Tips & Tricks Monday - Use your stamps to decorate your Travelers Journal/Planner/Kalender

Hello and welcome,
today it is Tips & Tricks Monday again. Because it is monday. New week, new possibilities, right?

This time I thought to show you that stamps and paint etc. can be used to decorate your calendar or planner. You do not have to buy expensive stickers when you can make it yourself. Much cheaper and much more original:

Here is the outside of one of the notebook inside my Travelers Journal

I made a pocket on the inside. I sew some stitches around the edge before I glued it on.

I used the flower stalk stamp from the Crazy Flowers #1 set to make lines to write on

All the stamps I have used on this project is from Rubber Dance

Here I first stamped the flower, then used white gesso and painted inside the flower. Secondly, I have stamped over there again and voila I got white flowers.

Here is my Travelers Journal on the outside. I have it with me all the time, I write, I plan, I draw, I stamp, I paint, I note. Yes, this is my good companion.

Stamps I have used on this project are:

Crazy Flowers #2

Crazy Flowers #1

Bling Bling!

Thank you so much for visiting. 

I would have greatly appreciated if I could get a feedback if these Tips and Tricks Monday is appreciated, or is it just waste of time 😊

Hugs, Anita
❤

Tips and Tricks Monday - How to achieve exciting texture in your artwork

Hello and welcome!

Today is it the Tips & Tricks Monday again, yeeah!

A while ago I was asked how I achieved such a nice texture in the background:

And finally, the day has come where I will show you the cool technique 😊 But I have to say that I'm not the great inventor here, I learned this technique by amazing Rae Missigman on a course I took with her.

Here is the final result of my canvas:

Below is a step by step how this canvas became like that:

I started with a canvas and some heavy gesso

Then, when the gesso was dry I glued down some pattern- and gelli printing paper with soft matte gel

After all was dry I went over with a dry brush and white gesso

I added more paper

and more gesso

Now it was time to add some colour

and more gesso

Then some stenciling

More gesso....

What I'm trying on here is to achieve a lot of texture by building layer on layer.

And now pam pam paaaaaaaammmm!!!! Here comes the cool technique:

A newspaper!  You can also use, for example, a page from a phone book - then the technique becomes even cooler. Unfortunately, I do not have phone book so I have to cope with a newspaper page. 

I find somewhere in the newspaper where I think it is a little interesting font. Greases a little soft mat gel on my canvas and places the newspaper page with the front down. Then I use an old credit card and scratch over the newspaper page several times. Then I remove the page  (after a second or so) and VOILA!... I hope... You may have to do it several times to get the desired result.

Now I need some more texture

I stamped all the flowers and the butterflies on tissue paper. I used the water brush to tear them out. (That was a Tips and tricks from last monday). The stamps is from Rubber Dance. Du can find them here

I think I needed even more color and maybe a little black and white too

I decided I needed a little drips and drops

Now it's time to glue down the butterflies and the flower I decided to use on my canvas.

Here is another tip for you: Use acrylic flow release when you want the paint drain / drip. Then you keep all the pigments in the paint and you don't make it completely transparent. Mix some acrylic flow release and several parts of water in a spray bottle, and you always have it handy to make drips and drops.

I colored the butterflies with Dina Wakley's Scribble sticks and Distress Crayons. I used the black and white for shadowing.

Then I decided that I needed even more color

Now I think my canvas is finish. With a little more colours and some shadowing - Voila! 

On this canvas there is layer by layer by layer by layer..... And that is what it makes it so interesting, don't you think?

Thank you so much for visiting! I will be back on the 1th of November with some inspiration for the new Challenge over at the Rubber Dance. And next monday there will be a new tips & Tricks Monday. Stay tuned!

Hugs, Anita

❤