Nickname. Day 3 of 30 Day Art Journal Class

Hi friends,

The day 3 prompt of 30 Day Art Journal Class was "Nicknames or love names used by friends/ parents/ spouse"

Story Behind my page: Neha is itself a short name & I hate when people bend it weird ways to form nickname for me. However, there is one nickname that I love and its short form of my name "NE". While I was in Pune for my higher studies, 2 of my roommates "Soumya" & "Vagisha" gave me this name affectionately & it stayed on with me completely

• There are loads of layers in this page. Using round ink blending tools, I applied dots or you can say blotches of "Vintage Photo" & "Black Soot" distress ink on the background. 
• Then I applied a very light coat of gesso over the entire page
• Once the gesso was dry, I covered the whole page with "Pumice Stone" Distress stain
• I then doodled "NE" with "Sakura Microns" and added shading using pencil colours
• I somehow felt the page looked dull so I went on the apply Ranger "Vintage Photo" crackle paint all around the doodle
• Once the crackle paint had dried, using a felt applicator, I dabbed "Cranberry" & "Eggplant" alcohol Ink over the crackle paint to highlight the cracks. 

I like how I am learning new techniques while making these journal pages. I had almost decided that I need to destash my alcohol inks but loved the results of dabbing of alcohol Inks on crackle paint, so I am going to explore this even further 

Links of previous pages:

Page 1  

Page 2

Hope you all liked my Day 3 page. 

Love,

Dr. Neha Sanwalka

Crafty Flirtations

Letter To Me - Day 2 of 30 Day Art Journal Class

Hi Friends,

As you all know, I have joined the free 30 Day Art Journal Prompt Challenge by Allyson Bright of "Determined To Shine". The day 2 prompt of the Art Journal Class was "Letter To Me" wherein we had to write a letter to our past self either reassuring us about something or some advice. Also, we could either write a complete letter or just focus on a few words or phrases for this ART Journal Page. 

I thought over this prompt for a very long time & I realised that I wouldn't like to give any advice or reassure myself about anything but would rather like to tell my past self what the future holds for me & how I should mould my life. I also decided that this page is going to serve as a boost to what I want to focus on my life from here on in future and incorporated those aspects in this letter too (except my professional life). 

Story Behind The Page:

• I am very lazy. So 1st and foremost I want to focus on stop being lazy & get going & be active. However, I wanted to keep the page positive overall, and hence I have not used the biggest stamp for same
• I want to be able to craft & create more in as many ways as possible
• My lazyness has caused me to ignore my health. I would like to get back into a better health condition, eat well & exercise
• Lastly, I wanted to send myself some love & remind myself that I should always love my family & friends

Here is the page:

• I created the background using Gelatos
• Then using various alphabet stamps from We R Memory Keepers and Concord & 9th and sentiment stamps from Peek-a-boo & and Technique Tuesday, I stamped various words with Archival Inks or Sakura Gel Pens
• I added some highlights with white gel pen to bigger size words
• And then used Inkadinkado Hearts stamp & archival inks roughly stamped in any blank spaces on the page 

Hope you all liked my "Letter To Me"

With Love,

Dr. Neha Sanwalka

Crafty Flirtations 

What's That Smell? Day 1 of 30 Day Art Journal Class

Hi Friends, 

I joined the free 30 Day Art Journal Prompt Challenge by Allyson Bright of "Determined To Shine". As a part of the 30 Day Art Journal Challenge, we get one prompt every day and need to build an art journal page around the prompt. Even though this is a daily challenge, owing to my other commitments, I have decided to do 1 Art Journal Page based on the prompt per week or a max of 2/ week, 

So the 1st day prompt is "Whats's That Smell?" and we had to build a page around the smell that reminds us of home. For me, books and coffee are smell that reminds me of home. Hence I built my page around the same.

Small information on the page: I built the background using Distress Inks, Itsy Bitsy Splash sprays, Distress Crackle Paint & Stencilling with some Ranger Embossing Powder & Faber Castel Gel Medium. All Images are Clip arts, printed in black and white and coloured using pencil colour and blended with Odourless Blending Solution. All images were adhered to the page with help of gel medium. The quote is also printed on a paper and adhered with gel medium. Once all elements were stuck, to add more texture & brightness to the page, I outlined every element with black Sakura Micron and added some highlights with white gel pen.  

I am a huge fan of "Vicky Papaioannou" and loves here work, her colouring, selection of theme, building of layers and how she adds quotes to her art journal pages. Though I have a long way to go before I reach even 10% of her amazingness, I would still like to dedicate my 1st ever art journal page to her. 

If you all would like me to document step by step tutorials for the art journal pages in future, please do drop in some comments for same.

Also, please do let me know if you liked this art journal page. Do leave some love if you like it.

Love,

Dr. Neha Sanwalka

Crafty Flirtations