It feels like a million years since I last added a page to my art journal! I had a really productive day recently and made a several that I am looking forward to sharing with you.
I began by laying the 12x12 Crafter's Workshop Numbers Collage template over my blank journal page. I sprayed several swipes of Ranger's Adirondack Color Wash over the template. I then used a roll of paper towels (Dyan Reaveley style) to blot up the excess off of my stencil and page.
I love that the paper towels added a bit of a texture look in the ink on my page.
After the page was dry, I added a quick spritz of Blue Smoke Perfect Pearls Mist mostly to the top and bottom third of the page. I used a Copic MultiLiner to go in and freehand outline the shape of several of the numbers in the middle section of the page. I added Black Soot Distress Ink the the edges of the page and then filled in the numbers with assorted white and clear Stickles colors.
I applied the Black Soot Distress Ink much heavier at the bottom of the page, including slightly onto the lower part of some of the outlined numbers. You can see how it shows through the Stickles and makes its effect look even deeper.
I tried to use a different color of Stickles on each connected letter. It is hard to see it in the photo, but no two touching numbers have the same color. The difference in the sparkle of each one makes each number different and unique from the one next to it, just like the blessings the numbers represent.
I love the way the color of the Color Wash sprays blended and the pattern that the paper towels created in them. It totally reminds me of the images of colored dots they show you to test for color blindness. Kind of funny that numbers are usually what they use in those images. It is totally unintentional that the page, at least to me, resembles one of those tests. If you want to attach a bigger meaning to the page, you could say that we are often blind to blessings in our lives and sometimes need help seeing them. . . again, unintentional, but totally the meaning I get from this page.
I used a stamp from what is quickly becoming one of my favorite Tim Hotlz stamp set, Slight Alterations to add a little texture to the edges of the page. I used Black Soot Distress Ink for my stamping.
I finished the page off with a bit of text stamped with my small single alpha stamps using Black Soot Distress Ink on a scrap of patterned paper from BasicGrey's Basics White collection.
I added Black Soot Distress Ink around the edges of the piece and stitched it to the page with my sewing machine.
------Supplies----------
- journal/page: Creative Imaginations Creative Lifestyle Binder and Notebook Paper
- patterned paper: BasicGrey Basics Booknote, white
- stencil: Crafter's Workshop Numbers Collage, 12x12
- stamp: Tim Holtz Stamper's Anonymous Slight Alterations, single letter small alpha stamps- unknown
- Stickles: Baby Blue, Crystal, Frosted Lace, Stardust, Distress Clear Rock Candy, and Distress Pumice Stone
- Color Wash: Butterscotch, Meadow, Lettuce, Sailboat Blue
- mist: Perfect Pearls Mist, Blue Smoke
- ink: Black Soot Distress Ink
- pen: Copic Multiliner .3
