiles, seeing as it was my love of the tiles that got us there in the first place...

Oh and did I mention the markets?

With all the sightseeing and shopping all that is left is a relaxing cup of tea by the pool back in the oasis of the Mosaic Palais Aziza hotel.

We loved every minute, massive thank you once again to Cox & Kings, the Mosaic Palais Aziza hotel and my fellow artists (Vandy Massey, Jenny Keal, Concetta Perôt and Alan Reed). 

And to you guys for popping in today to share my Art Journal Sharing Thursday project this week. Let me know if you have any art journal pages you want to share too, I would love to see them.

Kim

Art Journal Sharing Thursday - Simple Design

Happy Art Journal Sharing Thursday everyone! I have a very simple art journal page design to share today and again it is one of those happenstance pages. This is actually an old page I did back in 2012 sometime, I'm not entirely sure when but it follows on from a page I made for Kuretake back when I was DTing for them using SCACD Susana Loves Stamp Blank Canvas stamps.

This page doesn't use any stamps but it does use the inky impression left over from a pressing of the Kuretake Art and Graphic twin pen covered stencil I was using for the original page (which you can see on the original blog post from 2012 if you are interested).

All that lovely vivid ink could not go to waste now could it? I'm working in yet another one of my art journals, I did warn you I had several on the go didn't I? This one is a 12 x 12 scrapbook that I found on sale in Paperchase. It is a soft back book made up of very thin kraft paper and I sometimes stick two pages together to make them more sturdy. 

I did that here for this page but not too carefully as you can see. All that ruffled texture is from the pages quickly stuck together, it makes a rather interesting surface to work on.

I used a dip pen and ink for the mark making and the sentiment says 'make it count', I'm not really sure why I felt that was a good sentiment at the time but that is the fun of art journaling isn't it?

Thanks for popping in and please do share any of your journaling makes you have on your blog this week, I would love to see them.

Have a creative Thursday.

Kim

Art Journal Sharing Thursday - Acrylic Gel Skins

This Art Journal Sharing Thursday is all about experimentation. One of my favourite mediums in Acrylics, I've loved them for many years now and I love experimenting and playing with them. So I've been doing a bit of reading and a bit of play and a great place to collect the results is my art journal.


[There are some affiliate links in this blog post, so if you buy through them I do get a small amount of money at no extra cost to yourself. Thanks for your support!]

Reading List: 
New Acrylics Essential Sourcebook Paperback by Rheni Tauchid
The New Acrylics: Complete Guide to the New Generation of Acrylic Paints by Rheni Tauchid
Acrylic Illuminations: Reflective and Luminous Acrylic Painting Techniques by Nancy Reyner
Rethinking Acrylic: Radical Solutions for Exploiting the World's Most Versatile Medium by Patti Brady
Acrylic Revolution: New Tricks and Techniques for Working with the World's Most Versatile Medium by Nancy Reyner


 Get To Know Acrylic Gel Skins

I'm kind of obsessed with gel skins at the moment. Acrylic Gel Skins are all about spreading out a layer of acrylic gel or medium onto a non-porous surface. Once the layer is dry you can peel the gel off the surface and you have a gel skin. 

I've got a range of various different types of gels and mediums from acrylic grounds for pastels to iridescent gels for adding sparkle and dimension to paints. You can also use paints to make gel skins as well, either mixed with a medium/ gels, pastes or on their own and then there are all those texture embossing pastes that you can use as well.

Acrylic Gels, Mediums, Pastes, Paints Tested:
Winsor and Newton Galeria Iridescent Medium
Golden Light Molding Paste
Golden Hard Molding Paste
Golden Molding Paste
Golden Clear Tar
Golden Absorbent Grounds (white)
Golden Grounds For Pastels
Golden Regular Gel (gloss)
Golden Soft Gel (matte)
Golden Polymer Medium (gloss)
Golden Interference Blue
Cosmic Shimmer Glitter paste

Setting Up The Acrylic Gel Skin Experiments

My aim for this experiment was to see how all the different acrylic gels and mediums that I've been collecting over the last few years work as a gel skin on their own, mixed with colour and stamped on. 

For my non-porous surface I used a wooden board covered with a plastic bag (you can see it in the photo above, it is my working surface for messing things at the moment). I spread a thin layer of each gel or medium with a palette knife, added a bit of Golden fluid paint for colour to part of the layer and a paper label so I could remember which layer was which.

(Left to right Top three: Winsor and Newton Galeria Iridescent Medium; Golden Light Molding Paste; Golden Hard Molding Paste. Bottom Three: Golden Clear Tar; Golden Absorbent Grounds (white); Golden Regular Gel (gloss))

Once the layers were dry I stamped an image over the top, the red bee is stamped with Tsukineko StazOn and the black is stamped with Ranger Archival ink. I then peeled off the layer and glued it with a spot of regular gel into my art journal. Some of the gel skins are very sticky on contact with themselves or each other so keep them separate and protected with a sheet baking paper or thin paper.

(Left to right Top three: Golden Soft Gel (matte); Golden Molding Paste; Golden Grounds For Pastels. Bottom Three: Golden Polymer Medium (gloss); Golden Interference Blue; Cosmic Shimmer Glitter paste)

Which Acrylic Gel Skins Worked And Which Failed

It is well worth trying each of the gels, mediums, pastes, paints you might have as they all give different results. I loved the look of the transparent skins you get from using Golden Clear Tar, Golden Polymer Medium, Golden gloss gels. Then the semi-transparent skins you get from the Golden matte gels make interesting 'encaustic'-like looks. 

The Golden interference paint and Acrylic Grounds For Pastels were amongst my favourite as they resulted in translucent skins, and the pastels ground had a really interesting gritty texture. The Golden Molding pastes were fun too for making opaque skins and even paper-like skins.

(Left to right: Golden Soft Gel (matte); Golden Molding Paste; Golden Grounds For Pastels)

A couple of fails - well the Golden Absorbent Grounds skin was very brittle and flaked away when I lifted it off of the surface. Then the Winsor and Newton Galeria Iridescent Medium stuck very firmly to the surface, I'm not sure if I didn't let it dry long enough or if I needed to try a different surface for this one so another experiment for another day. 

Also the results of the stamping was a bit hit a miss, different skins responded differently to the two inks I tried (StazOn or Archival). There were skins that were very slippery and needed extra care to stamp on and the ink on some of the skins spread out or changed colour once dry, so again a good experiment to try on your skins for future project reference.

The final experiment to show is a little bit of fun making a skin using the Golden Clear Tar and a mask. I spread a slightly thicker layer of Golden Clear Tar than I used for my gel skin swatches on the non-porous surface and let it dry completely. I then mixed some Golden paint with some more Golden Clear Tar and added it to the dry Tar layer through a mask and let this dry.

A tip if you don't want air bubbles is to mix the paint with the Clear Tar and let it stand for a while, but I was too impatient and just wanted to know what it would look like!

Thanks for popping in and sharing my Art Journal experiments with Acrylic Gel Skins, have you been making gel skins? I would love to hear about your experiences and what you have been making with them.

Catch you later Artinators.

Kim

Update 2017: So after lots of playing my favourite gel for making translucent gel skins is actually the Liquitex Pouring Medium. It makes great skins that aren't as sticky when dry as some of the other gels and mediums I have tried!

If you want to see some of my gel skin projects using Liquitex pouring Medium then click on the photos below!

Art Journal Sharing Thursday

This week my Art Journal Sharing Thursday post comes to you from a cafe in South London. I was out and about a couple of weeks ago waiting for David in a cafe with my art journal book, a few journaling supplies and a cup of tea - journaling heaven!

I was feeling brave so decided that a sketch was in order. I often feel a bit intimidated sketching in public, do you know what I mean? People love to peak at what you are doing if you sketch, it just seems to be human nature and I'm not a good enough sketcher to not feel embarrassed by my attempts. But, I've got to the point that I know that the only way I will improve my sketching is if I practice and if it looks rubbish, well that is just part of the process.

Well at least that is what I'm telling myself.

I went with an everyday sketch of my tea cup and pot 

and totally lost myself in the sketching process.

I was working on a gessoed page from my A5 flier book and with a 2B graphite pencil.

When I got home I inked the sketch out with a waterproof marker pen and added some touches of watercolour to the page too. I'm going to stick the receipt onto the page as a little reminder of the fun I had sketching away and drinking tea.

This page represents for me a moment in time and a memory of a lovely day, so a perfect journal addition. I do love keeping memories in this way, don't you?

Thanks for popping by and do share any art journal makes you have been up to this week, I would love to hop on over to your blog to see them.

Kim