'Butterfly' Art Journal Page

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog.  Sorry that I haven't posted for a while but, unfortunately, life keeps getting in the way.  Every time I think things are getting straightened out, they go whoopsie again.  Going to try making up a schedule for myself just to get everything sorted, including my scrappy stuff.  Might work, might not, we'll just have to see.

Anyway, I would like to share an Art Journal page with you today.
Our Creative Corner has a Tic Tac Toe Challenge this month.  The idea is to choose one line from the grid below and create something using those items or techniques.  To take a look at the Challenge HERE is the Link.

 So, I have chosen the middle line and decided to create an Art Journal page using paints, stamps and stencils.

Started off by sponging on a coat of watered down gesso.  In the past gesso hasn't worked for me.  I have no idea why but when I brush it on, like I've seen lots of other people do, I find I can't get the paint to stick too well.  Then I watched a video by Di Garling and she lightly sponged her background with watered down gesso so I thought I would try that out, and it worked!!!   Now, I realize my background looks fairly pale, but that is the way I wanted it.  Had I added more layers of the sprays it would have come out a lot darker.  (In real life it is actually a bit darker than the photo shows)

The sprays I've used are simply watered down acrylic paints.  I do have some Distress Sprays and some Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays, but not in the colours I was after, so paint was the alternative. Besides which, I needed to use paints to keep to the Challenge criteria.  LOL!!

Once the sprays were dry I added the stenciling with Texture paste and with gesso and when that was dry I did a little stamping.

You can see some of the stenciling here ...

... and more of it here.

For the flower petals I cut some hearts from old book paper, inked them with Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink, then lightly edged them with Gathered Twigs DI.

The first layer was simply glued to the page and then the second layer was only glued at the centre so they could be curled up a little to make them more three dimensional.

Did the same with the butterfly.  This time I cut both shapes from plain paper and then stamped it on each wing with different stamps.  Inked again with the Spiced Marmalade DI and I coloured in the floral stamp with some watercolour crayons.  The pen nib was coloured with a Versacolor stamp pad and then coated in clear crackle paint.

A closie of some of the stamping ...

... and the finished double page!!

Hope you like my little page.  I thoroughly enjoyed creating it.  Even though I had criteria to fill for the Challenge, it is still quite liberating to just go with the flow and do whatever you feel like at the time.

Thank you so much for visiting and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Take care and God Bless.