Visual Journey pages #3

Monday morning, I had woken early with rust and patinas floating around my head (see last post and DI post at AVJ) I was pinning more pictures of them on Pinterest, ones that were pinging ideas into my head. (Do you do that and then those light bulb moments have gone out when you come back to the photo and wonder why you pinned it – or is that just me getting old lol?)  

Anyway I sat at my desk and my Visual Journey book was in front of me and a recollection of one of the pictures I had pinned immediately came to mind. Straight away I opened the pages and got out the gesso to add a thin layer scraped across the double spread and dried. The matte medium was sitting on my desk in front of me so I did the same with that as well.

Now for colour iced spruce came to mind so I got out the distress sprays and some glimmer mists and I remembered seeing a patina background done with stencils. My mind immediately made a link to a new challenge blog 'Make Art' celebrating all things Wendy Vecchi and the challenge for January is to use texture paste, I don’t have any Wendy stencils but I do have some of her paste including the crackle one. Here we go. I had intended to use stains with the wet stencilled paste but several telephone calls and texts later I came back to it and it’s dry and cracked. OK next? (Can you tell my mind was racing?)

Firstly I bound my precious book in plastic bags and used iced spruce, weathered wood, brushed pewter, and evergreen bough distress sprays, spritzed with glimmer mists, dripped and heat dried. 

Wanting the pattern of the stencil to show up more I got a paintbrush with some vintage photo and tea dye sprays and just painted over most of the raised areas. 

Next a piece of cut and dry, some rusty hinge and water sprayed on my mat and dabbed lightly onto the page with the sponge, then fully dried again. 

Using Wendy’s 'A Form of Art' set I stamped random text using the ledger and using watering can archival so that it blended nicely into the background.

I had mopped up the stains from my heat mat and stamped various elements from both the above set of Wendy’s stamps, plus the 'Fashion Style and Art' set and the 'Collectible Art' set to add the focal images and text to the pages.

I finished this all in one session and I tried not to over think what I was doing. I enjoyed the freedom of the experimentation and expressing my creative thoughts without worrying about it having to be a 'polished' project and I really followed my muse. I really am pleased with the outcome and the style.

I hope you will be able to join me in two places, both joining the 'Use something New to you' challenge at Country View Crafts. In my post today I am using my 'new' Visual Diary (which is an altered book), I tried out a new technique by using the cut and dry and sponging on top of another colour (I usually use a paint brush instead of something spongy) and I have used some old stamps that have never been used.

I would love it if you found time to link to my Visual Journey blog hop with anything in your art journal, visual diary or sketchbook that has excited you, pleased you and where you have felt unconstrained and free in producing your art.

This is not a challenge it is always an anything goes activity in a journal/visual diary/sketchbook where you are designing, composing, colour mixing, trying out techniques, using different materials, creating your own exercises, titles, mood boards or taking yourself out of the box to bring new ideas to life, to spark you off in new directions and allowing your own imagination and creativity to develop in complete freedom. In other words having fun. (see more info below).

Thanks for stopping by today and to those who have linked already, I hope you are enjoying seeing what each other is creating, thank you for sharing. I'm off to link to 'Make Art' and join in the Wendy Vecchi challenge.

Have a great end to the week.

hugs Brenda xxx

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