Dream of good things, art journal spread

Hi

This is something I made last year but couldn't add it to Instagram because I couldn't successfully show the 'before and after' so I thought I'd add it here.

Below is an art journal spread I completed last year.... I think for the product release....  but there's something about it that I just don't like.

I'd flip past it (quickly), or clip it shut and was seriously considering sticking the pages together so I didn't have to look at it (I've done that before on pages!)... 

So, I decided to take drastic action - I painted the whole art journal spread black.  Oh it felt good to do that!!!  There's something about a page covered in black gesso! It looks so lush!

I remembered I had some sample flowers left over after teaching my 'Bloom' online workshop (sample below) - the flowers would look stunning on a black background!!   It would be really interesting to have two versions of the same project in dramatically different colour schemes.....

So that's what I did! I used most of the same flowers and foliage die cuts, & used the same stencil to add background detail using Arteza' Pearl Space Gray' metallic acrylic paint (it gives a really lovely shimmery grey/almost black finish).

LOVE LOVE LOVE this journal spread now!  lol

I really like that the 'history' of the page can be seen - the black paint didn't completely cover the embossed white flowers of the original spread, and I don't mind that at all - it gives interesting texture to the back ground.

I think its a gorgeous transformation... (I've already painted several other journal spreads that I didn't like.... NB I always take a photograph of the original pages because I think there is always something to learn from things that go wrong, or that are disliked)

I'd recommend covering up pages/spreads you're not happy with - cover them with paint or papers - alter them in some way.. part of the fun of art journaling and you'll learn something along the way... I know I did.

Thanks for stopping by

PS: The 'Bloom' workshop is still available as a Facebook Live class, please contact me on FB if you'd like to join.