'Happiness' Art Journal Page

Hello lovely people and welcome to my blog.  

Here I am again to share another Art Journal page with you.  Wow!!  This is a first for me ... two journal pages in a row.   My Journal pages usually take quite a long time for me to finish because I never really know what I'm going to do.  I am still experimenting with this medium and I very rarely have a design in my head when I start.  I do usually know the colours I want to use but once I've got that on the paper I don't always know where to go from there so it sits on my desk until I decide what to do next.  This page was a bit different.  I started with the basic colours and it all came together quite quickly from there.  It still took most of a day but when you consider that they usually take me a few weeks to complete, this one came together very quickly indeed.

 After posting my last page, I was in the mood for getting a bit messy so started creating the background colour.  I tried laying down some gesso but still don't seem to have the knack.  I watered it down a bit thinking that might make the difference but for some reason, when I coat the page with gesso the colour just seems to disappear.  I've seen other people's work using gesso and theirs is fabulous, but I just can't seem to make it work. Consequently my first page ended up in the bin.  It was an awful mess.  So then I started this page without the gesso and it worked!!  I'm really happy with this background ... I love the dark, richness of it!!  I used watered down Distress Inks in Brushed Corduroy, Broken China and Walnut Stain and also used watered down Viva Precious Metal Colour in Olive.  You can't really see it in these photos but the green has a lovely golden sheen to it.

 Brushed on some 'Clear Rock Candy' Distress Crackle Paint in a couple of places and used 'Walnut Stain' through a  Crackle Stencil by Scrapbookncraft.  Used a music stamp by Prima with Memento Tuxedo Black and the top from one of my spray bottles dipped in gesso and then in Black Soot Distress Stain for the circles.

 The hearts were cut from some plain cardstock with a Fiskars Shape Cutter and then coloured with Fired Brick and Mustard Seed Distress Ink.  Glued them onto the page and then outlined them with a black watercolour pencil and also highlighted them with a white gel pen.

 Here you can see the other patch of the crackle.

I had actually intended to put flowers on this page, hence the washi tape which was meant to be the ground.  When I changed my mind and used the hearts instead I tried to remove the tape but it started tearing the paper beneath it so I simply left it there.   

The quote stamp is from Kaisercraft.  Stamped it with Memento Tuxedo Black and then clear embossed it.  I was very pleased with myself that I finished this page so quickly and I must say, I am really happy with the result, it really represents how I feel about my life right now.  I am very, very blessed to have a wonderful, loving family and some amazing and treasured friends, so my heart really does bubble over with happiness right now and happiness is so much better when it's shared isn't it??
Even in the tough times we really do need to sit back and count our blessings.

Thank you so much for visiting, I am really pleased you came to have a look.  Please do come again.

Take care and God Bless.

oxox Marg