Life has been so busy lately. I feel lately like I am running in a million directions and going no where and getting nothing done. I have stacks of things I want to work on, things I should have finished, and a neglected house and yard. I think it is probably a story that a lot of us share. Yesterday was a finally a little different, I started marking things off of my to-do list instead of just adding to it and best of all, found a little creative time at the end of the day. I grabbed a blank page from my art journal and sat and stared at it until I knew what I needed to say.
I was looking at a clear page from my journal and the Rays Texture Fade and suddenly had this phrase in mind, "Never lose faith in the existence of brighter days". I had been feeling a bit like I was losing hope that I was making progress on some of the goals I set for myself for the year, that I wasn't gaining ground on where I hoped to be. I have been in a bit of a doubting mood, thinking that some of the changes I made in my life this year weren't the cure all that I thought and hoped they would be. I guess it is human nature, but I feel like I have been focusing on the gloom a bit more than the sunshine. So when I sat down to create, I felt like the rays were reminding me of something I needed to be reminded of, to focus myself differently and to remember that brighter days lay ahead.
For the top portion of my page, I cut a piece of light pattern paper (BasicGrey's Basics White from the mini paper pad) to fit my clear page. I inked it with a combination of Black Soot and Stormy Sky Distress Inks. I added birds stamped in Black Soot along the top using a stamp from the Tim Holtz clear Lost and Found stamp set. I used my single stamp letters to add my phrase. I made a goof on existence so I stamped it again on another piece of paper and placed it on top of my goof. I actually am glad that happened began I like the added emphasis it has. I inked the edges of it with Wild Honey and added a few staples with my Tiny Attacher.
Here is the part I really love. I embossed the clear sheet with the Rays texture fade. I used two colors of alcohol ink (Sunset Orange and Sunshine Yellow) and one to one side of the acrylic and the other to the other side. I held the page upright with the rays running up and down and dripped the color on the page directly from the bottle into the depressed part of the design. The ink filled in the depressed areas and the excess kind of pooled at the bottom edge of the page (the center of the sun).
I did this on both sides, filling the depressed areas of one side with the yellow and the depressed areas of the other side with orange. It allowed me to have a definition between the two colors. Because both colors are applied to the center of the sun on each side of the page, you see a blending of the two. I finished up by adding a lined page to the back of the entire piece. The light color of the page really helps the intensity of the yellow and orange shine.
The inking on the sun was a total "what if I did this?" moment that gave a really great result. That is the beauty of alcohol inks on acrylic, you can experiment and say "what if" and then wipe it away if you don't like it! In this case, I loved it and will no doubt use this technique again with other Texture Fades.
