Stretch Your Wings ~ Eclectic Ellapu challenge

Hello my friends. It's Team Purple's turn to respond to the challenge at Eclectic Ellapu this week. Andria has set the theme of  It's Sentimental where the sentiment is the main focus of the project. I have come to the realization that my favourite art journal will not even pretend to close if I complete any more pages from the end so I will remove the ones left. I still had three single pages within the book which needed a little love: the front and back pages and one near the front. For this challenge, I felt comfortable enough with my style and skills to complete the very first page. The others will get their turn soon.

I had no idea when I started where the page was going. I began with white gesso spread in a very thick and textural way across the page using an old gift card. It created lovely hills and valleys which I emphasized with Brushed Corduroy and then Vintage Photo Distress inks. 

Masking tape was applied to old book text paper and then lifted off to remove some of the print. The page was then torn and applied to the background with Matte Medium. White gesso on my finger was scuffed across the text and over the edges to  soften the words and embed the pages into the background.

 Sticking with the natural and more muted neutral colours, I stamped one of the Donna Downey Insightful Meadows flowers several times across the bottom of the page using Coffee Archival ink and including second generation stamping as well. The Stamper's Anonymous Coffee Rings stamp was also inked with the same colour. Returning to Vintage Photo Distress ink, I used a fabulous stencil from Retro Cafe Art to transfer the drippy border along the top edge. The left side of each drip was lined with Sepia Micron pen. White gesso was pounced through punchinella, outlined with Sepia Micron pen and then scuffed again with gesso on my finger so that the sharpness of the outlining was lessened.

The two butterflies were fussy cut from the Graphic 45's Olde Apothecary Shoppe paper and adhered to the background. Both were outlined loosely and brown half pearls were added to their antennae. The wording came from two different sources in my stash. It amused me to bunch up the letters spelling stretch and wings. It seemed apropos to want to stretch the squished together words. The letters for your were inked around with Vintage Photo before they were adhered to the page. All three words were outlined loosely to add to the sketchy feel of the page. Brown and then black Big Brush pen were used to outline the page on all sides.

This journal page is quite different from my usual vibrantly coloured and funky designs but I thoroughly enjoyed the change and the challenge of using a neutral palette. The sentiment was chosen for this first page because when I leaf through my first completed journal I can really see my style evolving as I have learned to stretch my wings. It's been an exciting and lovely journal so far. Thank you so much for joining me on it.

If you get a chance, pop by the Eclectic Ellapu blog to see what Andria and the rest of the Purples have created for this challenge.  Maybe you'll feel inspired to play along and let the sentiment become the focus of your creation.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie