Serendipty

It has been 11 months since I have uploaded anything. I have wanted to come back to blogging for a few months now, but hesitated because I was not sure I had the time to devote to it. The last thing I want to do is hit this hard and then tap out. Part of me thinks that blogging is in the past. It is fading out. With Facebook pages and Instagram accounts that are easily updated on one's phone the thought of actually sitting down at a computer to do a blog entry seems like a lot of work -- especially considering you may not feel as though you have anything new to share with the world. Now that I am back home again and not holding down a job I really have missed my hobby. I also have missed completing challenges online as well as being on a design team (although right now I am far to rusty to even try out. However, with practice I hope to be back in the saddle again). It is for those reasons that I come back to this blog. My home in the cyber world.

 

 

One of my goals this year is to complete an art journal! I am using the prompts provided by "Journal 52"( Click here  to check it out) for the year. I decided to use the prompt "Strange Word". Although, I turned into my favorite word: SERENDIPITY which means finding valuable or pleasant things that are not looked for. This word to me is happy, whimsical and fun! I wanted my page to reflect those characteristics. 

 I knew that the colors had to be brings and happy so I went with orange and yellow on my geli plate along with stencils. Once that dried I took another stencil, laid it directly on my geli plate and applied pink paint with a roller. I lifted the stencil and placed my page on the plate. I used bright pink spray for the edges. I used  a pearlized purple ink that looks silver against the background for my ladies that I placed randomly around. I wanted them to be whimsical too :-).  Black ink was then used for my word. I also used glossy accents over my lettering to make them shine. I messed up on the crowns and decided to draw them and fill them in with silver liquid pearls.

 As a side note, I have come to terms with, at least for me, art is about experimenting with different mediums and techniques then fixing them. Nine times out of 10 my finished projects are a result of something going wrong, but it works for me. It is my serendipity!

I liked how the crowns turned out and decided I wanted a little sparkle on the page. To achieve the sparkle I used a yellow glitter glue on the hair.

 One of the things I had not anticipated was how big the stamp for the lady was -- I do not have a block that large, but the lid to my ink storage case was about the right size so I used it. I have learned not to get discouraged when I don't have the correct block size for my cling stamps. Usually, I can find something in my studio that will get the job done and I do not have to go out and buy anything.

 Another trick that I use is I place my stamps directly where I want them to go on my page before I ink them up or put them on my block. This allows for proper spacing and it also is a certain way to make sure I have the letters and numbers going in the right direction. For the word SERENDIPITY I needed two Es and Is. I had two choices I could lay everything out  estimating how much room I would need for those letters or I could use other stamps in the set as the letters. I opted for the second because the set I used is rather whimsical and fun. Therefore, it would add more whimsy and charm to the page. I flipped the "?" upside down and used it as one of my "I"s.

 I used the number "3" backwards for my "E".

 Once I had all of my letter stamps laid out to my liking, I placed my block on them to pick them up and created my word stamp.

 I inked my stamp well and applied it to my page.

 I grabbed a green color pencil and filled in the letters. I then went over them with glossy accents to make them pop and shine.

 I am thrilled with the results. Although it was not exactly how I planned it to turn out (it never is) it matches my vision of what SERENDIPITY looks like.

I just love saying that word over and over and over again. Serendipity, serendipity, serendipity. Try it! It is fun!

Until next time -- happy scrappy!