'Illuminate the Dark' with Lisa Amiet

Hello all!

It's Lisa here today with my second share for the month,

where we are celebrating our wonderful artist Tammy!

I am always in love with her bright, fun and whimsical pages!

This is what inspired me to create this art journal page.

With this page, I have started with a nice coat of Gesso for my page.

I have then used some Dina Wakley Acrylic in 'Lemon',

 to paint a circle in the centre of my page.

I have then coated the rest of the page in 'Eggplant',

not quite joining the two colours, leaving a white rim.

I have then used the '7 Dots Studio Aspen Trees Stencil' and

'Dina Wakley Acrylic in Turquoise', to stencil over the yellow only. 

I have then used the 'Finnabair Grungy Grid Stencil' (still my fave lol),

and black paint, randomly over the edges. 

I have then adhered the wings, fussy cut from the '13Arts Journey Stickers',

to the centre of my page. 

I have drawn in some zig zags around the edges. 

I have then stamped my quote, using the 'Art by Marlene 

Storms Don't Last Stamp Set' and Archival Ink.

Finally it was time to add the centrepiece, that gorgeous girl!

I have fussy cut her from the 'Art by Marlene Collage Papers #4',

and adhered her in the centre. 

I have then added some movement lines for her wings,

and splattered some white ink around the circle.

I am really happy with how it turned out!

Isn't she gorgeous??

I hope you like her too,

and that she may have inspired you to create today!

Until next time

Lisa

A Rainbow of Inspiration

Welcome back!

I have two projects that have been inspired by Tammy this time.  

The first one is using stamps to create something different from their original purpose. 

I've been blown away by Tammy's creations and thought I'd give it a go.  

Once again I've used Paperartsy's products.  They are my 'go to' items. 

First I gessoed two pages in my large Dylusions journal using a brayer.

Then I've grabbed Butter, Guacamole, Mermaid, Wisteria and Lilac along with the stencils PS154, PS155 and PS156.  

Then with a very wet brush I splashed Wisteria and Lilac onto my pages.  Grabbing a baby wipe, I removed some colour using the stencils, and sponged Mermaid and Snowflake through another.  I repeated this with Butter and Guacamole onto the bottom part of the page.  It's very messy but fun.

I made the insects/butterflies from the flowers in JOFY82.  I just used two petals and removed the third.

Next I used Stone, Truffle and Mushroom to paint the tree and limb.

On a journal page that I had removed, I sponged Snowflake, Surf's Up and Lake Wanaka and stamped the head from JOFY54, the wing from JOFY82.  I stamped the small 'feathers' from ETS09 onto a section painted with Snowflake and filled in the feathers with the blues. I then cut out a rough body for my baby kookaburra.  The beak was the large heart from ETS09 which I trimmed.  It was painted with Mushroom.

My gum leaves, gumnuts and flowers came from JOFY90, JOFY53 and EKD06.  The leaves were painted with Sage, Tinned Peas and Pewter.  The gumnuts were done with Mushroom and Haystack.  The flowers were made by sponging Haystack onto my extra page and stamped in Cheesecake, which didn't show up well, so I stamped them again with black Staz-on.  I then detailed the gumnuts and flowers with Cheesecake dots.

I added more details with my coloured pencils, a white Posca and a grey Pitt pen.

>^.^<

Now onto my next project.  

This was inspired by her dream catcher.

First I covered a page from my Art by Marlene journal with black gesso.  

Then using Stencil PS124 I sponged Tango, Zesty Zing, Limelight and China onto the page.

Onto my scrap paper I sponged Tango and Zesty Zing in one spot and Limelight and China in another.  I then stamped the Small Circle from ETS35 four times.  and cut them out.  I stamped the 'strings' from EKC02 in Zesty Zing and stamped the small flowers in Limelight and Tango. 

I added the quote and details in white Posca pen.  

So that's it. 

 I hope my interpretation of Tammy's designs inspires you to give it a go.

Stay safe everyone.

Jen

>^.^<

Illuminate by Tanya Froud

Hi Guys.

My first project was 100% Tammy Inspired.

At the time this was created.. My mojo had really had moved out. Gone.. MIA.

 We were looking down the barrel of uncertainty. Adjusting to life that was far from normal. Lock-down. Work changes. Home schooling. All this takes a toll mentally.

I would sit at my desk and want to create, make something and just disconnect, but it wouldn't come. After procrastinating for ages, I had an idea, seeing as this was a Inspired by Tammy month, well I should be Inspired by Tammy.

I asked Tammy to name 6 products and a quote to use on a project.

Tammy responded with 

-Gesso

-2x stencils

-Lots of Paint

-Tissue or Collage paper

-A stamp

-Pen work

and the quote "illuminate the dark with joyful art"

This quote truly spoke to me after feeling so dark. The ideas flowed.

A light in the dark...

From there I grabbed products.

Dina Wakley Media Paint

Carabelle Stencil

Tim Holtz Stencil

Kay Carley Stamp by Paper Artsy

Pastel Crayons

Clear Gesso

I started with a sheet of white heavy weight cardstock and sketched out a light bulb shape.

I then used dark blues and white gesso and from the light bulb out starting with white worked out ending in the darkest color. Dry completely.

I then sponged black paint through the carabelle stencil.

I painted the light bulb in white gesso. I added some shadows  with a black pastel crayon.

I then stamped some vines onto tissue paper and loosely cut them out. Taking the first vine I stuck it down with clear gesso and then colored it with green paint.

Once fully dry I watered down white gesso and painted over the vine, to make it disappear, slightly translucent. (you want it to appear like its on the other side of the light bulb.)

I then repeated this step collaging more vines over the light bulb, skipping the gesso so that this time it was on top and in brighter colors.

I then used the rose stencil and added some flowers using white gesso and then pink paint over the top. I then dabbed yellow dots near to add more color.

I went back in with pastels and added more shadows.

Once done I finished of with a white paint pen and added some finer details and a quote which I had printed.

For my second layout, I looked at all Tammy's work, found things that stood out to me and then combined them all in one layout. Now I could tell you which ones but where is the fun in that?

Instead head over and take a look at Tammy's work and see if you can pick some..

Well that's it for now..

Thanks for looking, stay safe everyone!

Inspired by Tammy : April challenge, Journal page

Hello everyone,

What a year!!! 

Let us share in some relief away from the world events. 

I have to confess, I was struggling with the bombardment of news and was finding it hard in myself to spend time in the craft room. I have had ideas in my head but no drive in my body. 

I always love listening to the radio while I'm crafting, but for this project, I switched off the outside world and as I call it...'put my Tammy on'! Tammy inspires us all with her variety of projects and it felt really good to get messy with paint again. 

It is really important to look after your mindset at the moment so give yourself some craft time... you wont regret it.

#stayathome #staysafe

This is Tammys' page that inspired me for my project. I have not played with faces very much so I have used a large face from a magazine.

I have used a gesso page which I sprayed Distress Oxide Sprays - faded jeans, cracked pistachio and picked raspberry. I then sprayed the page with water which reacted with the oxide. Once this had dried, I created some drips with Lindys spray - stardust. Over the face, I painted clear gesso so that I could add a skin tone colour gelato to tone down the picture,

For my butterflies, I painted a page in stripes of Paper Artsy paints - aqua duck egg, zesty zing and blah mange. The butterflies and the wording are from three Paper Artsy stamp sets : Tracy Scott ETS26,  ETS20 and ETS21. Before I glued these to the page, I have added some black paint splatters. To finish the page, I have used some gelatos to colour the edges in a darker blue and added some tan colouring around the face.

On the Scrapmatrix Shares page, there is an album of Tammys' layout which is filled with inspirations. Good luck stopping at one!

Happy Crafting 

Inspired by ME!! Take 2

Hi everyone

How are you all doing in this bizarre and unprecedented time?

I am having a couple of weeks away from work right now which has been very needed. I work within an essential service and it has been a difficult time going in to work, knowing I am needed, however feeling like I should be at home.

I really value my arty obsession and the positive effect it has on my mental health, but now more than ever this has been a blessing.

Having somewhere to turn to process some of my thoughts and emotions is something I am truly grateful for.

Art Journaling is all about that for me. 

If I'm feeling any sort of emotion strongly, it comes through always.

Again, inspired by the current situation.

As you can see I express my feelings through both my journaling and through the use of colour.

So let's take a look at how this one happened...

I began with a page in my art journal - as you can see I'd added excess paint leftover from another project. (can't waste anything!)

I covered it with white gesso, and was not concerned that some of it was peeking through.

That just adds to the layers.

I began to gather my supplies.

I decided to use something from Dina Wakley's Collage Collective.

This book is amazing!!!

So much in it, so usable, so inspiring.

I selected this piece.

I then gathered a few more supplies....

I used the colours in the figure as my inspiration.

First I trimmed down the figure.

Time to add colour.

I used Dylusions 'Lemon Zest', 'Cut Grass', 'Calypso Teal', 'Black Marble' and PaperArtsy 'Cherry Red'.

Whilst wet, I wiped off some of the paint with a baby wipe through a stencil.

I used one of my fave stencils 'The Crafters Workshop Botanical Dream 12x12'.

Such an awesome technique, totally inspired by the fabulous Lisa Oxley.

Repeat with Dylusions 'Cut Grass'.

I used the smaller stencil this time.

You see I love this stencil so much that I recently ordered it in 6x6" too!

Add Paper Artsy 'Cherry Red'

Ok, time to add some Dylusions black marble

This goes with my emotions, the heaviness that surrounds us all right now.

This time I used 'TCW 6x6 Deco Leaves'.

Another fave.

Look what happened when I pulled it off!

Yikes, my gesso underneath wasn't properly dry and it pulled off some paper.

Ok time to replan.

Instead of  placing the figure on the right hand side as previously planned in my head, it now had to go right there to cover up the mess!

Notice that the figure looks like it is sitting upon the top of the page?

Time to fix this.

By going around with a black scribble stick, it helped to blend it and push it forward.

That dark section seemed like the perfect place for my title.

The lone figure made me think of the current #socialdistancing and #stayathome requirements.

So I grabbed some alpha stamps by Tim Holtz, and added them with white paint.

I then used the Dina Wakley stamps to add

'stay strong'

'stay kind'

'stay brave'

Next I added a few flicks and scribbles with white Dina Wakley paint

Finally I added some journaling.

I wanted it to go with the bright colours peeking through the darkness, so I really wanted to highlight some of my positive thoughts.

It reads:

"something that I am excited about with everyone staying at home is all the art and all the beautiful music that will come. 

Our world will be colourful again".

The final step was a few scribbles using my fudeball pen, and some flicks of black paint.

I LOVE IT!!!

I have created another page too.

This one was inspired by a previous page.

You see I have a mini book - 6x6 - it's the perfect size for me.

Due to work commitments, I often don't have a lot of time to create.

Often half an hour or so is it.

If I grab my large journal, often I just feel overwhelmed.

The smaller space of a 6x6" seems to free me up.

It's a place I can experiment, try things out.

I'm not concerned about the end result. It's about colour, about play, about not thinking.

Often those experiments turn up on a large art journal page later. Just with more detail.

So let's have a look at one of these.

Here's my 6x6 experiment.....

Love those glorious drippy colours.

Here's what came through....

Same drippy style, but lots of stamping added.

 Let's take a look.....

I began with my inspired piece and applied gesso to my page.

I selected the following Paper Artsy paints:

Cherry Red

Carribean Sea

Zesty Zing

Electric Violet

Slimed

I wanted to use these like watercolours, so diluted them by adding lots of water.

I loosely sketched a face with pencil.

I began with the Cherry Red, applying lots of water and letting it run.

I repeated with the other colours, drying inbetween each colour.

This is important, so you don't end up with mud.

I then painted in the face using Dina Wakley 'Apricot'.

I then grabbed these floral stamps by 'Art by Marlene'.

I stamped these onto the page, and added the leaves so they were cascading downwards.

I then added in some detail to the face.

I added colour to the leaves, some pen work and a quote by 'Art by Marlene' from the Whimsy Stickers.

Here's the finished product.....

I really hope you join in with the challenge this month.

Our goal as designers is to inspire you.

I often wonder if people read the blog, or try out some of the techniques.

So here's your chance to show me!!!

Plus we can all use a bit of extra colour this month.

For even more 'Tammy' inspiration, keep your eyes peeled on the facebook page.

I will share a few more projects.

Don't forget you can head to the 'Tammy' album for a one stop shop for inspiration.

Much love, stay safe

Tam

xx