Art Recipe Wednesday: Why? - antidepressant scrapbook page

Hi, how are you doing my dearest ones? :)
I hope you are doing well - we are stepping into real Autumn now which means: plenty of rain, gloomy weather and winds... did I mention winds or lots of rain? Well, it is really windy. And rainy. No chances for anything else, to be honest!
Yes - certainly it would be the best time to hide under a blanket with a cup of tea and a book...

If this option is not possible you can always try to fight with the moody weather and Autumn depression using the best therapy ever invented: creating with loads of color!  You can just start with splashing a bit of positive tones on the paper... and you may discover you finished with something like this:

I have to admit this project went a bit out of control on some point: it was hard for me to recall how many layers, steps, textures I really applied - but I did my best to share this process with you!

The composition may look a bit (?) messy but my favorite white negative space and controlled usage of stencils and splashes of color wrapped it all together, I think.
With this amount of red, yellow and pink tones I just HAD TO keep as much white as possible and add some contrasting black in couple of places...

I'm really pleased with the little "pink bursts" I made using one of my new stencils and how pretty simple plastic caps look like if painted and glued in the right places... a touch of upcycling is always great!

Here is my Art Recipe for today - and step-by-step instruction for you:

1. The base of the project is 12x12 white cardstock and some leftover papers including 7 DS "9th Wave" Collection paper - Golden Sand and some Washi Tape. I started with gluing random strips of patterned papers and pieces of Washi in the middle section of the project - from side to side. Perfection wasn't needed but I wanted to have a lot of negative space left - on the top and on the bottom of my project.

2. My next step was marking the place I wanted to glue my photo and starting splashing Ecoline Watercolors: I sprayed the background with a bit of water and I used my brush to make yellow and pink splashes of paint going mostly from top-right to bottom-left corner of the project. This added the first layer of color to my page. I dried everything with heating tool and I was ready to continue.

3. I took 2 patterns of stencils: "Retrobursts" from TCW and template from Stampendous set of stamps by N*Studio. First I added some "Retrobursts" elements using inking tool and Festive Berries Distress Ink from Ranger, next I used a bit of Art Basics Black Heavy Gesso applied through bubble pattern template from Stampendous. I applied the gesso with a piece of old sponge.

4. When the layers were dry I used Art Basics Light Paste and large chevron stencil to create one more layer of texture - following the middle "line" of the papers I created in the beginning. I dried the Light Paste with heating tool, added a bit of Festive Berries Distress Ink on the sides of the page and splashed my Ecolines again - to add more vibrant color to the project.

5. When the surface was dry I used one more  stencil (grungy dots) and Art Basics White Heavy Gesso to create some white pattern on the very colorful background. In the same time I covered with White Gesso my selected Mechanicals - I wanted to change them to match my idea of using white chipboard elements.

6. Again, I dried the project. This time I wanted to place my embellishments and photo: I cut my biggest pendant and trinket into halves and attached it to the background with 3D Foam Squares. Then I added a layer of veil and attached my photo using the same kind of adhesive. Finally I decorated the composition with a couple of white chipboards and other elements such as plastic caps cut into pieces, butons or alphabet and word stickers.

7. I added a couple of Art Ingreadiens - Glass Beads into selected places of the composition and dried the Soft Matte Gel I used for gluing. Next I put my brush in the Ecoline paints and colored a bit my plastic caps, Mechanicals and word stickers. I dried the project once again.

8. Finally - using a paintbrush - I splashed a bit of Black Indian Ink and stamped "Honeycomb" pattern around my photo to add some contrast. When the ink was dry I added some finishing touches with a very soft pencil and Stampers Big White Pen - following the lines I created with Light Paste and White Gesso and stencils or making circles around splashes of my paint or ink. Antidepressant page was ready!

Here is a list of supplies from Mixed Media Place Shop for your convenience:

That's it! It was a lot of messy fun and crazy layering - but surely the idea was worth of trying! I hope you like it and - maybe - you will try some similar techniques?

Make sure you will check my blog on Friday - there will be another great project and tutorial waiting for you! (Isn't my Creative Team just amazing?)
Sending hugs