Be authentic - Inspired by a Vera Lane Studio image

Hi everyone. I'm back today with another art journal page, this time featuring one of the fabulous images from the Matilda's New Year set by Vera Lane Studio. Always a fan of these images, I couldn't wait to play with this new style. Don't you just love her face and hair...OK and her outfit :) So basically, all of her. But really, do'ncha?

I coloured Matilda with a mix of Polychromos and Prismacolor pencils adding a few white paint pen dots for highlights. She was then fussy cut leaving my usual narrow white border, matted on black cardstock, and fussy cut a second time leaving a narrow black border. This not only gives strength to the skinny parts but also helps her contrast with the background. She was then popped up on foam tape to create dimension and a natural shadow. She makes me smile :)

The 6 x 8 mixed media paper background was spritzed with Lindy's Stamp Gang Delphinium Turquoise and Witch's Potion Purple Starburst sprays. Once that was dry, Deep Purple Archival Ink was used to load up a VLS stamp and scatter it across the page. Ranger Texture Paste was scraped through the stars on Joggles Punchinella Quintet stencil to add a little more texture. Once they were dry, they were tinted slightly with the background Lindy's. Because I wanted them to be whiter, I drybrushed white acrylic paint across them and then used Sharpie markers to outline one side of most of the stars. Matilda needed a place to stand and I wanted to pick up the green from her hair, so I added two washi tape flags to overlap at ground level. Two matte enamel circles were added to accent the flag ends. I always like some black touches on my pages so black gesso was watered down slightly and some marks were made using a gift card.

I see Matilda sending out invitations to people in her tribe so a grouping of three envelopes cut from mop-up scraps were printed upon, edged with black and decorated with white paint dots and a heart stamp. These were each matted with black and popped up on foam tape. The colours chosen for the envelopes came from the image colouring.

The sentiment was printed on white cardstock. The first part was cut as one segment and the second cut into individual words, all of which were matted with black, and adhered to the background with foam tape. To finish the page, a doodled border was added along with a black mat to frame the page and keep the eye from drifting off.

Thanks for joining Matilda and me today. We so appreciate your visit. If you get a chance, be sure to check out the Vera Lane Studio Etsy shop. There are so many fabulous images I want to play with there. I'm sure you will find lots of "must-haves", too.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie