Mission Inspiration September 2016 A Creative Mess

My third art journal layout and the second following the prompts on Mission Inspiration.  One of these days I'll have the confidence to completely go it alone, but for now I'm happy to follow along and be guided.
 

Step 1

Step 1: Cover your page with face fragments.  These were a selection cut from Sunday newspaper magazine supplements.

Step 2

Step 2: Add thin layers of coloured paint.  It was here that things didn't really go to plan.  As I was intending to go bright later on, I wanted the background to be more muted; I therefore decided to use Burnt Sienna, well watered down.  Unfortunately, this was far too dark and obliterated most of the face fragments, even when I added more water and tried adding a little flesh tone.  In the end I gave it up as a bad job and added a some areas of watered down bronze metallic paint to lift the background a little.

Steps 3 and 4

Step 3: Stamp text or patterns over your page.  I definitely needed to lighten the background, so decided on Picket Fence distress ink for the stamping.  I used some of the Arty Background clear stamps designed by Lisa Horton for Creative Expressions as well as the Scattered Words stamp plate (held in my hand rather than on an acrylic block).  Step 4: Add journaling, a quote or phrase.  I had already decided on the quote, "A creative mess is better than tidy idleness".  I do try to be organised and tidy when crafting but I'd rather have a mess than not be productive and everything immaculate in my shed.  As it is rather a hassle to go backwards and forwards to the house to print things out, I 'borrowed' my husband's Dymo Letratag label maker and printed the quote out over three lines (once I had replaced the batteries and cleaned the print head that is!).  Funnily enough it hasn't made its way back to his office, but is still sitting on my desk.  I really started to like the background after adding all the white stamping.

Step 5

Step 5: Make marks with paint, ink or spray.  I stuck with Picket Fence, but this time splatted the top of the paint dauber down in places all over the background, then dragged the edge of some card through the splats to spread the paint out a little.

Chameleon Pens

Teal wash and clear embossing

Step 6: Add a focal image.  As the quote was about creativity, I decided that the image should reflect that.  I stamped and heat embossed the jar of art tools image from the Follow Your Art stamp set by Woodware and the large scissors from a set of sewing themed stamps by Anna Griffin, which I had had in my stash for ages but hadn't used for a while.  These were coloured using my Chameleon pens and a wash of Spectrum Aqua Teal pen and lots of water.  

The completed focal image

Once dry, I coated the 'jar' with Versamark ink and clear embossing powder and heated it with my heat gun.  Two layers were sufficient to give the impression of glass.  Once I had added the images to the page, I sealed them with some matt medium to make them impervious, then went around them with a Big Brush Marker in Caput Mortuum, smudging it out with my fingers before it was dry, in order to bed them into the background.

Step 7

Step 7:  Add washi tape or strips of patterned paper.  I didn't want to add coloured strips as I wished the background to remain muted and not compete for attention with the focal image.  I therefore used some by Tim Holtz; anything which had a connection to creativity - tape measure, music and writing.

Step 8

Step 8: Add colour through a stencil.  I had the perfect stencil for this; the mini splat layering stencil by Tim Holtz.  I chose Archival ink in the colours that I had used to colour the focal image and randomly stencilled them around the page, trying to keep a balance of colour and shape.  I couldn't have been happier with the result; they tied the focal element more closely into the background and complemented the 'mess' part of the quote.

Step 9: Zentangle

Step 9: 'Stitch' doodles

Step 9: Add doodles, scribbles or zentangle.  For this step of the challenge I added some zentangling over parts of the focal image and added different 'stitches' using a Pitt Artist Pen by Faber-Castell around each of the quote plaques.
Step 10: Finish with a white border.  For this I used another mini layering stencil by Tim Holtz and white acrylic paint on a small blending tool.  The plus signs represent how positive creating makes me feel.

Step 10