As I leave today for the art journal retreat, “Stencil Girl & Friends” in Paducah, Kentucky, I couldn’t think of any project more fitting to share with you. A little while back, my fellow StencilGirl Design Team member, Tina Walker, asked if any one was interested in contributing art to her “traveling art journal”. Since I often like a change of pace from my crafty, cutesy style that I create on a daily basis, (I’m an in-house designer for a major die-cutting company), I signed up right away. Several weeks passed and when the book arrived, I froze. Not as in cold mind you, because I live in Hades, Arizona :), aka, Phoenix, but I got a bit scared to “perform” art. Nervous perhaps because this was going in someone else’s book and not mine. And, I wanted it to look just right. Honestly, I had no clue where to begin. (Do I say that often? Lol.) I wasn’t in OZ or my comfort zone anymore. However, I have discovered over time that going outside of the box is the best place to START. It’s what draws me into mixed media every single time. It’s not like all the other art/craft platforms I deal with on a daily basis. I have so little experience with some of the techniques, materials and abstract designs. However, like all challenges in life and art, change is good. It pushes you further than you could imagine. I heard a great quote today that so reminds me of this immobilization. “Fear kills more dreams than failure ever will”, Suzi Kassem. So true! Additionally, I have always said I never want to remain stagnant or have just one look or style. I want to evolve. Always. So here was my opportunity and I took it. You can see how my pages came out. Yes, I said pages, as in two! If I didn’t think one was enough we needed to do two! Lol. I began with my favorite go-to, which is the color blue and fortunately, it was the theme of the journal! Yay! From then on I just started…moving….
I used watercolors on watercolor paper. I actually used Jane Davenport’s Mermaid Markers and then floated water onto the ink with a water brush. Several shades of blue and green really made this interesting. The dimensional shapes are die cuts by Seth Apter for Spellbinders. I used Strands, Coffee Ring, Spokes, and Trifecta dies. The butterflies were traditional Spellbinder dies.
Of course I used stencils on this project! I am a major StencilGirl products fan, so much so that I applied to be a design team member this year and was completely shocked when I was accepted. Any who, the stencil I used was Layered Salad Stencil by Terri Stegmiller for StencilGirl.
I used various shades of ink pads to color in the stencil designs and then went back in and added details with a fine, permanent, black ink pen and a white Signo pen.
And the sentiments, they are all mine. After all, blue IS my FAV color and it makes me happy!
So that about wraps it up. What do you think? Are you afraid to dive in? Ah, go for it! You so got this! Remember that quote about fear and failure. What are you going to do?
XO,
Debi
Interested in any of Seth’s dies by Spellbinders? You can find and purchase them here…
Simply AMAZING!! Love the colors and of course, the dies + stencil! LOL! Love that you step out of that “box” to create something different but still has YOU in it.
Have a wonderful time – who knew in Paducah?! LOL! Used to pass by there several times on my way to Florida for spring breaks in my college years. Hope you are able to share your experience along the way – will be stalking you
You do outside the box BLUE-tifully! Well done!
So much to love about these pages. The colors, the layers and all those hand made marks. What a wonderful addition to this journal. Tina will be very happy.
Oh my! Fabulous pages!!! This combo of colors is my fav!!! Love, love, love!!!