Monday 10 June 2013

Scrapfest by the Sea ... mini album

I'm loving being part of the Scrapfest family - what a great group of ladies.  The other day we had a wordfind challenge - hilarious.  There were supposed to be 12 words related to scrapbooking but people kept finding more and more words, some very loosely attributed to the craft such as vino, and box (we're going to need big ones), bad (sounds like some are planning to be) and so on.  I found about 35 words all up - heaps of fun.

The next challenge was for everyone to use the same photo in whatever way they wanted to create a layout, card, mini album etc.  The photo that was chosen was of the venue and here is the front cover of the mini album I've created.






Two weeks ago I was fortunate to be able to attend some wonderful workshops at Creative Adventure Downunder (CAD) - the tutors being Heidi Swapp, Teresa Collins, Donna Downey and Maggie Armstrong.  What a talented group and I learnt heaps from these awesome ladies and over the next little while I will slowly post some of the projects I made.  But for now ... the first workshop I did with Heidi involved making a mini album to go in a shadow box. 

I've used the same principles to create my Scrapfest album.  I've used cardstock to create the cover and pages for my album.  On the front I have stamped, punched, cut, glued and taped bits and pieces from Prima's Engraver and Almanac Collections and the Tim Holtz French Industrial Collection.  The bunting uses little tickets from the Almanac Collection, some bakers twine and little Christmas lights from my stash.  The piano keyboards are cut from the same collection and attached using pop dots to add dimension.  The pocket watch, from the Engraver collection, has been jazzed up using dimensional magic - just over the watch face.  I used a piece of clear packaging to stamp on a postmark from the Kaisercraft Pack Your Bags collection and adhered that under the keyboard on the left and then added three little roses from my stash to complete the cover. 

The finished album is going to evolve between now and Scrapfest and will be interactive with lots of things to open, pull out, lift up and so on.  There will be space for people to sign and write messages plus I hope to add lots of photos afterwards.

Cya.

Oh blog ... how I have neglected you

Oh my goodness, it has been so long.  I have been so busy creating that I have not been posting anything of what I have done over the past few weeks.  I must start putting that right, so here goes with a post to at least update my Art Journal.

There are four pages missing - that's over four weeks of not writing.  Tut tut!!!




After preparing the base I added texture paste through a piece of mesh and then melted wax crayons randomly on the page - interesting technique, but - note to self ... don't try and dry any additional layers - the heat make the crayons melt again LOL!!! 

This page came from a period of questioning myself, what I was doing,where I was going.  The text added reflects that - "In life we do things, some we wish we had never done, some we wish we could replay a million times in our heads, but they all make us who we are; and in the end they shape every detail about us.  If we were to reverse any of them we wouldn't be the person we are, so just live, make mistakes, have wonderful memories, but never ever second guess who you are, where you have been, and most importantly, where it is you're going.  Believe in yourself and your feelings.  Trust yourself to do what your heart is guiding you to do.  Your intuition is powerful.  Trust it.


Playing with new products - am loving my new Silks.  You can't see it here but there is sheet music underneath the dots.  I loved the quote that "It's not what you see, but how you see it" as what you see in this photo is only the surface - there is so much more hiding beneath.



I got a new book the other day about different surface treatments for creating art.  It is providing inspiration and ideas which I intend to trial in my journal before taking the ones I like onto canvas. 

I started this page by using textured wallpaper and then adding a resist using vaseline (petroleum jelly).  Once you paint over the page you can wipe the vaseline off with a baby wipe and it exposes the underneath colour/s.  The technique can be repeated as often as you like to add more and more layers and depth to your background.  Once I had finished adding the layers I wanted, I lightly sanded the surface to expose the paper underneath.


The quote for this should actually read "where words fail; art speaks" but I wanted the emphasis on the word "art".   The script on the right is about art and has been applied using gel medium through a The Crafters Workshop template.  I used a Donna Downey template underneath and sponged pan pastels through it. 

That's it for this post - more to come on other projects ...watch this space.