Mixed Media Art Journal by Gabriele Langfeldt-Feldmann

Welcome dear friends of Rubber Dance! My name is Gabriele from Art-a-tag and I am a Mixed Media artist. I would like to take you on a very exiting journey using the fantastic Rubber Dance stamps in my art. For me this journey will be full of adventures and new experiences which I would like to share with you. Be warned, I will also share the not so good experiences, but my learning process might be of some interest for you too. 

Todays creation is an Art Journal page about time, or rather about forgetting time. It is about letting go and dreaming. This page contains 3 quotes: "Forget Time", "Joy is Timeless" and the quote from a Rubber Dance stamp "Dream it, Wish it, Do it". The Rubber Dance stamp of a pocket watch just works so well with these quotes, I stamped it all over the page. 

I will explain the process step by step. I usually begin with collaging some papers. I am not searching for anything, I just take what is on my desk. Then I put paint on the page, in a random manner. No planning, just doing. I work in an old photo album, about 50 years old, it has a nice heavy paper, almost cardboard, but does not stand a lot of water. 

I was thinking about the person, that I saw on the right hand side, for a short moment, but decided not to do a portrait this time. To get a random pattern, I like to use stencils. So I start building up layers. In this process I also use stamps to build up an interesting background.

The enlargements show the stamps "Vintage script" and "Grunge Swirls", printed with permanent ink. Brown for the script and white for the swirls. If you use water soluble ink, take care to spray some fixative on it, or hairspray, to prevent that is gets washed away with your next paint layer. 

Somehow I was drawn to the words time and timeless on a stencil which fit in nicely and harmonized with the flower like collage piece. So I had my motto for this page. Wonderful! The quote "Dream it, Wish it, Do it" from a Rubber Dance stamp was just made for the space underneath timeless. I stamped it with brown permanent ink and also printed some more Grunge Swirls on the darker areas. 

Oh no! The first not so good experience - the text was smeared. I don´t know if I accidently rubbed it of with my hand or if the surface, did not take the ink so well in some parts. I learned to be patient next time and wait until the ink is dry.

I could not stamp over it again, because I would not be able to print precisely on the existing text. What I could do: paint over it and stamp again or stamp on a piece of paper and attach it on top of "the accident". 

I used some delicate paper, which is slightly transparent when used with glue. I also stamped the pocket watch around the edges with a light pink permanent ink.

Next step is applying some highlights with the pocket watch and white permanent ink.

Please forgive me, that my stamped images are not always so crisp and clear as you might to be used to when stamping on paper. First of all, I am not a very experienced stamper, so I am learning a lot on this journey and the media I am stamping on are kind of tricky and do not always react as desired. 

Finally some finishing touches to give the page a little more depth with some pocket watch prints with dark ink. I had in my stash some cheap dark blue water soluble ink, which I bought in a bunch of maybe 10 colours, this did not work very good. You see the print on the upper right edge. The other one is a greenish blue permanent ink which worked better. 

Here some enlargements to illustrate the process.

Supply list:

All the stamps used for this project are from Rubber Dance and can be found on these pages:

Backgrounds:  (BK1-1E: Grunge Swirls and BK1-4E: Vintage Script)

Collage: (BK1-7G: Collage Elements 1)

Art Journal (I used an old photo album) or thicker paper, size 21 x 29 cm (8.27 x 11.42 inches) 

Acrylic paints - whatever you have on hand

paper clips from magazines, newspaper

stamp pads with preferably permanent ink

pencil and white pen

delicate paper - to repair minor accidents

glue 

I hope you had some fun joining me on this little excursion and it would be lovely to see you next month on our next journey. You are also very welcome to visit me on my blog Artatag.wordpress.com.

I wish you a happy creative time!

Gabriele from Art-a-tag

To read about Gabriele and the rest of the DT, check this page: www.rubberdance.com/designers.html

To find the stamps used for this project, and many more, visit the Rubber Dance website at www.rubberdance.com.
You can meet us on Facebook - come on over and say hi!"