Darcy Journalling:Month 8 {with Urban Snapshots Stamps}

Hi everyone, Darcy here. This is the final journal page challenge, at least for now, who knows we may be back with a few more next year. Thank you as always to all you lovely people who joined in last month. I enjoy seeing your pages come to life so much. What I find fascinating is how you take the challenge and make it your own. I spotted so many great ideas on all your pages. 

The winner of the July challenge is.. Lin. 

Please get in  touch with me darcydotneedles@hotmail.com with your choice of Sara Naumann stamp. 

So to business, here is The Tree of Knowledge.... just how much have you learned over the past 8 months, how many techniques have you tried? this is an ideal way to recap them and have them all in one place. 

Let's start with the background, I am using Fibralo pens, if you don't have them yet you could use any water based pens or paint. I have found that they blend best over a thin coat of Fresco paint. So I painted my pages lightly with Nougat, once this was dry I started to add colour with the pens. I scribble a bit and then blend, using either a 'damp' (not wet) brush, or a damp finger (dabbed on a babywipe) or just using the babywipe, I started with yellows, then moved into blues and lilacs and finally green. 

Lighter colours first and then just touches of the darker colours. 

Next I scribbled some dark blue onto a craft mat and spritzed it with water, then I dabbed my ruler edge into the ink and added these lines onto the page. 

Once the lines were dry, I added drops of clean water all over the page. I laid down a piece of kitchen towel and patted it dry, do not rub. 

Take off the towel and check the page, you might want to repeat to add more drops. This is how the page looks now. I love this technique.

Now for the border, we have done this before, but it worked so well. I torn a piece of scrap paper to give myself a rough edged mask. I put this over the page leaving just over an inch border. I sponged on some Eggplant. Next I sponged on some Moonlight and finally some Concrete. The 2 lighter colours were used more towards the inside edge.

I then used Mini 95 and Squid Ink to stamp the brick wall all around the border. 

Mini 95

Now to create our tree. First I practised on scrap paper, just to get a feel for what shape I wanted. Notice how every branch always splits off into two more, each of those splits into another two...and so on, making them thinner towards the outer edges. Don't have a solid trunk all the way up the middle. 

I copied this lightly in pencil onto my page and started to paint it with Chocolate Pudding. 

Next I mixed some Grunge Paste with a little Brown Shed, and dabbed it onto just the thickest parts of the trunk and first branches. To add texture I stamped with the small scratchy rectangle from EEV 02

 Once dry I added more Brown shed mixed with a little Mocha Mousse, and finished off with dry brushing of Nougat. 

Now to build up the foliage. I used one of the leaves from USNT 2 I first stamped with Holly, once dry I stamped over that with Green Olives and finally with a layer of Sage

USNT 2

You can see why it is important to paint all the branches first, yes some are covered up but lots are peeping through and making it look natural. 

Now here is where we recap our techniques from the last few months. I folded some smoothy card and die cut some leaves, using the leaf from Grunge Flower 1 and also part of the tulip die. 

Make sure the fold is inside the die that way the two pieces will remain joined. 

I opened them out ( yes they look like moustachios and propellers) and painted them all on ONE SIDE with Sage. 

On the other side I used a different paint technique on each leaf, but on just ONE HALF (the other half will get stuck into the book)

Techniques that I used:
Blending with several opaques                         Blending with Treasure Gold
Using crackle glaze                                           Painting and stencilling on tissue
Stamping into grunge paste                              Layering paint, embossing,sanding back
Using opaque as a resist                                  Using watery paint to drip and flick
Coating paint with metallic glaze                       Using torn,stamped tissue
Using tinted grunge paste through a stencil      Stamped and doodled masterboard

You can use whatever techniques you want.

On the inside of each leaf I typed out the techniques and glued it down. 

Now for a pop of colour. I punched out some 1.5cm circles, this time from heavy smoothy, I painted them to look like apples using JoFY's new red, Blood Orange and Guacamole. For the leaves I painted more regular smoothy first with Sage and then added a little Tinned Peas. i then doodled the leaves with a Bic ballpoint pen. 

Once cut out and glued together I added a little stalk in pen.

I glued the unpainted quarter of each of the techniques leaves into the book, and glued the apples so they just overlapped the edge of the leaves. Be very careful when gluing the apples, put glue onto the the side that is not overlapping the main leaf. We are going to be using the apple like 'photo corners' so you need to leave one half unglued..

Here you can see how they work, the main leaf folds closed and tucks under the apple. Making it easy for you to open them back up to see the technique instructions. 

I did 12 techniques leaves, you can do as many as you have space for. I then made 12 apples... however my pages are large and I had space left, so I made more apples and also added in some stamped moths (stamped on deli paper) from USNT 2  Just look at the texture from the mini wall stamp!!

 The title comes from USNT 3, very apt I thought. You all now know more art/techniques, and you are using them. 

USNT 3

Here is the finished page. 

This has been such a cool challenge over the past few months, i hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have. I have loved trying out new things and have found a few definite favourites that I will use again. 

I will be back next semester with new projects (better get my thinking cap on) and I will continue to post journal pages to my own blog. 

Darcy x

 Ideas for you to explore this month. 

• Blending with Fibralos
• Removing colour with water droplets
• Torn border
• Stamping into grunge paste
• Tinting grunge paste
• Stencilling
• Blending Treasure Gold
• Stamping on tissue paper
• Using an opaque as a resist
• Using crackle glaze
• Using metallic glaze
• Die cutting,embossing,sanding

If you would like to join in then please link up and explain how you were inspired by the techniques presented above.  Use the linky below (this is a separate link to the weekly PA challenges). This journal challenge will remain open for a month.

Please read and follow the guidelines below, and enter your journal page to be in with a chance of winning 2 A6 plates or 1 A5 plate of your choice. 

• This challenge is to show how you have been inspired to action by this month's example make sure in your blog post you explain what part or technique prompted you to create a page of your own. 
• Make sure you have your journal page entry linked up by 7pm (London time) Sept 30th 2014. 
• Winner will be announced the following day.
• There will only be ONE draw, ONE winner. You may link up as many times as you like but each name will only go into the draw once.
• Please don't feel you need to copy the example exactly but you must be inspired by at least part of it. 
• You are also welcome to use any stamps/ products / substrates you have to hand, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - but of course it is lovely when you do!