Art Journal - Be a Butterfly

Happy Monday, everyone! This week is starting with a Mixed Media Monday art journal page share...and it's something a bit different for me. My art journals are little places to experiment and play, so not every layout is a "work of art"...more like a "work of wonder" as in "I wonder if this will work..." :)

I wanted to do something with my Indigo Blu/Limor Webber "Ink Splat Butterfly" stamp, and I wanted to pair it with a new Unity Stamp Co. butterfly quote stamp. But since I'd just about finished with another bright and sassy and experimental butterfly layout in my journal (you'll see that one next week), I wanted this one to be a bit moodier. (hmmm...wonder if the fact I was watching recorded "Falling Skies" episodes had anything to do with that...ha!)

Here's the finished layout in my small Dylusions journal...

The use of a lot of embossing powders, and paints with iridescence mixed with the flat paints and inks, gives this "moody" page a touch of brightness...here's a side view of the reflective surfaces...

Want to see how it evolved? The first step was to stamp and emboss the butterfly...I chose a couple different colors of embossing powder..so far, so good. Then I got an idea, so I masked the butterfly before applying the modeling paste through a brick stencil...

I wondered if this last step would give me the impression of looking through a hole in a brick wall at a butterfly flying in the distance. So I went ahead and colored the brick wall using a few different Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals, and shading with a few more...some flat, some iridescent...keeping the mask over the butterfly stamp as I painted the bricks and mortar...

Then I painted in the background colors with more Magicals...blue, orange and pink in the sky area, and more green and blue at the bottom. When I added some darker shading colors around the edge of the "hole," I started to see where I was headed with the layout. Mind you, I did think twice when I got finished with this step...I kind of liked the bright and happy feel to the page. So I let it simmer in my head overnight, while I did other things and wondered if I really wanted to take this in the direction I originally envisioned...

When I came back to it the next day, I looked at the wall and thought "no brick wall with a hole in it is going to look that neat...it needs some graffiti on it."  So out came more embossing powders, and a Ranger Fudeball pen, and a script stencil to get me started with my letter shapes, and by now the page had a mind of its own and I was just going with the flow. I used some acrylic craft pigments to draw in some stems and tiny orange and magenta flower petals and leaves along the bottom edge..

At this point, all I needed to do was add some more shading, play around with those circles in the upper left, add some more texture with modeling paste, gussy up the butterfly, and add the sentiments...and that's how it ended up as in the top photo!

Here's a less reflective closeup of the embossed and stamped and shaded circles in the top left...

I used my Indigo Blu "Rugged Edge" stamp to get the embossed edges along the top. First I embossed with a dark blue powder, then topped with a lighter jade-slate powder. Here's a closeup of the two colors...at the top, the jade-slate deepened the blue, at at the bottom you can see how it's a beautiful green-grey shade...

Over in the right corner of the layout, I wanted some more circles, but not as heavy as those on the other page. So I pulled out one of my stencils and applied modeling paste through it...texture and some of a similar element on the opposite corner. (See that light "brown" at the upper left of this pic? That's the jade slate embossing powder over the orange paint...a totally different appearance when over the other color, but the same powder!)..

And finally, a closeup of the dressed up butterfly. Using a Fudeball pen, I drew inside the blue embossed circles on the wings to give them a textured look, outlined the outside, and added a strip of rhinestones through the center...

Supplies:

Color Mediums:   Lindy's Stamp Gang Magicals:   Rizzos Rowdy Red,   Bodacious Blush,   Sandra Dee Sepia,  Gag Me With a Spoon Grey,  Pink Ladies Pink,   Pretty in Pink Pink,   Luscious Lime,   Tilt a Wheel Teal,   Orange Creamsicle

Lindy's Stamp Gang Embossing Powders:   Bonjour Butter,   Aurora Amethyst,   Tilt a Wheel Teal,   Hyacinth Blue Jade,   Twilight Jade Slate

Ranger Fudeball pen - black;     acrylic craft paints

Stencils:   The Crafters Workshop "Mini Bricks"  "Mini Halftone Borders"   "Mini Specimens";   Donna Downey "Scribble Script"

Stamps:   Indigo Blu "Ink Splat Butterfly"   "Limor Circles"   "Rugged Edge";   Unity Stamp Co. "Today is a Lovely Day"

Art Mediums:   Golden modeling paste             Miscellaneous:   Stabilo All pencils-black & brown,  clear crystal gems

Thanks very much for visiting today...I hope your week is starting with a smile!