Amore

First things first...I have to just share this...I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my art journal!  Creating in it is seriously one of the most fun things ever!  I  am having a blast!  If you think art journaling isn't up your alley or that you're not very good at it...then this post is for you! 

Today's post is all about how I transformed two blah pages into something that I "amore!"  I even created a quick video, showing the steps, which I'll post at the end of the page.  But before we get to the finished product...let's see what I started with...

Here are my ugly pages...in all their glory!  LOL!  OK, maybe they're not ugly but it might seem obvious that this is one of my first attempts at art journaling.  I didn't really know how to work well with ink sprays, as evidenced by those big blue spots (lack of water and blending).  My color choice is well...a bit lacking and I'm not even sure where I was going with any sort of design.  I was basically trying out a bunch of products on these two pages; stencils, embossing paste, and ink sprays...and I wasn't very happy with the results.

My new design all started with this month's challenge on the Wendy Vecchi fan board...the challenge was to stamp through a stencil or to use a stencil as a mask.  I knew I had these pages, with that sweet stenciled heart, already sitting in my studio but what to do with the pages and how to make it work with the challenge.  As I sat staring at my pages, I spied a photo of Wendy's projects on the page that comes with her stamp sets, and one of her projects included a pretty cream-colored heart.  That was all I needed to get the wheels turning!

I grabbed my acrylic paints (since I needed good coverage) and got to work!  You'll see all of my steps in the video but I basically covered the entire piece with dark blue acrylic paint (I'll link all of my products at the end of the post) and started over...adding new stencils, colors, and a quote (this made me think of my sweet hubby...who really is better than what I ever dreamed a partner could be).  Once I finished covering the pages, I finally pulled out the large heart stencil, to use as a mask, and using a text stamp from Wendy, added my stamped image through the stencil!  Challenge completed!  And here's the finished project!

I love the deep color and the accent of yellow and orange...and hey, I even used a piece of the gesso resist paper from last week's project for the sentiment...perfect colors on that piece of scrap paper (that would be because I tend to gravitate to the same colors on all of my projects! LOL!)  I was so happy with the finished product, not so much because of the design but because I was able to salvage those pages that I wasn't that crazy about...and create something that reminds me of my husband.  At the end of the day it's all creating what makes you happy and enjoying the journey of experimenting with different products and techniques.  Such a joyful experience!  Here's a quick list of what I used on this page and the video can be found right after the product list.  Enjoy!!

White Embossing Paste
Dylusions Art Journal
Stencils: Lovely Leaves, Large Heart, Classic Words, Chevron, Turkish Grunge
Paint: Adirondack (Denim, Terra Cotta, Sunshine Yellow) and Peeled Paint Distress Paint
Ink Spray: White Linen
Stamp Set: Parisian Art

And here's the video!