Having fun flying

Oops... almost didn't make it!  I promised myself I would try to join in at Art Journal Journey at least once a month this year.  One set of journal pages once a month... how hard could that be, right?  Well, I got the pages done a couple of weeks ago, but the blogpost almost didn't get written.  I just remembered in time, so here I am "Having Fun", as commanded by Wendy for this month's theme.

I simply had fun with some of my favourite things... crackle and book pages and leafy stems, some texture, some tissue tape and, of course, some words.

It's another spread in the hardback book I altered as part of a France Papillon workshop.  (You can check out all the spreads so far, as well as the book alteration itself, here.)

I spread some watercolour ground over the pages - gorgeous sandy texture - and then set to with some spritzing and spraying.  Your guess is as good as mine at this distance of exactly which colours are on the page.
















I added the gorgeous new Gothic architecture stamp by Tim in Watering Can Archival, and added some strips of tissue and design tape for the Paper Doll to stand on while she tests her new wings.















She's the Paper Doll who usually holds a furled flag, but I've removed that with a quick snip of the scissors.














The quote is from my recent new EAB11 collection at PaperArtsy, Wings & Flight.  Definitely one for the dreamers.  I do think it would be fun to fly.













And you can see who the dreaming author of those words was, tucked down in the tissue tape strips near the Paper Doll's feet.













The wings themselves (from the new Idea-ology range) weren't showing up too well (they're clear acetate in their natural form), so I gave them a sweep of gesso on the back to make them a little more solid.













But they still have a magical sheen if you get the angle right!

















Tim's star stencil is plastered across the sky, giving her a wonderful place to take flight into.  The crackle paint I used gives an extra touch of texture...














... particularly once I highlighted it with some Pewter Treasure Gold for a delicious gleam.














With the addition of a little metal tag, I was almost ready to stop there...















But coming back the next morning, it didn't seem quite done yet, so I reached for the leafy die-cuts.














I'd also been having some fun experimenting with a couple of the new Oxide sprays, just on a pair of tags.















They were sitting there patiently, so that's what I grabbed to go a-cutting with.















It took me a while to "grow" the stems and branches where I wanted them.














And it took the addition of another piece of Idea-ology metal and some more tape strips before I worked out what was going on on the left-hand page below the quote.














But once it was all tucked in for viewing, I liked the whole look of it much more, so I glued it all down in place.







And that's my fun for the month...  I'm also having fun with real life at the moment, which is how come I'm not much of a presence in Craftyblogland just now.  Normal service should be resumed some day soon... fingers crossed.

For now, I thank you for stopping by today - oh, and thank you so much for your birthday wishes and kind words about my watercolour dabblings too - and I'll hope to see you in May.  Happy crafting, all!

Flying might not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price.
Amelia Earhart

I'd like to share this at Art Journal Journey where, this month, it's been all about Having Fun
At Try It On Tuesday they are looking for Things With Wings - it seems a little unfair to call her a "thing", but there you go!