Colour me Positive 2018

I had good intentions to do another year with the Colour Me Positive challenge in 2018. I started out well but as I had to support my daughter with an extremely serious health battle for the first half of the year my interest in keeping up with the art journaling faded away. I will share the pages I did complete here.

  

Week 1: I stencilled gesso onto my page and when it was dry painted it purple and added copper highlights with metallic paste. It is a simple and fast page. 

 Week 2: I used coloured pencils to draw the eye on a background that had been painted then some wiped off before drying. My journal was made from old scrapbook paper that had a thin layer of gesso spread on it with a credit card.  You can still see some of the printed paper through the blue paint.

Week 3: I used a die cut machine to punch butterflies out of left over scraps of painted papers. After they were glued to the page I outlined them to be more visible. 

Week 4: I wanted this page to be focused on the words so I kept it simple. I used a stencil for the lettering on a previously painted paper that was glued in. I then doodled around the painted areas on the page. I did add some more paint in some areas to make them darker. 

Week 5: I had this picture of a vintage lady that I wanted to use so the rest of the page is done using vintage style papers. A little brown ink around the edge of shapes makes everything look old and work together.  

Week 6: This page was an experiment. I traced the sunflowers from another journal page I had drawn onto tissue paper. I then crumpled the tissue and glued it to this double page. While it was wet I sprayed on the blue and green background. When it was dry I used watercolours to paint the flowers and added the insects. 

Week 8: I don't know why I didn't do week 7. This background was randomly made using a credit card to spread three colours around the page. When it was dry I could see a fox face so I added more paint to enhance the face I could see. It is all done in acrylics. 

 Week 9: I got some new watercolours and decided to test them out on this page. Sometimes simple and quick means you get more done.

 Week 10: I wanted to try a masking technique when stencilling. You can see where I placed a circle of paper before using gesso to stencil a pattern over the whole page. When you remove the stencil the circle lifts away too and there is a smooth area to write in. The page was quickly coloured using dye sprays.

Week 11: I wanted to doodle one evening so this page was made. I used a lot of scrap papers and a few collage pictures to make the squares then doodled and wrote on all of them. I love working with grids because it is easy to make a lot of small things and then put them together to make a large piece.

Week 12: This was the last page I did for the year and the last page in this journal. I used perforated paper for the background. It is meant to be used for cross stitch and was in my stash. I wrote out the quote then added a simple border. It was coloured with standard markers.

 The cover of my hand made journal has a picture that I saved from a Flavia calendar. I love her style of art.

The back cover is a collage of some torn. previously painted, paper strips. When it was dry I added the doodles.

The inside front cover was zentangled. Sometimes I just want to sit and draw or doodle. I find it relaxing.

This zentangled page is the inside back cover of the book. That was the end of this challenge for me. I still journal a lot but now I try ideas from the many art books I own. I have decided to stop looking at them and actually do the exercises from the books. It is a fun way to learn new things.

Oops I forgot one...

I realised I forgot to show one of my Book of Days pages.

First I collaged a magazine image of flowers along the bottom of the page then painted over the whole page with some acrylic paint. I added another layer of paint and scraped a lot of it off with an old credit card. I added the picture by Kelly Rae Roberts and used scrapbook letters to do the quote. The image came from  an email I received from the "Where women create" website. They send out weekly quotes with some beautiful artwork attached, sometimes it is too nice not to save the images for my journal.After everything was stuck down I sprayed the page with some glimmer mists. The only one you can really see is the orange. I used punchinella and acrylic paint for the page border.

The next page for Lifebook was a sort of self portrait. We used a transferred photo of ourselves to make a goddess and surrounded her with descriptive words. I am happy with the way the page turned out but I think I prefer to just draw faces instead of using transfers.

New journal page

I wanted to make a couple of journal pages so I started with some scrapbook paper that I didn't think I would use. The colors were very bright.

I used two colors of acrylic paint to give the pages a light coat of color. I didn't mind the original colors coming through.

It was when I was at this stage I found some videos from Journal Artista on You Tube. After watching her demonstrating a layered technique for making journal pages I was inspired to give it a go. At the same time I received a quote of the week email from the Where women Create website that I liked and wanted to include on my page.  

It is probably best if you watch the videos to learn the techniques but I will try to list the steps here:
1. Use a credit card to spread paint randomly over your gessoed page. (She always spreads gesso over her pages first).
2. Stamp images randomly with a waterproof ink.
3. Add more gesso to lighten the page and more paint if desired.
4. Stamp again with a different stamp and a colored ink.
5. Glue torn strips of decorative paper over the page.
6. Use an ink pad to add color to the paper and also on the page.
7. Stencil on gesso randomly.
8. Glue on collage items and pieces of border strips, Journal Artista likes groups of 3 items together.
9. Use a little brushed on gesso to make the items blend a little more. Spray the whole page with glimmer mist and let it pool and drip down the page.
10. Stamp again if you want the images to stand out more.
11. Use distress ink randomly over the page to add color and blend. Ink the edges of the page.
12. Write on the page using a ball point pen. I chose not to write on it.
13. I stitched over my page because some of the items were not sticking down and I didn't want them to fall off.


I only took 1/2 an hour to get to the stage where I could write on the page. I think it works better if you don't think about each step too much and just do it. I like the look of the finished pages. Journal Artista calls this the grafitti look and I think it fits. I will probably develop my own style of this technique as I continue making journals.

Page 6

Page 7

New journal pages

 I did a credit card background for my next journal pages.I chose two scrapbook papers to start because they were a little thicker than regular paper. It is a good way to use paper you no longer like.

 
They were different, one a bit red and the other yellow. The yellow one was flocked as well. I used an old gift card that had no value left to spread the first layer of green acrylic paint across the page. I allowed some of the original paper to show through but you could cover it completely if you want.

While that was still half wet I put copper acrylic paint across the top of the pages and used the gift card to drag the paint across the paper. You can still see some of the green paint and a little yellow near the top.

This closeup shows the flocking. It is no longer soft but adds an interesting texture to the page. You don't have to use metallic paint for this technique but I think it looks good. You can apply two coats of paint on top of the base color if you want a different look. I suggest making a few samples so you can try colors and effects. Having the metallic as the base coat looks good too.

When that was dry I used stamps and white ink to stamp a background of flowers. The white ink didn't show up very well so I went over it with a white pen. I liked the way the original stamping looks like a shadow underneath the ink. The phrase was white embossed and the butterflies are cut out of Prima brand paper called "miss pretty".

This page has a painting on it that I did when I first started using watercolors. It used to be framed but I have now switched that for a new piece so the old art is now here. I wrote the quotes on with the white gel pen. I like the 'uniball signo' gel pens, the ink flows smoothly and has not clogged at all so far (mine are at least 6 months old). Enjoy.