Mini Art Journal Day 18

 

Hi there my crafty friends!

I'm so glad you're visiting!  I have another page in my mini art journal for the Art Marks Challenge from Rae Missigman and Sandi Keene.

Day 18 - Tend

 

I'm also entering my page into these challenges:

Simon Says Stamp's Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

For some Art Marks Challenge history, you can click here.  And Rae's Instagram account here shows what's she's making for each prompt.  For those who haven't seen my previous posts yet, I'm working in a mini art journal I made out of envelopes.  You can use many different types of paper, including scrap or underpaper.  A hole punch and some baker's twine later and a mini art journal for the challenge ready for art!

I've mostly posted individual pages, and I do plan to post them all.  This challenge has been very interesting thus far, because it makes you think.  Not that I mind thinking.  Sometimes a good brain dump on your art journal page is just what you need.  Whether it's actual writing that you incorporate, writing and your art covers it up, or the art itself represents the brain dump.

When I saw the prompt, a lot of ideas swirled in my head.  What do you think of when you hear the word "tend."  Granted, the word tend has different meanings.  However my mind immediately went to the definition of caring for something.  You can tend your child(ren), a garden, a relative, or even yourself.  I've been doing a lot, in a sense trying to do everything, even though that's impossible.  So tending to myself can fall by the wayside.  And I think many people fall into that.  Everyone gets busy with life: work, kids, friends, taking care of the home, and I'm sure you can come up with many more.  Tending to yourself, caring for yourself, can get pushed the bottom of the priority list, which isn't good either.  So I need to tend to myself more.

My background is actually two layers of gelli prints.  One is on cardstock, the other is on deli paper.

I used a border stamp from Dylusions Inbetweenies stamp set, with Ranger Archival black ink, and  heart stamp with Ranger Distress Ink in Salty Ocean.  I know I've said it before, but I love my Ranger archival ink.  I really want it in more colors.  And there's lots!  Sometimes I don't mind the ink not being crisp or maybe spreayed with water and a tag dragged through it for a nice effect.  But the archival ink always give a crisp image and doesn't smear.  You can add any wet medium over it and it will stay put.

 

All the die-cuts are from my stash. I used a Sharpie pen and my Uni Posca white paint marker for the doodles.  I also used a red marker from my lovely Tombow markers to add some doodles to a die-cut.

Thank you so much for stopping by and checking out my art journal page.  Bye for now!

Walking Home

 Why walk home when you can have a walking home?

Hello everyone!

Simon Says Stamp's Monday Challenge is Architecture/Building, so I decided to have some fun with my home and Dylusions with a fairy tale/myth theme.

 

I started with a page with previous paint and stencil layers.  On the bottom is Dylusions Old School Numbers with blue paint.  I love using already started backgrounds.  It can take a daunting task, like a white page, and make it completely manageable.  I actually went through a few different pages before I settled on this one.

The house and legs are magazine cutouts.  So save those old magazines!  I also know my library at times will clean out their stash and sell the old copies for super cheap.  Go exploring and see what speaks to you.

The mushrooms are from Dylusions Doodle Parts.  I had stamped one, colored it, and cut it out a long time ago.  So I made a few more and colored them in with Tombow markers and some Artist Loft markers.  I really like these because they are saturated with gorgeous shades, and the two different tips allow for detail work and wide strokes.  I purchased mine individually, but the sets are also really good because they give lots of colors for you to play and the two tips allow for experimentation with different strokes and shading.

 To cut the mushrooms out of the white cardstock, I used an amazing tool.  Tonic Studios scissors with the burgundy handle.  Very important note with scissors: if you use a set of scissors on fabric, DO NOT use them on paper.  Yes, that's right, keep separate pairs for fabric and paper.  Paper dulls the edge of the blades, which means fabric will fray when you cut it, or try to cut it.  My Tonic pair are my paper scissors.  I have a separate, smaller pair for fabric that I will go into at another point.  And I must say, those are marvelous as well.

I searched through my stash for die-cuts dealing with home or adventuring, and arranged and glued everything down.  I also used my Sharpie pen to outline everything. 

Dylusions Journaling Block is a fantastic tool for many reasons, including using it to stamp Dylusions border stamps, which is what  used it for in making this page.  I also have to give a shout-out to my Archival Black Ink stamp pad.  Oh my goodness so I love this pad.  It lasts a long time (I'm still using mine years later), it's crisp, and you can put anything over top and it will be fine.  Or it can go over anything and look fantastic.  And have no fear, it comes in a wide array of colors.  Now there's different types of ink pads: dye, pigment, embossing, to name a few.  Archival is special, at least to me.  It's ink is permanent and vibrant.  Now the set I took my border stamp from is called Inbetweenies.  And yes, it's Dylusions.  I may be slightly obsessed with Dylusions.

I really enjoyed making this page, even if it didn't turn out exactly the way I expected.  No matter, it's the fun that's important, and I most certainly had a lot of fun!

Thanks for coming along on another adventure with me.  Bye for now!