We’ve also pulled most of our March kit together and have a sneak peek below:

New Mixed Media Subscription Kit – SUBSCRIBE HERE

Bundle above includes rubons x 2 different styles, Twinkling H2o’s x 3 (colours vary), Sponce, Turquoise Pen, Newspaper wrapped pencil, tissue patterned paper, Ledger print Gaffer tape

Bundle above includes rubons x 3 different styles, Luminarte Powder (colour varies), Sponge roller, Turquoise Pen, Newspaper wrapped pencil, tissue patterned paper, Script print Gaffer tape, BasicGrey Clear Stamps

Bundle above includes Clear stamps x 3 different styles, Rubons x 1, Newspaper wrapped pencil, Small Tin of Mini flowers, Ledger print Gaffer tape

Bundle above includes Clear stamps x 4 different styles, Newspaper wrapped pencil, Small Tin of Mini flowers, Ledger print Gaffer tape

On to this weeks page….

1. I started out using 3 PanPastel colours. I used 2 browns over the middle section. I also used a purple for the top left and bottom right corners to darken the edges a bit so the middle section would appear lighter.

2. I then used a Distress Stain to create a darker border along the bottom of the page to serve as a “shelf” for my vase about to be drawn.

Distress Stains were brand new to me this week – yet another product that flies out the door and I have never had the opportunity to try until this week. Now I know why- love them!

3. I smudged a charcoal line on top of the stain bordern to create some shading.

4. I drew a vase.

5. I painted the vase using 2 different yellows and a gold. I also added some white for highlights. I defined the edges with a charcoal stick to create a bit of shadow also.

6. I used a Jenni Bowlin paint dabber to dab some dots that would represent my flower centres.

7. I then added some stems in pencil.

8. I then sketched from petals in around the red dots. You could work the other way if you wanted to also – draw the flowers first then the red dot centres.

9. I then used a turquoise, light blue and a green to colour in the flowers. The turquoise was my main colour with the light blue and green used for a few flowers or just highlights.

10. I then roughly drew around each flower with a white gelly roll pen.

I also painted in the stems with brown paint and a very thin brush.  I also stamped an image on the front of the vase. I sanded the image just slightly so it would blend into the vase more once dry. I used versafine ink which is fantastic for fine line stamp images.

11. I then added an ornate stamped image in the top left hand corner and drew a charcoal line across the top of the page and added some journaling in white pen.  I also added in some details on the vase at the top and bottom in the form of a stripe.

Completed page!

Thank you for following along and joining in each week. It has been fun to set aside a little bit of creative time each week as well as explore new products and techniques. Most of these pages have been completed in one sitting and usually in less than half an hour. You may be like me and don’t have a lot of time, so completing these quick art journal pages each week has been an enjoyable part of my week.

All of the art journaling posts from this year can be found by clicking on the ART JOURNAL category link in the right hand side bar of the blog HERE.

BIG NEWS! We have an Art Journaling subscription kit in the works for 2012. The cost of the kit will be $40.00 per month (edited to $44.00). As part of the kit you will receive products as well as step by step instructions to complete 3 artworks each month in the size of 6×9 inches.

We will have subscription information in the newsletter in the coming weeks with some subscriptions incentives included.

If you wish to register your interest in subscribing to the monthly kit please email us at info@bluebazaar.com.au Your interest will help us determine the incentives we will have on offer.

PLEASE NOTE: Registering your interest in the monthly kit does not mean you are committing to a subscription.

We have something in the works for 2012 withArt Journaling so make sure you are subscribed to the newsletter and blog.

This week my page took a day or 2 to complete because of drying time.

1. I started out drawing random straight lines across my page. The lines don’t really mean anything or make sense. I just drew them randomly without thought of what I was doing next!

2. I added some drops of watercolour paint from a tube. I liberally applied water all over the page – very liberally!

3. I used a paint brush to spread the paints out, each colour at a time. I then dropped some white liquitext acrylic ink in the bottom right hand corner which started to spread over the page.

4. I then added a few drops of black acrylic ink at the top left hand corner and again let it swirl around the page.

This is how I left my page on the first night.

This is what I woke up to the next day. It was dried and nicely faded.

5. I drew some castle type shapes with charcoal and smudged the lines with my finger.

6. I added some watercolour paints to the shapes of the castles. I added some square windows.

7. I used a black pen to doodle on the roofs. I added a white rubon WHIMSY to the one of the roofs.

8. I used a Tim Holtz text stamp and some blue versafine ink to stamp some texture on the middle castle. Versafine ink is excellant for stamping fine line impressions.

9. I added some more details in my castles with the black pen.

10. I added another Tim Holtz stamp using black versafine ink.

11. Completed page!

- Art Journal is a weekly BB Blog feature posted each Friday.

We have something in the works for 2012 withArt Journaling so make sure you are subscribed to the newsletter and blog.

This week I used a paint dabber for the first time. I have avoided them for a long time seeing as I already had so much paint. But having seen how popular they are in the store, I thought I would try one out finally and see what I was missing.  I used a Jenni Bowlin paint dabber and loved it.  No need to use brushes and water. The paint comes out smoothly, spreads evenly and dries very quickly. I’m converted!

1. I drew boxes with a red paint dabber as shown below.  Make them all look different in how much paint is used.

2. I then used some yellow liquitex acrylic ink and randomly dribbled some ink around the boxes.

3. I used a Dina Wakley stamp (restocks coming) and versafine ink. Versafine ink gives a very crisp image when stamping.

4. I applied some orange pan pastel to fill in the white spaces around the page.

5. I adhered a KI Memories border sticker at the bottom.

6. I drew black lines around the inner sections of the red boxes with a calligraphy brush and liquitex acrylic ink. I also wrote 2011 in the upper right hand box.

7. I added some American Crafts thickers for my initials in the lower right hand box.

8. In the top left hand box, I added a bit of journaling.  I also used a Signo white pen around the edge of the page to add some doodling. Finally I used a Marshmallow Glimmer Mist over the top of the page to create a white wash over the top of the page.

Completed page – a simple journaling one this week!

- Art Journal is a weekly BB Blog feature posted each Friday.

To receive a 15% discount on the stencils enter the code BB-STENCIL in the coupon section on checkout.

Make sure the code is entered exactly as shown so that the correct discount applies. The discount is available up until midnight Sunday 6th November.

Most of my favourite stencils have been designed my mixed media artist Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Click on the Julie’s name to visit her inspirational blog.

Below I have posted the stencil image along with an example of it’s use.  The most exciting and transformative stencils would have to be the girls. Watch the YouTube videos below to see how easy it is to use these stencils:

Be sure to check out Julie’s blog HERE for more details about using the girl stencils which includes pages from Julie as well as links to other mixed media artists who have used the stencils.

Some more videos and links below on clouds. Click HERE for more.

A video and some more links HERE on the rain stencil.

A video below of the ‘IF YOU BELIEVE” stencil. Click link HERE for more images and examples.

A video on the Herringbone stencil and link HERE for further examples.

A video of the Chevron stencil and link HERE for further examples:

We have a lot more stencils in the store but hope showcasing the above has given you some inspiration. Julie shows you how to use these stencils in various ways including misting, painting, stamping, paper piercing and more.

You can find more inspiration on the following link to more stencils. Click HERE

Don’t forget the 15% discount on the stencils. Enter the code BB-STENCIL in the coupon section on checkout.

The discount is available up until midnight Sunday 6th November.

1. I started colouring my background with panpastels using 3 colours down the page. The bottom section has a magenta tinge to it as I had used a sponge with some residual magenta on it.

2. I then added a loopy flower shape with a brown paintstik and smudged the lines with my finger. (see below pic for smudged look)

3. I then added a red loopy flower on top using another paintstik. I also smudged around the lines with my finger.

4. I added a yellow paintstik on top but when blended with the red on my already on my finger, it became orange – happy accident!

5. I then used a writer bottle and filled it with gesso (or white paint would do) and created another layer of a loopy flower on top. I coloured in the centre and let it all dry over night.

(p.s we will have more of the needle tip bottles in stock next week)

6. I added a swatch of black paintstik to the lower left hand corner and smudged the edges with my finger. I then added some paper tape and gaffer tape as pictured below in the bottom left hand corner and top right hand corner.

7. I cut out a simple bird shape from text paper and used acrylic paint to colour it yellow.  I drew a black eye and also outlined it with a black big brush pitt pen (see final bird image in photos further on)

8. On the right hand side of the page I added some rain drop shapes from the Crafters Workshop stencil using pan pastels and then outlining it with charcoal.

9. I then added little flecks of yellow over different parts of the page using a yellow paintstik.

10. I then stamped using some red acrylic paint and a Prima Chicken Wire stamp (back in stock now!). I then used blue paint and stamped a large circle  with my Heidi Swapp foam stamp.

You can see the final bird image here with black pen outline and skinny legs.

11. I then stamped over the top of the blue circle in the top left and bottom right with a dark blue paint and a swirly foam stamp. I drew some faux stitching with white pen around the top left hand blue circle.

I added some XOXOXO’s using a 7gypsies rolling stamp.  I also added a stamp on the bottom left LIFE IS GOOD. I also stamped the word CHICK using my alpha foam stamps from the original art journal kit and some red acrylic paint.

Completed page!

- Art Journal is a weekly BB Blog feature posted each Friday.

1. I started the page with some simple line drawings of windows at the bottom and the vertical and horizontal lines.  I drew around my windows twice to add a bit of dimension to the shape.

2. I used a pan pastel and Sofft knife to colour in some shading on the windows. I only did parts of the corners of each so some white from the page would show through.

3. I then added 2 different blue pan pastels at the top.

4. I then used watercolour paints to colour in the scallop line.  I also used watercolour paint out of a tube to colour the green background.

5. I used a black watercolour to colour in the black vertical line and also to grunge up the green a bit.  I also coloured some black around each window shape.

6. I added some stamping with the yellow paint/chicken wire stamp (more are coming soon to the store) and aI also added some vine stamps with Versafine ink using an old BasicGrey stamp set.

7. I added some cherryArte Snapshot rubons -with the long black lines and the black bird. (only $1.00 per set in the store)

8. I added a Crafters Workshop stencil flower in the top right hand corner with a pan pastel.

9. I stamped a Tim Holtz frame stamp with brown ink and then coloured in the centre with white gesso. I also drew around the edge of the white gesso section with a black pen and also added in a bit of black shading with charcoal so the white section wasn’t so stark.

10. I then added a quote in the centre with a micron black pen.

Completed page!

- Art Journal is a weekly BB Blog feature posted each Friday.

1. I started my page with a watercolour background. I wet my brush with alot of water and ‘painted’ the page just with water to start with and then added different water colours in sections as shown below.

2. I used a Dina Wakley stamp and panpastel to create a stamped image.   I wiped the pastel onto the stamp and then spritzed it with water so it would create a watery image to stamp onto the page.

3. I then coloured in the image a bit more with the same panpastel colour and also some black charcoal on the edge.  I defined the whole image with a light pencil around the edge.

4. I used a Raindrop Crafters Workshop stencil and panpastel colour to create some rain drops. If you struggle with using wet media seeping under the stencil, using the panpastels (a dry media) is perfect for getting nice shapes with defined edges.

5. I drew around the edge of each rain drop with my signo white pen. I also applied a long rain drop on the right hand side of the stamped silhouette image and also outlined it in white pencil.

6. I applied some 7gypsies paper tape on the bottom left hand corner, the top right hand corner and a small piece on the right middle side. (refer final image to see the placements)

7. I then used a variety of panpastel colours and also another Flower Frame Crafters Workshop stencil to create some large flower outlines over the page. I applied a mix of colours on each stencil image for variety in colour.

8. I spritzed the flower stencils with a bit of water to loosen up the panpastel and blur the edges of the stencil shape just a little bit.

9. I drew in a red heart shape using mainly a red paintstik with some yellow highlights which gave an orange blend mainly in the top left corner of the heart.

I also painted the word “colour” with liquitex acrylic ink and a calligraphy brush. I drew over the word once it was dry with my white signo pen.

I also wrote a quote on the Dina Wakley stamped image using my white signo pen.

10. I drew around the heart with my black signo pen. I did try a few of my other pens before the signo, but the signo worked best. Normally when I draw over a paintstik area, I usually wait until the next day to use a pen over the top. I was pretty impressed the black signo worked through the paintstik not long after I created it.  I outlined the heart shape and smudged the line a little. I also added some doodling around parts of the heart shape.

11. I used a 7gypsies rolling stamp and versafine ink to stamp the quote “life is good” on the heart.

12. I applied some white paintstik around the edges of my page and also in the centre of the petals on the flower stencil pictured left below.  I used my finger to spread the colour around.

13. I stamped an XOXOXO 7gypsies stamp at the top left corner and bottom right corner of the page as shown below.

I also drew around the edge of the petal shapes with a white signo pen.

Completed page!

- Art Journal is a weekly BB Blog feature posted each Friday.

This week’s page is one of my favourite because it was so easy to do and I loved the blended colours.

1. I grabbed 3 Pan Pastels to create my background. I used a colour on 1/3rd of the page each and made sure each blended into the other.

2. I then used a Crafters Workshop stencil and a black Pilot pen to create an outline design. Make sure you use a permanent pen as watercolours are used later on.

3. I then coloured in the flowers and vines with blue and green watercolours.  I also used black and brown watercolours around the edge of the stencil shape.  I diluted them down quite a bit so only a dirty wash of each was left behind.  I used a water brush pen to apply the watercolour paints and blend the colour in. It also blended nicely into the Pan Pastels.

5. I then added a quote in the top right and word in the bottom left. (probably could have done without that word).

Completed page!

- Art Journal is a weekly BB Blog feature posted each Friday.