Art Journal Play on Words

The prompt for challenge 36 on Junk Journal Junkies and Mindful Art was Fungi/Mushrooms and the required colours were pink, green and chocolate.  As I had just used the only picture that I had of a mushroom on another art journal page, I was forced to be a little more creative.  I also didn't want to repeat myself too much.

I traced the mushroom from the previous page and transferred it to a piece of mixed media card 18.5cm x 19.5cm, erasing the pencil once I had gone over the image with a brown micron pen.

The previous page (see HERE)

I then added hills in green (Avocado and Pampas Artistry inks) using a stencil brush and copy paper as a mask.  The two sizes of grasses from the Wee Grasses set by Claritystamp and the Teeny weeny versions of the same stamps from the Grove Trees Outline set and the Toadstool Outline set were stamped in Fern Green Archival ink; again using the copy paper as a mask. 

I didn't worry about going over the stem of the giant mushroom as the next step was to paint in the stem and some of the details using Melted Chocolate Dylusions paint.

Next I added shades of pink across the top using a stencil brush (Spun Sugar Distress, Cotton Candy, Rosy Cheeks and Fancy Fuchsia Artistry inks).  The honeycomb stamp from the Mixed Media set designed by Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous was added over the sky using Rosy Cheeks artistry ink.

Next, the larger of the Ledger Script stamps (also Tim Holtz) was used to add further texture in the same ink.

The top of the mushroom was painted in a combination of Vintage Photo and Spun Sugar distress paint together with a little more of the Melted Chocolate.  Once dry, more Spun Sugar paint was pounced on using a natural sponge.  Once completely dry the whole page was carefully sealed using a dry brush and Distress Collage Medium to prevent the inks running.  Faber-Castell Big Brush Markers were added and blended to provide depth of colour, shadows and shading.

Three of the four bunnies from the stamp set by Claritystamp were stamped onto mixed media card using Coffee Archival ink, coloured using the Sepia Ecoline pen and fussy cut.  They were glued to the page, sealed, dried and further shadows/shading was added using the Big Brush Markers. I placed one of the bunnies over an area of the hills where I wasn't happy with my blending!

I decided to add the captions in speech bubbles, die cut from kraft card using Spellbinders dies in two sizes.  The captions were hand written in a brown micron pen, faux stitching added all round and glued then sealed into place.  The change of colouring, the alternative ways of adding text and swapping fairies for bunnies make these two pages very different from each other; despite using the same focal image for both.  I also added beads of glossy accents onto the second mushroom to represent rain drops.