Dyary time

This year Dyan Reaveley introduce a new line of products - The Creative Dyary Collection.  I pre-ordered some of the products and fortunately they arrived by the end of February so that I could start my Dyary on March 1st.

I started by checking out Dyan's blog and looking at what I had done with Documented Life Planner.  Fortunately manufacturers have now starting producing narrow washi tape.  In 2014 I had to slice the standard tape into 3 to use as dividing lines. 

The dyary comes with some of Dyan's artwork on the right hand page and I thought that this would make it easier to journal with.  But in fact I have found it just as difficult as having a blank page.

Then I got busy and didn't have time to keep up with the pages.  However it was still on my mind as whilst I was in the States I bought more washi tape and some pads of stickers.

I spent a couple of days last week catching up with all the pages.

 

 Currently I'm leaving the bird page as a black and white drawing but I may come back to colour it in.

I am pleased with my left hand pages.  It's a great record of what I've been up to and possibly makes my life look rather more exciting than it really is!  I don't love the right hand pages but now that I'm up to date I want to investigate how I can make the pages more my own.

Have a look at Dyan's new blog post.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Up North!

Last weekend I went to Yorkshire - known to the locals as God's Own Country.   I was going to a weekend class with Dyan Reaveley at Art from the Heart.  I decided that rather than sit in a traffic jam on the M1 on Friday afternoon I would drive up in the morning and visit York.   I left the car at a Park & Ride and took the bus into the city centre.

I have been to York before so I concentrated on visiting Fairfax House which I hadn't been to before but had seen on the television.

Unfortunately there was a ban on photography in the house but I did manage to sneak this one of the window on the main staircase.

I went for a boat trip on the river.

And saw about 50 or more geese going for a walk.

Then it was off to the hotel in Harrogate, dinner and the start of the workshop on Friday evening.    The workshop was called 'Expanding the Page' and was described as being 'Not for the faint hearted!'

At the start we were given one of Dyan's square journals and we were off - tearing pages out as a starter!  And then cutting a wavy line on several pages which produces this effect:

We didn't add the paint until the next day.

Over the weekend Dyan introduced us to old favourites and new techniques, showing us how she works when she starts a new journal.

We had a great time chatting, discussing, laughing, eating and oh yes - painting and spraying pages.  We also cut things out, pasted them in, and generally just played.  We weren't allowed to think about what each page might be.  The whole point was to have as many pages as possible having a background with random things stuck on so that whenever I want to journal I can just open up the book and journal.

On Monday and Tuesday I carried on with the pages - painting those I hadn't managed at the weekend, doodling and generally playing.

I took these two pages out because I wasn't very enamoured with them

And I stuck one or two pages in the journal together because I didn't like them at all.  I expect I could have gessoed over them but I didn't.

Here's a flip through my journal.

I bought another square journal and I hope to make another one using all the same techniques and principles but using other colours.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Who has influenced my mixed media art?

Over the last few years I have attended lots of workshops and signed up for so may online classes that I've lost count.   I thought I would share with you some of the shops and people who have helped me and taught me over that time.

Art from the Heart is an excellent bricks & mortar shop with a very stong online presence.  I have attended many workshops there.   My credit card groans whenever I go to Harrogate to a class.  I'm going there next weekend for 3 days of workshops with Seth Apter.

Dyan Reaveley is now well known as a Ranger Signature Designer.  However I met her first at Art from the Heart when I went to my first ever workshop there.   She has a distinctive style.  I interviewed her for my series on Celebrating UK Artists.   You can watch her videos on the Ranger YouTube Channel.

Dina Wakely has been a guest tutor at Art from the Heart and I have loved the workshops I've attended.   Several of the classes have involved making books which I love.  She also introduced me to the idea of having white space on mixed media pages.  This really appeals to me.   You can also find Dina on the Ranger YouTube Channel.

Artist Trading Post started as an online business with workshop space and then moved to a b&m shop and has now returned to its online roots.  I love the variety of products that Jamie stocks.  My credit card used to groan when I visited for workshops there too.

Wanderlust is a new year long venture from Jamie and Kasia Krzyminska (aka czekoczyna).  There will be videos& PDFs on techniques but the thing that got me interested is that "Wanderlust will give you an in-depth knowledge about products, media and tools".  Of course I signed up - won't you join me?

Anneliese Bates introduced me to various mixed media techniques.  She held these workshops in Derbyshire which was great for me because it was so much nearer to my house than Harrogate.  I love Anneliese's style and enjoyed her workshops immensely.  I was really disappointed when she gave up hosting them but I am thrilled that her new venture Fox & Bear is doing so well.

Michelle Ward produces amazing stencils both for StencilGirl and for her own website Green Pepper Press.  I have just invested in a whole lot of her stencils for my Venice project.

Carolyn Dube produces the best teaching videos on the internet (in my opinion).  She is so generous with what she shares for free on her blog and YouTube channel.  She also has fee-based classes that are such value for money.  I particularly liked the Stencil Play class.  You really should check them out if you like mixed media art.

And last but definitely not least, Valerie Sjodin.  Her art blows me away.  Valerie is another tutor who is very generous with the skills and information she shares.  I love her online classes but sadly don't give enough time to practice so my art hardly ever looks like hers.

I've really enjoyed looking back to see what and who has influenced me over the years.  What are your favourite shops, favourite artists or online courses?  Please share them in the comments below.
 
Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Make your Mark

I signed up for an online class called Make YOUR Mark taught by Robin Mead.  I have taken my usual approach and watched bits of the videos, looked at the photos and ignored everything else.  Sorry Robin.

This week's challenge on DLP was to have someone draw in your book and then for you to finish the page.  There's no way someone else was going to draw in my book!  When I was a teacher if I was away on a course the work I left for the pupils was always to be done on paper because I couldn't bear for another teacher to write in MY pupils' books.

So I stamped a Dyan Reaveley stamp instead.  I worked on the theory that it was still someone else's drawing and even then I managed not to stamp the first image correctly!

I drew all the lines in pencil and then went over the lines with a thin black pen.  I rubbed out the pencil lines.

I went back over some of the lines with a thicker pen and doodled in other parts with the thin pen.

I used a water brush and my Neocolor II water soluble crayons to paint the page.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Day 30 My Attitude of Gratitude Journal

If you want to join in with making an Attitude of Gratitude Journal through the month of November click through to the Challenge blog.

Here on this blog I am going to share how I made the page for today's prompt on Gratitude.

Today's art challenge was to 'use Dyan's Shadow Stamping technique on your page today'.

I just love Dyan's shadow stamping technique and it's so easy to do.  I sprayed lemon, orange and chocolate inks onto manila card in exactly the way Dyan describes in the video.  Then I inked the stamp and followed her instructions again.

Here's a close up.

I highlighted the leaves with a white pen.  I randomly stamped with the alphabet stamp and then stamped the quote, the dragonflies and added the verse.

And then I journaled around the quote.

 

I  cannot believe that we have come to the end of the 30 days of prompts.  I hope that you have enjoyed our time together both here and on the Challenge Blog.

Come back tomorrow to find out how I have put all the pages together into a journal.

Don't throw anything away until you have seen tomorrow's post!!!

Day 6 My Attitude of Gratitude Journal

If you want to join in with making an Attitude of Gratitude Journal through the month of November click through to the Challenge blog.

Here on this blog I am going to share how I made the page for today's prompt on Technology.

Today's art challenge was to 'use Dyan's Ghosting Technique'.

I started with the piece I had blotted on yesterday with the manila card. Then I sprayed it all over with the Squeezed Orange.

I followed Dyan's instructions spraying water through stencils.

I used Archival Ink and stamped all around the outside edges of the page so that not all of the stamp was on the page.  I also used the diamonds stamps from the Basic Backgrounds set very lightly. I cleaned the ink of the stamps by stamping onto the large sheet of paper behind my page.

I added some highlight using white and black acrylic paint.  I did the circles with the top from a glue stick and the lines with an old credit card. Then I stuck on the Bible Verse.

I added my journaling around the circles and into a spiral. (sorry you can't see it very well).  I added white dots to show where the journaling was.

I hope you are enjoying the challenges so far.  Don't worry if you're not keeping up every day as the challenges will be available for quite a while.

It's amazing to think we are already a fifth of the way through the month.

Day 5 My Attitude of Gratitude Journal

If you want to join in with making an Attitude of Gratitude Journal through the month of November click through to the Challenge blog.

Here on this blog I am going to share how I made the page for today's prompt on Social Media.

Today's art challenge was to 'use  Dyan Reaveley's bleachout technique'.

Using a piece of cartridge paper, I followed Dyan's instructions on the video using Squeezed Orange instead of the pink.  I blotted it with a piece of manila card (on the right).

I blotted the manila card again onto the piece of cartridge paper I had already blotted on to previously.

Then I stamped with the Dylusions stamp.  However if you don't own one of those use any stamp you own or you could draw it yourself using a waterproof pen.  I used a waterbrush to remove the black and added the orange ink again but using a paintbrush. I also stamped the toadstools/mushrooms and used the same technique.

I drew round the leaves with a white pen, stuck on the Bible Verse and wrote my journaling with a white pen.

This is a great technique from Dyan.  Hope you enjoy it.

See you tomorrow.

Day 1 My Attitude of Gratitude Journal

Welcome to everyone who has recently decided to follow my blog.  I am overwhelmed by the interest shown in the Attitude of Gratitude Challenge Blog and delighted that so many people are going to follow along, and hopefully participate.
 
If you want to join in with making an Attitude of Gratitude Journal through the month of November click through to the Challenge blog.

Here on this blog I am going to share how I made the page for today's prompt on Wholeheartedness.

Today's art challenge was to 'use a colour you don't like or don't use very often'.

I don't often use yellow in my art so that was my starting point.  Dylusions Lemon Zest.

Just so you know!  This is a bit of a Dylusions fest using spray inks, stamps and stencils from the range.

Putting the large sheets of cartridge paper I mentioned in last Friday's post on my table, I started by spraying through some Punchinella (sequin waste) onto the non-printed side of Kraft cardstock using Bubblegum Pink and sprayed Fresh Lime through an alphabet stencil.  Instead of wiping the punchinella and the stencil or pressing them into pages of another sketchbook, I pressed them onto the large sheet of paper.  I also used the piece of cotton rag to mop up with and to dry sections of the page.

I sprayed the page with water and then with the Lemon Zest. I mopped up the excess by pressing one of the pieces of cartridge paper onto it and then onto the A3 cartridge paper.

I used Melted Chocolate  to spray through a Diamond stencil.  And when this was dry, I randomly stamped with Dylusions Basic Backgrounds stamps and black Archival Ink.

 I stamped the birds from this Dylusions set and painted them with a small brush using Squeezed Orange.   I cut up the printed out Bible verse and backed it onto purple scrapbooking paper and stuck it to the page.  I highlighted some of the diamonds and circles with a white pen.

Finally I journaled my thoughts on positivity and negativity in my lifeand the need for mindfulness.

I hope you found today's post useful.  If you are joining in with this project please post a link to your work on the challenge blog.

Hope to see you over there.

Bernice

My Attitude of Gratitude Journal

As you know throughout November on An Attitude of Gratitude Journal blog there's a daily post with prompts and inspiration for building up a Gratitude Journal.

On this blog, Newly Creative, I will be showing how I made my pages based on the daily blog posts.

And to start: the Journal.

I have many store bought sketchbooks and a new Dylusions Journal but for this I decided I would make my own.

I gathered together watercolour paper, manila card, tore some cartridge paper out of a sketchbook, and looked through my scrapbooking stash and found a piece of Kraft cardstock, a piece of Tim Holtz Kraft Resist and a piece of black Bazzill.  I don't know whether the black will actually make it to the journal, but I have plenty of stash to replace it.   I also pulled out 2 A3 sheets of cartridge paper.

I cut all the paper down to 10" by 7.5"

You may have noticed that there's something wrong with my maths in the photo above. 1+2+4+4+1+1=13 not 15!  I added another 2 sheets of watercolour paper!

The very large sheets of paper are very important if you are going to use my method to make a journal.  It can be watercolour paper or lining paper.  You could use the brown paper for parcels using it with the shiny side down. But don't use very thin, absorbent paper as it won't cope with what you will be using it for.

I also found a piece of cotton muslin to use as a paint rag.  I borrowed this idea from Roben-Marie Smith who uses a muslin cloth to mop up paint and ink as she goes along.  At the end you have a piece of cloth that matches your projectand you can use as fabric pieces, make into your cover or tear up as pieces of 'ribbon'.  I got the idea of using the large sheets of paper from her too.

I have decided that my pages will each have the Bible verse that's provided for each day.  So I put all the verses into a document and printed them off on Prima paper.

I'll provide a PDF for all the Bible verses and a PDF for all the quotes next week for you to download.

I haven't made the covers yet.  I'm going to do that at the end.  You will need to pieces of greyboard or the cardboard from the back of sketchpads cut to 10.25" by 7.75" if you want to get them ready.   I shall be punching holes in mine to put book rings but if you have access to a Bind-It-All you could use that.

Looking forward to sharing my pages with you from Thursday November 1st.

Bernice