Art Journal: The Stars

After finishing the latest Inspiration Deck, I decided to do a spread in my art journal using the same style and lyrics from one of my favorite songs.

I used almost the same process as I used for the deck, leaving out the gesso and gel medium. First I sponged down the star and spiral shapes with Golden Iridescent Pearl, and colored the edges of the pages in watercolor crayon.

Then I added blue watercolor, instead of acrylics... I tend to use watercolors for this journal more often than not.

After that I added my dots and stamped stars...

And then my washi tape and lyrics. The song is "Bella Donna" by Stevie Nicks, and the line I used from it was "Don't you know that the stars are a part of us?"

Lastly, I put my date stamp on the left edge and wrote out the date with zodiac signs of the Sun & Moon for the right edge. I'm pleased that I finally managed to get the date stamp to apply fully and without smearing!

Here's the final spread...

More to come soon!

Another Inspiration Deck Done!

Just finished another round of deck-making! If you're quick, you can still make the September 15th deadline! (See details at http://www.carddeckswap.com.)

All in all the project took me about 8 days, usually between an hour or two each of those days. This time around I followed Jessica's tutorial and glued my cards to scrapbook paper with gel medium, to have a pattern for the backs of the cards. It worked a lot better than the freezer paper I used last deck! It kept my cards flat and neat throughout the whole project. Then I added gesso until the card images were covered up and added some color.

After that I decided to add some Golden Iridescent Pearl with some sponge shapes I found at Pat Catan's (a local craft store). The effect was stronger than I expected, so I did another light wash of acrylic color over top.

Then I added some dots with drywall tape and white acrylic paint... it produces an effect similar to stamping with bubble wrap, but with much less mess!

After that I stamped on some stars using a foam stamp, and cut up my song lyrics while waiting for it to dry. Once each coat of paint was dry to the touch, I stacked the sheets together, placing a sheet of wax paper in between; it kept everything from sticking together.

I also added some washi tape, pre-printed with music notes (made by Tim Holtz), torn and stuck down in random spaces.

After that I glued on the lyrics and gave the cards another coat of gel medium as a sealer.

Then it was time to cut them out. Here is a sampling of the finished cards...

I was really happy with the way these turned out... almost sad to give them up! But I know I'll be getting some awesome cards in return.

To recap, here's the steps I took from start to finish:

• Day 1 - Got the cards glued down to the papers.
• Day 2 - Gesso
• Day 3 - Color
• Day 4 - Sponging On Iridescent Pearl
• Day 5 - Stenciling and Stamping
• Day 6 - Cutting Up Lyrics
• Day 7 - Washi Tape and Gluing Lyrics
• Day 8 - Cut Out & Ready to Mail!

I can't wait for the next round! Thanks to Jessica Brogan for all her hard work in organizing these swaps!

July Photo-A-Day Highlights

A few of my favorites from July... play along at https://www.facebook.com/groups/photoadayosd/