How long do you keep working on a piece before admitting defeat? Before accepting that it's not going to work out how you want. Or do you never give up, do you think that's pretty much anything — as long as you haven't spilled a tin of paint over it — is redeemable? There are… Continue reading Hummingbird
A quick and easy art card to finish off the mini class. Wrap a piece of cardboard in aluminium foil, then draw lines and punch holes to create an effect like riveted metal panels. Add a coat of black acrylic paint, let it dry a little and then run most of it off, leaving shading… Continue reading Supply Savvy ATC day 5
Another technique that I've previously only tried with watercolour paints: using rock salt to add texture. And, like the cling film technique, it didn't turn out as well as it might have. At least this time I'm pretty sure I know what went wrong, I simply didn't use enough water, so the effect is more… Continue reading Supply Savvy ATC day 4
Another simple process that gives an interesting result. The background is essentially finger-painting: add blobs of paint to the card and smoosh it around until you are happy with how it looks. Add a few marks and splatters and, once it's dried, you're ready to add the background text. This is not a stamp, it… Continue reading Supply Savvy ATC day 3
The main technique for the second day of the Artful Academy Supply Savvy challenge was using cling film with acrylic paint to create a textured background. I've done this with watercolour paint before and it turned out really nicely, but for some reason it just didn't work that well here — I must give it… Continue reading Supply Savvy ATC day 2
Last November — yes, this is how far I am behind on writing up projects — Artful Academy (or Mixed Up Creative Academy as they were called then) ran a five-day teaser challenge for their Savvy Supply School class. I didn't go on to do the full class at the time, but I did complete… Continue reading Supply Savvy ATC day 1
The guest instructor for week three of the Wanderlust "inspired by another artist" theme was Tanyalee Kahler (website, Instagram). A severe lack of energy means that I have done very little creative work over the last couple of months; if it didn't have to be done (like the two birthday cards), then it didn't get done.… Continue reading Delaunay-Holdsworth
And we were back with Anneliese Bates (Instagram) for the last week of the Wanderlust "floral" theme. I'd seen people mention using glue guns to create stencils before but the technique never made it anywhere near the top of my "things I must try" list. Although I have managed to shake off the worst of… Continue reading Textured flowers
The guest instructor for week three of the Wanderlust "floral" theme was Mou Saha (website, Instagram, YouTube). Me and watercolour are not really the best of friends. I can use it, but unless I'm making pretty background papers for other projects, I'm rarely completely happy with the results. I know it's just a matter of… Continue reading Wanderlust: floral memories
And we're back with Anneliese Bates (Instagram) for the last week of the Wanderlust "steampunk" theme. I had put off doing the steampunk lessons because, after having a quick look, I realised that most of them were going to be more time-consuming than the average art journal page. Not only that, but I would have… Continue reading Wanderlust: steampunk palette
The guest instructor for week two of the Wanderlust "floral" theme was Shawn Petite (website, Instagram, YouTube). I love Shawn's work and regularly watch her YouTube videos, especially the Sunday Inspiration ones. Lovely textured layers of collage papers, modelling paste and acrylic paint all come together to create a wonderfully weathered background for the flowers.… Continue reading Wanderlust: serenity flowers
The first week of the Wanderlust "floral" theme and, as usual, we started with the organiser Kasia Avery (website, Instagram). In an ultimately vain attempt to avoid constantly running behind on the class schedule, I decided to temporarily skip the steampunk theme which has some quite time-consuming lessons in it and jump to the Floral… Continue reading Wanderlust: inky flowers
Because I just didn't have enough to keep me occupied catching up with the Wanderlust classes, I decided to take Kasia Avery's 3 day Daily Emotions Challenge. The decision was driven by curiosity more than anything else. I love the art side of art journalling, but I've always shied away from the journalling part of… Continue reading Daily Emotions journal
This was the last lesson of the Wanderlust "rivers" theme and we were back with Kasia Avery (website, Instagram). I was working out of order here. I'd put off starting this lesson because it felt like it was going to take a while to do. Rather than just a single page in an art journal,… Continue reading Wanderlust: concertina flow
The last week of the Wanderlust "Patterns" theme and we're back with the organiser Kasia Avery (website, Instagram). It was too much to hope that there wouldn't be any more faces... and as for creating an "abstract self-portrait", well, it's only my determination to have a go at all of the Wanderlust lessons that meant… Continue reading Wanderlust: pattern portrait
Crafty Rat 