Handmade Beads tutorial

Recently, I discovered the wonderful and inspiring ‘Jennibellie’ and her amazing blog. Her blog is Chock- o- block full of handmade art journal ideas, not to mention the fabulous recycling, when making your art. (Go to the list of blogs I follow to see a link to her blog)

I was particularly drawn to her handmade beads in which she uses to decorate her art journals. They are so pretty and as I found out, very easy to make yourself. All you need is acrylic paint, glue and alfoil really!

So, what I’m going to do is link to jelliebellies tutorial, so you can see for yourself, as well as showing you my photos of the beads I made, which I learnt from her video.

I am in the process of making an almost fluro green journal which I will show when finished, so I thought what a lovely way to decorate it.

Without delay I got out my green and purple acrylic paints and alfoil, and I was on my way.

So first thing to do was to paint both sides of my kitchen alfoil. i chose one side green and the other side purple with white glitter. For the purple side I used Ranger dabber paints and it dried so much quicker then my jo sonya paint.

I then cut into strips as directed by jennibellie.

Now all I had to do is scrutch into tight little balls and I did use the table to help me a little as jennibellie suggests. I have to admit by the end of it my fingertips were a little tender!LOL

I didnt have any toothpicks around the home so I improvised and made the holes in the beads with a sharp sewing machine needle which is thicker then most sewing needles.

For the glue I decided to use 3D Crystal Laquer and smudged it all over the bead with my fingers.

Last of all just let dry!

They are so pretty with the silver shining through. Now all I have to do is thread some string through the holes and attatch to my journal.

I think I'll need some more, so I'll post my bead journal as soon as its finished.
You can visit jennibellies video instructions here:
http://youtu.be/IUOU5HU4yww

Handmade Art Journal Cover

Good Afternoon to you!
Ive been working my little heart out lately, trying to get my next round robin art journal ready. The theme for this one is Fairies and doodles - From the Fairy Dreams course by Adriana Almanza.
As I posted on Thursday, I really loved a journal i recieved to do art in. The way it was painted with texture, the artwork on the front and most of all i loved the fancy yarn that tied the paper signatures into place.
SO, as you've probably guessed, I decided to do my journal in a similar style.
First of all I found an old childrens board book with a wide spine and tore the pages out.(You could also use just a normal thick cardboard)  Next I prepped the cover inside and out by using sandpaper to rough it up a bit,
I then applied a layer of thick kitchen paper towel. I adhered it to the cover inside and out with Mod Podge. It was looking lke this

After that was completely dried over night, then came the fun part! I painted it in acrylic paint and added some "Fairy dust" for some extra magic.

My journal needed some of my artwork on the front so I decided to use my Aquamarkers to make this lovely fairy. Again Mod Podge to stick it down.

While this was all drying, I made my watercolour paper signatures to go inside the journal and cut my fancy yarn to length. I use the yarn to tie in the pages instead of sewing them in place. It works really well and you can get them quite tight plus it looks awesome! Add  some dangling beads and Im all done. I so loved making this cover and I know its the start of a whole new crafty direction for me.

Art Journal Round Robin

I'm so excited to be involved with a couple of art journal Round Robins this year. I am currently taking a few whimsical art classes with Adriana Almanza from http://dolldreams.ning.com/ and one of the students has organised the round robins.
The first one is the 'Doll Dreams Basic' journal round robin and its so much fun! I got busy and made a journal from cardboard and acrylic paints and then sewed in my waterpaper signatures.
I just love my front and back cover and the front whimsy girl reminds me of Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games! Although I love the books and movies, I never meant for that to happen she just appeared.LOL

Here is my back cover. How cute is she! Sorry about the dark pics.

So anyway, I sent the journal off and its about to travel right around the world to places like Germany, United Kingdom, America, The Netherlands and Australia. I just cant express what this journal will mean to me when it arrives back home!

In the meantime I recieved my first journal all the way from the U.K to place some of my art in. The journal is by a wonderful artist called Angel, and it is so beautiful , I totally fell in love with it. I wish I had thought of embellishing mine this way!

Here's a picture of it.

Angel specified that she would like all of the contributing artists to add their countries floral emblem to their artwork. As a few people from Australia are involved ,I decided to use my state's emblem of the Sturt Desert Pea. Here is my art work in her journal.

I can't wait for the next journal to arrive. Shouldn't be too long. This is so much fun. I recommend everyone to get involved in something like this if you are into art journalling. If you like these type of dreamy dolls they're many classes to take at the Doll Dreams site.

Chunky pages for swap

I recently organised a chunky swap with Doll Dreams. I was so happy when 10 people joined the swap ( I was hoping for at least 5) each having to make 2 chunkies for each person on the list.These are some I have made so far. I have made them all with acrylic paints, prisma pencil and sumy ink.

It's been so much fun creating these.

I am doing a lesson on Tombow markers so  the next batch will be using the markers instead of paints.

All the ladies involved have done such a great job on their chunky's, they are all so talented!

Here are some more I have created, I just need to embellish them now. For these I used aquamarkers and Tombows for a beautiful watercolour affect.

Good morning everyone,
As promised I will show you my progress of making my new mixed media painting, PENELOPE. I learn't this technique from an artist named Gritty Jane and I absolutely adore her work. Fortunetely, she just so happened to be one of the guest teachers in a course I am doing at the moment called LIFE BOOK 2012.
I feel so greatful to her for teaching us, so I thought I would pass on a bit of art that I create in ode to Jane.

To start with I worked on a A3 sized framed canvas and started by mod poging pretty patterned papers on the canvas to inspire me.

Next job was to mix some Burnt Umber and paint over these papers, to make the back round. I felt like I wanted to do Old Worlde so hence choosing the Burnt Umber. I leave the paint so it is still transparent.

At this stage Im getting a feel for the portrait I want to create on this piece Next I draw her out and start my underpainting of whites and greys.

Several hours have gone by at this point so I stop for a well deserved cup of tea break.

With refreshed eyes, I decide to continue make her skin quite dark and shadowy and mix my skin tones with the acrylic paints. After I finish the portrait, its clear to me the backround is too dark for her skin tones, and I decide to go with a soft green to compliment her patterned paper dress and green eyes. I call her, Penelope

My Mixed Media Portraits

I am so happy to be able to announce that after many, many months of study, I can now show my mixed media art to you. If your reading this blog it's because you share my love of mixed media paintings and all mixed media art. Several months ago I discovered wonderful artists such as Adriana Almanza, Gritty Jane and Maria Pace Wynters, who have so inspired me to reach my goals. I have now got a  new permanent beautiful workspace set up in my family room, which is great because I can now do all  my art and still know whats going on with the people around me. Life is dreamy! Ahhh