Here's What Happens...

...when I get interested in documenting a process: you get to suffer thru a bunch of not-so-great photos! I sure hope nobody is too irritated with the sudden increase in my photo sharing. I do know from hearing from y'all that some of you like it. So, squeaky wheels get the grease, lol.

Thought you might like to look at how one of my art journal pages has progressed. The page began with coats of Azo Gold and Quinacridone Red fluid acrylics that I was unloading the last of to a blank page:

I then adhered strips of scratch paper that I'd stamped off on:

Then what?

Got a wild hair to try stamping on gesso with one of the many wine corks we have:

It was interesting, and will work in a pinch!

A couple of dried coats later:

And it sat a while, while I fought myself over adding these ancient vellum border and ancient stickers I had, and my Use-It-Up side won, so I did:

Then, after watching one of Effy's Book of Days videos (she always starts with watercolor pencils and a gel medium wash to move and blend them), I decided to play that way. I used my Inktense pencils and my Royal Coat, of course.

Now, I'm committed, right? Asian style. That froze me up once again, and it sat.

And sat...

And I *almost* just let it be finished here, for journaling on. See how nicely it complements the facing page?

But, something told me, do more. Go further. That's when I decided to play with a couple of things I'd learned.

One of those was to develop what layers I like on a background, and in what order.

I mean, I know how to background different ways, but which is my favorite go-to way?

So, collaging and stamping for depth is something I learned that I like doing...

...even though I gasped more than once stamping over a collage sheet image.

Never done that before...but it's FUN!

I even discovered a little trick if you get ink over something (like a face) and you want to rub Stazon off of it. I dampened a paper towel with plain old rubbing alcohol and gently wiped.

Came right off without smudging the face. I was thinking I was pretty brave at this point. A diluted wash of white acrylic over the entire page was the perfect thing. Washes of color between applications of images, whether it be collage, painting/drawing or stamping, is another thing I've learned that I like.

And I didn't stop there. I chose two more things to incorporate into my page: Prismacolor pencils and deli paper.

And this is a good place to stop for now, so that maybe you will wonder what in the heck I'm gonna do with that, and how is this page going to end looking like! Til Friday...don't miss it!