Art Recipe: Out of Ordinary...

Hi again my dear friends, it's Art Recipe time!
I'm back on the blog with my simple and fun journal page which I was able to complete in the last  couple of days! As always I'm on the go - tomorrow I'm heading to Paris to attend my first ever Version Scrap Show - I'm looking forward to see all the people who signed up for the classes and I'm happy to confirm on Sunday I'll be doing demos at Prima stand, so if you are coming - please visit me to say hi!

So here is the journal spread I have for you: it is inspired by the theme of my friend's travelling journal - rhymes and quotes which are hard to pronounce and memorize in Polish - and it is a great collection of real tongue-twisters indeed!
My text was a not only hard to pronounce but also to understand - it is packed with unusual words and expressions and I hope the face of the gentleman I picked for this project says it all...

As the background of the pages was very plain I decided to put 2 layers of texture - and Art Basics Modeling Paste and 2 different stencils did the trick! I love the combination of harlequine and text pattern - just perfect for a masculine page about tongue-twisters!

Colors are a combination of shimmering sprays - Lindy's Stamp Gang and Gelatos. I didn't use these crayons a lot, but they have lovely intense colours and I like how nicely they react with water. They are great for rubbing into uneven surfaces - and my pages were very rich in texture!

These pages show that you don't really need a lot of different supplies to create interesting effects - sometimes going more simple may be a great artistic adventure and coming back to basics is a great exercise which will help you to stretch your creative mind a bit!
I had great time working on this project - and the expression of the gentleman's face was a real cherry on the top of the cake!

Speaking about cakes - here is my Art Recipe for today:

Here you can see everything explained - step-by-step:

1. As I was working in the journal where some of the pages were already made by my artistic friends I didn't want my paints or inks to bleed through it by accident or my gesso smear on it so I decided to work outside of the book on two vintage pages. I added some masking tape for texture and put  a generous coat of Art Basics Heavy White Gesso. In the meantime I was cutting out the gentleman from the vintage photo.

2. Next I was working on texture: I applied one layer of Art Basics Modeling Paste through the Harlequin stencil. I dried it with a heating tool and when it was dry enough to continue I added one more layer of Modeling Paste - this time using Text stencil. I also added some pieces of lace for extra interest and dried the pages.

3. When the layers of Modeling Paste were dry I was ready for spraying: I've used 3 colors of Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays: Tibetan Poppy Teal, Hydrangea Blue and Mission Bless Brown. When the sprays were dry (I was using my heating tool again!) I started brushing Art Basics Heavy White Gesso in the background around the photo to create soft light effect and focus the attention in this area. After couple of layers I was happy with the result.

4. Next I took my very soft pencil (6B) and added a bit of shadow behind the photo - to create depth. I blended it a bit with the background using Water Brush - the surface was so unevent that it was hard to make it just with a pencil! I Printed the quote I was planning to use - sprayed it with the same Lindy's colors as the page and cut it in strips. I glued the strips in the selected places and finally focused on adding extra colour touches. I've picked Gelatos in metallic silver, mint and blue and also red and dark grey. I added some color in the selected places of the spread (mostly around the photo and on the opposite side for some balance) and blended it in simply rubbing with my finger or using the water brush.

After final drying I cut the spread in half and glued it in the journal. my project was ready!

Below is a list of product available in our Mixed Media Place Store - I hope it helps!

Wishing you all a wonderful week - and packing, seriously packing because tomorrow I'm in Paris - Version Scrap, here I come!
huge hugs