Thursday, 31 March 2011

April Calendar




Another month has flown by. So its time to make my Art Journal Calendar pages for April. First I painted the background in watercolours, then painted squares for each day.





As the Craft Stamper magazine stamp for April was a butterfly I thought I should do some delicate pastel pages with fluttery butterflies. So it s a bit different this month. I painted my background with watercolour paints, instead of acrylics, but they came out a bit darker than I had intended. Then I painted the squares for each day in watercolour, quite dark. And stamped the butterflies using dark Distress Inks, and added a few stamped & heat embossed onto dark vellum. I like the effect of painting the squares directly onto the background, rather than sticking patterned paper on, and will probably try doing this again later in the year, but the finished pages are not that good. I should have redone the backgrounds and restamped the images to get a better finish, but ran out of time and energy. I took a picture after I'd finished painting, and then scanned and photographed the finished pages.


Another great stamp from Craft Stamper, and next month should be good too.

21 comments:

  1. very pretty pages, do you fill them in each day i would love to see how they look at the end of the month
    janet

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  2. A good idea to paint the journal blocks rather than use papers (it is time consuming cutting them out and sticking them onto your page!) Might have a go at that :) Lovely colours.

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  3. Lovely pages i love the butterflies x

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  4. Ooh lovely pages. I like the effect of the watercolours. I keep saying that I will try painting squares instead of sticking them on but I havent got round to it - not sure how to do it, that's why! Well done for keeping up with the challenge so far x

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  5. Your April pages are lovely, really love the painted squares FAB xxxx

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  6. Beautiful - The watercolours are stunning - they are perfect for that spring effect - light and airy unlike acrylics and of couse with spring buds there has to be butterflys. Gorgeous.

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  7. Lovely, fresh effect. Watercolouring the squares is a great idea. Brill! x

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  8. Lovely colours and great idea to use watercolours!!

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  9. Love your pages. Never thought to paint the squares straight on to the page.

    Cathx

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  10. Great pages love the butterflies.

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  11. Hi Sheila, love how you have made your journal. Thanks for visiting my blog, too! Hugs, Valerie

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  12. Hi Steph, Lovely pages for April :-) I love that you've painted the daily squares; I have thought of doing them directly onto the page rather than stick pieces of paper on but not got round to it. I think you may start a trend :-)
    Anne x

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  13. Your April pages are so pretty and you are so brave painting your journal squares. I think we are all going to have to try this . xx

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  14. The watercolors are just beautiful! Well done!

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  15. I like the white background. Very nice page!

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  16. I like the idea of painting the squares straight onto the pages. I have painted paper cut up so far, but I will be trying your idea out.

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  17. Beautiful! Very brave to paint your squares - Mine don't even get stuck down until I've written on them!!

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  18. Beautiful pages, love the watercolour squares x

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  19. Beautiful pages with these soft watercolors.
    I like the doodling around the squares.
    Greetings Anne

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