Art Journal Adventure Prompt - Week #16 Borders

Hi everyone. Barb's prompt for Week 16 of Joggles Art Journal Adventure was to use borders on an art journal page. She actually filled her page with delicious doodled borders over a Dylusions spray background. I decided to do "similar but different" by combining some doodling, some punched elements, and some stencilling plus a word as the focal.

I started by spritzing inks over an ungessoed page. In hindsight, if I had put gesso on the back of the page, it likely would have minimized rippling but I'm OK with it as is. The background was spritzed with water and then I used Squeezed Orange, Postbox Red, and Bubblegum Pink Dylusions Sprays plus Bougainvillea Fuchsia Lindy's Starburst Spray. There was a lot of blending because of the water and very little white space left once I tilted the page in several directions.  When that was completely dry (with a little help from a heat tool), I stencilled White Linen Dylusions Paint through Joggles Ancient Ruins stencil in a few places to break up the background and provide contrast.

The outside X row was created by pouncing Black Marble Dylusions Paint through TCW's 12x12 Deco Stitches stencil. The leaf skeletons were created by using a Pitt pen through the same stencil and then tracing over each line freehand with a broader nib. I wanted them to be less perfect. The other borders were freehanded in a wonky fashion...no straight lines here. White paint pen was used for the dots and Black Big Brush Pen was used to edge the page.

For the center block, stars were punched from black cardstock to fill the top and bottom rows...and yes, I put them upside down on purpose. The letters for the word Imagine were grungeboard painted with Black Marble Dylusions Paint and dotted with a white paint pen. Two lengths of drywall mesh were cut to size and adhered above and below the word to provide both texture and contrast. They were outlined with a black pen.

This was definitely a page that pushed my comfort zone boundaries. It's rare for me to have an art journal page without an image. That's one of the things I love so much about the Art Journal Adventure...it encourages me to try something I wouldn't normally do and to find a way to make it my own. We would love to have you join us on this journey. There is a fabulous AJA Facebook group where we share our pages and encourage each other...love to see you there! Barb's AJA prompts are posted each Monday on the Joggles blog and each person can follow along at his or her own pace.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie