Be your own kind of beautiful

Hi all!  I'm back with my first mixed media art canvas done on my own.   So excited.  I like it and can't wait to hang it somewhere once I have the sides finished and get it sealed.  :)  This was fun and fast.   I used a number of different embellishments from Tim Holtz, prima flowers, some Michael's metal embellishments, a Dusty Attic sentiment, and a butterfly from the dollar store.  I also used a couple of Crafter's Workshop stencils in script and the time clocks with Wendy Vecchi embossing paste.  I colored it all with Lyndi stamp gangs sprays.  Here are some photos from the beginning to the end result.  :)

I gesso'd the whole canvas and embellishments before spraying. 

 

I finished the tips of the flowers, the sentiment and the metal embellishments along with the script embossing with Viva Inca Gold in old gold for some bling.

 

 

Thanks for stopping in and taking a peak at my newest project.  I appreciate the visits and would love to hear from you.  :) 

 

 

Until next time....

Be strong

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have... and sometimes those words are so much easier to understand than to practice.   This page has been a work in progress over the past week and some.  So much has been going on again in my life that it hasn't left me a lot of time to do what I truly love to do, my ART.  So, bits and pieces of this comes together here and there as time affords.  As like always, I really wasn't sure what direction I was going to take this.  I started off with stamped image and I knew I wanted to do something that incorporated the color red.  That was my only starting point.  So with that being said, here is my work as it progressed.  :)  I colored my lovely lady with Prisma water color pencils and a fine brush and water for blending.

 

 

I found a sheet of flowery scrapbooking paper and cut out parts of the images and sealed it down randomly around the huge sea of whiteness. 

 

 

Huh, what next.  Next I picked out some different acrylic paints from Liquitex concentrating mostly on the reds, also used pink and a ochre color mixed with the red and I brushed the colors over the flowers to cover the whole page.  I was kind of hoping that the images would come thru.  For the most part it covered it but in some areas if you look closely you can see bits off the flowers creating texture thru the paint. 

 

 

Not really feeling it at this point and I had no clue where to go next with this page.  Take a break for a few days and come back to it.  Next I decided I was going to use some washi tape and place it around the page and I sealed it down with gel matte medium.  





 

Next, I grabbed some of my texture stamps and randomly stamped in archival black around the page.

 

 

Was getting better but still seemed off.  I honestly, wasn't feeling this page and it was a struggle doing it, especially since I didn't have time to just focus on it from start to finish.  I felt that it needed some more texture.  I grabbed my Viva Décor old gold cream and used my finger to create a grid effect around the washi tape.  I also used the same gold and with my finger rubbed it thru a Crafter's workshop stencil to add some gold texture to the page.  Next, I took some Wendy Vecchi black embossing paste thru another Crafter's workshop stencil script.  I then grabbed some TH distress paint in Scattered straw and gently pressed the paint thru another stencil. 

 

 

I felt like I needed to frame my girl and so I took my little pots of inky black gesso and inky white gesso and used my script brush and painted circles about the image.  I also took my fan brush with the inky white gesso and splattered some droplets around the pages covering up the girl so she wouldn't get splattered.

 







 

The opposite page needed something, but what?  I found a sentiment stamp and stamped the saying onto some white cardstock and grabbed one of my Tattered Angel sprays and sprayed the sentiment.  I tore around the edges and then distress inked with Walnut stain around the edges.  I misted with water to created some texture.  I then cut another piece of cardstock slightly larger then the sentiment and tore around the edges the same way.  I took another Tattered angel spray in black diamond and sprayed that piece and dried it.  I took distress ink Black Soot and inked around the edges.  It still didn't seem enough so I took a tag and sprayed one of Lyndi stamp gang moon shadow sprays, inked the edges in walnut stain again and glued all the pieces in layers.  Once completed I glued it onto the opposite page and took some embellishments from CTMH and some butterflies which I also lightly sprayed with the same Lyndi spray and glued them around the page.

 

 

I still had some scraps left over from one of my previous pages from the TH die cuts and I sprayed them with the same Lyndi spray I used on the tag and the butterflies and then glued them around the tag on the page. 

 

 

I am loving the end result.  As much of a struggle as it was to just go with the process and not gesso overtop half way thru and start over, I find myself liking what came of the end result.  Maybe my sentiment should have said, Never give up... LOL   Here is the final page:

 







I hope you enjoy this page.  This has been probably one of the most artistically challenging and frustrating layouts I have done.  Perseverance paid off and as I overcame each of the challenges to be met with another, this page has shown me that you can't give up on something you start.  Just go with it and it'll all work out in the end.  Please leave me your thoughts.  It makes my day to hear from you all.  :)   xoxo

Everything you need

HI all.  Today has been an emotional rollercoaster of happy and sad, and this page depicts my emotions today.  Seven months ago I lost my best friend, but he wasn't just a best friend.  We were in a relationship many years ago that took my breathe away.  The relationship didn't last but our friendship bond did and it only grew stronger as the years went by.  Not saying that we didn't have our volatile moments but we always bounced back because deep down that love we had for each other never went away.  When he passed away last year it was like the rug was pulled out from under me.  This weekend is my birthday, and I got the best birthday gift I could ever ask for.  Back in the day when we were together I was into tole painting, so I painted an amazing men's jewellery box for him.  During that time, I went on a road trip with him to California (he was a trucker).  On our drive, I was in the back sleeper while he drove.  It was quite late and during that time I wrote him a letter on his computer and saved it in a file for him to find one day.  Well, today his brother drove to my city to drop off this box that I had painted so many years ago for him, and inside that box was a copy of the letter that I had written him on his computer some 12 yrs ago.  He had saved that letter, and safely tucked it away in that box all these years.  It brought back memories and a wave of emotions, both of sorrow and happiness.  So, todays page says, "Everything you need is already inside" by Bill Bowerman.  I may have lost my best friend seven months ago but all those memories are inside me to cherish for the rest of my days.  Thank you Shane for having given me the inspiration for today's journal page.  You are so dearly missed. 

So to start I prepared my pages with Gesso as I always do.  I just picked up a few of the Prima face stamps and I decided to use one of them.  They don't have specific names on the packages so I'm not sure what to call this one.  So I stamped the image onto my page using Archival ink.  And colored my image with my Aquacolor crayons.  I bought this water color crayons such a long time ago without really knowing what to use them for.  I now have a reason to use them.  :)  Another reason to hoard and not purge because you just never know when you might need something you've had all along! 

 

 

 



 

Next, I took the water colors and started with white around the image like a halo and starting using tones of green to blue outwardly.  

 

 

 

The color darkens as you go further from the image into darker blues on the opposite page.  From there I took a Crafter's Workshop stencil mini wildflowers, Ronda Palazzari designs, and stenciled layers of the flowers and leaves using Wendy Vecchi archival inks in Forget Me Not, Cornflower blue, Leaf Green and Fern Green.  I heat set the inks and then I took some white gesso and a sponge dauber and painted the same images thru the stencil over top of the inks. 

 

 

 

I wanted a few colored splatters so I used my Lyndi Stamp Gang sprays to add some droplet effects around the page.  I used some scrap paper to cover the girl.  The colors I used were Aloha Avacado, Ocean Breeze Blue, and Caribbean Blue.

 

 

 

I wanted to lighten up the area around the girl again to bring out that halo effect more prominently.  I used my gelatos in white, acqua dolce, cotton candy and margarita mix.   Then I took my graphite pencil and shaded around the image to define her.  

 

 

 

 

Next step was to add some flowers to the greenery.   I took one of the small flowers from a Fiskars stamp set that I have had forever and stamped in black archival random little flowers around the layout.  With my Fabre Castell Big Brush Pitt markers I colored in the flowers. 

 

 

 

 

Time to add my words.  I stamped my Unity stamp onto white cardstock and cut it out.  I then used the same Lyndi sprays and colored the words.  I used gel matte medium to glue them down.  Next step once dry was to outline the words with my Uniball gel pen.

 

 

 

 

I added a script to the bottom on my girl image that says love.  I finished around the edges of the page with Gelatos to deepen the border color.  I think I am done.  I'm not really sure if I will do anymore to the page or not.  I might go back in and add a heart somewhere on the page and maybe outline the greenery with my Pitt pens but I'm not sure.  So for now, it is done. 

 

 



 

 

I hope you enjoy my page.  This page speaks to me more than any other page has so far, drawing on personal emotions to do my art journal page today.  Would love to hear from you.  Thanks for stopping in to check out my most recent post.  Have a wonderful day!  xoxo