Art Journal Page - Background Bonus No 3

Blessings for you and yours this Sunday, this post is slightly later than I had hoped, but welcome to the 31 Art Journal Series backgrounds bonus.

If you didn't catch the background bonus from last week you can see it HERE and HERE

Here is a reminder of yesterdays tips, see which ones you already incorporate into your journal practice and which ones you can start if you need to.

Check out today's background video to see how you can create those backgrounds using a few simple materials, and so there will be no excuse not to start!

The Video

Here is an easy way in which you can create your own background pages. Just add color and play with your supplies on the page and before you know it you have a great surface to work on further.  Enjoy!

31 Art Journals - Art Journal page - Backgrounds Bonus!

Happy Sunday,  and welcome to the 31 Art Journal Series.  I thought it would be good to break up the format slightly and give you and example of creating a background for your art journal page.  This is just one way and I have a few more examples to share with you over the next few weeks.

Whether you have loads of yummy supplies or you don't you can always find supplies to suit your budget.

I took a trip to my local supermarket and found a cheap paint kit for kids that came with brush, roller, 3 primary colour poster paints, foam stamps a mixing bowl and brush holder all for £4.  I got an additional paints that were pearlised and cost £1 each.  You can even pick up larger packets of poster paint and these are especially good if your working on recycled materials and want to create several layers.

There are also cheaper brands that you can use when you are experimenting, and even with these you can get some really interesting results.

You can also use gesso and stencils to give you texture on your pages and instead of a brush you can use an old credit card to apply the paint to the paper.

Art Journal Tips

Here is a reminder of yesterdays tips

Backgrounds Video 1

Take a look at the video as I go through the steps.  I hope that you are able to pick up some useful hints and tips and look forward to seeing you next week for another series of Art Journals.

Stay blessed and be a blessing.

10 Prompts, 10 Minutes, 10 Days - Day 8 - What is in a background

Welcome to day 8 of the 10 Ideas to kick start your creativity.  Today's task and additional instructions is below

Prompt 8  - What is in a background?

What is in a background - Create a background on paper, using stamps, stencils and your choice of 3 paints, use them in different ways on each of the backgrounds. 

 Spend time playing with the colours, shapes and the way the brush leaves its mark. You can try some of the sticks from when you made marks earlier during the week, and see which patterns were your favorite.

Additional Information

The great thing about these ideas is that anyone can do them, you don’t need to be creative, so if you are looking for ways to unwind or give yourself that much needed time then these are things ideas that you should try.

For each activity you can try it using different mediums or surfaces, colours - do not limit yourself.  I want to give you ways in which you can experiment if you want to.  You can adapt it anyway you like to suit, and there are no right or wrong ways to create, so do not put any boundaries on yourself.

The most important thing is to have fun.  The minimum amount of time you should spend on each activity is 10 minutes, it is great if you can spend longer.  You can do a different activity each day, add the activities together, or work on a piece for longer.  

I will be following along and posting to my Instagram account remember to share and put in the hastags #101010 and #realityarts

Each activity will give you ways in which you can very easily strengthen your creative muscles and also provide you with some of the tools and techniques that I will be sharing in my lesson on the BADASS Art Journal  Check out some of the cool bonuses that you can get when you sign up using my link HERE

What you waiting for - enjoy, and let me know how you get on.

My Color is Beautiful Art Online Course - Week 1 - Courage

We have been having a great time on the first week of My Color is Beautiful Art Online Course, and despite drawing on a regular basis, it is quite easy to forget to play and enjoy the work, rather than stick to rigid routines.

You can watch me in action in the video below to see how I got from a blank piece of paper to the image below.

This week saw me starting out playing with backgrounds and using a limited palette and enjoying the process. The colors I chose to use were ones that I rarely take out and they have been sitting at the back and out of the way, and together they seem to blend well.  This is a great exercise and one that I want to keep up and creating background pages.

After I had finished the background page, I then went on to create an image from the page, seeing what I could pull out of the paint,  Little by little a character began to come forth and had a message or a reminder to me, and that was to take courage.  I guess at some point or another we all have to face things that can be a bit challenging, but once we take that step we can be surprised at how much we had in side that was better than we had originally thought.

Here is some of the detail of the piece, I created a lot of texture just by using gesso and mark making tools

And the message of courage came shining through

Week 1 of My Color is Beautiful Art has started and there is still time to sign up, you will receive:

• 10 positive, creative energy boosts and exercises, videos and/or pdf’s provided.  

• 1 exercise per week for 10 weeks, resulting in feelings of joy, confidence, happiness, acceptance and love!

• Fun giveaways/prizes! and much more!

• The Classroom access will be open until December 31, 2015.

If you would like to sign up, you can REGISTER HERE and it will take you to the page.  

Looking forward to having you create with us!

Gelli Plates - DIY

I thought I would get on board the Gelli Plate train, without the expense of having to purchase one - for this size it would have been around £30, which seemed quite expensive for trying something out and not knowing whether I would really use it often enough.  

I came across Linsay - The Frugal crafters website and YouTube channel and she goes through the technique of making your own gelli plate - the ingredients including - gelatin - (6 sachets) and 2 bottles of glycerin cost me in total £8

Tada! Here is the one I made, measuring approximately  7.5inch x 12inch

Home made Gelli Plate

I managed to find a storage container for it at our local £1 store and I placed an A4 sheet of acetate on the bottom and top of the gelli plate which stops it from drying out.

Here are some of the prints I have made so far...

By using several layers of paint and stencil, masks and tools to make marks I have enjoyed creating the different layers on the papers.

 Some have come out looking quite interesting and I will be taking them a bit further by creating an image from them, or use them as background papers.

If you come back on for Tutorial Tuesday, I will show you how I made and have been using the Gelli Plate, who knows perhaps you can make one of your own and open up new ways for creating backgrounds.