Cathartic Art Journalling

G'Day Arty Peeps.

I hope you are making time for creativity in your days.

Along with Kylie and Lisa, I have been spending a short time each day playing in my art journal, for sanity's sake.

It is a bit like meditation but with eyes open and hands busy. An opportunity for me to pour out

the emotions in my head onto a surface.

This first page was started with Dylusions paints and a Crafter's Workshop stencil, dried and overlaid in some places with washi tapes - striped and newsprint.

It became one of those pages that just keeps growing, layer upon layer because you're not really happy with it and don't have any idea where you're going with it.

So, I decided to try to paint a simple black and white image on top, a profile of a woman's face leaning her forehead on her hand. Unable to get it to look how I liked, I covered it too with paints and stencils,

a little more transparently this time.

Then I had a lightbulb moment and reached for my Lion head stencil, made with my Silhouhette,

and some white Dylusions ink spray. I scribbled over the stencil outline with a black pen.

It was only left to stamp on the page what was going through my head.

These alpha stamps are an old Hero Arts set (I think) but you can find more current sets here.

I used Archival ink for the stamping and a bit over and around the page.

After the first, kind of emotional, page I felt free enough in my head to play without my inner critic going off. I grabbed whatever was close, starting with black gesso, and a magazine face applied with Matte Medium.

Looking through my stash of collage materials I came across some ancient sticky felt ribbon (omg, remember these?!) and these fantastic pages pinched from my mate Lisa's awesome murder book (Thank you Lisa, eternally grateful xx). The title worked for me, but I also wanted to include the story, well, because it's dark, creepy, and entertaining.

So, adding the felt to the right side, I balanced it with some starburst stencilling.

I smothered the lady's head in Dylusions paints, it was supposed to look like flowers but I gave up on that idea, and stuck down my gruesome story, again using Matte Medium.

To brighten the page I added pink paint. Then lastly, swiped the edges and across some bits of the page with black Archival ink and added black drips.

This page was quick, messy, and fun. Just the way I like it.

I recommend you get yourself an art journal if you don't already have one, they really are cathartic, and a great place to explore with different mediums and practise your techniques.

Remember you still have a week to join in our challenge this month,

we love seeing your projects, and you could win $30 to spend in the shop.

Jason took this video of the amazing shop, check it out!!

Thanks for coming by,

til next time,

Fun with Marquee Love by Tania

Happy Saturday everyone, hope the weekend is full of fun, love and laughter for you all! 

I just had me some fun, playing with the Marquee Love letter kit which was in my DT kit this month. I have to admit to having to think about this one for awhile, but after surfing Pinterest, and gaining some inspiration, my Letter 'B' was transformed!

Here's a shot of my desk, which shows you some of the products I used to decorate my light!

I used some Heidi Swapp Colorshine in Mint, Georgia Peach and Pink. The yellow was Dylusions ink. You can see my colour swatches where I tested a few different colours first. I was trying to match up the colour's of my daughter's bed covers in her room, as this is a pretty little gift for her!

The gorgeous Prima flowers are from my new DT kit and I've just pinned them on the letter with some Heidi Swapp lace ribbon and an American Crafts, clothespin. (That way, she can take them off if she doesn't like the flowers!) 

I also wanted to use the Marquee Love tape to decorate the edges, which I used in Gold. It was a little bit tricky putting the tape in the middle of the  letter, but thankfully, the tape is forgiving and I was able to peel it back up a few times and re-do!

Overall, this was a really quick and simple project!! They make great gifts and you can personalise them in many ways!! Possibilities are endless, just requires a little imagination and some inspiration!!!

There are so many gorgeous accessories in the Marquee Love range, take a look in the Scrappingclearly store!

See you next time,

Tania