I am really behind with my pages. But, I have a wonderful reason. My first grandchild was born on November 19th at 8:32. I have been a little preoccupied since then.
Meet Lydia Alyse Haun
She has got Nanna wrapped around her teeny tiny finger. I am smitten!
But, I have managed to get two pages done today to share.
The technique today is to use one of the resist techniques on the An Attitude of Gratitude challenge. I tried the glue stick resist technique. It didn't quite work out as I wanted but the background colors are really nice. To get a bit more interest I sprayed white linen through a stencil. I quite like the effect.
Once again today the challenge is to use a resist technique. I chose the wax resist technique from the YouTube video that was posted. I cut a piece of light weight cardboard down to the size of my Cuttlebug embossing folder. Then I used oil pastels to color the high spots since I don't have any regular waxy crayons. After I colored the piece with the oil pastels I used my White Linen paint dauber to color in between the embossing. I let this all dry and then went over the high spots again with the oil pastels just to darken it up a bit.
I moved on to the background. This I completely messed up then tried to fix by covering it with gesso. This didn't work out quite as expected so I put some more acrylic paint on the page and didn't like this either. By this time it was late and I was just DONE! So I brushed a light watered down layer of gesso on to mute the colors. Then sprayed a little bit of white ink on just to be safe. I had some white letters and stuck those down. Cut out two oval shapes from paper to write the quote and verse on then stuck it all down.
Not in love with this page at all. It actually looks better in the picture than it is. But you can't have a masterpiece every time you sit down to work. I am slowly learning that it is OK to not like something. You just turn the page and you have a new white blank canvas to start again.
Today's challenge was to use one of the resist techniques. While I liked the techniques and plan to try them that were provided on the webpage, I looked for other on YouTube and found this one:
I liked this and decided that I would try it.
I used one of the few embossing folders I have for my Cuttlebug which is a swirled pattern a lot like the one in the video.
I decided to put this on a tag rather than the page in my journal. I ironed the wax paper and my tag and the pattern stood out pretty well even before inking.
I inked the tag with Dylusion inks. It was subtle but very pretty. A darker color would have probably brought out the design better but I was satisfied with what I had.
I painted the background of the page with acrylic paints and a wash of watered down gesso then a quick spritz of white spray ink..
I think the overall effect of the pages with the tag turned out nicely.
For the texture on this background I brushed on a very heavy layers of gesso. I immediately laid a crocheted doily on top of the gesso and pressed gently in several different areas of the page. I let this dry. I then sprayed the pages with several colors of Dylusions ink sprays in Bubblegum, Funky Fuchsia, and Dirty Martini. Once this was dry I dry brushed a metallic acrylic paint randomly over the pages. I stamped the header on a piece of white card stock, inked the edges, cut it out and glued it down to the page. I cut hearts out of white card stock and two different patterns of paper and inked the edges and glued them down. I had some random punched out hearts left over from the baby shower and decided to glue them on also. I wrote the quote in one white heart and the verse in the other. It is really hard to see but there is a lot of texture to the page. I also "bubbled" the metallic paint in a couple of places by mistake but liked the effect.
Today's page brought out the inner child in me. I brushed on a thick layer of gesso and drew into it with the end of my paintbrush. Then I brushed on paint and inks. This was a fun page to work on.
For this page I chose to use gesso through a stencil. For the background I used Distress stains with one spritz Dylusions ink on each page. Then I used the gesso though a flower stencil. When I dried the page some of the gesso bubbled up around the edges. I liked the effect so next page will be with the gesso bubble technique.
Generosity
On to the gesso bubble technique. I applied my gesso fairly heavily to the page. Then "bubbled" it with my heat tool. Cool effect! Then I used pastels since I don't own any pan pastels. I sprayed the pastels with some hairspray to set it. I went over the high places with some bronze distress ink. I brushed thinned gesso over all to tone down the colors. I like the muted colors.
I love finding ways to use things on my pages that I find like the cardboard packaging I found at work today. I'm not sure what it was used for but someone was throwing it away and I saved it from the trash.
After using distress inks to ink up the background I cut the heart out of the cardboard. I sprayed the heart with distress ink and dry brushed it with bronze acrylic paint.
I cut 1" circles with my punch out of newspaper and scrunched them up and made a couple of flowers to add to the ribbon and attached a butterfly. I am pleased with the overall effect.
I am really loving using all my distress inks and paints. I have used new techniques that I didn't know about and the effects they create are so wonderful. Now I'm wondering do I even need paints?
Today's page came together fairly quickly. I didn't use any one specific technique. On my drive home from work, I was enjoying the fall leaves that are left on the trees. The sun was shinning in just such a way that they seemed to shine on the trees. I wanted to try to recreate that look and feel on my page. Not sure I am satisfied with the effects but it looks pretty.
For the background I inked using red, pink and black distress inks. Then I stamped the leaves and using water I tried to take the color out of them. Then I recolored them with distress markers. I stamped over a few of them with clear embossing ink and clear embossing powder to produce some "shine". This didn't produce the effect I was really going for but it worked somewhat. I stamped and cut out the tittle and printed out and cut out the quote and verse. I inked the edges and glued to the page.
Today's page background is made using Ranger Distress Stains swiped randomly over the page and then sprayed with water and wiped with a baby wipe. The idea for the tag was taken from a tutorial by Tammy Tutterow. She makes the loveliest tags and posts a tutorial each Tuesday.
I really love how this page turned out. I am loving these pages using Ranger inks and stains. I have never explored all the techniques you can use them with. The effects are fantastic.
Today's page background was done with random spraying of Ranger Dylusions inks. I don't have a bucket stamp but I do have the cute jar stamp that I stamped on watercolor paper and cut out. I stamped the tag and cut it out and used twine to "tie" it to the top of the jar with the words "Bucket List" printed and cut out then glued to it. I stamped a random swirly stamp on the background then cut out and inked the verse and quote.
The technique I used for today's page was to stamp squares of distress ink from the pad directly onto the page. Then I spritzed with water, dried and spritzed again. I sprayed white linen across the page to tone down the colors a bit. I stamped the page randomly with a script stamp and black archival ink then stamped the flowers and leaf patterns. I cut out and inked the banner, quote and verse and glued to the page.
I decided to use Distress Stains to make the background of this page. I don't have many but I swiped them all on the page randomly then spritzed with water. A quick drying and then another layer, dry, repeat. I think I did a total of about 4 layers.
I stamped the word of the day using stamped letters from Dyan Reavely. Instead of inking them I brushed them with Distress markers. After stamping the letters I cut them out and inked the edges. I decided to hand write the quote and verse. I added the heart cut from card stock and voila....done!
I'm participating in An Attitude go Gratitude 2013 this year over the month of November. This is hosted by Bernice Hopper. The challenge for the next couple of days will be to use one of the Ranger Distress techniques. Bernice has posted videos of a whole pot full of them.
I watched every one of the videos and it was really hard to decide which one to use first. I love the idea that Bernice has come up with using the same type of technique over several days. I settled on the Making a Scene technique.
I began by cutting down a piece of watercolor paper to fit my journal page and then started by swiping the distress ink pads across the paper. Then I sponged and swiped different inks using a torn piece of paper as a mask. I stamped the bare tree using Rich Cocoa ink.
I printed out the verse and quote. I cut out the word of the day and tore around the verse and quote then inked all edges. After fixing them to the page I wrote my journaling.
I'm very happy with the way this turned out. I'm always amazed at the effects you can get with distress ink. I guess I'm grateful to be able to buy and create with these products.