Mission Inspiration: March 2017

Here is my Mission Inspiration art journal challenge page for March 2017.  The prompt colours were green, yellow and brown and I chose the word 'Spring' from the choice of five given. There were a series of eight steps to follow.

The finished page

Step 1

Step 1: Apply patterned paper or tissue.  I covered the whole page with a piece of the Tim Holtz Melange tissue wrap and sealed it down, before drying it with a heat gun and trimming the edges.

Step 2

Step 2: Add thin coat of a suggested colour.  To start with I added a thin coat of Grass Green Reeves acrylic paint blended with Titanium White and some water.  I wasn't very happy with the look, so went over the top with some watered down Medium Yellow allowing some of the green to show through.

Step 3

Step 3: Use a stencil with a medium of your choice.  For this step I applied Ground Coffee Dylusions paint with a blending tool through the hare stencil, which was #23 with the Claritystamp New Design Stencil Club.  Each month members receive a stencil together with a full colour leaflet giving step by step instructions for two different projects.

Step 4

Step 4: Add a focal image.  For this step I drew round several of the egg shapes on the Eggs stencil (which was #9 in the Claritystamp NDSC) onto Sheena's stamping card and cut them out.  I then used my Neocolor II crayons and a water brush to add colourful patterns to each egg.  Once dry they were glued down and sealed with distress collage medium.

Step 5

Step 5: Use at least two rubber/clear stamps.  I used two of the stamps from the Journaling set by Claritystamp and used Coffee Archival ink with the harlequin background and Tree Branch Archival ink with the coffee ring stamp.

Step 6

Step 6: Make marks with a credit card.  I used the shorter edge of an old phone top up card and Chopped Pesto Dylusions paint.  First I added fine lines, but having caught one of the lines and dragged out the paint, I decided to go back and do the same with all of the lines.  This created a pleasing texture to the background.  I deliberately left a space to stamp the word Spring'.

Step 7

Step 7:  Add a quote/title or phrase.  I stamped the 'Spring' stamp by Claritystamp which was a New Design Club stamp from 2016.  For this, I used Versamark ink and heat embossed with Cosmic Shimmer Detail Copper powder.  It happened to catch some of the background areas which were still damp, so I chose to heat those too rather than brushing the powder off.  I also used an embossing pen to add some copper detail to the hare.  I also chose the words March, chocolate, eggs, rabbit and hop from the Seasonal Chit Chat sticker book by Tim Holtz, to add to the eggs.  i also used my Big Brush Markers to add a shadow below the eggs to ground them as well as to add shading to the eggs themselves.  I blended the colours out with my fingers before they dried.
Step 8: Add a frame or border.  For this step I added some of the Medium Yellow, Reeves acrylic paint through the 6" x 6" Microbial stencil by TCW.  It is very subtle, but if you look carefully at the picture of the finished page, you can just make it out.