TRUE STORY

Happy April everyone!  

Today I’m sharing a mixed media page in my A5 spiral bound journal. This year I’m hoping to use up some of my stash. I buy all sorts of things then tend to hoard them. And then new stuff comes out and I want that.  And so my stash grows and grows. 

Because I’m using watercolours and quite a lot of water I needed quite a substantial substrate so I cut a piece of Aquafine 300gm watercolour paper to A5.  I didn’t want to stick it into the journal as it is quite thick, I punched holes in the left hand side so that when it is finished I can slip it into my spiral bound journal. 

To begin I spread some Wendy Vecchi Crackle texture paste onto my page here and there and while it was still wet sprayed a little water onto a script stamp and stamped into it to add a little texture. [this is one of the items I have had in my stash like for ever].

 

Then out came the watercolours.  I love how soft and dreamy the backgrounds look. 

  

 

I sprayed the page with water then began applying the colours, just a little at a time, leaving each layer to dry before applying the next.  I repeated this until I was happy with the look. 

  

I’ve been experimenting with my watercolours and one technique I really love is to use watercolour as an ”ink” when stamping.  I stamped once on the upper left hand side and once on the right hand side. 

I found some Tim Holtz washi tape [I have rolls of this in my stash and seldom use it] and applied a little to ground my image so that she wouldn't look like she was floating in the air. Then also applied some at the top for balance. Its quite wide so I tore it in half.  I also made a few splatters with various colours. 

 

I printed a vintage image from my own stash of vintage images. It’s actually a picture of my mom as a child down at the beach.

  

After fussy cutting her I coated the image with a layer of Multi medium Gloss which I bought by mistake but use it quite often now that I have it. This picture is very, very old and the Multi Media Gloss seems to bring out the details in these sorts of pictures.

I stamped the wings then spread a layer of Wendy Vecchi crackled texure paste. When dry I used a combination of watercolours and Tim Holtz distress crayons to colour them. The distress crayons have a lot of pigment which gives bright colour. 

  

I glued my image onto the page being careful to insert the wings behind her before gluing down the top half. I didn’t glue the wings down completely as you will see.

 

I did some random stamping with a script stamp and black archival ink, I didn’t use a block but sort of rolled the stamp so that only portions of the stamp stamped.  

I have lots of word stickers and chose “you are beautiful inside and out” as my sentiment. After sticking them down I outlined each word with my black Posca black pen.   

  

For me, “a page is not done til its done”, and I couldn’t resist a little more fiddling, so I stamped the words ‘TRUE STORY” at the top left hand side which was looking a little bare and used another stamp to add a little interest on the bottom right hand side.

Then out came the watercolours again and I dripped a little orange down the left hand side and also filled in a few more areas with orange which just  made the page pop for me.  I think its done!  I also doodled on the wings with my White Posca pen.  I also used a soft charcoal pencil to outline the image so that it blended into the background. 

  

Now to get the page into my spiral bound journal! This little trick [which I've read somewhere on the internet] is handy if you want to add pages to any sort of already-bound book, whether you’re using a bought journal or one you’ve made and bound yourself.    

 

After the holes are measured and punched, use a pair of scissors to snip through the edge into the space left by the binding holes.  

Then it is just a simple case of lining up the binding holes and lightly pushing the splits around the rings.   

 

Some people might know this, but for those who don’t it’s really worth sharing. 

Supplies:

Aquafine 300gm watercolour paper

Various water colour paints

Water colour brush

Washi tape

Various stamps

Wendy Vecchi crackled texture paste

Black archival ink

Vintage image

Black and White Posca pens

Gathered Twigs distress ink

Ranger Multi Medium Gloss

Mister

Printed sticker words

Small scissors for fussy cutting