How to: Create an Art Journal Book (Part 1) - Creative Team Thursday with Denise Alloca

Creating from the outside in!  In today's Design Team Post I will be creating the start of a book, from the outside then tackling the inside pages!  

Grab some cardboard, find your stash and play along!  

The cover is first, then to be continued….the pages.  For the cover I used Jessica’s Namaste Stencil, and the Whimsy Crown Stamp.   

I hope you play along!  Here's my video tutorial to get you started: https://youtu.be/neFZnTjXebY 

Supplies: 

Namaste Stencil 

Whimsy Crown Stamp 

Cardboard 

Tissue Paper 

Archival Black ink pad 

Gesso 

Golden Clear Tar Gel 

Liquitex Glass Bead Gel 

Golden Fluid Acrylic 

Deco Arts Interference Gold 

Acrylic Paint 

Parchment 

White 

Teal  

Turquoise 

Black 

With a passion for art from an early age, Denise Alloca turned her interest to photography and later art education. Through her diverse exposure to various art forms, she found her way to mixed media art, where she currently showcases her work on her blog.  Denise has been a Design Team member for Donna Downey’s Artist Gang, creating instructional videos showcasing various mixed media techniques.  Denise's work has also been published in Art Journal Kickstarter, which offers advice and techniques for art journaling enthusiasts.

Thanks for this great tutorial Denise!  

Make sure to check out all of the Creative Team's wonderful creations and inspiration.

         Visit Stencil Girl Products and RubberMoon Stamps to see all my designs!

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How to: Upcycle Cardboard into Inspirational Art - Creative Thursday with Sherry Canino

Hi Creative friends! Sherry Canino here today for the Creative Team and I have a fun tutorial on how I used some amazing stencils from Jessica Sporn Designs and some cardboard from my recycle bin to create some mixed media houses.

This is a fantastic way to use up lots of bits and pieces in your stash or things you may have laying around so grab your coffee and enjoy the video!

Here is a close up of the house completed in the video

And here are some other houses I completed using the same stencils as well as one additional stencil not used in the video.  (You'll see the complete list of stencils used below.

So now what to do with all these adorable houses you have created???  Well I decided to turn mine into a piece of home décor which is why all of my houses have a positive or inspirational saying on them that I cut out from magazines.

The steps to create a simple home décor piece out of your mixed media houses are super simple:

• Take a canvas and turn it over so you are using the back side, cover it in book pages, old sheet music, scrapbook or patterned paper or whatever you like the look of, I used dictionary paper.  
• Use a decoupage process to adhere your papers on and be sure to cover up all the wood on the back side of the canvas as well as wrap it around the edges.  
• Once dry I added just a tiny bit of color using a dry brush and paints in similar colors used on my houses to keep the look cohesive.  
• Then take your houses and arrange them on your canvas to your liking and glue on with a gel medium or E6000 glue.  (you want a glue that is going to be strong once it's dry so they don’t pop off. ) 

And that’s it, let it dry and display.  Below is a photo of my completed canvas.  I chose to write a little saying at the top using a black sharpie and then added some hearts and swirls from the Coffee Mugs and Love Stencil.

Here is a list of, and links to, the stencils I used in the video:

Borders 9J Stencil 

Coffee Mugs and Love Stencil 

Doors and Windows Stencil

Namaste Stencil

I hope you'll make your own houses and share them with us!

Sherry Canino, a former accountant, is a self taught mixed media artist and owner of Canino’s Artistic Café. She also works as an art therapist for a local organization.  Her style is whimsical, colorful and inspirational and has been featured in Syracuse Women’s Magazine.  She offers local as well as private art classes in her Liverpool Studio, and art journal or art therapy classes on location for businesses and schools.  Find Sherry on Facebook , Instagram, Etsy and on her blog.

THANK YOU SHERRY!  To see all of the Creative Team posts, click here! 

         Visit Stencil Girl Products and RubberMoon Stamps to see all my designs!

If you haven't already - please connect with me here:

InLinkz.com

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

Handmade Holidays Day 5 - Gelli Print Garland, Watercolor Resist Holiday Cards and Banner

Welcome to Day 5 of Handmade Holidays!  Every day this week, you'll find unique art and craft ideas.   Remember that every post has a giveaway, and all the comments for all the days count!  

For today's post, I have three projects for you.  The first project is a simple holiday garland using your excess gelli prints or other patterned paper.   All you do is punch shapes out of your prints, glue your shapes back to back over a piece of string or twine, embellish with glitter glue and dimensional paints, and add inspirational words.  Voila!  a pretty, festive, whimsical garland to adorn your mantle or stairway.  I was inspired by this post by Alicia Burke, in which she used some of her cards.   But then I added my own flair.

Next, here's a holiday card project.  You can use any image to make your cards.   I used the Three Trees Stencil from Stencil Girl Products. 

First, I stenciled the tree designs using acrylic paint.  Then I used a Sakura glaze pen to doodle and create resists.  When I washed around the stenciled designs with watercolors, the doodled areas resisted the watercolor.  

Here’s a video of some of my process making these cards.

You can also watch Watercolor Holiday Cards on YouTube here.

I added some glitter glue here and there, and was about to add the words from the stencil when…..

I spied some corrugated cardboard in just the right shapes to contain the trees!

I cut the trees out, and then painted the cardboard with Golden Fluid Acrylic paint.

I’d had this Bark Paper in my stash forever.  It was time to use it.

I added the trees to my cardboard substrates, pulled out my glitter glue and other items from my stash, and started playing.

 

Before I knew it, I was taken over by my muse.  I originally thought I would use each of these as an individual card or wall hanging.   But then I strung them together as a garland.  I love them this way!

I filmed some of my process.

You can also watch Holiday Garland with Corrugated Cardboard on YouTube Here.

Hope you enjoyed this easy project and it gives you some ideas for the holidays!

I hope this post gave you some fun ideas.  I am giving away one of the Three Trees stencils!  to a lucky commenter.  Remember, for extra chances to win, make sure to comment on all the Handmade Holiday posts!  I will pick all of the winners on Saturday morning, 11AM EST. 

Please leave your email address in your comment (like this: jessicasporndesigns at gmail dot com) to be considered for the giveaway!

And the winners are:

Corrine Gilman’s Brooch:  Lou Lou in Texas!  

Art is you Trade:  Suzie Q 23!  

Clay Ornament:  Karen!  

Hamsa Stamp:  Lisa Meyers! 

Three Trees Stencil:  Lu 

Make sure to check back for more projects and giveaways every day this week!

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

If you don't already, please sign-up for my newsletter HERE, and follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin and YouTube, so that you never miss a giveaway, and always get the latest Jessica Sporn Designs News!