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!

Happy 2015!...

Holiday season 2014 is behind us now, and it was a nice, relaxing break. I hope yours was enjoyable and had a bit of relaxation mixed with a bit of fun!

I'm starting off the new year sharing a 12x12 mixed media canvas that I made for a crafty friend of mine...she loved it, so that made me smile. :)  She's a very crafty friend, this friend of mine, and the colors of this canvas are a mix of her favorites, and those of her sweet girl. So I resisted the urge to add any text other than that in the background stencil, so she can add some later if she chooses to. There's also room over on the left for her to tuck in a photo, if she wants, at a later date.

This post is a bit photo heavy, so I'll just get to it, and add a little description between the photos...

I didn't take step-out photos of the process, but I started by applying a few torn pieces of patterned paper on the left, and some pieces from an old poetry book on the right, and covering it all with a single coat of white gesso before starting any of the stenciling with texture mediums.  

Once the textures were dry, I applied the color mediums to the background. Here is where my process might differ from some you've seen videos of. Many people wait until all the embellishments are adhered to the canvas, then color the embellishments and backgrounds at the same time. I chose not to do this canvas that way this time, because I wanted some of the embellishment colors to contrast with other embellishments behind it, and that could be hard to do if they were all glued down already. 

So I colored my background first, then gesso'd all the background embellishments, and after getting an idea where I wanted them on the canvas, colored them before attaching them to the canvas. (Times like this are when a quick photo with your phone or camera helps you remember where you placed everything before you pulled it apart again to paint.) 

There's one long piece of beautiful wide lace that runs down the side of the embellishment cluster, and it got several colors sprayed on it to blend with the area of background color that would be behind it.

Once all the embellishments were adhered, I went back over some parts of them to intensify the colors a little. And once that was all done, I "shabbied up" the entire embellishment area with a dry-brushing of white gesso to blend everything together a bit more.

In the upper left corner, miscellaneous hardware pieces, a little rose, dyed twine, and multicolored seed beads...

The resin frame is accented with a once-silver "friends" word stone, and a once-white feathery pompom flower. The shape of all the small circles of twine was "cemented" by using plain clear-drying white glue on the twine, shaping it, and letting it air dry...

In the center, a potpourri of flowers, including another pompom that started out white, colored and layered among washers (the kind you buy at any hardware store) and buttons sugared with clear glitter, seed beads, and fun...

Over on the right of center, a metal bird on a branch with hanging letters spelling "SWEET" started out as dark bronze, but with the aid of some gesso and matte sprays, turned just the right shade of aqua...another dyed pompom, some metal photo corners gesso'd and painted, and seed beads and crystal gems scattered about...all anchored with some wonderful tattered diamond chipboard pieces... 

And finally, at the bottom, another eclectic mix of dyed and sugared buttons, flowers, and hardware surrounded by the end of the dyed lace piece, and a bit more of the tattered diamond chipboard...

Supplies:

Stencils:  Prima "Flourish";  The Crafters Workshop "Art is" and "Mini Time Travel"

Stamps:  Stampin' Up! "Gorgeous Grunge"          Die:  Cottage Cutz Tea Time Doily

Lace:  TheFunkieJunkie.com            Chipboard: Blue Fern Studios "Tattered Diamond Bits"         

 Mini Roses:   Wild Orchid Crafts            Resin frame & pompom flowers:   Melissa Frances          

Metal branch/bird/letters:   Prima Vintage Trinket

Color Mediums:   Lindy's Stamp Gang - Sprays: Tibetan Poppy Teal,  Tea Pot Purple,  Sweet Violet Purple Teal,

Caribbean Blue,   Red Hot Poker Orange

Lindy's Stamp Gang - Magicals:  Pop Rock Purple, Sweet Violet Purple Teal

Art Mediums:   Golden gesso;   Liquitex heavy gesso;   Studio 490 Crackle Texture Paste;  Golden matte gel medium;  Golden modeling paste

Miscellaneous:   clear coarse glitter,  seed beads,  buttons,  washers, miscellaneous metal hardware

If you've stuck it out to the end of today's post...thank you...and thanks for coming back to visit after my long holiday break.

I hope your week is starting with a smile!