Finish in Five

Hey All!  I've been trying to squeeze a bit of fun play time in just lately.  Ten minutes here, ten minutes there.  As a result, I've been able to complete a few art journal pages.
To further help things along, I've joined Art Geeks, which has a number of instructers with different areas of expertise in a range of art mediums.  They issue challenges to get your juices going and so far, so good. 
The first one I've tackled has been put out by Kim, with her "Finish in Five" challenge ...
Taken from her blog ...

I will randomly choose 5 techniques or products, and create a journal page or spread, using ONLY those 5 techniques or products.

I have been doing this for a while, and find it really gets me inspired, and able to create an art journal page easily and pretty quickly (if that’s what I want). Sometimes I only have a few minutes to play in my art journal, and I used to waste those few minutes staring at the blank page! Not any more.
So, the idea is to take the 5 techniques/products, and let your imagination run wild! Seriously! With only 5 things to think about, just play play play! You can use the chosen 5 in as many different ways as you want. Here are the five products/techniques I’m using again:
1. spray (any kind of spray – homemade, Dylusions, alcohol, water…..)
2. stencil (homemade, or other…even household items can be used as stencils!)
3. stamp (as many different stamps as you want, with any medium you wish)
4. Doodle (draw, write, scribble….)
5. tape (washi, double-sided, duck, packing…)

I'll admit, mine are not at all elaborate.  But to be honest, I just don't have time for anything too involved right now.  I just want to get to play with colour for a few minutes a day and this fit the bill.

The first spread was done with Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Primrose, Georgia Peach and Mustard in diagonal swathes over a gessoed background.  Interestingly, the sprays pebbled as they had nowhere to sink in.  By using a heat tool, I was able to create even more of the pebbled effect as it dried.

 I used a mixture of black gesso and water to make my own black spray.

Supplies: 

Journal (Donna Downey Inspiration Journal)

Spray Ink (Heidi Swapp Color Shine)

Black Gesso (Liquitex)

Stencil (The Crafter's Workshop)

Stamp (Unity Stamps)

Ink (Ranger Archival)

Tape (Prima, Freckled Fawn, Glitz)

Pen (Uniball)

The second spread used Kim's original example as colour inspiration.  I had to skip in a few pages so that I could have paper that was clean and wouldn't need gesso.  This time, I used the vibrant Dylusions for my background colours (Fresh Lime, Vibrant Turquoise & Crushed Grape) and for the stencil layer (Black Marble). 

Once the inks were dried, I used a Liquid Acrylic Ink and dip pen to outline the each image and fill with dots.  Super simple.

I've been messing around a bit with making my own stencils using the Silhouette and it's software. The Crafter's Workshop sells plain sheets of stencil material that can be run through a diecutting machine or cut by hand. I've used an Echo Park Silhouette image to create this 12x12 stencil.  You'll notice a faint scale pattern in the plastic ... my first run at cutting a stencil didn't quite work out.  I've had to fiddle with the blade depth, etc. to get a decent cut, but the first cut didn't go all the way through so I thought I'd reuse the sheet and it worked fine.  I'll be definately making a few more of these in the future.

Supplies:

Journal (Donna Downey Inspiration Journal)

Spray Ink (Ranger Dylusions)

Liquid Acrylic (Daler Rowney Waterfall Green)

Stencil Blank (The Crafter's Workshop)

Die Cutting Machine (Silhouette)

Stamp (Unity Stamps, generic date stamp from office supply)

Ink (Ranger Archival)

Tape (Prima, Freckled Fawn, Glitz)

Pen (Uniball)

Thanks for the push Kim!  I needed it :)