Healing Art

Hello on Monday, Dear Friends!
When you see today's post, your first thought might be how pretty these rainbows & butterflies are. But they're not only about being cute and/or decorative - Kassa's sharing her personal story of experiencing the healing power of art and creativity - she will surely inspire you too!

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Hello there lovelies.

The journal cover I share with you today comes from deep within, its raw emotion, due to my 6 year old beautiful Leo the Leonberger giant breed dog passing this week after a few weeks of illness.

They say art helps to heal and never experiencing creating whilst in this frame of mind, I found it truly does help to throw yourself into creating a little love and happiness through your memories whilst in this heightened state of mind.

So in my head I created a feel for the 'Rainbow Bridge', that special place where my lovely Leo will be now. Butterflies I feel are always special for these circumstances and the rainbow of vibrant colour, the sparkle and dancing butterflies thankfully brought a smile to my face.

I wanted and needed to create this happy place on my journal cover and in doing so I now know art can really help heal.

Apply a coat of White Gesso to your journal cover and dry with heat gun.

Tear a few images out of a magazine that you would like to transfer to your journal cover. Paint the area where you would like to transfer the image with Soft Matte Gel, also paint the magazine image with the gel and place the image face down on your cover smoothing away any air bubbles.

Once totally dry, mist with water and with a light touch start to rub off the top of the magazine image, magically the image you chose will start to appear.

I break up the bold edges of the image transfers with some stencilling. I love how precisely I can do it using the 1" Silicone Brush.

A little White Gesso painted randomly on the transfers also helps them to blend into the background.

Because I like to see the edges of my work with a little wonky machine sewing on them and the journal cover is too thick for the sewing machine, I sew a few thin strips of torn paper and then adhere and gesso them around the edges.

Once everything is dry, it's time to paint - I use the 2 pinky colours first.

Simply lightly mist your page with water and apply the paints randomly. Remember to leave white space so you can add the other various coloured paints there.

To help your paints merge and spread, go in close with your water mister and spritz the paint in the direction you'd like the paint to spread, mop up any excess water.

Add more colour when/where needed. Totally dry this layer, then repeat using the same techniques but this time using the orange and yellow paints and again dry once finished.

The yellow drips are watered down paint dropped onto the cover and the page held vertically so the drips do their thing and drip!

I only added a dib and dab of the contrasting blue and green paint as I wanted to keep an overall sunshiney feel.

The Art Alchemy Sparks I used as a colourwash. To do this, I have everything at hand as it's a move VERY fast technique but so worth it as the results are stunning.

I applied the 'Unicorn's Hair' Sparks to the white space very quickly, 2 or 3 strokes and I was done.

Don't worry about imperfect painting and wonky lines, even quicker take the water mister and spray the wet Sparks paint, now dab gently the excess water and paint away.

What will be left is a thin layer of the paint colour and most of the sparkle, it's like a sparkly see through veil, it's so magical...

At this stage, if you didn't quite lift enough of the Sparks to achieve this veiled look, just mist again with water or go in even closer with the mister.

A little stamping in black ink helps break up a page (water resistant Archival Ink).

Finnabair's Clear Cling stamps are perfect being bendy and you can push them down over the more textured areas.

Adding ink randomly to these stamp gets an imperfect stamped image giving a softer edge to the stamped areas. The selection is so cool and varied - perfect for creating interesting backgrounds!

The Christine Adolph Rub Ons are easy to apply - simply rub on the sticky image where you want it and sprinkle with Glitter.

For an extra pop of color add scribbles of the Oil Pastels randomly to your page and over a stencil that you have firmly hold of - rub and push the pastels through the stencil holes with your fingertips.

Scribbling various coloured Oil Pastels over a stamp and mist with water before stamping onto your cover.

Add black and white splatters with watered down gesso, flick for a random splatter.

The butterflies come from 'Dream On' and 'Rust & Dust' sets and they are so quick and easy to create! Simply stamp out using water resistant ink onto watercolour paper.

Colour the wings with scribbles using the Oil Pastels, mist with water, let the colours merge, then lightly mop up the excess water.

The sparkle is added to the wings with the rub ons but this time using the aqua coloured Bora Bora foil sheets. Make sure you rub the foil over the sticky transfered image shiney side up. :-)

Lastly and my fave part it's time to bring everything together -

Adhere the butterflies to the page over some cotton sewing thread with the Soft Matte Gel and sprinkle the butterfly bodies and the thread with the Crystal Glass Beads then the Splash Micro Beads, the Soft Matte Gel is ideal for the beads too.

Add a few more gesso splatters, a scribble of Oil Pastel here and there.

Colouring pencils and black and white permanent pens are great to fill in space and add some balance.

Edge the cover with a little of the Vintage Gold Metallique Wax and a touch of the soft Rose Gold Wax - they look sublime on the same page as the Sparks Unicorn's Hair paint - they all shimmer and twinkle away in perfect harmony.

When the beads are dry, I pop a little Unicorn's Hair paint on them and the wings too, a few splatters and then I feel the cover is finished and ready to stand on my mantle so I enjoy the rainbow...

Thank you all for letting me share my journal cover with you and the story behind it.

The journey has helped me so much showing me I can create my HaPPy Art even when I feel so very low...

And the low becomes lessened even if only for a while with the art process and sharing with friends...

I wonder if you will create your own HaPPy Art this week and what will your stories be...

I feel you are going to have great fun creating your own HaPPy Art, i really do...

xx

Kassa

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