Sunday 2 December 2018

Christmas Art Journal Page: Eight Steps, Three Colours

It is quite a while since I joined in with the main monthly mission over on Mission Inspiration, in fact my last page followed the September prompts.  However, I couldn't resist the December colours and prompts and, for the first time ever, completed my page on the day that the prompts were released.  The three suggested colours were Snow White, Ice Blue and Silver Sparkle and as usual there were eight steps to follow and a choice of five prompt words.
I cut a piece of mixed media card to fit my large MI art journal (slightly smaller than A4).  Step 1: Add a thin layer of paint or gesso.  It just so happened that I had some pearl acrylic paint called Ice Blue (DoCrafts), so added a thin layer to my page.
Step 1
Step 2: Add seasonal stamping all over your page.  I already knew which focal image I wished to use, so stamped all the Snowflake stamps from Claritystamp in Versamark ink and heat embossed them in detail white embossing powder, leaving space to add the focal point at the appropriate step. 
Step 2
Step 3: Add texture layers with stencils.  I masked off two of the snowflakes from the Peace, Noel and Snowflakes A5 stencil which was NDSC06 from Claritystamp.  I dragged silver Dreamweaver embossing paste through the apertures in several places.  While they were drying, I worked on my focal image.
Step 3
Step 4: Add a seasonal focal image or images.  The Snow Globe Outline stamp (Clarity) was stamped onto a piece of stencil card in Versamark ink and heat embossed in silver EP.

I created a scene within the globe using some of the teeny weenie stamps which come in the same set.  The trees were stamped in Smokey Grey Versafine ink and the tobogganers  added in Onyx Black. A small Spot mask created the moon and Broken China Distress ink was brushed across the sky using a Clarity stencil brush.  A little grey was added around the top of the globe.  The Mountains & Hills mask and the same grey was used to create shadows on the snow.  The Snow Globe was then fussy cut and Sparkle pens used to add Icy Blue and Silver onto the base of the globe.

At this point I decided to jump to the last step: Finish with shimmer or sparkle.  I had already used sparkle pens on the base, now I added Versamark ink all over the top of the snow globe glass and heat embossed in a clear sparkly EP.
Step 8
The finished focal point was added to the page and the area around it sealed with matt medium.  Once dry,  a Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pen was used to add shading around and below the image, blended out with a Pergamano blending pen and nib.
Step 4 complete
Step 5: Add journaling, quote or phrase.  From the list of Joy, Icicle, Frosty, Family or Winter, I chose to use a quote about winter.  I stamped the key word in the same way as the snowflakes, using the Winter stamp from the Treescape & Seasons stamp set.  The rest of the quote was handwritten in the same Pitt Artist pen as before.  I forgot to take a photo before completing step 6: Add drips or splatters.  I mixed some of the Icy Blue sparkle pen with water and used a fan brush to add subtle splatters.
Step 7: Add a border of your choice.  I chose to add a border along the bottom only.  We had called at Lidl while the embossing paste was drying and they had some silver and white Washi tape which I couldn't resist adding to my stash.  I added three strips of various widths and length across the bottom of the page to complete it.
This is the second December Mission that I have used the Snow Globe stamp as a focal image.  However this year's page doesn't look like last year's as the colour scheme was completely different (see HERE for step by step).
MI December 2017

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