Gentle Journey Journalling Again

Hello all.  I've another little catch up post today, sharing a project which originally appeared over at The Artistic Stamper when I was on the DT there.  Continuing from Reliving the Journey, it's another journalling page spread on the theme of journeying.  This one was created in the midst of a very stressful August in 2014, when I was trying to get visas in place in time for my working trip to New York - and I needed a break.  Hmm... given what summer 2015 has been like, I evidently work most when everyone else is thinking about holidays!  Here's what I wrote pretty much this time last year...

I needed to be gentle with myself, and make the most of the little play time I've had lately by creating some soft and simple journalling in the pages of a book.  So here's my offering for you...

All being well, I should be en route to the States later today, and these pages provided a little respite in a crazy August of work and admin and preparation and packing.






I started from the idea of wanting to "preserve" some of the original book text, and I used Katy Leitch's butterfly silhouettes to do it.  They're stamped in Versamark and then clear-embossed.













Next came a wash of Chalk Fresco paint, and while that was still wet, I swept some Turquoise on too.  (Both colours are from the new Limited Edition JOFY set.)













Through all the later stages I did my best to keep them clean and clear so that the text would stay fully present.  I do like how they'll still catch the light and gleam at certain angles.









I used one of the Artistic Stamper masks to create my largest bubbles of positivity sweeping across and up the page spread.  (That seems to be the direction my art journal pages move in - look!)

I sponged through the mask with the Turquoise Fresco and then did some shading and highlighting with pastel pencils.











Over that I stamped the Artistic Stamper Large Random Dots in both the Chalk and the Turquoise.  And finally I did some spattering with the inner stick of the Dylusions White Linen spray.












I seem to be a little bit obsessed with the meadow grasses from Tim's Spring Sprung stamp set at the moment, so they put in an appearance along the foot of the page.  And I used the Mini Polka Dot Background to add extra texture around the sky.

The tags had been soaked in tea and coffee, and then I stamped the beautiful Calligraphy Mat 4 in Sepia Archival Ink.













The large words from Journalling Words 2 are stamped in Sepia, as are the blots and splotches from the Katy Leitch Messy Art plate.  The big words got a bit of clear embossing for that magical extra shimmer. 











Once they were glued down, I used a couple of Inktense pencils to shade and outline them.  I really love how that makes them pop against the turquoise sky behind. And I tied some rustic twine through the tops of course.









There's a little bit of Vintage Photo and Gathered Twigs inking all the way around the edge, but that's about it.  This was just a little oasis of calm in my crazy August, and I had a lovely gentle time playing with it!

Back to the present, and thank you so much for stopping by.  I'll be back on Monday with a brand new creation to share, and I'm hoping I might even get some visiting in over the next few days.  Either way, I hope you have a wonderful weekend and I'll see you soon.

Be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. In the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.
From Desiderata by Max Ehrmann