playing around...

Playing around is all part of the process...and so I experiment with my supplies, and with different color combinations...here I wanted to try a "neutral" background.  I layered gray gesso, black gesso, and white gesso with a variety of circle themed stencils...

Then I smeared bright acrylics onto a dictionary page, and decided this would be a fun pop of color on this background...I wrote "art" and cut it out...

Then I tore strips to create a frame...what to use as a focal image?  I decided to use one of my own sketches (a Juliette Crane inspired owl)--sketched on deli paper with a Stabilo ALL pencil and then "activated" with matte medium...

That was fun!  Engage the process!!!
Have an art.full. day!

just right

Here is the page in my altered book that I posted about last time...WITH the focal image...

and here she is up close...

I love this image, and when I came across it in my "stash," I knew that it was the right image for this page.  I glued it down, swiped a bit of gesso on it to incorporate it onto the page. I doodled a simple frame around it and scribbly wrote some words on the side. These things (gesso, pen work, and writing) help the image "belong" on the page...not just a random "floating" image.

I'm very happy with the spread now...it may be finished...maybe  :)  ...unless I come across something else that would be just right also.

clouds!

One of my favorite things to do is to look outside early in the morning and check out the sky as the sun is coming up...very often I snap a pic...it doesn't have to be amazingly colorful...I just enjoy seeing the sun come up, and if there are clouds in the sky...all the better!

I guess it is no wonder that I love to include clouds in my journals...one of the first stamp classes that I took 20+ years ago at Stampa Barbara included sponging ink over a cloud mask...it is still one of my go-to techniques...everything works against a sky back-drop.  :)

And these clouds are so much fun everywhere...on a blank journal page or even in an altered book (like above) or on dictionary pages (also a favorite of mine!  I have lots of favorites!!!  :)  )  Now I usually add gesso to the clouds to give texture and dimension...


AND the clouds make great lines to journal on...

Blue skies smiling' at me...and you!  Enjoy!