Tiny TN Insert

Every tuesday it’s #tinytntuesday on the Facebook page of Paper Pen and Plan, when we showcase our tiny pages and think small. This week I decided to think a bit bigger by creating not just a page but a whole insert. My old insert is pretty much busting out of the cover by now anyway, so as I had some time on my hands (like a lot of us do right now!) I thought I’d put together a new one.

Rather than create a new one with blank pages I decided it would be better to make one where each page has already been started to save time later. This is my mop up paper which I keep in a cheap A5 sketch book. I use it to clean brushes, stencils and anything else which might be messy.

It’s perfect for collages.

I cut a strip the same height as my tn from a section I liked, and stamped a couple of stamps over randomly.

I folded this up to create pages.

I glued each fold together,

forming my little booklet.

It was just a matter of covering it with some cute paper (Simple Vintage Garden District by Simple Stories) from Paper Pen and Plan and it’s ready to go.

The Paper Pen and Plan Facebook page is here and the Etsy shop to buy the Simple Stories papers is here

Stay safe

Jaine xx

Sunshine and Rainbows

Here we are at the beginning of April and because of the current situation, i.e. being on lockdown to stop the spread of this awful virus, every day has started to blur into the next. I’ve started to imagine it’s the weekend every day! We’ve had some fabulous sunny days which makes me so grateful to live where I do and have a garden in which to enjoy the sun. I know for a lot of people it’s really difficult right now!

People all over the world are making their own fun and creating a little happiness wherever they can. On social media I’ve seen lots of beautiful rainbows being displayed in windows everywhere, all sizes and formats. WOW! Embossing Powder must have had some amazing forward thinking as the new theme on their Facebook Fan page is Rainbow.

I created my rainbow from these beautiful colours from the Primary’s range, hand painting the brush stroke with the Mixed Media Embossing Brush from Seth Apter. I love how it turned out.

If you’d like to see more rainbow inspired creations or join the fun by designing your own colourful project, go to the WOW Embossing Powder Fans page on Facebook.

Have a good weekend and stay safe

Jaine xx

Canvas Workshop

It feels like an age since I updated my blog but since life has slowed down slightly (due to the current situation), I’ve found a bit more time to do a few things I’ve wanted to do for a while!

I was fortunate enough to be able to hold a workshop just before everything closed down and self isolation became the norm. It was a requested workshop to create a mixed media canvas. I spent ages wondering which sort of canvas to create seeing as we’ve already done collage, texture and mixed media in the past and I really wanted to create something new.

One of my favorite artists is Flora Bowley. I bought her book a while back called Brave Intuitive Painting and love it.

Intuitive painting is the technique of letting go of your inner critic and letting your heart and hands do the painting. The results can be colourful and lively and full of spontaneous doodles and mark making.

I thought I’d let the others experience this for themselves and gave them the canvas and a few materials to get them started.

As watercolour is my favourite medium to use I created a watercolour background to start, letting the colour flow into pools on the canvas and adding some spray to help it move. If you want to add contrasting colour it’s best to let each colour dry first before adding the next otherwise you’ll end up with dirty colour which you don’t want. Once this was dry I started to add doodles and patterns with watercolour pencils. I used them wet and dry as I loved the texture from the canvas coming through. I further added doodles with white and black pens along with a snippet of text paper collage at the bottom.

Canvas Details

It’s already pushed me to get out my art journal and start creating again so while I have some time I intend to make the most of it.

Take care of yourselves and if you’d like to create a canvas of your own you can find the canvas, watercolour pencils and more in the Basement Studio shop.

Jaine xx

A Valentine Mini Book

I’ve spent quite a bit of time recently sorting out some of the hand bound books from market and art fairs so I can add them to the shop. This meant photographing and numbering each one before uploading to the site. It’s been a while since I made a mini book and this process made me curious to try out something new.

Square

Meet the Square album. It’s a dinky little size at 10.5cm and the inside pages (all 14 of them) are made using Vintage Botanicals double sided patterned papers, originally bought from Paper Pen and Plan on Etsy. If you check them out they’ve lots of paper packs on sale and with my code JAINE10 you’ll get 10% off too! The cover has been covered and decorated with paper and embellishments from the February Sweet Treat box also from Paper Pen and Plan.

It would be perfect for a few Instagram photos and some journaling, personally I wouldn’t want too much to cover up those gorgeous pages.

This is a new binding method for me but I’m now inspired to create something on a bigger scale perhaps.

It sits on a shelf perfectly out on display rather than being tucked away between other books so in that respect it’s more of a decor piece than a simple album.

I haven’t decided yet if I want to keep it or add it to the shop but what ever I decide I’ll be adding to the family.

Happy Valentine’s day,

Jaine xx