Happy Hands art journal page - inspired by a Vera Lane Studio image

Hi everyone! Yesterday marked the new release of the Stitches digi set at Vera Lane Studio. Oh my word, I love these images. I have been sewing since my early teens and think these are the cutest images. I immediately thought of my friend, Jane, who is an avid and talented quilter. I chose to combine two of the images, the girl with her eyes blissfully closed and the spool of thread, to star on my art journal page today.

I coloured both images with a mix of Prismacolor and Polychromos pencils, fussy cutting each leaving a narrow white border. I then glued the images together where they overlap and matted them with black cardstock. The new "merged" image was fussy cut again leaving the narrow black border. White Posca paint pen was used to add the little design on her outfit.

I wanted a quilted background for the 6x6 watercolour page but I also wanted vibrant colours. Three Distress Oxide Inks (Peacock Feathers, Cracked Pistachio, Wilted Violet) were added one at a time to a small gel plate and spritzed with water. Using a waterbrush, the colour was then added to the appropriate squares in the 9-patch design. Stencils were added over each square and the ink was removed using a baby wipe. On a few of them, the design was too small for this to be effective so I sponged through the stencil openings with white gesso. I wanted the texture and to break up the solid colour. The lines dividing the patches and the faux stitching along the lines was doodled with black pen. I love how that turned out!

The wording was printed onto white cardstock, matted with black. The saying, which I have always felt to be true, seemed to suit her expression of crafter's bliss. To ground her, a strip of zigzag cardstock was fussy cut and placed below the thread. I thought it looked like rickrack. Three enamel dots were added to the top left corner to add another pop of black and balance the design.

Thanks for stopping by today. You can check out Stitches as well as a plethora of fabulous and inspiring images in the Vera Lane Studio Etsy shop. We would love to have you drop by the Vera Lane Studio Facebook group to say hi. There is always wonderful inspiration and friendly chats happening there.

Life is good; so is art.
Bonnie