2017 #5 Born For Joy {Chris Cresswell}

2017 Topic 5: Blue and Ochre

A feast for the eyes this evening from Chris, her attention for detail is staggering, every project is filled to brimming with eye catching details and tonight's offering is no exception.

Hi everyone, Chris Cresswell here from loops and lines .

I am so excited to blog my project tonight for this particular theme because I absolutely adore what I have made. In fact, I loved every part of the process. As soon as I realised that the colour combination was selected from the amazing Somerset Studio publication, True Colours, I knew that I wanted to create a project based on these two contrasting colours: Blue/Ochre. 

There is a lot of inspiration by various art journalers within the pages of this book and my art journal spread is definitely inspired by them. I love art journaling and since my first attempts at creating a 'niche' inside a book some time ago in a workshop with Lin Brown, I have enjoyed creating doors, windows and niches inside pages ever since.

As I also opted to use JoFy's stamps and stencils for this project, I wanted to use her images to create the idea of a secret garden.This colour contrast was going to be perfect, I felt, to really show off her gorgeous flowers. I knew that I wanted the two windows (that I intended to create in one side of the journal spread) to open into a page that contained an illustrated bird. 

I already had the perfect book for this: a wonderfully aged copy of 'The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady' by Edith Holden. The bird image was needed to echo the quote I intended to use.

To create the windows was just a matter of working back from a suitable image, leaving sufficient pages for me to stick together to create cut out windows that would be firm enough to withstand movement.

The most difficult part for me was creating the colour 'Ochre' or at least the colour I had in my mind. This colour shifts and varies from a deep, rusty orange, through a light, brownish-yellow to a mustard-yellow colour. I aimed for the 'deep, rusty orange' version..

Of course, it would have made sense for me to play around and experiment with various Fresco chalk paints first, but I tend to plunge straight in and mix and layer until I'm happy with the result. To create the final blend, I used: Butternut, Pumpkin Soup, Terracotta, Caramel, Tikka and finally Toffee. In that order!

The blues that I chose to contrast with this colour were: China, Southern Skies and Glass Blue. I used two translucents in order to keep some of the page text revealed at the end.

I mixed some of the Fresco Glass Blue in with some DecoArt Crackle paint and pushed this through PS001 stencil before using Glass Blue again with one of JoFy's new stencils: PS056. I always build layers this way: paint, then stencils, then stamping.

PaperArtsy Minis are great for background stamps. I use my favourites all the time: Mini 23, Mini 41.Mini 61 I stamped these with various complementary Ranger Archival inks. You can really see the build up of layers on the cut out doors.

Mini 23, 

Mini 41

Mini 61

Choosing one of JoFy's new sets of stamps: JOFY 50

... and a previous favourite: JOFY 33, I stamped and coloured using my wonderful Prismacolour crayon pencils. I love the waxiness of these crayons when I blend them on PaperArtsy Smoothy card and on top of an underlayer of Fresco chalk paint.

JOFY 33

Assembling all the cut-out flowers to create the idea of the Secret Garden was great fun, not forgetting the two sides of the cut out door page. (Further details of this on my blog).

Adhering six butterflies on top of each other, stamped on very fragile vintage text, was no easy matter, but I wanted to create the idea of fluttering wings. I love the markings on the butterfly.

Some doodling with black/white gel pens, and added bling (using Ranger Stickles) completed the journal spread. I love it. I love the contrasting colours and the way the whole spread makes me feel happy.
I love the way the little bird (Songthrush?) appears through the open door.  I do hope, if you haven't tried creating doors, windows or niches in your art journals you might now give this a try. My next project is to create a niche in this same book to hide my mobile phone from my grandfairies when they come to visit!

Blog: www.loopsandlines.blogspot.co.uk
Facebook: Chris Cresswell
Twitter: @artmadnana
Instagram: Chris Cresswell
Pinterest: Chris Cresswell

Just WOW Chris, you have created an heirloom to treasure here, it is just like stepping into a garden, that it is in a book makes it all the more magical. ~Darcy

We always hope that you learn something interesting from our blog. Our bloggers deeply appreciate your comments so much, so please take time to let them know you've been inspired! Why not join our challenge by blogging your interpretation of the current topic and link it here?

The current topic link will close 17:00 (London Time) Sunday, April 9th 2017, and the winner will be announced 2 hours later at 19:00.

All links go in the draw to win a £50 voucher to spend on products of your choice from the PaperArtsy online store.