Wednesday 20 February 2019

2019 #2 Brayers: Friendship with EAB {by Jennie Atkinson}

2019 Topic 2: Brayers



Ohhh delicious colours from Jennie tonight, and such a delight to see how she pulls the layers togehter so thoughtfully!. Lots of old school stamps in the mix plus of course the newest from Alison finishes everything perfectly! ~Leandra

Hi everyone, Jennie (Live The Dream) with you today with a (colourful for me!) journal page celebrating friendship.

As our theme is brayers I just had to get out the Gelli Plate and use one of the fabulous new PaperArtsy brayers. I have been experimenting a lot with the Gelli Plate since the New Year as I was leading a session using one here in Shetland. I was a bit rusty and so have been seriously addicted to Gelli Plate Videos on Youtube. There are so many wonderful techniques that one doesn't really know where to start. So I have kept this simple ......



Alison's fabulous Friends and Friendship stamp collection (EAB10) was my main focus for the double spread journal page. There are so many wonderful quotes in this set it is very difficult to pick just one .... I feel a mini book coming on at some point!


I picked my PaperArtsy Fresco's quite randomly and it was only afterwards that I realised I had a mixture of transluscent and opaque which I think has worked really well in terms of the lighter yellow showing through.



I wasn't too sure whether these would work together, but after all it's only a bit of paper! I have used the single layer transfer technique (ie multiple pulls) rather than layering all my colours onto the Gelli Plate (single pull).



I started with Pumpkin Soup over the whole page. For the next pull I used Bora Bora, but keeping some lighter gaps. It was this layer that I used some old impression stamps to create a bit of texture. The next layer was Teresa Green very lightly here and there and the final layer was Hint of Mint around the outside edges. I also got a very nice ghost sheet too, although the paint dried quite quickly.



I also used my brayer to get an even layer of paint onto a flourish stamp. 


I used Chalk for this layer and the wider, larger brayer meant a good even layer of paint with no "blobbing" !



A stamping layer came next and I decided to keep the circular elements going with a clock and more some paint circles.



Most of the stamps you see here are my all time "go to" stamps for highlighting background papers.  There are so many wonderful elements in C1 for backgrounds and the two small bookplate stamps in Scrapcosy's set appear on just about everything I make!



My other go to stamp set is Ephemera 2, this time for collage pieces. In fact the Carte stamp has it's on acrylic block and doesn't leave my craft desk!




I have used the same ink throughout in terms of stamping and blending (Ranger Archival Ink Potting Soil). I feel this keeps everything balanced with the focus on the colours of the background rather than the foreground inking.



The collage is perfectly sized to sit in the lower corner without dominating the background pages.



The quote I wished to use was quite wide and only just fitted the width of my journal, so I tried to keep the design on this page more horizontal.



It seemed appropriate to leave a clear area of stamping at the bottom of the page.



I did add a few watery paint splatters as I felt the double page needed something to tie it all together.

When I started this journal page I was unsure as to whether the background colours would work together, and indeed whether they would compliment the vintage theme I had in mind. Limiting myself to one ink pad both for stamping, blending and colouring the embellishments has I think allowed it all to work together. This is really quite colourful for me! but I love that the Gelli Plate and Brayer allow me to blend out the colours and add different layers on top of each other to soften the look. 

As always thank you for joining me and I hope that our current theme inspires you all to get out your brayers!

Jennie x

Blog: Live The Dream

14 comments:

Craftyfield said...

Gorgeous pages! The layers of colours are perfect for the Vintage feel.

Helen said...

fantastic pages - love the soft pastel colours.

Miriam said...

Oh Jennie. .. This is stunning

Lauren Hatwell said...

Soooooo beautiful! Lx

pearshapedcrafting said...

Truly beautiful - great subtle colours too! Chrisx

Words and Pictures said...

Such pretty colours, Jennie, and a really ethereal feel to how they are layered, along with the white flourish stamping floating there, and the great detailing of the background stamping in Potting Soil. I love your pairs of friends - and so happy to see the journal page was just wide enough for Shakespeare's sonnet lines. Beautifully done!
Alison x

suzyb said...

Love these pages!! Really Jennie you nailed it with those colours! I keep forgetting about journalling, duh something I know I would enjoy, but maybe a bit too much. :)
Lovely piece and thanks for sharing it with us.
Sue

craftytrog said...

I love the soft colours that you used on this beautiful spread Jennie. xx

Redanne said...

The soft colours in the background are beautiful and I love your chosen imagery. xx

SewPaperPaint said...

Jennie, this is a glorious art journal spread! The colors are so soft and aluring and set the perfect stage for these dear dolls. I love how you used Alison's stamp to ground the images and the soft brown works beautifully. Great inspiration!

Etsuko said...

Such a beautiful journal pages Jennie, great focal photos with soft colours background and love how you have used Alison's new stamps. xx

Lucy Edmondson said...

I love this page, Jennie, with its soft cokours and seated figures and the perfect quotes. Beautiful!

Lucy x

Ellie Knol said...

Gorgeous subtle layers.. LOVE it! perfect stamping, and the composition is also just perrrrfect..

Ruth said...

Soft, subtle, dreamy colours....vintage perfection. Gorgeous Jennie x