My Arty Journal Page

I've been pondering over this art journal page for a couple of weeks now and originally I tried doing it in acrylics as that seems the done thing and I struggled. I realised what was bothering me was the materials, they weren't ME. I couldn't express something as personal as an art journal page using things that were impersonal to me so I ditched it and went with what I know and what works for me whether thats conventional or not because I'm not the most conventional of folk.

In this case I went with distress inks, a splash of moonshadow, a misting of radiant rain, a splodge or two of gesso and good old ink.

What did I want to write about is my next challenge and following the thought of changing materials as they were more me I went with how others may view me and how I view myself so I've stamped the eyes from Tracey Coates' Alluring ladies sheet which is of course from The Stampman. I use this as a blog header as its distinctive and it took me an hour to colour and I'm very pleased with the result :)

I've used distress inks and moonshadow ink to colour the page and swiped some gesso here and there and added a band of an old book gessoed and distressed across the centre. After I stamped and embossed the eyes I left it for a bit of pondering and the words from the same stamp sheet were jumping out at me and I thought well I don't have ANY of them! Anyone who actually knows me personally (and only the very brave few stick me out!) will agree I'm not in the slightest bit elegant, graceful, glamourous, don't have flair and most certainly don't have any sense of style.

My favourite shoes are black CAT boots which are a bit like steel toe caps without the steel. OK I've added bright pink laces to mine.

I've reflected this by using Helitrope purple plum starburst stains (From the Japanese gardens set) which is like a hot pink with a purply tint. The embossing is midnight teal, another firm favourite. I've also added the flying heart from the Artistic Elements sheet because I think its just fabulous and reflects my love of art & craft and the sentiment is also from there.

So here's a little page about me and my unconventional self complete with sparkly bits :)