praise the Lord

Good morning, friends.  I have to say that I'm really enjoying making art journal pages.  I know that from what I've seen on other blogs that my pages are rather unique.  I tend to not like the real busy, messy look.  I really want my focal images to stand out from the background.  I'm just not comfortable with a paint brush in my hand, although this venture has pushed me to make some attempts.  Also, with no formal art training, my attempts at blending colors with anything liquid usually end up muddy, and I've found a wonderful friend in a bottle of gesso.  So, with all that being said, I find that I've simply adapted my own style to my pages -- usually a background of some sort done with a technique that may or may not use paint, stencils (definitely need more of those), ink, doodling, etc. -- and then using stamped images (colored, cut out, and glued) -- and a sentiment that I've printed from my computer. 

I love the ability to experiment with new techniques, so that is one of the things that really motivated me to try art journaling. 

My page today started with a technique given at our last OWSE Yahoo group art journal meeting.  After putting gesso on our page, we brushed a light layer of acrylic paint on and let it dry.  Next, we spread another light layer of paint with a credit card and let it dry.  Third, we added a third color with a baby wipe, at the same time scrubbing some of the previous paint off.  From there, we did whatever we wanted to finish the page.  Since all three of the colors I used were pretty light, you really can't see the results that I achieved underneath the stenciling, but it was pretty cool.  I used a new stencil (thanks, Robyn) with some distress inks (Ranger - mustard seed, barn door, peeled paint & faded jeans) and white kraft ink (SU).  I heat set the inks to make sure they were all completely dry.  I found it interesting that the kraft ink dried with a semigloss finish on top of the paint, instead of the matte finish I normally would see. 

The flowers are stamped with a new Judith stamp I picked up at a local scrapbooking convention in April.  There were two sizes and I bought them both, although I only used the larger one here.  I colored them with copic markers and then added some colored pencil highlights.  (I'm not sure why my camera always seems to wash out my copic coloring - these are a lot more vibrant IRL.)  One of the things that I like with this stamp is it's easy to cut out - not a lot of intricate cutting. 

For the stems, I sketched lightly with a green colored pencil and then PAINTED in the stems -- very carefully!  Yup, I pushed myself!  Once the paint was dry, I added some colored pencil highlights and shadows. 

I cut the leaves freehand with deckle scissors, folded them in half and ran them through my crimper.  Then I highlighted the ridges and edges with a darker green ink and a sponge dauber. 

The butterfly is SU (flores suaves), colored with copic markers and highlighted with white gel pen. 

The verse, Psalm 117:1 is printed from my computer.  This is my May entry to the Divine Design Bible Verse Challenge 2012 on SCS. 

Thank you so much for visiting my blog today.  Be blessed.