Tuesday 2 June 2015

Art therapy

It's been a funny kind of week. Although I am feeling loads better now, I felt shocking last week. I had a cold which wasn't too bad for a day or so then it turned into an ear ache/sinus blocked thingy. As I've had sinus issues before, I know the signs and what to do before it gets a hold of me so although I'm not fighting fit just yet, I do feel human again now.



Prior to getting sick, I spent a lot of time working in my garden. I never had the time or the inclination when I was working full time but it has been bugging me for the last couple of years and this year I decided to tackle the mammoth task. I know absolutely nothing about gardening whatsoever, so this is a real learning curve for me and whilst it was very satisfying watching it transform into a place where I would like to spend some time, I really missed my artsy stuff!!! I really needed to splodge some paint on something so I grabbed a journal and did just that.

I brayered a few colours of paint on my page just get some background colour  (I used Honey Dew, Wisteria, Cheesecake and Caribbean Sea Fresco Finish paint).


I used some Taupe through a few favourite stencils.



Then some Nougat. All colours so far were opaque.



Time to add some translucent paint to bring it to life. I added Limelight and Tango using a baby wipe to gently blend the colours.


I wanted to use Hey Pesto for my fern thingies but as that is a translucent colour, I needed to add a layer of Snowflake first so that the Hey Pesto would show over the busy background.


Then by mistake, I picked up a some Limelight instead of Hey Pesto so now my three fern thingies are three different colours. Happy accident me thinks, I like them all different colours!!!


As they were really quite plain, I decided to stamp some images on them. I made a paper mask for the heads of the ferns to help with placement. I usually use the stencil as my mask but this stencil is quite thick and I wouldn't have been able to stamp the images right up to the edges.


I used my Fibralo pens to add shading around the edges....


.....and some gold stars to fill in the gaps.



It's been ages since I created a page in my journal......I feel better now.

18 comments:

Ruth said...

Just beautiful, love the different coloured fern 'heads' and your layers of paint brayered background is gorgeous...glad you're feeling on the mend. Ruth x

PaperArtsy said...

Gorgeous!! Love the gold stars too!!!

Helen said...

Fabulous journal page - the stamping over the stencilled ferns looks great, and you definitely deserve a gold star!!

Annie60 said...

Lovely Lin ,,,.x

snazzyoriginal said...

Love, love, love it !

Anonymous said...

Beautiful page. Love the bold ferns with the delicate stamping.
Margriet

craftimamma said...

Oooh stunning page Lin and I love the face ferns! Lots of gorgeous layers and colours on this fabulous page.

Hugs
Lesley Xx

Steven said...

love the heads on ferns!! great work as always

Lin said...

wow great background Lin and I love the faces on the ferns! great page xx

Julie Lee said...

I love your journal page, it seems to radiate light! I love the fern faces too. I'm so sorry you have been feeling poorly - sinus pain is so horrible. Glad to hear you're on the mend. There is certainly nothing better than a bit of art therapy and this is such a lovely result! xx

Rachel Jolley said...

This is STUNNING, I adore the colours and designs, I would love to have this as a picture on my wall!

Kirsten said...

A gorgeous page. I'm glad you're beginning to feel better.

Kirsten said...

A gorgeous page. I'm glad you're beginning to feel better.

Anonymous said...

Beautifuil page Lin ! Love the magical transformaton when Limelight is added ! Hope you're feeling better. Sue C x

Anonymous said...

Beautifuil page Lin ! Love the magical transformaton when Limelight is added ! Hope you're feeling better. Sue C x

Lauren Hatwell said...

Lin, I'm not going to lie, the first thing that caught my eye was that gorgeous Hydrangea (I have a bit of an addiction to Hydrangeas). I carried on reading down the page and was really taken with your lovely journal page. I've got a bottle of Limelight paint myself and it is such a lovely colour. I'm also fairly obsessed with Tinned Peas Fresco Paint at the moment. Mixing the greens really works and adds realism to your page. I love it. Glad to hear you're feeling better. Lx

Etsuko said...

Stunning page! Lovely the three ferns and images, great background and stars added gorgeous. Glad to hear you're feeling better now. xxx

Unknown said...

Lin, this page is gorgeous! I am ALWAYS amazed how simple additions can have such a dramatic effect. Thank you for sharing its progress. Looking forward to seeing more of your work!