Bargainous Bargains - Where I get my supplies

As I do not have much to show for Sunday Sketches, just this one very quick pastel pencil drawing, I thought I would put in this post the biggest tip I have for obtaining fantastic artist supplies ludicrously cheap, rather than make it into a separate post.

I'm as terrible as most other artists and crafters for spending more money than I should each year on new supplies. What Marvy have brought out alcohol pens? Well aren't I always running my promarkers out? And these have different 'painterly' tips? Well then they're a must aren't they? What Derwent have brought out inktense blocks? And they work on both paper and fabric? Well brilliant, naturally I have to have them, haven't I been looking all summer for a medium that will work in the fabric art journal I created in my June Challenge?

Yes I'm a sucker for new supplies, rather than sticking and mastering one medium (which would be a hell of a lot cheaper) but I love the different effects that using different mediums will instantly give and mixing them all up in one piece of art. Yes I spend more than I should, but that is not to say I am frivolous. My main source for buying materials has been online - and I will study and compare shop after shop until I get the best price on the item I want. That is...until this year.

Take Saturday afternoon for example, a relatively slow buying day for me I have to admit but I still got these:

Winsor and Newton Drawing Inks: RRP £24 - brought for £5

Staedtler Watercolour Pencils: RRP £35 - brought for £10

Papers, Cards, Acetate, Die Cuts, Large Stamp, Brads: RRP £25 ?? (estimate) - brought for £10

Humongous Guillotine: RRP £50 (but probably will need additional cutting strip/blade) - brought for £6

Also extra items of vintage (and new re: narnia) ephemera...

and random items of brass and jewellery for mixed media pieces:

You may not use ephemera or any random items for mixed media, but even so can you think of a shop you could get all this in one? No nor can I. The best tip I can give you for buying supplies is to buy outside of the box (that box being your computer) & head out to car boot sales, fares and fates. All the above items were brought at one car boot in about an hour and a half yesterday. Some people I know have snobbish attitudes to buying items that have had a previous owner but all artists materials & guillotine were brand new in sealed packaging when I got them, so I say more fool them.

Even with these all these items weighting down my canvas bags, as it is getting towards the end of the season (and too cold for many people to be out car booting already) I felt like I had a bad day at the office. Mainly because it has been one of my worst days for sheer volume of items brought. Yet looking at it now I think 'why, you silly cow? you still did well' - the drawing inks especially I have had my eye on (online eye) for ages. And that is something I promise will happen (if you go to enough of them), you will find items you have been longing for, at ridiculously low prices. I have - every single time I have been I have found something I have wanted.

I say look for things that may be going on around you before it's too late this year and get your scarf, hat and fingerless gloves on & rummage for treasure!

Dos-a-Dos Journal & Book Tutorial

In my last post I said I was making this Dos-a-Dos book out of a cardboard box and I had a couple of comments asking what a dos-a-dos book actually is. Well it means back-to-back, so basically it is one book that contains two (or in some cases, like mine, more than two) books that are backed together like this:

As those of you who know me may have guessed (& considering it is made out of a cardboard box) I have also recycled other items to make it - vintage text pages from a torn book, a scrap piece of metal and (yes more) of my grandmothers left over knitting yarn lol

I have done a tutorial for you guys if you want to make one too, let me know what you think?

I'm linking with artists in blogland, sneak peek friday, paint party friday, and for the first time:

come join and let us see what you've been up to too. Warm wishes Jennibellie

P.S. thanks to all of those who have given kind words for my Grandma when I mentioned she was ill last week, she came out of hospital yesterday on her 60th wedding anniversary - that's not to say she's particularly better but with so many ailments it's unfortunately the norm for us now. But she did get a diamond anniversary card from the Queen so all's not so bad with the world.

Sorry about the crap pics they were taken with an iphone while waiting for our desserts lol xx

WOYWW #124 - Completed Charcoal Page & Video Tutorial

Hi Everyone, workdesk today has on it the finished A3 art journal page I said I'd show in my last post on charcoal sketches and lots of cardboard boxes I'm using for a video tutorial I'm making today on how to turn them into a dos-a-dos journal. I'll post it on here once done.

Here is a close up of the double page spread (sorry it still isn't v. detailed close up it's because the book is so big). 

I didn't do much to it, just added a quotation from my favourite ever playwright George Bernard Shaw (in fact he is a favourite ever man of mine, let alone writer) and added a vintage collectable card of him, same as those that are in my giveaway. 

Then I added some washi tape and some penwork and gave both the charcoal sketch and G.B.S's quotation a border of turquoise toily-type material.

Happy WOYWW, thanks for visiting Jennibellie x

Glorious Charcoal

I LOVE charcoal. It's so easy to use children's hands are stuffed with it (and also because it's so CHEAP of course), but it's also difficult in a 'I can't get that line quite right sort of way' - which I think is great because it takes the pressure off of you getting everything perfect. It also marks the page quickly, this sketch was done in 5 mins. I'm linking up with Sunday Sketches for the first time, come join and show off your sketches.

This charcoal sketch was about 15 mins & I have placed it in my large A3 art journal. The sketch is done, as I wanted it rough and ready to contrast the painted pages, but the page itself is still a work in progress so I'll show the full two page spread once it's completed. Thanks for visiting, Jennibellie

Zine & Ephemera Giveaway

Hi Guys

100 follower giveaway! Wahoo! Well a little while ago, before 100 followers point, I mentioned I wanted to do a giveaway with a handbound creative writing prompt journal and hinted at a reason. Well first I thought I'd tie up that loose end and say what the reason was (well actually still is) - I have signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and AEDM (Art Every Day Month) in November.

My theory for taking on both of these daily challenges in one month is that after I've pulled my hair out trying to make my daily word count on the novel I can turn to art to soothe me (that's what I'm telling myself anyhow, don't ruin my disillusion lol). On top of this I want to blog everyday, which will be more posts in one month than I have done in the whole of my life lol but I want to keep a personal 'achievement diary' so it'll just be a picture of my creation and a daily word count. Still I'll probably stumble at some point so if anyone else is doing either of these challenges please shout out so I can follow you/buddy-up.

However, with everything going on in my life at the moment (thanks to everyone who gave kind words re: my grandma in the last post) I simply don't have the time I need to make up, organise & print out all the pages to make the writing journal - let alone create the video on the creative writing exercise I said would go with it - so that'll have to wait till sometime after November. So what is in this giveaway instead is my new zine, Creative Juice:

I think it's more fitting than the writing prompt journal anyhow, as although it does contain a creative writing exercise, it is not restricted to that, and has creativity in all kinds of aspects within it. It also includes materials on some of the pages to fulfil the activities, if you want to check out more details click the listing here.

Also included in the giveaway is some vintage ephemera. Regular readers will know I am addicted to ephemera, and one of my favourite treasures to find is collectable card books (originally given away with cigarettes or tea):

I find the books and if incomplete I find and fill with the remaining cards and recently I had enough to fill a duplicate book, so I thought I'd offer it in the giveaway, here are a few shots:

It is on Adventurers and Explores and is fully complete. I don't know how much it is worth - could be 10p, could be £100. I don't do this for profit, I do it because I believe ANYTHING historical has the importance to be valued or saved (and obviously also because I'm a HUGE geek - and bloody proud of it too!)

Finally I'm also including the loose collectable cards above - there's some tropical birds, lots of royality ones and even the Beatles! These are fantastic to use in your crafts, especially collage - check out my flickr or the last section of my found projects video if you want some ideas on how you can use them.

So to enter the giveaway you must first be a follower and then just leave me a comment letting me know you wish to be entered. I'll draw the winner on the first day of my challenges, November 1st. Many thanks and lots of love, Jennibellie xx

Free Zines and a How to...

Today I have been busy making these zines to give away as a freebie with the big main zine I have been working on (when I finally get it up for sale). I do the same when someone buys a journal (but with a mini journal) so thought I'd keep the tradition alive with zines too.

I'd thought I'd share a mini how-to just in case you don't know how to make these bad boys. They're insanely easy and only take one piece of paper (A4/Letter size) to make. 

They're fabulous for all sorts of things (like the handbag or to shove in with a letter) but I think they're great for adding mini books into your art journals as shown above. I've not seen this done much but I love adding mini books into larger ones, particularly useful if you want to stow away something from direct sight, or to contain negative emotion in one place.

1. Take your paper and fold it in half:

2. Fold your ends into this centre fold to make three folds:

3. Fold lengthways:

4. Take a craft knife and make a slit into this lengthways fold across the two central section:

5. Now is the tricky bit, fold it back lengthways then take the two ends and push them together to make a sort of star shape:

 

Then continue to push and shape the paper to get defined 'page' shapes like this:

6. Fold the last page in and run brayer or bone folder along edges:

There's your 4 page mini book with 8 sides ready to be filled :) 

This post title 'free zines' is because I'm going to be doing a giveaway as today I logged in to find 100 followers! Wahoo! Thanks everyone, your support and lovely comments are so so so appreciated :)


So what is the giveaway? It includes my new zine I mentioned earlier which is all about creativity (and it contains materials to use with the creative prompts given) and some vintage ephemera which I'll show you when I do the giveaway post (hopefully tomorrow but my Grandmother was taken into hospital last night so possibly Sunday. I'll try for tomorrow though).


I'm going to link up with Sneak Peek Friday and Artists In Blogland to see what everyone else is up to, thanks for visiting much love Jenny x

WOYWW #123 - An Art Journal Page

My desk is like Julia's very dark atm, because its in the wrong side of the house to the sun, so have switched to a desk on the sunny side:

After my post here about painting big I brought some A3 sketchbooks to turn into new art journals, ready for when I want to slosh paint around a large surface.

I thinks she's done, again like the above post I'm not fussed about how she's turned out, but she was therapy to paint & that's all that matters. If I keep going then may be one day I'll end up with a therapeutic page I actually like lol

Come share your workdesk over at Stamping Ground & see peeks at others spaces & projects, hugs Jenny

My First Zine

I thought I would do a short post (though with lots of pics so will probably become long lol) of what I've been up to as I haven't posted anything yet in October.  Well recently I made a good friend a handmade journal, gave her loads of supplies and a few tips on how to fill it. Then I realised...why wasn't I making this as a kit for my Etsy shop? So I've been busy as a bee making up these journaling kits:

To go in each of these kits I made this leaflet with information on, and exercises for, journal writing, art journaling, gratitude journaling, visual journaling etc:

Doing this leaflet was like having a 'light-bulb-'ping'-alight-above-your-head' kinda moment. For the last couple of years, ever since I discovered Etsy actually, I have been obsessed by Zines. I have brought many, drooled over some more and wished I could do my own, but seriously...what do I have to share anyone wants to read about?

Well doing this blog, art journaling videos, and my Etsy shop (properly) over the last 3/4 months has given me the confidence to realise that my work is worthy, and as interesting to others as what others work is to me. So I have started my own Zine, YAY!!! It's a creative prompt zine - everything from creating art, creative writing, textile art & collage to making chocolate truffles, magnets, homemade stencils and even lipbalm!

Here's a sneak peek at a few pages:

And the best bit about this zine, or at least I think so, is it will contain materials throughout to use in the exercises given, yummy, yummy, yummy hehe. I'm going to link up with Artists in Blogland, please come join and share :) Hope everyone's enjoying their Sundays activities too, much love Jenny x