Day 15: The {21} Challenge

Oh my...only six more days of the challenge...it's so hard to believe that it's almost done...I'm so glad that I have my art journal to "record" my progress of my journey as well as the process...which I have so enjoyed.  So for day 15, Rhonna has provided word art for "wish" and the quote is "It takes as much energy to wish as it does toplan"...by Elanor Rooseveltt...who was such a wise woman...so ahead of the times.  

Well for me right now I really have a "wish" to travel more with my husband...which financially is just not in the cards for us right now...so I have to use my "imagination" and dream about all the places in Europe that we want to see.  My inspiration for completing my "dream travel" journal pages came from a new class that I downloaded from Get It Scrapped called "Art Journaling 101" by Dina Wakely.  Just love Dina's journals and have wanted to download this class for a while now.  In this video Dina uses "Golden Gesso" and it is much thicker than my Liquitex Gesso because Dina was able to make "impressions" in her layer of gesso on her journal pages.  So I remembered this product that I've had for years (yes...years) that is a dimentional paste  product that had "foam" stencils that were designed to be used with this paste so that you could make "raised" or embossed images on your walls, wood crafts, etc.  So I gave it a try...wasn't sure if the product was any good...but it's fine...probably one of those things that you need to dispose of in your "hazardous waste" dumps in your community...lol   You know like "Twinkies"...the stuff never goes bad and will not disintegrate...that's why people use to keep them in their bomb shelters....remember?

So the first thing I did was spread this paste all of my pages with a paint knife and left some areas more dense than others so that I could make "impressions" into the paste.  I also used one of the original stencils that came with the paste to make the roman numerals for Day 15 ( X V) on the page.  Here you can see a close-up of my pasted pages:

I went all over the house looking for objects that I could use to make fun impressions in the paste...I found some utensils in the kitchen that I have had forever and  have never used in the kitchen...and I cook...but I will not miss my "pastry wheel" or my "crudites cutter"...fancy tool to make waffle fries...lol  Of course...once I was done...playing in the paste...I had to wait for it to dry...ugh!

So once the paste dried...I applied a layer of gesso because I wanted to make sure my acrylics paints would adhere to the paste...and then I had to wait again for it to dry...because the gesso sorta acted like it "reactivated" the paste.  Probably because I have the thin stuff...probably got it on sale...yep!  And I didn't dare use my heat gun...cause who knows if this stuff is flame-able...boy would I be crying.

So once the stuff was all dry I applied a wash of yellow acrylic paint all over the two pages as my base coat.  Then I used orange and watered it down as a wash and brushed it all over the embossed areas.  I let it dry a bit and then wiped it all down with a paper towel.  Then I put back some more orange until it looked how I wanted it to and did the same process with some turquoise blue paint...even though this photo makes it look like "true blue".

 

Next I worked on the layering of my collage pieces...from my wonderful stash of "travel" bits.  Once I found an arrangement that was pleasing...I adhered these down with some gel medium and pushed the paper down into the cracks and crevices of the embossed areas with my fingers.  For the next layer I used some white tissue paper...and great tip from Dina Wakley...and stamped images and wrote journaling on top of the tissue paper.  Then I applied these bits with mat medium (it's liquid like white glue not a paste like gel medium) on top of my pages and also pushed these down into the embossed areas...with a paint brush because the tissue is so fragile.  Once the tissue is dry the white tissue part "disappears" and all that you see are the stamped images and writing...cool beans...works like a "transparency"...duh!

So here is a close-up of the left side of the page and you can see where I added some random stamped images in black ink and white paint dots and, of course, charcoal pencil around the images and the edges to blend everything together.

Finally...here is the right side of the journal and you can really see the roman numerals...just love this...and how I scribed the word of the day "wish" into my page as well.  The clock is also tissue paper that I had in my stash and just love how it came out...underneath the picture of the Venice canal boats...I stamped a word quote...upside-down...but that's okay...you probably would not have even noticed if I hadn't pointed it out to you.  A lot of the rubber stamps that I'm using are designed by Roben-Marie Smith of Paper Bag Studios and she was one of the first designers to make un-mounted, real rubber stamps...love them so much...make sure you check her site out. 
 

As a final step...I used my white chalk ink pad and "dry-brushed" it all over the raised/embossed areas to make them pop even more.  This was a lot of fun and it did remind me of the "metal" pages I did a few days back...but it was different because I wasn't limited to the embossed items that I could adhere down to the page...the paste really makes it fun...go find your spackle or wood putty before it dries up in the garage :}

Comments

[pamelajane]

Just found your blog and love your art journal pages!

[Bonnie]

Hi Roberta!
I just LOVE this double page, I love the colors and feel to it, it is lovely! I love the embossed look too. I have completed my 21 day challenge and posted on my blog. Still so much creativity in me still! I'm not stopping, the more you create it seems the more it makes you want to create! I did about 11 scrap pages on the weekend! having fun, catch up with you later!

[laury55]

love your page...I hope your dream becomes true and you have the opportunity to travel in Europe, I also have plenty of spots I'd like to visit lol
thanks for the tip with the paste, should check whether mine is not completely dried up

[Dina]

Very cool, great page and dimension!! Glad you're enjoying the class!