Month: May 2014

Backgrounds, Darkroom Door, Mixed media, Scrapbooking, Tutorials

Scrap Around the World – May Challenge

Robyn Wood

wip 6

Darkroom Door is sponsoring the Scrap Around the World challenge blog for this month and I’ve created a layout to play along. If you aren’t familiar with this challenge blog – check it out! Each month an inspirational mood board image is posted and either layouts, canvases or art journal pages can be created to participate.  The month of May is birthday month and there are a huge number of sponsors giving away fantastic prizes!  Here is the mood board image for May –

May Celebration Moodboard

I took some inspiration from the clean white space and the soft pinks.  The journaling is a little small but the story behind my page is about a special celebration held for the older women in our Church last year.  The Mothers’ Union group turned 75 and the younger women of the parish got together to prepare food and decorations and ‘served’ the older ladies a beautiful high tea.  However, it was a bittersweet day as the group was soon to close due to lack of members.

– Select a sheet of patterned paper which has a neutral pattern and tear around the edges so that it can be layered onto a 12 x 12 sheet of pink cardstock.

– Use some Gesso to ‘ink’ the Darkroom Door French Script background stamp and stamp over parts of the patterned paper. Allow to dry. Clean your stamp immediately!

– Spritz paper with Pretty Pink Mister Huey’s spray.  Sponge over parts of the sprayed areas with Tattered Rose Distress ink. This will make the gesso stamped areas pop out.

WIP1

– Make a small rip in the top, left corner. Sponge the rip and all around the torn edges of the paper as well as parts to the pink cardstock with Fired Brick & Tattered Rose Distress inks.

WIP2

– Stamp two of just the flower heads from one of the stamps in the Darkroom Door Full Bloom Vol 1 set. Colour with Copics and spritz with a little Shine Mister Huey’s spray for a bit of shimmer. Trim out the flower head.

– Layer one flower head with a paper doyley behind the ripped part of the patterned paper. Add a paper doyley under the paper in the bottom, left corner. Affix patterned paper to pink cardstock base layer.

– Stamp collage image from Darkroom Door Art De Fleur Vol 1 set and colour with Copics. Tear around flower heads and sponge edges with Tattered Rose Distress Ink.

– Group photos over another two paper doyleys, coloured flower head and torn part of Art De Fleur image and affix.

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– Print journaling onto vellum and affix.

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– Trim a few words from the Darkroom Door Kimono Wordstrips and affix along the side of one of the photos.

wip 3

– Stamp Darkroom Door Birthday Wordblock stamp in black and trim out the word ‘Celebrate’ and affix.

– Scatter some rhinestones and pearls over the page and you are done!

Robyn Wood - Australia

Supplies Used:

  • Darkroom Door Full Bloom Vol 1 stamp set
  • Darkroom Art De Fleur Vol 1 stamp set
  • Darkroom Door French Script Background stamp
  • Darkroom Door Birthday Wordblock stamp
  • Darkroom Door Kimono Wordstrips
  • Gesso
  • Mister Huey’s Color Mist – Pretty Pink, Shine
  • Ranger Distress Ink – Tattered Rose, Fired Brick
  • Ranger Blending Tool
  • Momento Ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Ranger Archival Ink – Jet Black
  • Copic Blending Cardstock
  • Copic markers R81, R83, R85, YG07, Y04
  • Paper doyley, rhinestones & pearls
  • Pink Bazzill, Studio Calico, vellum

Let me know if you are playing along with the Scrap Around the World challenge – I’d love to go and have a peek!  If you would like to see layouts from the other Darkroom Door girls, check out this post.

Uncategorized

Art Journal Every Day – A Challenge to Use Just 10 Supplies

Robyn Wood

(c) Robyn Wood - Flourish

One of my favourite mixed media artists is Julie Fei-Fan Balzer – I love her style and fearless use of colour and images within her work. Julie’s branded stencils with A Crafters Workshop is growing and I particularly love the newly released collection. Recently Julie is doing a series of blog posts on using a limited number of supplies and I was inspired to create this page.

Supplies List:

1. Journal – my Strathmore Mixed Media journal can take everything I through at it, especially really wet media.

2. Liquitex Modelling Paste – a staple for my mixed media play. It can add texture but also adds a different surface to a page allowing me to carve into the wet or dry paste for more texture.

3. Liquitex Matt Gel Medium – the best ‘glue’ for adding collage elements to an art journal page. The matt finish means there is less chance of seeing where the glue went down.

4. Stencil – love the versatility and instant pattern that stencils give to a page. In my book, you can never have enough stencils!

5. Faber-Castell Gelatos – my ‘go to’ supply for bursts of colour.

6. Darkroom Door stamps – what can I say, I love them! The brand has so many different options available in backgrounds, text and image stamps that I can always find one (or more) to suit the project I have in mind.

7. Ranger Archival inks – the best ink for stamping, sponging and adding some grunge to an art journal page as they are totally waterproof.

8. Black Posca Pen – these pens come in a range of nib sizes and colours and perfect for going over bumpy mixed media projects.

9. Dictionary Pages – these pages came from an old French dictionary and I use English ones as well. I have a couple of different ones around with different text sizes & fonts and pages in different states of aging.

10. Tissue Paper – perfect to stamp onto and then add to the project. Saves that nail biting moment of being sure you stamp clearly onto a textured page!

I was extremely excited to see that Julie has included my page in our round up this week! You can check it out here.

Do you art journal every day? I’d love to see a link to your blog if you have one to share with me in the comments!

Art Journal, Backgrounds, Copics, Darkroom Door, Gelatos, Mixed media, Tutorials

Compendium of Curiosities 3–Paint Marbling Challenge

Robyn Wood

Wander

In the world of papercraft the name Tim Holtz certainly causes you to pay attention, the man is always coming up with something new and interesting, often totally amazing!  Following on from his previous two books, Tim has released another – number 3 featuring a whole extra world of techniques and information.  As for the previous two books, Linda Ledbetter is running some challenges, based around various techniques that are described within the book.  The first cab off the rank is ‘paint marbling’, a technique I’ve done heaps of times but never into my art journal – so here goes for a project with a difference!

I used Distress Paints in Peacock Feathers and Squeezed Lemonade to create the initial background in my A4 sized, hardbound journal. Having the extra space to do it was great, although a little awkward to control.

WIP 2

Next came some torn strips of dictionary paper and some stencilling. I used a new Dina Wakley stencil and sponged each part of it with Archival inks – I didn’t want the colour to move in the next steps.  I drew around the outside of the shape with a paint pen to define it a little.

I added a few swipes of texture paste through the dot fade stencil and got onto Copic colouring my butterflies while that dried.  I had stamped the various Darkroom Door butterflies onto plain paper so I didn’t get too much ‘bulk’ – made blending a little difficult but it worked.

WIP (4)

I also stamped a stacked set of butterflies onto some pale green tissue paper & Copic coloured them.  Once they were adhered onto the page, the tissue paper almost disappeared.

WIP (3)

Extra colour and shading was added with Gelatos, watercolour crayon & sponged ink.  I added a few dribbles of watercolour crayon using the Ranger spritzer tool – more on how I did that in a later post!

WIP (2)

I hope you liked learning how I created this layout. Perhaps you would like to join in the challenge? You can find out more info on Linda’s blog here.

Wander full

Supplies used:

  • Darkroom Door Collage Butterfly
  • Darkroom Door Wings stamp set
  • Darkroom Door Wildflower stamp set
  • Darkroom Door Discover stamp set
  • Ranger Archival ink – Forget-Me-Not, Chrome Yellow, Manganese Blue, Jet Black
  • Momento ink – Tuxedo Black
  • Tim Holtz stencil – Dot Fade
  • Dina Wakley stencil – Mod
  • Copic markers
  • Copic multiliner
  • Liquitex texture paste
  • Liquitex matt medium
  • Liquitex gel medium
  • Liquitex Paint Pen – Brilliant Blue
  • Neocolor II watercolour crayon – Azurite Blue
  • Ranger Spritzer Tool
  • Gelatos in blues & yellow
Art Journal

What’s In My Sketchbook?

Robyn Wood

photo 2

Well, actually there are lots of things in my sketchbooks & art journals, most are just practices of techniques or notes of things to try but lately I’ve been making a concerted effort to actually draw, regularly and finish things rather than leaving them because the self critic was talking a little too loudly.

At the beginning of April I spent a couple of nights in hospital, I have multiple sclerosis and it was making itself known by affecting my sight. I’ve been diagnosed since early 2005, first big attack in late 2004 & really not much since so it was a big wake up call. I often get sore hands, fatigue & yucky numbness but nothing this scary and it has caused a little rethink. I’m taking more time to rest, more time to create and enjoy the little things in life that little bit extra. Part of that is a commitment to share more online, as a way of keeping myself honest and away from the business of life.

So here a couple of recent drawings/paintings from my Moleskin planner, the place I’m trying to do the ‘Documented Life’ project but mostly it’s a place to record crafty stuff – and draw!

The one at the top I did in hospital with limited supplies and someone looking over my shoulder every few minutes.

photo 3

This one I did a while ago while watching a Pam Carriers video. A very different way to draw & shade but I like it.

photo

This girl is my one from yesterday, I am finding I like to sketch on lined paper – give it a bit of evenness or something.

I’m linking this post to Dion Dior’s site for her Friday Sketches posts – they have been keeping me inspired of late and I’m a great fan of Dion’s, a fellow Aussie.