Going Around!

Hi everyone! Hope you are over the Monday blues and looking forward to the rest of your week. I'm blogging again tonight, very aware that I'm almost a regular blogger at the moment! I'm pleased to say that I have found my mojo again, at last, especially for art journaling. This time, I've produced a project which is using some of the gorgeous products in the March Goodie box by Artful Days, but coinciding with the current PaperArtsy challenge who are running a 'Blue/Ochre' colour challenge. Wonderful combination. I realised I could combine the two when I saw the fabulous papers in March's Goodie Box selection. The papers are always fabulous but this time they incorporated some blue and some ochre colours in the selection by My Minds Eye.

The theme of the March selection is: Circles - with an apt title: 'Going Around'. I adore this product and I know many of you reading this, do too. Each Goodie box is jam-packed with real quality products, carefully chosen by Julie Bell. There is so much each month to make several Mixed Media projects.  Equally, if you subscribe, you will be able to build up a really great stash that combines each month to make yet more projects. I'm always dipping in and out of each box. 

Who doesn't love 'Circles'? They feature in so many art journal spreads and on greetings cards. And, as I am no exception, I was really excited to receive so much inspiration for my own art journal page. I've used various elements from the Goodie Box to create my page, supported by many PaperArtsy products. The two are a good marriage! 

 

I started by taking the Scrapiniec large circles frame together with three of the MDF circles and laying them down the centre of the page.  I then used two or three of my PaperArtsy Fresco chalk paints in made up sprays -  in various blues - and sprayed these down the page over the laid down circles.

Once the circles are removed, a ghost-like effect is created. This means I can use the sprayed circles for another project. I've used: Caribbean Sea, China and Midnight to create this first layer. I'm working in my Strathmore Mixed Media art journal. 

I then over-stamped some of the ghosted circles with black Archival ink, using the gorgeous polymer stamps included in the kit. These are fabulous as they give the appearance of sewn circles. I love these. 

The next layer involved stamping, using various PaperArtsy and Seth Apter stamp sets, maintaining the blue monotone before introducing various Archival inks closer to the ochre colour to introduce some contrast.

Here are the stamps I used to create the background and for the focal images.

Lovely to see how the different coloured stamping builds up the layers. Now to prepare the main

 image. This would be stamped on one of the cut out pieces from the Scrapiniec large circles frame. But first I had to colour it. Can you see where I got the idea from? (Hint:PA packaging). 

I used a toothbrush to stipple the different paint colours on, trying to produce an 'ochre' colour from them. This photo also shows the stamp set I used to select the main image. 

My penultimate layer involved selecting papers to die-cut circles from and embellishments from the Goodie box to create and continue the 'Circles' theme. I was also given some mini circle die-cuts from my lovely crafty friend, Lesley Ebdon. 

Finally, I typed out some words and phrases on vintage paper that I felt were apt for the title of the Goodie Box and this page. I added some washi tape and dated the page. So there you are. I do hope you like it? I certainly enjoyed the time I spent on it and hope it inspires you to pop over to Artful Days and purchase a box or two! 

Until next time xxx