Life is Busy

Things are pretty busy now, which is surprising for January.  But it is what it is.  I am finding some time to keep up with both Creative Jump Start and the Documented Life Project even if I am a week behind.  Loving what I see but not necessarily what I do.  But isn't that the point...S   T   R   E   T   C   H and GROW.  I really am doing both.  But at the same time it is really reinforcing what I have come to discover lately...I prefer to work in 3D.

But never the less, I thought I'd share this week 2 journey and do as the project says "Document"

The week 2 'lesson' is to use gesso and react to the quote, "The beginning is always today."

My caption across the 2 pages.

I started my pages with a coat of gesso across both pages and then sketched out a path for the quote.  It spoke to me of a journey which I felt the path represented.

These are the colors I chose,
I would have preferred a heavy body
but this is what I had.  The deep
blue is painter's tape that I used
to cover the quote.

I wanted to utilize the background technique I'd seen demo'd by Natalie Kalbach on CJS 2015.  I loved the look she achieved so I even copied the colors.

On top of the gesso, I blended the 3 colors LIGHTLY together.

While the colors were still wet, water
was dropped on the surface, creating the
white splotches on the pages.

The next layer was accomplished with
a sponge brush and stencils.

White (gesso) was added next using
some texturizing plastics I have
been saving.

And now a light spread of gesso
with a credit card. More water drops
to add spots again.

Time to remove the tape. Always a shock.

 In keeping with the mixed media techniques, more layers are needed.  This is the hard part for me.  I fall in love with each layer and then it gets covered over.  The path looked so naked and really stuck out more than I wanted it to...what to do? I had to find a way to anchor it to the piece especially after adding the bright colors on the path with Dyan Reaveley Dylusion sprays.

Stems using Dyan Reaveley stamps helped to ground the path.  Then I stamped leaves on text paper and cut them, adhering to page.  A few more doodles, lots of white on the letters and some flowers.

The flowers were created ala Sandi Keane's of DLP fame with painted deli paper.  I scrunched them a bit with Glossy Accents and filled the centers with yellow glass beads.  So here is my 3D...in my fluffy flowers.  This could prove to be very interesting when I try to do subsequent pages.

All in all...the projects are instructional and fun. Lots to learn.