Something Blue Art Journal Page

Hello everyone! Our first challenge of the year at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge Blog is Something Blue. Lots of opportunities with this one!

I made a monochromatic blue art journal page, about not feeling blue. I used stencils and stamps mainly by Wendy Vecchi. I have a thing for trees and love the Layered Tree stencil. You can make differently shaped trees with it, I decided to make a fairly tall tree. Another two of Wendy's stencils, From the Garden and Flourishes, were used to create the garden at the base of the page, sponging Cornflower Blue ink through the stencils. I wasn't planning on using a photo at first, then I saw this one on my desk and decided to use it. It's a teenage photo of me, I've used it a few times before.

The background was covered in gesso using a palette knife and I pressed a Wendy Vecchi sentiment stamp repeatedly into the gesso ('All that we are is the result of what we have imagined'). Immediately clean your stamp, otherwise the gesso is hard to remove. The background was painted with watered-down Salty Ocean and Broken China Distress Paint, misting it with water to create a droplets and a dreamy feeling. The raindrops were stencilled with Cornflower Blue ink and the title was stamped with Jet Black ink. I stamped the background randomly with an art text stamp from the New York Art set.

One flower and the sentiments were stamped in black for contrast. Love the look of this flower. I also made a border with torn washi tape by Kelly Purkey.

I made a mat for the photo with washi tape, using both the Teal Polka Dots and the Triangles.

'Shine' comes from another stencil by Wendy. Here you can also see the effect of misting the paint with water before it dried.

It was this sentiment stamp that inspired the page. I also added some extra journaling after taking photos of the page. Use a little piece of washi tape as an arrow.

The sentiments stamped into the gesso add a layered dimension to the background. Love these cool Industrious sticker arrows by Tim Holtz.

I hope you will join is in our first challenge of the year! As always, one random participant wins a $50 gift voucher from Simon Says Stamp. And don't miss the fabulous inspiration by all the design team members, the variety of projects each week never cease to amaze me.

Thank you for stopping by!

Happy crafting!

Anna-Karin

Supplies:

Surface: Ranger Dyan Reaveley Small Creative Journal

Stamps: Stampers Anonymous Wendy Vecchi: Forever Art, New York Art, Metro Art, Well Worn Art; Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz: Worn Text

Ink: Ranger Archival Ink: Jet Black, Cornflower Blue

Paint: Distress Paint: Broken China, Salty Ocean

Stencils: Wendy Vecchi Stampers Anonymous: Layered Tree, From the Garden, Flourishes, Classic Words; The Crafter's Workshop: Mini Raindrops

Medium: Claudine Hellmuth Gesso

Embellishments: Kelly Purkey Washi tape: Triangles, Teal Polka Dots; Tim Holtz Idea-ology: Borders Industrious stickers, Chit Chat stickers, Label Letters