Reliving the journey

Hello all, and a very warm welcome to you.

I'm still caught up in real-life work - hence my long absence around Craftyblogland - so I'm filling in here with a project which was originally shared over at The Artistic Stamper as part of my DT duties there.

Regulars will know I like to gather all my projects here at Words and Pictures, my virtual scrapbook, so if you commented the last time around, please don't feel you have to do so again.

Here's what I wrote about this journalling page at the time.

This page centres around a vintage photo and one of my favourite Katy Leitch flower stamps.  Cups of coffee at the ready?  Let's dive in...











I started by layering torn book pages and heavy gesso into a kraft-paper journal (still working through the pages carved out of my candle niche!).















The next step was some stamping... the Encyclopedia Botanica flower and one of my favourite Calligraphy Mats, number #4, stamped in Sepia, and with clear-embossing for the flower to give extra definition.











I then started playing around with ephemera and embellishments and it all came together without me really thinking very hard.

This wonderful young woman from the Darkroom Door Photobooth sheets was really the catalyst.











The determined set of her mouth and the humorous gleam in her eyes drew me to her at once.  Here's someone setting out into the world with her head screwed on straight and ready to pursue her desires.










She's layered up over some Tim Holtz ephemera, some shabby lace and some stained calico from when I did my last rusting session (a long time ago... there needs to be another one very soon).

The journey she takes will undoubtedly be full of twists and turns, but you can bet your bottom dollar she'll grit her teeth and come out smiling in the end.










This word from Journalling Words #2 seemed the right one for her.  The layers here include some more of the rusty calico as well as some tea and coffee-stained tissue paper.

You'll recognise the book page Frameworks Trellis pieces (they put in an appearance on my New Leaf tag as well as my Russian Love Is In The Air hanging)...













Here they've had lots of shading (with Inktense pencils and a water brush) to embed them in the page.













I found when I was looking at some of the photos that I couldn't make my eyes see them properly - they kept either sinking in to the page or sticking out - a sign that the shading for dimension is doing its job, I suppose.












It was while I was creating the shadows around the Frameworks and the other ephemera - with various blue and grey Inktense pencils - that I decided the flowers might look good with some "sky" around them.














I'm really pleased with how it makes the image pop.












The other elements which made an early appearance in the plans were the wooden butterflies.














I already like them in "naked" wood, but for this page I decided they should be crackled.














I used the Croco Crackling in White again (as on my last journalling page here).














And then added splodges of Black Soot, Gathered Twigs and Vintage Photo Distress Inks, wiping back and adding more until I was happy with the grungy look.













The little wooden buttons I did leave naked - though they did get caught in the splatter crossfire!













You'll have spotted the metal accents - some Idea-ology pieces that worked with my young woman... business like cogs and the Muse Token which is definitely hers by rights.  I sanded it back to give it an extra burnished glow.













So that's today's bit of fun.  The journalling does seem to have taken hold, and I'm enjoying the freedom it's giving me to play.  I'm hoping you're still enjoying the results!







Back to the present, and thank you so much for stopping by today.  There is honestly light at the end of the tunnel work-wise, so I hope to restore something approaching normal service here towards the end of the month.  For now, I'd just like to say thank you for all your lovely comments and feedback.  It's a joy to be on the journey with you all.

I soon realised that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.
Lilian Smith