Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative!

Is what I do when art journaling ....

I thought I'd share with you some pages from my Dylusions journal - I am really enjoying working in this at the moment - its taken a while, I think thats because I had two spreads in it I REALLY DID NOT LIKE... and every time I opened the journal there they were right at the front... horrible (they were just. not. me) and so I didn't work in the book... then I thought enough is enough.
I took photos of both spreads (I wanted a reference of 'what not to do!') and glued the spreads shut... with matte medium - there's no getting those suckers open now!... and I am free to work in my journal without being taunted by the ugly spreads......
(and no I couldn't paint over them- I tried - but the dye from the 'bleeding art tissue' kept seeping through! persistent little product! lol)

accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative!

I'm using the Dylusion square journal and each page measures around 22.5x22.5cm so its a nice big space to work on.
I use the pages quite a lot when I'm gelli printing - to clean my brayer, to make ghost prints and clean up prints.... so here are few of those spreads:

This page was a clean up page, over printed with bubble wrap (love a bit of that!).  I added stenciling with Baltic Blue Fresco paint, and added gold emboss for a bit of contrast against the matte paint.

The page has very rough, distressed look... I like it that way - and its distressed in a different way to the spread below:

Gelli print patchwork created with ghost prints and clean up prints - I really like creating these (see HERE for a project I created using the patchwork to create a masterboard).... and you can't go wrong with a bubble wrap print!

This is 1/2 of a spread that I treated as 2 separate pages (reason for the outline), it was created by simply running the brayer over it to get rid of excess paint - easy and I'm sure we've all done that to use up extra paint - shame to waste it! I then, several weeks/months later, doodled on some flowers..

This spread was made during a Gelli plate demonstration at the PaperArtsy Seth Apter event a few weekends ago - a real lets try it all page - its just a jumble of techniques and its fun - I think it'll be the base for more added layers.

Detail of the spread - 2 types of bubble wrap (why use one when you can have two types!), stamping (additive and subtractive), and drawing a my fingernail....

and next, just in case you think all my spreads in this journal are blue... how this for a pop of colour:

Chartruesse and Neon Pink - do not adjust your sets! it really is quite bright!  Love it!  Its not finished - I feel a bit of black coming on! (unleashing my inner punk?!?)

I'll end this post with something a little calmer... my take on Bokeh style.. a spread I created while prepping for a class..

I painted the entire spread, then gave the right hand page a white wash before stamping one of my girls, while the left page was left without. Interesting to see the difference - also black outlines on left page and 'white fire' on right page... but they still work as a spread - the phrase suits the girly I think.


I hope you've enjoyed this look in side my journal - some of you saw me demo in it at the PA/Seth Apter event - now I've glued the nasty pages together I'm happy to take it out in public!

Thanks for stopping by.

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