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
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