Journal Page with Portfolio oil pastels

Hi, thanks for all the good wishes with our new venture...quite excited!.....anyway I've been playing with my Portfolio Oil Pastels again and this is the journal page I've created with them.

It's a variation of the bleaching technique from Lin Brown. I started by laying down some random blocks of colour over the whole page and then blended them with my finger. I used JOFY stencil PS009 and a just damp babywipe to wipe away and bleach out the colour.

I then used the Lin Brown stencil PS001 stencil for the dots and the stalks from the Lin Brown PS004 stencil.

I've used one of the white pages from the Finnabair Vintage Vanity Journal as a base. At this stage I added some white sketched lines and black dots and lines with Posca pens. I also applied some shading around the petals and stalks with a pencil.

I just felt there wasn't enough contrast, so I used Distress markers in a variety of colours to add more depth and used a damp paintbrush to blend them.

I also used some treasure gold to highlight the centres of the flowers.

I'm quite taken with these pastels which aren't very expensive to have a play with...sorry ..explore your creativity with!

Not entering in any challenges, just thought I'd share. Thanks as always for stopping by.

Exciting news!!

Hi everyone, I've been wanting to share some exciting news with you and today I finally can! There is a new Mixed Media Challenge blog starting Thursday Oct 2nd over here and I've been lucky enough to be picked to be part of the Design Team! I feel really honoured and thrilled to be part of such a talented team. Anyone whose followed me will know I love mixed media and that I may have occasionally mentioned attending classes at The Artists Trading Post and in particular Sue Carringtons classes....so I'm in crafty heaven!

In the run up to the first challenge the Design Team are being revealed this week.... so it would be lovely if you would pop over each day and meet the team.....and on Thursday I will be sharing my first DT project with you so don't forget to pop back to see what I've created....as always thanks for stopping by Ruth x

Autumn Colours

Some things just aren't meant to be..I thought I had  a great idea for the current CC3C challenge Effect powders, but it's now sitting in the corner of the work desk waiting to be altered in another way. Then I thought I'd have a go at the September Tim tag, however after several attempts I just can't get the alternative faded layers technique right....but there are a few more days yet so I may have another attempt.
So what shall I share? Well these are 2 more journal pages from my holiday but they were not an easy road either, however I'm fairly happy with them now so the moral is...if at first you don't succeed, put it down and come back to it later!

Autumn always makes me think of the beautiful colours of falling leaves. I used some portfolio oil pastels for the background as well as stencilling on some texture paste and using torn strips of paper. For 3 of the leaves I've used a CW stencil and stamped a CI text stamp through the skeleton stencil first, then watercoloured with distress markers in a variety of colours before clear embossing and fussy cutting them out. I've further shaded on some areas with DI. For the remaining leaf I've used the same stencil and smoothed some texture paste through. For those who read my previous post you'll know I took minimal supplies so I made some texture paste from a recipe I'd remembered reading about....cornflour, gel medium and PVA...but I forgot to add some white paint and although it worked well enough for the project it didn't have the same 'tooth' or grip as grunge paste. I then shaded in with portfolio oil pastels again.

 I finished the pages yesterday by gluing in some text stamped on to tissue paper in potting soil archival. I'm entering this in the Artistic Stamper September challenge as the theme is Autumn Colours. I'm also entering it in the September challenge at Our Creative Corner which has a picture inspiration. The picture of the leaves and bark inspired me and although the leaves are green in the photo, I just had to make them a variety of Autumnal shades, the bark also inspires the stripped away areas and distressed background. Finally I'm entering it in the current challenge chosen by Astrid at A Vintage Journey which is 'The Colours of Autumn'. I hadn't seen Anna-Karins post till after but the journal pages are very much influenced by Tims grungy style and colour palette.

As always thanks so much for stopping by. 

'By the Sea'

Hello again! I've been away for a week but before I left I'd really hoped I could have made something to schedule as a post whilst I was absent...but it wasn't to be. However I did take a few supplies with me and I will be sharing some makes with you over the next week. Over on Country View challenges blog this month the theme is Nautical. As I was staying near the sea it was easy to be inspired to make these journal pages which I'm entering in the challenge.

Sorry but I've only the finished pages to show you. Unfortunately I didn't take any paint with me partly because I just couldn't choose which fresco paints to leave behind and partly I thought I should explore using the colouring mediums I've been accumulating, like my distress pens and portfolio oil pastels.

Limited supplies encourage you to be creative...however I have to admit I did find a basic craft shop and they had some paint tubes on offer for a £1 each so I picked up a blue, beige and 2 greens so I could make a painty background. I also picked up some gel medium from an artists shop. I hadn't taken any matte medium with me because I didn't think I'd need it. The gel medium isn't a glue but I was able to smooth some through a stencil which when dried gave a slightly raised effect which I then highlighted with a white inktense block I'd taken. Hopefully you can see the texture, I also think it gave it a weathered look.

I took some stamps with me and one of them was the Crafty Individuals 397. I salvaged some tissue paper that had been wrapped around something and stamped the images in black archival. I coloured the back of the lighthouse and the seagulls with white picket fence distress marker before tearing around the images and sticking them in place with a mixture of the gel medium and some PVA glue. I used all but one of the stamps in the set. The numbers are stamped on a piece of white cotton (literally a scrap I'd chucked in my bag at the last minute).

I've added some tiny shells and I found some netting on the beach which I unraveled and used. I used the distress pens to stamp some foliage from the CI 395 set and I've used white instead of black lines to frame it to add to the whitewashed look.

 Lastly stamping on tissue means you can reverse the images without losing any clarity, so the one seagull stamp became two seagulls facing different ways.

Thanks as always for stopping by....I hope to catch up on some serious blog hopping now. 

'Shlurple the purple'

Quick card and quick post. I'm just in time for the Sunday Stampers challenge over on Hels Sheridan's blog. This week it's purple tones. I was originally going to use lilac tones on my assemblage clock and submit it for both challenges... but then the purple didn't happen, so as a late offering it's a sunset instead.

Apologies for the poor photo, you can tell the nights are drawing in as I've had to take the photo in artificial light....and I never like the result.

I've used pan pastels to build up the colour for the background and then the Crafty Individuals 'Build a Meadow' stamp set with versamark and pan pastels...........and that's it.

I might just add another photo taken in daylight tomorrow! Thanks so much for stopping by.

Updated photo......happy crafting!

CC3C...Assemblage Clock

Over on Linda Ledbetters blog it's time for CC3C number 10 .....the assemblage clock. This month the challenge is sponsored by The Funkie Junkie Boutique where you could be the lucky winner of a $25 shopping spree!

Here's my 'pretty' entry...it was quite difficult to take a good photo of it, partly because of the glass, which I removed for the photo and partly because it is deep so it created a lot of shadow.

I was looking forward to this challenge and had so many ideas buzzing around my head but I just couldn't decide. Should I do steampunk, gothic black, keep to my vintage tones, a rusty clock from the sea? In the end I just started and went with the flow....and it was none of the above. Don't ask me how I arrived at this shabby chic wedding theme....green and pink (moi?) with probably a bit more gilding than I would normally use, however once I got into it I had fun, even though it was quite fiddly doing some parts of it.

Sorry but I didn't take any photos along the way as I wasn't sure where it was going to end up. Whilst we can't give any details away of how it's 'assembled', I'll just mention a few things I've used....

Tissue wrap given a painted crackle finish. A Wendy Vecchi embellishment on the top. 

Tim's wallflower paper stash as a background and to make the tattered floral flowers. Some extra stamping on the paper and I've used some WV translucent embossing paste on the background through the doily stencil. A few idea-ology pieces, a found relatives card and some bead gel around the rim.

Lastly.....I must be getting old because they look so young!

Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoy your creativity!

Mr. Brightside...

The Sunday Stamper challenge this week is to use bright colours. So much for saying I was in a vintage colour palette mood at present....Hels has tempted me out!

So I am sharing a couple more journal pages that I've just completed from backgrounds I started at a Lin Brown workshop. We were having fun using gelatos, though you could use portfolio oil pastels. Having covered the whole page and blended them, take a stencil and using a damp (not wet) baby wipe gently wipe to reveal the surface beneath.

At the time I was just experimenting and trying different colours and wasn't thinking about how this would make a 2 page spread! Anyway that was the challenge, I had used a little orange and yellow on the green page but that was all...so how to tie them together? I loved the white reveal but decided if it was a background I needed to soften it. I got my colouring pencils out and spent some time just shading the leaves around the edges and using colours from one page on the other. I'd started colouring in on the photo above but here is a close up. 

What to use as a focal point without detracting from the background to much? I've used crunchy wax paper and stamped flowers and leaves from Lin Brown stamp sets. Firstly stamping in snowflake fresco and then over stamping in various colours of fresco paint. I scrumpled the wax paper up and then pulled them out again, applying treasure gold to the ridges.

The saying is stamped in black, clear embossed and watercoloured with distress markers.

To finish white highlights and black lines to frame the pages. It's growing on me...it's definitely bright and has stamping on it so it qualifies anyway! Thanks for stopping by and happy crafting.