The ArtiFacts Project, Art Journal With Karen Bearse

I am participating in the Artifacts Collaboration that is being put on by Seth Apter I am a big fan of his products & have been lucky enough to take a few of his classes. The idea is to create a book using whatever style you choose & do a page or so a month to document your artistic endeavours. Today I have a tour of the first page I have done in my book.

This was a fun page to create, as I just did whatever I wanted, using some of my favourite products & techniques as I went. The challenge I had was to put so many photos on 1 page. This is my artistic journey for January. I am playing catch-up but have decided that is okay. As a busy mom & designer I can give myself permission to just have fun & play too, being a bit behind lets me look back with fresh eyes!

After scraping gesso randomly across my craft page it was time to add colour. Knowing the photos were going in the center I started adding acrylic paint and stencil work around the edges.

More stencil work & more colours. Taking crackle paste & tinting it with acrylic paint seemed like a good thing to do. Just building layers.

Next up embellishments. Now that my background was shaping up it was time to add some chippies. I wanted to see what the colour difference would be if I only gessoed some of the gear. The result was unexpected & needs to be researched further. The gear is clearly darker & less embossed in an area. Was it because the powder wasn’t distributed evenly or was it the gesso?

Next up was the Retro Lightbulb. I embossed the base with Hammered Metal which looks totally realistic. The light part was Iridescent Shimmer. You can also see what some of my finishing doodles look like in this photo.

The funky flower branch was first gessoed, dried & then coloured with watercolour markers. A bit of water was added with a fine brush to blend the colours. The flower part was coloured first with a blue marker & than embossed with Fractured Ice. A gemstone was glued in the middle to add some pizazz.  

Once all the embellishments were adhered final touches were in order. Doodling & mark making. You can see some of the highlighting here.

One last shot of some of the products used. If you want to see the cover I put on my book & links to other posts about it you can click here.

Southern Ridge Trading Company Supplies Used:

- Gears 2

- Retro Lightbulbs

- Mina Branch

Other Supplies Used:

- Seth Apter Stencils by Stencil Girl

- Emerald Creek Craft Supplies: Embossing Powder and Gemstones

- Marvy Uchida: LePlume II Watercolour Markers and Deco Colour Liquid Gold & Silver

- DecoArt: Acrylic Paint, Crackle Paste & Matte Medium

- Tombow: Liquid Glue & Fastener Tabs

If you want to see more of what I have been up to you can find me at karenbearse.blogspot.com with links to my other social media. Have an inky day!

- Karen