I AM FROM VENUS

(transferred from kaywallacescrapbooking.blogspot.com, dated 6-14-2012)


Art journaling can be a very serious hobby...or not!  I am having an "or not" day at my craft table today.  I recently made my first journey to the nearest Hobby Lobby (big box craft store) in New Hampshire.  It took over an hour to get there, and, though I spent an hour in the store, I have yet to explore all of it.  My description of my visit to this store piqued my daughter's interest, and we are planning a girls' field trip soon.

When not crafting, I spend way too much time on Pinterest.com (so very addictive and sucks more time out of your day than you can imagine---yep, rivals Facebook!).  That said, I have learned a great deal about art journaling on that site.  I have learned there is much out there that I need to buy!  Stencils!  I bought two 12x12 stencils and broke open one of those packages today to create a background for today's journal entry.

So, let us begin.  After carefully removing my page from my art journal and applying a coat of Gesso, I positioned the stencil over my page.

I had already decided that the journaling for the page would be "I am from Venus; you are from Mars" after a similar book title (Women are from Venus/Men are from Mars), so I chose to use blue ink.  I also knew that I didn't want the inking to be perfect, so decided to sponge it on.

I carefully lifted the stencil a couple of times to look at my progress, and, when satisfied, lifted it off.  I loved the result.  Then, I saw this:

What you're looking at here is that stencil coated with still very wet and beautiful blue ink.  I had learned from watching a video on Pinterest that you can take this stencil and transfer the ink to a different page in your journal simply by blotting it there.  You then have a perfect start for another page at a later date!  Here's what it looks like:

To continue to create the background, I grabbed a can of brown spray paint and gave 4 or 5 random shots of paint to my page.  I loved the look and, when it dried, I was so pleased that it had a definite sheen to it that just added interest.

You can't really tell from the photo above, but I will share with you that when I began this project today, I began by embossing the page in my Big Kick.  I had an "oops" moment when I discovered that I had embossed the wrong side!  My daughter always says there are no "oop's" in scrapbooking (which transfers nicely to art journaling, as well), so I just pressed on.  In the next photo, you can actually see the indentations of the embossing plate--and I think it actually looks pretty cool!

I had gathered several possible elements to use on this page:

My attempt at using watercolor crayons on the King and Queen of Hearts failed miserably when I began to blend the colors with a damp paintbrush.  That King and Queen didn't make the cut!  I moved on and remembered my Brilliant Blue ink pad from Stampin' Up!  After all, Martians are blue, right?  I also love to stamp on my art journal pages, so used a stamp of a stamp (haha)!

So, here is the big reveal.  A trifle sparse, perhaps, but I am happy--which is what is important.

Thanks so much for visiting my blog today!  Please leave a comment so that I know you were here.  That makes me happy, too!

Cheers!