serendipity

Hello, my friends.  We've been having some wonderful weather here.  Cool in the morning (around 50) and in the low 70's during the day.  This is my kind of weather. 

Today I have an art journal page that I made for a challenge at OWSE Yahoo group.  The technique is serendipity. 

I started with some old book pages, which I covered with gesso.  The idea is to make several backgrounds, using ink, paint, stamps, etc.  So I used a number of brilliance inks to sponge on color, somewhat randomly.  I added quite a bit of stamping, mostly with black archival ink, but I also used some color. 

The next step is to cut up your backgrounds into strips, or squares, or other shapes that you can fit back together on your page, but randomly, so that the pieces are all mixed up, making a completely new background.  I cut mine into 1"x3" pieces and then placed them down in a pattern like a quilt.  Now I like color, but I thought my page was way too bright, so I went over it with a gesso wash, toning down the brightness more to my liking. 

I wanted to add something very subtle to bring it all together, so I took a Dylusions stencil and sponged on turquoise ink, and used a black marker to add some highlights.  Using a different part of the same stencil, I sponged black paint over the leaves for a bold accent to balance out the oval frame on the main image.

For my main image, I colored a Penny Black flower with markers, huffed on it and stamped it on white card stock twice.  I then die cut that with a mega ovals spellbinders die in my cuttlebug.  I also cut a black scallop oval to frame it.  I sponged the edge with vintage photo distress ink. 

At the moment, I waiting for a new computer to arrive, so I'll have printer access again.  In the mean time, I found a sentiment that I had printed previously that I thought would work well on this page.  Serendipity?

Thanks so much for stopping by today.  Have a wonderful week.