Jens Arty Life

To my dear followers. I'm so excited you have chosen to follow my journey. Thank you very much for your views and especially the comments which are always appreciated. But even when I didn't have any followers I enjoyed art journalling. And this page is to celebrate that; I changed the quote slightly. I said 'I want to MAKE beautiful things, even if no-one cares.' When I saw the quote on Pinterest it felt so true I knew I had to add it to my art journal. It's just pencils and a black felt tip pen. I didn't feel much like getting the paints out because 1. I'm working on a quilt for Sydney Quilt show and the deadline for entries is coming up, and 2. we have a new addition to out family. Her name is Olivia Jigger (a Jigger Rabbit is a slang way of saying cat in Liverpool). We call her OJ or Ollie for short. Olivia came to us from the RSPCA in Katoomba. My husband and my daughter drove up to get her on Saturday and she is quite the gorgeous di...

How ironic that Brenda at Bumblebees and Butterflies has used greens and butterflies in her page. Without seeing her page, I've done the same. Just like a butterfly this page went through a metamorphasis. I thought I had finished the page ... I wasn't happy with it but I thought it was done. Then, when I was working on the next page over, water spread from one page to the other and ruined it. So i painted over it with gesso (keeping the butterfly textures and the colours peeking through) and started again. Now I really like this page. So I suppose the disaster of the water from the rain page paid off in the end. Thanks again to Brenda for her blog party. i am really enjoying seeing your journals. Jennidee

My daughter asked me to watch the movie 'Lucy' with her the other night. I'm really glad I did because I really enjoyed it. Not only was it entertaining, but it was thought provoking too. It inspired this page; The face is much more realistic than my previous attempt. I have been watching painting videos to improve. I am really happy with this, though I know the girl doesn't bare much resemblance to Scarlet Johansen. The pages are curly so much I had to put a paper weight on the edge to take the photo :) Jennidee

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 page is A4 size. I used watercolours for the background, a paper lace doiley as a stencil, an embossing pen and embossing powder to make the flowers (apart from one which commercially made) and more experimenting with ink, this time as a splash/ spray. The quote I found on pinterest and I have no idea who said it, but it just rings so true. I really like the colours on this page. They are bright, but still quite girly. I hope you have enjoyed a peek. Jennidee

I have listed 5 pages on ETSY for sale at $3.50 each.  This is item number 1 ... The 5 pages I put up are all A5 size. My shop is here. https://www.etsy.com/shop/TapestryMoon And you can do something like this ... This is the first page of next year's journal. Today I visited the art shop and bought more stencils and some other supplies. I am quickly becoming addicted to this art form. I hope to put up more pages for sale on ETSY tomorrow. Jennidee

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