Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Quiet Music

Music can be seen as well as heard.

Flowers are the music...



I’ve made another art journal page inspired by the theme LANGUAGE at Art Journal Journey .
Also inspired by this Pinterest pin https://pin.it/73QjtTc

To get some color speckles all over my page, I placed my journal inside my spray painting box and lightly spritzed Cracked Pistachio Distress Spray Stain holding the bottle about 18” above the page.


I then used some stencils to direct intense color through the designs.


After the stencils I sprayed very close to the page to get spots of intense color over the page with Cracked Pistachio and Peacock Feathers Spray Stains.


I then embossed the grid stamp with white embossing powder.  That made the ink blobs blend into the background.
(I’ve been using black archival ink to emboss over. I really should get a clear embossing pad.)



I don’t draw well or easily, so I traced a portion of a flower cutting die with pencil then went over the pencil lines with an 8B graphite pencil.


The flower petals were painted with a white heavy-bodied acrylic to give the petals some texture.  It was here the top ink blob looked quite out of place.  I worked at it for awhile using a variety of ways to get it blend into the background.  It refused.


My final attempt before trashing the page was to just add more embossing.  Although I now had more embossing than I wanted, it did save the page well enough.


I wet the graphite pencil with a water brush to outline the flower petals, but it just wasn’t bold enough.  I am new to Distress Crayons.  But they’ve done the job.  And we all know how I love a bit of grunge.


I stamped the words on white cardstock, added hints of the colors and grunged the edges.  I placed them as leaves for the flower.  The original quote says “ Flowers are the music of the ground...”. But I liked the word earth better than ground.


I love these colors.  I attempted to make a postcard in a similar fashion but I ended up with color all over.  That worked out fine to white emboss, add modeling paste through a stencil and a white die cut  to decorate all the color.
If you’d like to receive this postcard in the mail, let me know in a comment.



When I see the beauty of flowers, I can’t help but feel happy.

21 comments:

Ramona said...

And they sing loudest in the spring (or at least it seems that way around here!) Nice - It almost seems like it should have another color - hot pink, yellow or orange (and is it me, or is yellow the hot trend this year? - I am seeing it everywhere!)

Valerie-Jael said...

Flowers always bring joy! I love the wonderful background of your page, great colours, too. Thanks for joining us at AJJ, much appreciated. Have a great week, take care. Hugs, Valerie

Turid said...

Flowers give me happiness, especially the first flowers in the spring. I also love those vases of my daughter you saw in my latest blog post. Now I'm soon heading home to find some of my small vases. I will fill them with joy. Beautiful art page, and so fun to stay with you through the process. I have an idea for a new page in my art journal.

Salty Pumpkin Studio said...

Beautiful!
Your page gives me an idea for dyeing a tee shirt.

My name is Erika. said...

Flowers are nature's present to us, aren't they? I love the wonderful stenciling and texture on your page Annie. The flower in the middle is the frosting on the page. Just beautiful. Thanks for sharing with us at Art Journal Journey. Hope everything is well with you. hugs-Erika

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

This is beautiful. You have some great stencils. I am also impressed with your embossing, too. You put a huge amount of work in that lovely journal page, and you can be extremely pleased with the outcome. You sure use a lot of great products, many of which I've never heard of. Thanks for sharing this incredible entry with us using Elle's theme at Art Journal Journey.

Lin said...

I too love those colours! Another great journal page and gorgeous postcard. xx

sirkkis said...

Thank you Annie for visiting my place. Your page is wonderful, the texture is great and the words uplifting.

Mary C said...

Your post is so appropriate - last weekend I made my annual trip to my favorite nursery for plants for my Denver condo garden on my balcony. This year my theme is flowers attractive to pollinators, including salvia, osteospermum, lantana, bidens, Columbine, bacopa, and monarda - I am eager for them to settle in, grow, and start attracting pollinators!
your artwork is so inspiring, I love your creativity!

Patti said...

Always a great post. Would love to see the postcard in my mailbox. Will we ever get to do a road trip again????

Ruth said...

Wow Annie, More great art and step by step explanations. I am impressed by the way you stay with a piece of art, layer after layer, when you feel it is not right. I like the "half" flower head, it is one of those little details that elevates your artwork. It has also occurred to me that you have a very large collection of art supplies. How do you even know what to buy?

The Joyful Quilter said...

Pages like this make me long for the day that DS2 moves out (so I can take over his room for an auxiliary studio. Your journal page is beautiful!!

Annie said...

Thank you Mary for your very kind words. Your condo garden sounds like it will be wonderful.

Empire of the Cat said...

Love your white flower front and centre, and great job with hiding the blob, you would never know it was there. You can also heat emboss using water instead of ink sometimes. It might not be so great through a stencil but it works with random patterns like splatters. Thanks for joining me for the Language theme at Art Journal Journey this month Elle xx

craftytrog said...

Wow! Your page is beautiful Annie! I love the colour too.
Alison xx

R's Rue said...

Beautiful

Tera Callihan said...

This is Beautiful!!

Elkes Lebensglück said...

I am thrilled how you made the journal! A wonderful, impressive journal page!
Have a happy day,hug Elke

Deb M said...

Lovely! The colors, the embossing, everything! Thanks also for sharing the process in your post! I enjoy reading about others' creative journeys.

Createology said...

Love your colors as the Peacock always reminds me of my favorite colors. Your layers of detail are what make the page and postcard so intriguing. Happy May Flowers Dear.

sheila 77 said...

This was a huge process post and I followed each step closely. I like how you outlined the flower in several ways to make it stand out and how you managed to hide the bad blob, very cleverly done. The simple white flower looks great on the complex background and I admire that you made it with just three colours - white, black and turquoise.