Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Art Journal Page Progression...

Hi there everyone!  I hope you are staying warm!  It's really cold and super snowy here, and I have a heater going on my feet as I type this.  To give you an idea of the amount of snow we have right now, here's a pic of Michael shoveling our deck today...
And last week we had no snow at all!  Amazing.

Anyhoo, back to the crafting world...  I have an art journal page to share with you today, and I actually remembered to take some photos of the process, which I hope you enjoy!

Here's my Book of Days page for November 30...


And here's how I got there...

This is how the page looked when I started - pretty much.  The image of the sunset on the yellow scrapbook paper was already there; part of the book when I made it a long time ago.  The left side was the collage of plaid and pink papers.  My first thought was -  I wanted to make the two pages flow together better, so I added a light coat of gesso to the left side and started smearing some yellow paint....


I decided to cover up the photo with some cardstock; and then I could just play to my hearts content; without worrying about ruining the image...
 Here you can see the first three layers:  1. Yellow paint smeared with a credit card; 2. Some of Julie Balzer's border stencils and some bubblegum pink dylusions spray; and then 3. Stenciling on top of that with gesso.  Wonderful fun...


 At this point I was done spraying, so I uncovered the photo.  I just started adding collage bits, stamping and tape here and there, with a little bit of neocolor II crayon to pull the purple color over into the left side.  I loved how the bright colors tied in with the photo, but the neon felt a little too in your face, so I started adding some brown to tone it down...


and here's the finished page again.  I covered most of the spread with the brown transparent paint, but left bits of the bright colors to show through here and there.  I also added some more crayon, gesso and stamping, before finishing the page with my journaling.

 I had no idea how this page was going to turn out when I started. I am learning more and more to be intuitive and playful, and not overthink things, and I love that.

I've also been working to finish my "One Little Word" minibook before the year is over, and I'm excited to share it with you!  Have you picked a word for 2013?  I have - it's "Balance."  More on that to come...

Thanks so much for visiting me, and for your kind comments!  They truly make my day!  See you again soon!

7 comments:

Marit said...

Wonderful spread Michelle, and I always love to see the process. THanks for taking photos along the way! Yes, I have a word for 2013 and am planning a blogpost about the word I had in 2012 too... Stay warm and enjoy your day!

Sharon Fritchman said...

Oh my goodness, Michelle! You sure do have SNOW!!!!! I hope that you are toasty warm right now! Your photo and your pages always inspire me!! I can't wait to take yours and Marit's class in 2013!!!

Julie Tucker-Wolek said...

Wow! That is a lot of snow!! I loveeeeeeeee your journal page!! Absolutely GORGEOUS colors!!!!

dawn said...

WOW WOW WOW!! I looove these pages and the colors are gorgeous! The best part is the process photos and thoughts you share with us too, thanks so much for including those when you can. It's amazing how this one turned out, you have a talent for mixing collage/paint/words together to make MAGIC!!

So excited to hear about your OLW minibook, can't wait to see it. Your new OLW is a good one, think a lot of us need that in our busy lives. I look forward to reading about that word for you.

My OLW for next year is STORY and I try to pick a second word too, not sure what it is yet. I will be blogging about my OLW soon too.

Take care and enjoy that big snow you got.

Marjie Kemper said...

Beautiful spread, Michelle. Love seeing how it came to be. I am torn between your word and a few others... one of which is 'focus'... lol!

Carolyn Dube said...

Love how you built up your layers and how you have them peeking through!

Lisa said...

Awesome, Michelle! I love your bold colors, collage and contrast. Always an inspiration! My word last year was "Homework", meaning taking care of little projects and maintenance around the house. It was my first year doing OLW, and I fear I failed. Not many things off the list! Lol! Anyway, my word for 2013 is FOCUS!! Hope that helps me find some clarity and positive momentum! Happy Holidays!