Here's the story...

Just in time for an Easter Sunday, this is the story of new beginnings and redeemed lives, art journaling style. Or, how I altered a background spread in my Little Gluebook of Wisdom quote journal.

I had originally painted this background with leftover paint, not thinking as I painted circles...circles with dots in them...that ended up making the circles look like pepperoni pizzas:

 I first applied a whitewash (1 part paint, 1 part acrylic glaze medium, 2 parts water), but that wasn't gonna make it look any less pepperoni-ish. I then considered a planetary space spread, but I wasn't feeling that either. So, I diecut a city skyline with a Sizzix border and used it as a template to paint one on my spread. Better! But still too many planets, suns, etc. Cleaned my navy paint off my brush with some sky strokes and got an idea:

 I completely covered the entire spread with more navy blue paint, then cut out another skyline diecut from a piece of deli paper that I had stamped with a brick background stamp, and glued it down. I then went about applying layer after layer of lighter colors of paint, each time blotting and wiping with a paper towel to let the underlayers peek through, finally winding up with this:

 Now, onto the sides of the spread. I've had these colored images of french provencial icons and crests, etc., and for reasons known only to my Muse, I determined to use them here. After adhering, I laid down a coat of lighter blue for a few seconds before wiping off the paint with a baby wipe. The end result was a staining of blue, which muted the images that had been white. I also cleaned my brush on the top of the sky, adding more blue to it and creating a stormy sky effect.

 Here you can see the stormier sky along with the stained side images:

 This photo shows a bit of the different colors in the sky (from the layers I painted):

 Here's the finished (for now - I still need to add a favorite quote) background:

My first thought after studying it was that it really reminded me of a scene from Ghostbusters, lol. I was expecting the camera (my eye) to pan in on a hi-rise balcony adorned with gargoyles and Sigourney Weaver! Oh, what an imagination can conjur up, lol.

One thing is for certain, though. This page spread looks NOTHING like it did originally, does it? Mission accomplished, and no more pepperoni pizza planet nightmares!

I hope you and yours have been having a lovely Easter weekend. Here's to new beginnings and redeemed lives for us all. <3