Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Art Journal Page Featuring Stampotique

(click to see this full-sized)

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Hope your week is going well. We're busy unpacking and getting ready for our trip back to Canada next week. It's exciting to see the house coming together.
I'll share pictures as soon as I can find my camera ASAP

This week Kim picked the challenge over at the Stampotique  Designer Challenge Blog and would you believe it's their 100th challenge? Huge congrats to everyone involved. It's one of the few challenge blogs I can't wait for each week and I play along with regularly.

The  SDC Challenge 100  theme is, "Anything Goes" and I LOVE being able to just mess around and see where inspiration takes me.

It took me to my art journal. Surprise. Surprise.

On the left side I used Beauty Verse on a mixed media tag that features spray ink, stenciling, french dictionary text and messy stitching with black thread. 

The base of the page has layers of paint, stencils (fragmented flowers is one), stamping and Neocolor II and I brought it all together with a tiny bit of striped wash tape. 

For the right side, I built the base up with paint, stencils, spray and music paper. 

 I stamped Heart Throb on a Handmade layers tags from Elle's Sudio and colored him with copics. Stamping on pre-made (printed) tags is one of my favorite short cuts. What you lose in control over the paper you more than gain back in the illusion of complexity.

Doesn't it look like the red chevron at his feet is washi tape and the blue dotted 'stamping' to his left is also the printed tag. The "no. 12' too. In reality, all I added to the tag was Heart Throb and the red splatter. 


Isn't Heart Throb just the most loveable stamp? I'm smitten.

To match things up nicely I added the other half of the ripped piece of striped washi tape above the focal image. I think that sort of symmetry brings a lot of balance to an art journal page.

Speaking of balance, did you notice how the two sides are very different but the weight of the images is about the same, the colors are repeated (blue on the left in amongst the orange and red and the yellow on the right)

Also in addition to the striped washi tape,  I had manilla tags on both sides as well as red paint splatters.

Sometimes art journal pages can get a little crazy - and that's awesome - but if you are looking for something a bit more calm to look at, or you want to make sure your quote gets as much attention as your focal image, you can do that with weight and symmetry and you don't have to sacrifice fun painty layers. 

Thanks so much for popping by.
Warmly,
~~~Nicole


8 comments:

Kaz said...

Love this page, fab and bright colours xx

Basement Stamper said...

gorgeous journal pages, I'm so happy you are playing along with us this month.

Sue said...

This is fabulous Nicole, I love your bright happy colours and choice of stamps xx

Bonnie Irvine said...

These pages are wonderful. I love all of the layers and the textures you created on the background. The addition of the manila provides awesome contrast to the other vibrant colours. I understand where that little guy gets his name...he's so cute...tugs at my heartstrings. I really appreciate your explanations and sharing of your knowledge as well as the inspiration you provide.

Unknown said...

To answer your question...Yes, I love heart throb!!! In fact, I think I will trade my husband in for him!!! lol jk.

Reflective Art Studio said...

Wow Nicole... Wonderful pages. love everything about them. xx
Sarinda

roc said...

great job!

Astrid Stulemeijer (AssiCrafts) said...

Really awesome pages!!! XOXO