Art Journals

Once again I have been away from my computer, thus these projects haven't been posted. First up, a couple of art journals in a round robin swap. I didn't get a side-by-side view of the first pages, but they were for a person who mentioned feathers, flowers, and dragonflies as some of her favorite themes, so I created pages with that in mind. Gelli-print backgrounds (I tore two up to use because one wasn't big enough.  It added more color, anyway!)

 The flowers are punched, the word feathers is stamped and embossed, the words dragonfly and wings are stickers, and the feathers on the side are stenciled modeling paste that I added a bit of distress ink to. The & is chipboard.

 On this page, the words are, magical and things are all stickers. (Yup, I have a LOT of alpha stickers!!) The word Quite is rub-on letters, and the word wonderful is cut with QuicKutz die cutting system.  The flowers on the right are glass bead gel pressed through a stencil, then painted lightly with distress paint. Note, on both pages there are bits of washi tape. Because I can. :)

The next journal is probably my least favorite of all I have done, but only because I am not a pastel pink, shabby-chic, romantic type of person.  Give me some ORANGE! Some BOLD! I like my colors to vibrate!!  So, even though this style appeals to a LOT of people, it isn't me. BUT, I rose to the occasion and created what I hope will make her happy. :)

 The background started as a sheet of Tim Holtz tissue. I painted over it with distress paint, then around the edges added some white acrylic paint. I layered on some tattered rose distress ink, and later some vintage photo distress ink.  I spritzed with Tattered Angels glimmer mist, although it is REALLY faint and hard to see it.  The left side is a strip of gelli print, then I used lace, flowers, pink pearl trim, a title page from an OLD hymnal that had been mouse eaten (so I just tore it up a little more...) some washi tape, and the metal embellishment from a greeting card someone had sent me a couple of years ago. The heart was super shiny, so I roughed it up with a wire brush, then added pale pink and latte colored alcohol inks to it.  Several layers of that finally started giving it more of a distressed look. The flowers are layered, the outer pink flowers were the last of those left over from Ryan and Ale's (our son) wedding five years ago, and the little satin centers were from a set I got a few years ago. I didn't have any creamy colored brads for the centers, so I added a drop of dimensional paint to the center of each white brad. I wove the pearl trim around through the flowers, and I thought it was just enough to frill it up without being too ostentatious.

 The right page started with a piece of patterned paper, beneath the tissue, but the pattern was lost beneath all the layers, so I may as well have skipped it.  It did give the page a little more substance, but otherwise only served to lighten my overburdened stash of scrap papers.  The fan is more of the gelliprint I used on the left panel, embellished with a bit of ribbon and fiber.  I laid a couple of rubberized leaves (cream) beneath it, but you may not be able to see it in the photo. The brown flowers down the center are rub-ons, the little fairy is a scrabble tile someone sent to me.

And here the spread is all together. I think I have used up all my pastel goodies now, so I have an excuse to say, "I can't do that." :)