Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Checkered Florals Art Journal Page

Hi Friends,

I used to tangle & practice Zentangle - the meditative art form before I got into stamping & mixed media. I had a long discussion on Zentangle with Tejal recently and hence, when I wanted to  create the mid-month inspiration for The Twisted Challenges June challenge "Checkered Florals", I decided that my focal points need to be inspired by tangle "Knightsbridge" which is a checkered tangle. I did use die cuts for the flowers, but you can cut them free hand too.

Art Journal With Checked Florals
In my art journal, to create the background, I applied Ranger Dylusions paint: Calypso Teal & Cut Grass with blending tool. Once the background colours were dry, I stamped randomly Simon Says Stamp Ornate Background using Ranger Black Archival Ink.

Art Journal With Checked Florals

For the Focal Point, I drew check pattern using Steadtler fine point red pen. Thereafter I coloured every alternate square using Steadtler Luna Water Colour pencils in shades of red, orange & yellow and blended it with water brush. For leaves, I gave a very light wash of green on die cuts and highlighted veins with a darker green pencil.

Art Journal With Checkered Floral
I adhered with leaves and flowers to the journal using glue. To finish the page, I added some quotes from Tim Holtz Idea-ology Stickers Small Talk.

Art Journal With Checkered Florals
I hope you are inspired by this simple and easy to do checkered florals page. Do participate in our ongoing challenge & win amazing prizes.

Love,
Dr. Neha Sanwalka Rungta
Crafty Flirtations
The Twisted Challenges

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Litlle Birdie Mixed Media Journal Review + 2 Journal pages

Hi all,

During Creativation 2018 in January, the one and only product that caught my fancy was Little Birdie Art and Mixed Media Journal. If you have been following my work, you already know how crazy I am about Art Journals, however no good hard bound journals were available until now in India. Hence, when I saw the upcoming release during Creativation, I immediately inboxed Rashmi Harish, owner of Itsy Bitsy & Little Birdie to congratulate her for coming up with the journals. To my absolute delight, Rashmi promised to send me one of the journals when the actual production starts and as soon as the journals were released in June, I had the Mixed Media Journal come my way (another surprise that Rashmi actually remembered to send me a journal after 5 months & I am touched by the gesture). Thanks Rashmi.

Now lets come to these journals. There are 3 journals - Art Journal in 220 & 440 gsm & Mixed Media Journal and they come in 2 sizes: 5.5 by 7.5" and 7.6 by 10.2". You can read all about Art Journal here. I am going to review the Mixed Media Journal which Rashmi very sweetly sent me.


Features of the journal:

  • Made in India 
  • Contains 92 pages that you could work on
  • Has 16 Canvas, corrugated, white burlap, natural burlap and handmade paper each
  • Has 12 Kraft cardstock
  • Its hardbound & 100% cold pressed 
  • Its handmade and archival 
  • Very very cost effective (Rs. 999/- or about 15$ when purchasing in India. For price in US and other countries, please hop on to the Little Birdie Website)
I got the journal on Saturday and I already have made 2 journal pages. 

Page 1: 
The 1st page in the journal is a canvas. Being a fan of embroidery, I decided to embroider a rose in the journal & stamp my name. I decided to keep it simple as I wanted to focus on the rose. 

Embroidery on canvas page in Mixed Media Journal By Little Birdie
Steps to create: 
  • I stamped the image from Stampendous Fran's Cling Stamp & Stencil Set - Build A Bouquet Set on canvas using Catherine Pooler Die Ink. 
  • Once the ink was dry, I embroidered the flowers using Anchor floss (3 strings). 
  • For the flower I used normal filling stitch and did leaves using chain stitch. 
  • While I was embroidering, the edges started fraying a little and hence, I sealed the stitches using blanket stitch. 
  • As it was impossible to use an embroidery hop in the journal, the canvas wrapped a little in the process, however, I absolutely the wrapped look. 
  • To finish the page, I stamped my name using the Concord & 9th Script Stamp and Dye inks. 

Close up of rose

Page 2:

For the backside of the canvas, as you can imagine, all the knots and embroidery backing was visible & being the crazy me, I wanted to hide it all so that when I flip the page, I see a beautiful layout & not all the crazy knots. Hence, I created a page separately on a vellum  and adhered it to the backside of the canvas. I like how the blanket stitch is peeping from sides of the vellum.. Gives a very rustic look. 


Steps to create:
  • I stamped as image from Clearly Besotted Thanks a Bunch set using Ranger Archival black ink on Brustro Watercolor paper. 
  • I coloured the image using Peerless watercolors & fussy cut it. 
  • I coloured a 5 by 7" vellum sheet using Ranger Alcohol inks: Lettuce, Butterscotch and silver. 
  • Then I adhered the vellum at the back of the canvas using Range Glossy Accent. 
  • To finish the page, I adhered the coloured image & printed quote using glue. 

I hope you love these simple, yet fun mixed media art journal pages. If you love Art Journalling and if you want t o challenge yourself to create art journal spreads on various textured backgrounds, Little Birdie Mixed Media Journal is a must buy. I shall be back soon with more pages in this amazing Mixed Media journal. 

I would once again like to thank Rashmi for sending this amazing journal. 

Love, 
Dr. Neha Sanwalka Rungta 


Friday, June 1, 2018

Checkered Floral Card + The Twisted Challenges Blog

Hey All,

When you have two 2 crazy crafty friends like Tejal Mehta-Shah and Saumya Mohanty, its but natural that when you get together with them to bring out something, its going to be super duper amazing. After spending hours together chatting on Whatsapp, con-calls and numerous brain storming sessions, I am super excited to announce the launch of our monthly craft challenge blog "The Twisted Challenges". Woho.



So what is "The Twisted Challenges"? Well, as I mentioned before, its a monthly craft challenge with a twist. We shall bring the most unusual themes for our blog challenge, something that is not commonly heard of and would love the crafting community around the world to join us. Speaking of twist & crazy, I would like to share a trivia with you about our blog name. Collectively we thought of 30+ names for our blog before finalizing "The Twisted Challenges". That's the amount of brain storming that went in just selecting the name, so you can imagine the amount of brain storming we would do when bringing you the actual challenges. And we would like to kick start our 1st month with theme "Checkered Florals".



So, as its all about challenging one self, I went one step ahead to create a checkered pattern using dot painting techniques and then combined it with Die Cut Inlay techniques to create floral motifs. Here's sharing some of the in process and more close up pics of the card.

I created a grid with Dots using Cherry Pie Dylusion paint and a small embossing tool on 4.5 by 5.5" card stock 

Once the grid was ready, I filled in alternate squares with Dylusion paints in shades of red & blue
Thereafter I trimmed the panel to 4.25 by 5.5". I die cut flowers from the painted panel using Joy Craft die. Then adhered the die cut panel on a 4.25 by 5.5" top folding card base. Stacked the flowers with flowers cut from plain white card stock and distressed the edges using Candied Apple ink and light coloured them using Spun Sugar. To finish the card, I glued the stacked flowers (in lay technique) and sentiment on the card base.

List of Supplies used:



I hope you all love the card and got inspired for some checkered florals. We hope you join us on our new journey. Do hop on to our new blog "The Twisted Challenges" to know more about the challenge and see more inspiration from our amazing team.

Love,
Dr. Neha Sanwalka Rungta
Crafty Flirtations
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