Friday, 6 October 2017

Beautiful Garden: Media Journal layout


This layout called "Beautiful Garden" was a pretty quick one that I could have done in 20 minutes but I had a 24h gap waiting for the stamp set (below) Scribbly Insects by Dina Wakley to arrive, so that I could finish it off. I may extend the garden onto the opposite page or do some more pages in similar styles. 

It's worth my quickly saying - this project uses both the Media Journal and Scribble Sticks by Dina and you can buy them both together as a set and make savings if you don't have either of them already - follow this link for USA customers - and this link for UK customers.


WHAT I USED:
Ranger Dina Wakley Media Journal [BUY NOW: USA, UK]
(I used one of the "watercolour" pages, without any gesso etc)

Ranger Wendy Vecchi Archival Inks in:
   Leaf Green [BUY NOW: USA, UK]
   Forget-Me-Not [BUY NOW: USA, UK]
   Tea Rose [BUY NOW: USA, UK]
[you can get the Forget-Me-Not very economically as part of the Wendy Vecchi Media Palette which is 4 full-size Archival Ink pads in one container - it also contains Orange Blossom and Fern Green, which you could use instead of Tea Rose and Lead Green in this project, plus Buttercup, which is just glorious. These palettes save you both space and money - BUY NOW: USA, UK]

Ranger Dina Wakley Media stamp sets
   Circle Patterns [BUY NOW: USA, UK]
   Scribbley Insects [BUY NOW: USA, UK]

Ranger Dina Wakley Media Scribble Sticks [BUY NOW: USAUK]

Derwent Spritzer [BUY NOW: USA, UK]
(or any other mister)

Ranger Mini Ink Blending Tool and Foam Pads [BUY NOW: USA, UK]
(3 pads are needed for this project)

Tim Holtz Idea-ology Clippings Stickers [BUY NOW: USA, UK]

WHAT I DID:
STEP 1: I used Leaf Green Archival Ink on my blending tool to pounce a series of circles and blend them together lightly to make a grass-y background at the bottom of the page. Leaf Green is quite pale so you need so use quite a lot but I wanted some circles visible from the blending tool so there was continuity between the background and foreground.

STEP 2: I did the same using Forget-Me-Not Archival Ink to make the sky, which I did as a series of patches, like there was cloud present. I then used Tea Rose Archival Ink all around the edges of the page and in patches on the sky and grass - it adds a kind of muddiness to the green and blue and sort of brings the page together - I did not use very much, it's best left subtle.

STEP 3: I misted the scribbled circle stamp from the Circle Patterns set with water and then added scribble sticks directly to it, allowing some colour to spill into the central "well" that isn't meant to touch the paper. The different combinations I did were Magenta + Blackberry; Tangerine + Lemon; Sky + Night and Night + Umber. I stamped them over the sky and top of the grass, quite randomly, and to some of them, I added a little bit of White or Black in a small patch just to add variety. I let the middle of the stamp hit the page in places, so some of the flowers had a partial centre. I let some flowers overlap.



STEP 4: Using my point-to-point technique, I drew in the stems. This is really easy but you need to dry your Scribble Sticks first! You just put two sticks with their tips touching, both about 80 degrees to the paper and draw with them both as though they're one - this creates wiggley stems in two tones. I used Lime and Night for this.



STEP 5: I sprayed the bee stamp from Scribbley Insects and coloured all of the bee with the Black Scribble Stick and then used Night on the wings and stamped it in the sky, flying away.

STEP 6: Once the bee was dry, I coloured her with dry Scribble Sticks, with some stripes Black and some Lemon with Tangerine along one edge. I went over the wings with Sky very lightly. I did later go back with a damp brush and merge the Lemon and Tangerine slightly but it doesn't really matter too much - I did the same on some of the flower stems actually. With a dry Night Scribble Stick, I added some dashes like they used to in childrens' books to indicate flight.



STEP 7: I chose some phrases from the Clipping Stickers set that felt right: "a wonderful creature" "a very wonderful place" "in the garden" "there is nothing simpler" "be thankful". I added those top right, outlined them with the Umber Scribble Stick and then blurred it a little with a damp brush. Done!




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