January Artful Days Goodie Box Project

Hi everyone! Hope you are managing to keep warm and dry during this particularly wet, cold spell we are having in the UK at the moment! Good 'arting' weather though! Tonight I'm very happy to show you my art journal spread that I made using some of the items from Artful Days, the January Goodie Box! Aptly named: Steamy Heart. As usual, it is jam-packed full of the most delicious goodies for all kinds of mixed media. If you aren't aware of Julie Bell's new monthly Goodie boxes, details can found Here. I've already used several items from this box to create a miniature gift box which was featured in January's 'MixedUp Magazine', a still fairly new online magazine - Here) It's wonderful. I urge you to subscribe if you haven't already done so. The February edition is out now and to swoon over!

So, here it is. Don't you just adore those greyboard hearts! Apart from the DecoArt paint and stamping, everything else is from the contents of the January box. And after two big projects, I still have lots more to play with! So, where did I begin? 

Actually, where I always tend to begin: with some collage using the scraps of the gorgeous paper left over from my previous project that's included each month in these boxes. Julie chooses some wonderful papers each month. You get at least 10 sheets of 6" x 6". Delicious every time! This was stuck down with matte medium (DecoArt again) then gessoed over. 

 

At the same time, I prepared the grey board hearts, first gessoing before adding DecoArt sand paste and Powertex 3D medium balls. 

Now, to start painting. I used various DecoArt fluid acrylics in my favourite colours, including: Primary Yellow, Diarylide Yellow, Nickel Azo Yellow, Transparent Yellow Iron Oxide, Pyrrole 

Orange, NaphtholRed Light, Quinacridone Red, Quinacridone Magenta, Quinacridone Burnt Orange.  I probably used several others but can't really remember. I do tend to use a lot of colours, blending and dry brushing until I'm happy with the result. This involves a lot of layering! But I love it! 

This was just the first layer! In between layers I tend to calm things down with some Translucent white before adding more colours. This is also an attempt to leave some 'open' areas for stamping, text or an image. I'm not always successful at doing this as I don't plan my outcomes. I just go with the flow and make decisions as I go along! 

You can see the difference here between the two pages, one has translucent white dry brushed across it. I was also keen to try to allow some of the patterns and marks in the collaged papers to peer through the layers, especially all of those little hearts!  Now it's just  a case of adding more colour to balance the two pages. I already know where I want to place the hearts! 

That delicious red around the edges is the Quinacridone red with added touches of the Quinacridone Magenta. I love the collaged papers peeping through. Now I'm ready to begin stamping and stencilling. I used the same paint colours for the stencilling then over stamped using Archival ink pads. 

There's quite a shine on these pages now, due in part to to the paper used in these Dylusions art journals, but also because I tend to be pretty heavy handed when it comes to dry brushing. However, I quite like the shine! 

I love this part where I go mad making marks with bottle tops and bits of cardboard and start flicking paint across the pages. Very Jackson Pollock.  Great fun. Now it was time to start assembling the hearts and various ephemera from Julie's boxes. 

The hearts were sprayed with two or three colours of DecoArt Media Misters. I then  varnished them with DecoArt soft varnish, mainly to keep the little 3D balls stuck down! 

The sentiment above is from a Crafters Workshop stencil. I've added washi tape around the text to frame it and a little more around the pages to balance it. Now, it only needed a little bit of doodling with black and white gel pens and black paint around the edges to complete the whole look. I'm really pleased with this. I love the hearts - they inspired the whole spread. The wonderful thing about Julie's Goodie boxes is that there is plenty in each box to create at least three large projects using the sole contents of the boxes. However, what I've tried to show here is that by adding other media you can stretch the contents to many many more projects. 

I hope you've enjoyed reading through this post and might be inspired to do 

some art journaling yourself! I'd love to know you popped By! 

Until next time

Xxx