First,
let me start by remembering all those that fell on this terrible day
back on 9/11. It was a day that rocked & changed our world forever. I
am saddened to remember the images of that day & of all the people
that lost their lives from such a senseless act of violence against our
country.
A
special thought goes out to those that lost loved ones that day &
to all the amazing citizens who came to the aid of so many.
***
So, I posted a little bit about my new-found love for art journaling over at the Altered Pages blog on today & mentioned that I would post over here a few more pages & how I created a couple of those pages...
I recently went out of town for a long weekend with a girlfriend & our kids & I knew that we would have some downtime & that I would want to "play" a little. So, in the interest of space, I limited my color pallet to a handful of blues, greens, a yellow, white/cream, black & brown all in inexpensive craft paints. Then I packed a few texture stamps, stencils, ink, quotes, some images & of course, some light modeling paste. Here are the results...
After gesso-ing the front & back of my journal page (to keep it from buckling) & then covered the background in cream & then a burnt umber, rubbing off some of the brown so the cream showed through.
I found a really cool Photoshop brush of Steampunk elements that included faces with these eyes, so I printed some of those before I left home & then cut out only the eyes to fit with the Carl Jung quote that completely spoke to me when I found it:
"Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, AWAKENS."
On top of that I stamped a Hero Arts Alphabet stamp in black here & there. Then I used a Crafters Workshop stencil with a light yellow (Couscous by Martha Stewart); a strip of BINGO #'s border stamp from Altered Pages in a Folk Art Sky Blue & finally a script stamp from Christy Tomlinson's She Art Unity line.
Then I dripped some Burnt Umber Acrylic Ink down the page on the left side, spraying with water & blotting a little bit. When all that was dry, I used a black pen to write the quote & doodle a little over the BINGO stamp. (I love the look, but HATE my handwriting! HA!)
On the next page, I mixed Blue Jean (Craft Smart) with a Heavy Gel medium to create a heavy body paint & spread that all over the page with a pallet knife, leaving some of the page exposed around the edges & gaps here & there too. While wet, I stamped into that with a Blockhead Arts Coffee Stain stamp. Let that dry...then using my fingers, I rubbed a Winter Blue by Americana all over the page. Then I applied another layer by stamping a ledger stamp (Red Lead Paperworks) in Martha Stewart's Cloud & Christy Tomlinson's "When you are through changing, you are through" Butterfly stamp from Unity in a Camel color by Americana. Finally, I rubbed a little of the burnt umber liquid acrylic ink here & there. Now the page is ready for some journaling...if I'm ever so inclined! :)
For this page, I started using a Mister Huey's stencil & spreading some light modeling paste across it 3x with a pallet knife, not really caring if I got the whole thing covered or not. I let this dry for a while. Then I rubbed four colors throughout the circles with my fingers, letting dry between coats so as not to muddle too much: Orange Spice & Aqua from Craft Smart; Bright Yellow & Calypso Blue from Americana. Then used the same colors with a dry-brush technique all over the page. Amazing the difference from the above pages - so much more vibrant color choices! :)
Lastly, I have to admit, that I don't know what colors I used for my "Home is where the Heart is" page...I did this one the week before this little trip.
I can tell you that I used papers from Kaiser Craft's "Black & White Timeless" to create the houses & another Crafters Workshop stencil for Dylusions sprays (the alphabet) & then I just doodled here & there. The script on the upper left side is just a series of sayings about home, like "home sweet home;" "to make a house a home; "home is where we start from," etc. I wrote it small, because I feel that my text is not the focal point of my page. I also tend to feel that it's sometime better for the viewer to interpret the work instead of me "telling" them what it means by placing prominent words on the page. What do you think?
That's it for today!
If you wanna see some fun, really OUTSIDE the BOX creations, check out the unique challenge I participated in with the other designers from Altered Pages & vote for your favorite & maybe join in on the fun! You can see that post HERE & maybe play along!!
Hope you have a wonderful day!
Cheers!
