Brave - A new season - Prompt 01

The new season in Get Messy Art Journal is Brave.  The first prompt revolves around what brave is to you.  I can think of a million things that mean brave to me.  For some unknown reason, I immediately thought growth.  I don't know why that word came to mind, but it did, so I rolled with it.

I wanted to try a different format from the journal I've been using.  I had a large moleskine cahier that I had used to practice my first week into pointed pen calligraphy.  I used a cheap nib that didn't flex much and have since purchased better quality tools and paper.  I didn't much like the paper in a moleskine for pointed pen, so I never went back to writing in it.  There it was, sitting on a shelf looking all sad that it wasn't getting used.  I grabbed it and threw some gesso on it before I could change my mind.

After working on this page, I have to say, I prefer this layout to the other journal.  Sure, the other one is interesting because of how short and wide it is, but that can be limiting too.  I've decided that I'm going to go against my (cuckoo) instincts to keep everything in one place, and I'm going to use whichever one strikes my fancy when I sit down to work on it.

I covered the page with gesso, and started adding color.  I changed my mind about the direction in which I was going, and took a wipe to the page.  I was able to get most of the color off, but you can still see some of the yellow and blue, which is cool too.

I added more gesso, some acrylic paint, a die-cut, some splatters and painted the words "growth is brave".  Overall a pretty simple page.  I like it.

xoxo,
Liz

Greatest act of Love

So one of the prompts this week with Get Messy Art Journal has to do with the greatest act of love.  When I read the words, I could think of nothing that could top Jesus dying on the cross for US.

Immediately, I knew that I wanted to watercolor an image of Jesus' feet nailed to the cross.

I spent the whole day kicking ideas around my head of other embellishments or techniques that I could add to the page.  I kept coming up short.  No matter what, everything that I imagined would take away from the message, instead of add to it.

As I sat down to work on the page, I thought...something will come to me as I work on it.  Still, there I was, done with the watercolor, and nothing came.  That was when I decided that this was one of those times where less really was more.  

Thank you Lord for everything you've done for me.

xoxo,
Liz

Look deeper

The idea for this page just sort of came to me this morning.  I had created the background the other day, but wasn't happy with it, so I figured I'd let it be a while.  I knew that eventually something would come to me.  And if nothing else, there's always glue :-)   huh? What pages? that's just a really thick one

The background is just a mess of gesso and acrylic paint.  The tags are from Studio Calico.  I made them all black in photoshop and used the print and cut feature to cut them out with the silhouette.  I think I ended up doing three sheets of them.  God bless that little machine.  The thought of cutting all of those tags out by hand would be enough to abandon the idea altogether. 

I wrote out the words lightly with a pencil, then traced and filled it all in with my PITT pens.  Not the most elaborate and technique-filled of pages out there, but I'm happy with it.  :-)

xoxo,
Liz

All you need is love

All you need is love...One of my favorite songs by the Beatles.  I grew up on the Beatles.  My father has always loved their music, and I've inherited that love as well.

The Get Messy Art Journal prompt revolves around love.

I chose to use "all you need is love" from the song, but I wanted to include one of my very favorite verses in the bible; Isaiah 54:10

Isaiah 54:10
For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee.

This verse means to me that no matter what the circumstances, God will always be with me.  He will show me kindness, peace and mercy.  That's a very powerful statement.  It reminds me of the love that I have for my very own children (even though I know it pales in comparison to His love for us).

Here's my process for the page.
I started with watercolor in different shades of pink, covering most of the two pages.  I made the quote in photoshop and used my silhouette to cut it out of some white cardstock.

While I waited for the watercolor to dry, I used versamark to cover the entire cut image and heat embossed it with gold embossing powder.  I typed the verse out onto a sheet of vellum with my typewriter and cut it into strips.  I pulled a few tags from my stash and crumpled them up to get them a little wrinkly.  A little texture to keep the page dimensional.  I gave them a good wash of Heidi Swapp gold mist, but it was a totally different gold than the embossing powder.  I know...., but it bothered me.

I ended up just adding some of the same embossing powder to the tags, and embossed the rim of the metal tag as well. 

Part of the challenge was to use washi tape.  Before adhering things to the page, I threw some white splatters all over with diluted acrylic paint, and misted some bits with tattered angels mist in Pearl.  Then I layed a bunch of strips of a white polk-a-dotted washi on the left page to wash out the color.  As it was, the wording was hard to read.  It's still not the easiest, but it's better.  I added some strips of washi to a scrap of vellum and cut out a heart shape.  Stuck everything down and Boom....finished page.  (look at me acting like I didn't take two hours to do that) 

I really like the page, simple as it may be.  It makes my eyes happy.  I might stick with this art journaling thing yet.

xoxo,
Liz

Getting my feet wet

So here I am, trying out this art journaling thing.  I joined Get Messy Art Journal, and I'm really looking forward to all of the prompts and tips they put up. 

I've always wanted to art journal.  It's looks like so much fun.  I don't know why it's taken me so long to try my hand at it.

My first ever art journal page!

"the need to create lives in me, always has, always will"

xoxo,
Liz