'My Top Ten Pix of Twenty Twelve! Art Journals, Tips and More!'

by Mary Lou 'LuLu' Haynes

Howdy and Welcome,

Happy New Year!

Here's a peek at my fave pix of the past year, plus a few tips - enjoy!

 'Top Twelve + 1 and

Timely Tips of Twenty Twelve Review!'

Full Frontal Fan

Interesting composition I created for this background spread -

light, glowing middle within dark borders around the edge.

 

I practiced doodle 'stacking' on left page

using a gray pigment chisel tip marker

(writes over everything  just like a Copic alcohol marker,

but no stinky fumes)

 

Just love the color gradation (spray ink), stencil,
 and gold (my acrylic paint concoction) that I painted on the back
cover of  father's day brag book / altered book / art journal!

P.S. Spray ink and paint are VERY messy.
I use a store bought spray box to protect my studio somewhat -
but it splatters everywhere if I'm not careful...

Reminder to myself!
This image is also layered behind the lovely lass
on my blog banner above.

 

Top view Fan

 

 Printed pattern tissue paper!

 

Makes a great blotter on the art table.

This is Tim Holtz - comes on a roll like wax paper - various patterns.

Clean your bushes and test paints, medium, tapes etc.

When it's filled up and all grungy, tear it up and use in collage,

 backgrounds, art journal pages, altered books.

Makes a geat layer because it's translucent when glued down

with wet ashesive. Also use it with dry adhesive 

(run it through my 5" Xyron to take in travel supplies).

Easy peasy!



First prize I won in 2012 -
1st Place in a scrapbook LO contest!

Backgound page laying on a grid blotter.

This huge grid desk blotter was a gift last year.
That's more grid blotter in photo below.
When I used up all the blotter pages I switched to the
Tim Holtz tissue paper now on my table.

 

  Cheap 'watercolor' brushes.

 

The best travel tool for details with watercolor paint I found

are  kids watercolor brushes by Crayola.

They are refillable with your own watercolor paint recipes,

diluted arylics, paint glazes, India ink - or even diluted medium!

I found a cheap set of these brushes at Michaels.

Cheap plastic 'putty knife' from the hardware store!

Best tool for applying Yes! Paste -
I slightly trimmed the right and left sides of the putty knife
with Tim Holtz Tonic scissors so that the
 putty knife would fit down into the paste jar.
Putty knife is also great for spreading gesso and other texture medium.
Same concept as the plastic hotel key / old credit card - but
 I wanted a tool with a handle....

P.S. I use Yes!Paste mostly for laminating/gluing 2 facing book pages together -
Yes!Paste is acid-free/archival and makes the paper very stiff and
no wrinkling of paper. Buy Yes!Paste at Michaels.

 

 Lots of layers.

 

Tim Hotltz tissue paper, deli paper,

metal tape (from hardware store) that I embosed a painted with acrylics -

 over lined pages of a small, store bought diary/journal.

 

Great dimension - wow!

My first assemblage for a journal cover.
Collections of game tokens, dice, watch parts, 
foreign and vintage coins, keys,
calculator guts - all adhered with
soft gel medium - gloss (by Golden).

Outstanding tool! Papermate EAGLE ballpoint pen.
Great for writing over gook on art journal pages.
When ink is gone, this makes a great stylus for
scratching textures into wet gesso, too!

What are your fave pix on your blog? 

I would love to see your faves! Please leave a comment including a link back to your blog.

And if you're a mixed-media artist or art journaler, check out my Giveaway in sidebar!

Thanks for visiting - please come back soon!

Have a great art-filled New Year!

Peace,

LuLu