ICAD 2017 Creative Challenge! Week 1 Day 1

Hi everyone!

As if I wasn't sick of painting I decided to start the ICAD challenge again this year. I started off so well last year but fizzled out and didn't finish it. Maybe this year I'll actually finish!

Anyway, the first day's prompt was "sunrise" so I decided to do a sunrise - I'll try to get more creative as I go along LOL.

Products Used:

Liquitex Professional gesso
Reeves lemon yellow acrylic paint
Liquitex Basics cadmium yellow medium hue acrylic paint
Liquitex Basics yellow deep hue acrylic paint
Reeves orange acrylic paint
Americana peach silk acrylic paint
Reeves red ochre acrylic paint
Reeves deep madder acrylic paint
Liquitex Basics alizarin crimson hue
Mars black acrylic paint (cheap brand)
Global white acrylic paint
Fiskars 2 1/2" circle punch
Mother Earth stencil from istencils.com (item # 28-00082)
Reeves water soluble wax pastels in red, yellow, black & white

You can watch the full process video of this ICAD creation on YouTube HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping bye!

Smiles
Jen

Art Journal Page 159

Hi again everyone!

Today's blog is yet again another journal page!

I don't think I like this page, only because of the colours I used for the notes as well as adding the blues & greens over the top of the background. They just don't go together at all.

Once upon a time I used to just gesso over a page I didn't like and start again, but nowadays I think it's all part of the process. Some days we have it and some days we don't! Life's like that.

I started out with some script and sheet music, so then I decided the page would be about music. Once the background was done and I created the "music notes" I then introduced the blues and greens to the background over the shades of red - bad mistake, as it just did not look good. But I pushed on and completed the page anyway!

For the quote I googled "music note quotes" and the quote I used came up within the search. Sometimes I find a quote I really like while I'm googling and plan a page around the quote.

Sometimes that can be a challenge though as my pages don't usually turn out the way I intended when I plan them.

You can watch the process video on YouTube by clicking the link HERE.

Tomorrow's page will be better, I hope LOL

Products used:

Liquitex Professional Gesso
Unknown script stamp
Unknown sheet music stamp
Jet black StazOn ink
Mars black acrylic paint
The Crafters Workshop "capricious" stencil
Dylusions "diamond border" stencil
Americana pink cadillac acrylic paint
Reeves rose madder acrylic paint
Liquitex Basics alizarin crimson hue acrylic paint
Reeves orange acrylic paint
Glad Wrap (kitchen cling wrap)
White acrylic paint
The Crafters Workshop "sheet music" stencil
Fiskars shape cutter (circles)
Black Faber-Castell Pitt Artist brush pen
Reeves teal acrylic paint
Pebeo cerulean blue acrylic paint
Liquitex Basics bright aqua green acrylic paint
Pebeo DYNA iridescent green blue acrylic paint
Plastic gift card (used as a tool)
White POSCA pen
Prussian blue water soluble wax pastel by Reeves
White water soluble wax pastel by Reeves
Black Sakura glaze pen

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Smiles
Jen

Art Journal - Page 158

Hi again! Are you sick of me yet? LOL

Today's post is yet another journal page. After yesterday's bright page I wanted to use softer colours. Even though it was darker than I had anticipated it definitely is much softer.

No plan except to use some doilies and washi tape and soft colours.

I tend not to try and plan a page as it never seems to work out the way I originally intended, so I just decide to maybe use some stamps, stencils, paints, paper or other medium that I haven't used in a while and go from there. Most times I add so many layers because I still don't know where the page is taking me.

Products used today:

Liquitex Professional Gesso
KaiserCraft "botanical" background stamp
Clearly Besotted "honeycomb" stamp set
SimonSaysStamp "surf blue" dye ink
Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous "bitty grunge" stamp set
Hero Arts Hero Hues "unicorn pastel pink" pigment ink
Tim Holtz distress paint in "spun sugar", "broken china" & "bundled sage"
Chromacryl gel medium
Recollections Washi tape
Magical powders by Lindys Stamp Gang in "aloha avacado", "ocean breeze blue" & "plumeria pink"
Finnabair's Art Basics light paste
Tim Holtz "lace" layering stencil
KaiserCraft "English Rose Collection"
Ranger Emboss It clear embossing dabber
Ranger "queen's gold" embossing powder
Brilliance "galaxy gold" ink by Tsukeniko
Cottage Cutz "spring fairy" die
Lumiere paint by Jacquard in "halo violet gold", "metallic russet" & "sunset gold"
Ranger clear Emboss It pen
Heidi Swap "gold" Color Shine

You can watch the page being created on YouTube by clicking HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Smiles

Jen

Art Journal Page 157

Hi everyone!

Today I worked in an old hard cover book I bought from my local thrift store.

I started off with a multitude of colours and 'feathered' them all. I really like the effect the feathering has on the paint!

I then added some black and white to the page and thought - now where?

So I decided to call on my old faithful - the circles and added a few to the page.

Now I was stuck! So I decided to search for 'link' and 'connect' quotes because that's what the page made me think of. It was then that I found the quote I used.

Products used:

Liquitex Professional Gesso
Dylusions paint in calypso teal, vibrant turquoise
Liquitex Basics acrylic paints in cadmium yellow medium hue, bright aqua green, brilliant yellow green
Reeves acrylics in rose madder & orange
Semco acrylic in ocean
Americana acrylic in pink cadillac
Mars black acrylic paint
White acrylic paint
Faber-Castell PITT artist brush pen
Black Sakura glaze pen
Fan brush
White Inktense pencil

Here are some pics of the page or you can watch the process video on my YouTube channel HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!

Smiles
Jen

Art Journal - Page 156

Hi everyone!

Today I was working in my "prompt" journal. This is a hard cover book I bought from our local thrift store, I wanted to create a journal playing around with backgrounds and to add a prompt to each page so that when I was stuck for an idea for a journal page I could refer to this prompt journal. I tore out a few pages so that it would reduce the stress on the binding. I'm not adhering any pages together in this journal as the pages are quite thick enough for what I'm going to put on it.

First I applied a coat of white gesso (I use Liquitex Professional fluid gesso).

For this page I wanted to leave some white space and create a page with mostly black/blue tones so I applied some acrylic paint (mars black mixed with white to create a grey tone) over a TCW "Moroccan Tiles" stencil.

I then darkened the grey a bit and sponged over the "trellis" layering stencil by Tim Holtz, then darkened the grey more and sponged it over the "diamond border" stencil by Dylusions.

Now I forget in which order I did the remainder of the page but it went something like this:

I stamped the Judikins key with jet black archival ink, along with the butterflies stamp and bird stamp by Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous "shabby french".

Next I started spraying through the same stencils with slate grey, after midnight, black marble and white linen ink sprays by Dylusions, as well as stream Adirondack Color Wash spray.

I then added more grey paint over the "trellis" stencil (I think), then added some white spray, some black marble spray again, stamped the swirl with jet black archival ink (stamp from the "shabby french" set by Tim Holtz/Stampers Anonymous).

I also thought it needed more contrast with some white, but as I had sprays all over the page the colours of the sprays were always going to come through whatever white medium I applied, but I decided to go ahead and just trace over some of the diamonds with a white POSCA pen.

I finished up the page by mixing up some mars black acrylic paint & water in a squirt bottle (bought this from Michael's when I was in the States) and writing the "discovery" title.

The page ended up darker than I initially intended but it's all good! You can watch the time-lapse process video on YouTube by clicking HERE.

Thanks so much for stopping by!