Jens Arty Life

If I am not journalling, I am quilting. I have a home business quilting for other people. So I created this page which allowed me to create a journal page and practice quilting patterns at the same time. I might do black and white patterns on the facing page with no writing at all.

I have a summer cold which is making me feel awful. So I didn't feel like getting out any paint. Pencils and pen were a great way for me to do something creative without thinking too much. I have three gorgeous sets of 72 pencils that i have invested in over the years. This pages was made using the watercolour pencils but without brushing on water. The page needs to be sealed carefully afterwards to avoid any running. But I just love the softness of their colours. This page just begged to be created after watching the Socceroos win the Asia cup. Just looking at it I realise I failed to mention anywhere what the match was :) I'll have to go back and fix that. I used 4 colours (two greens and two yellows) in the swirls, a blue and red for the "Australia's" and a black pen. All the players names are written in the swirls. Pages like this are important to me. I dont' just journal because I love to create art (though I do love it). I want to really docum...

I wanted to do a page about rain. I had an idea ... I searched for a good image to draw. And it was looking really good. And then I ruined it. I decided the backgound wasn't 'drippy' enough and sprayed some more watered paint onto the page ... which then ran down through my black lettering in a pen that is water based. SIGH. I dried it and went over the letters again, but it isn't as good as it was. The page behind it was also totally ruined. Thankfully I hadn't worked on it much. But it did have some feathers I'd collected from budgies we were baby sitting, including a quite rare spotted feather. I had taped them to the page ready to draw the birds around it. I've tried to pull the tape off and the feathers came off intact, but the tape is all papery and the feathers aren't as visible as they were. I will have to see if I can affix them to something so they can be saved. So the lesson learned? DON'T OVER SPRAY THE PAGES OF THIS JOURNA...

I have wanted to draw Elsa since I first saw Frozen and this page gave me the chance. I originally wanted to draw her in white but it didn't show up on the background. I wanted a kind of ghostly feel to it rather than a true copy of her form and I think i did that well. I ended up with blue ink all over my hands as I had gessoed the page before inking it. I will have to seal it with hair spray. But first I will be writing some things I need to let go underneath like jealousy of other artists (I didn't want to bore you with my angst so I've uploaded it in this state. Thanks to Brenda at Bumblebees and Butterflies for her blog party and Hi to you if you have drifted over from there. Jennidee

I love to doodle on pages. I had this painted background which I had no idea what to do with. So I started drawing in black pen and it came to life. I will have to doodle more. It's so much fun.

I was feeling a bit down so I needed a pick me up. I typed 'funny' into Pinterest and spent an hour laughing. Later I created this double page. The painting on the right side is inspired by Noel Mignon. http://noelmignonlayouts.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/mixed-media-flower-canvas-mini-tutorial.html I wrote about not sharing the left hand side as I didn't feel it was worthy of it. it is just a scrapbook paper with a bit of lettering. Then I went to town on the other side and really enjoyed myself, so I thought I'd share the pages together ... one so simple, and the other side much more what I like. I've been trawling the internet lately for other bloggers who art journal as I've been a bit of a lonely artist these past few days. It's so nice to see what other people are up to. I joined a blog party that Brenda of Bumblebees and Butterflies ... so hello to those people who have wandered over from there. http://www.bumblebeesandbutterflies.com Jennid...

The Royksopp and Robyn song "monument" inspired this page. I really enjoy creating an art journal ... I do it mostly because it's fun, but I do also hope it will survive me and perhaps tell others what I was like when I'm no longer here. I like the grungy look of this page even though it happened by accident. I was trying out a technique I'd seen on you tube where you put a stencil down on a painted page, spray it with water and then wipe off where the water has soaked through the stencil. But I couldn't get it to work and I tried to rub back all the black paint. When I got to this point, no more paint would come off and I decide I liked it anyway. I managed to get the effect I wanted by using an embossing powder over a painted surface, then painting black over the hard embossed areas. Then you wipe back the black paint from the embossed areas. In my version the embossing powder was an extra thick one and it bubbled strangely, causing the pits. so when I wi...

I was very inspired by a pin on Pinterest, http://www.pinterest.com/pin/497647827549771247/  and created this in response. On the stars I have listed the achievements in 2014 that I am most proud of. Materials; ink as sprays, acrylic paint, white journal pen, black journal pen, star stencil.

Today's offering is another watercolour background, but this time I have done no other embellishment of the background and added only my drawings with black markers. The actual motifs are my adaptations of Turkish designs. I used a stencil for the lettering. My daughter Anna told me of another version of this little quote 'Happiness is not a destination, it is a way of life' and I like that quote better, but I'd already finished the page ... dammit. Have you ever had that happen? This page is A4 again and I will most likely expand it on white card when I stick it in my 12 by 12 scrapbook. I already have a stencil in mind, that I saw in the art shop the other day (the shop was closed yesterday, or I would have run out and bought it). Thanks for reading. Jennidee