The Brighter Side of Journalling

Hello all, Alison (butterfly) here with you again... and with some more art journalling.  But rather than the wintry pages over at Words and Pictures, this is an altogether lighter and brighter bit of journalling!

It does make me smile though to see how similar elements seem to have bobbed up on this very different page.

I'm definitely having a thing with circles at the moment - and here there are two layers of them.  First, some Distress Spray spritzed large circles using the Large Sequin Waste mask, and over that I spread a very thin layer of the Viva Decor Croco Crackling Colour through the Large Dot mask and left it to get on with cracking while I went off to do something else.

When the large dots were dry, I did some stamping with Distress Inks in my Jan/Feb colours of vivid blues and greens.  There's the Sequin Waste background stamp in Mowed Lawn and the Mini Polka Dots in Broken China and Peacock Feathers.

Once stamped, I gave them a spritz of water to let the Distress Ink do its magic wicking thing, softening the look.

And I used Distress Stains to add some colour to the large dots, wiping away the excess so that the crackle is highlighted.

So, like the winter pages, there's lots of crackle too.

For my focal point, I chose the word from Journaling Words #5 (oh, for the missing L!  Ah well, the Americans will like it).  I stamped it in the matching Distress Ink colours and clear embossed it on a whitewashed book page.

It's layered up over some wire mesh, tea-dyed tissue paper (transparent - so you can see the stamping and the text through it - love it!) and another book page.

I had great fun with my metal pieces.  The Idea-ology flower is altered with Distress Paint, while the skeleton leaves have had a dose of my Ten Seconds Verday Paint (weathered patinas, until now only really used on dollshouse work).

I used a combination of the Verday Copper finish as well as some Distress Paint in Mowed Lawn and Salty Ocean to get the finished effect, and I love it.

And I edged the page with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain to pick up the rusty colours of the central layers, so we also have - at heart - the blues and browns of my winter pages, but transformed to a brighter version.

So having set out to do something completely different from the recent art journalling shared over at Words and Pictures, I have got something different, but somehow very closely related!

Thanks so much for stopping by today - it's always lovely to hear what you think.  And do come and play along in our New Beginnings challenge for a chance to win a gift voucher here at The Artistic Stamper - hope to see you there!

Ingredients used:
Artistic Stamper stamps: Journaling Words #5, Mini Polka Dots, Sequin Waste Open
Artistic Stamper masks: Large Sequin Waste, Large Dot
Distress Spray Stains: Broken China, Peacock Feathers
Distress Inks: Mowed Lawn, Broken China, Peacock Feathers, Vintage Photo, Walnut Stain
Distress Paints: Salty Ocean, Mowed Lawn
Distress Stains: Mowed Lawn, Broken China, Peacock Feathers
Clear Embossing Powder
Viva Croco Crackling Colour - White
From my stash - gesso, wire mesh, tissue paper, book pages, metal flower and skeleton leaves, tea(!)