Pick A Stick Challenge September 2016

I must admit that I put off this challenge for a while, as I couldn't picture what I was going to do with the steps as listed in this month's challenge.  I also had to find some wrapping paper, as I don't have any printed tissue paper.  I had already looked out some waffle paper and had it sitting on my desk.  However, once I made the effort to fetch some wrapping paper from the house and discovered the printed words and phrase in the Sunday Supplement, the ideas just seemed to flow.  I suppose that the moral is to just get started!  I'm actually rather pleased with the finished page and will be sharing it with #PASC916.

Step 1

Step 1:  Use a colour that you never use.  I went with pale pink (Pink Sherbert, Tattered Rose, Victorian Velvet); if I use pink at all it tends to be Picked Raspberry as I'm fonder of more vibrant shades.  It says it all that I had to unseal two of the three paints that I worked with!  I used the Pink Sherbert and the Tattered Rose in the centre and added Victorian Velvet around the edge using a baby wipe to blend them.

Step 2

The non tool

Step 2:  Use a non tool.  I chose a roll of self adhesive scrim tape which is meant to go over the joins between sheets of plasterboard before plastering.  I pressed it into ink pads (Victorian Velvet and Worn Lipstick) and over the page to add texture.

The result in close up.

Step 3

Step 4

Step 3: Add acrylic paint using your fingers.  I decided to add the paint to the waffle paper as I was intending to use it as a Christmas tree.  The original colour was silver grey, so having cut it to a triangular shape, I added iridescent green yellow Pebeo Dyna paint for a metallic effect.  
Step 4:  Add waffle paper.  Before I added the waffle paper tree to the left hand side of the page, I curved the bottom.

Step 5

Step 5: Remove colour through a stencil.  As I had used paint for the base layer rather than distress ink, I couldn't use water to remove colour, so had to use white acrylic paint through a stencil instead.  I chose the snowflake layering stencil by Tim Holtz in keeping with the Christmas theme.

Step 6

Step 6:  Collage printed tissue paper or wrapping paper.  I chose baubles for two reasons; they are easy to cut out and we only seem to have Christmas wrapping paper in the house - hence the theme of the page. Before the next step, I added in the trunk of the tree using the Walnut Stain distress marker.

Step 7

Step 7: Cut out words or phrases from any printed source.  Risk seemed a good word and the colour also matched my background; the phrase 'Because someday isn't a day of the week' came from an advert for a holiday, but also really fits how I am starting to feel about art journaling and this page in particular - don't put things off!

 

Step 8

Step 8: Use something from the opposite season.  As we are at the beginning of Autumn, I chose to use Spring flowers for this step.  I die cut and embossed two lots of the Tulip Garden die by Crafts Too from white stamping card and coloured them using Red and Forest Green  ProMarkers.  I didn't bother colouring along the bottom, as I was planning to cover it up with the next step anyway.

Step 9

Step 9: Use black gesso/paint to cover something up.  Having covered up the bottom of the die cuts, I decided to create a narrow black border around the rest of the page with the black gesso.
I was really pleased that Step 10 was to add black marker or pen. I would have gone round the baubles, tulips and words anyway to emphasize them/ help them connect to the background!