My Journal page....

She was Grateful....

Hi everyone, it's my turn today to show you the Journal page I made for Roc Nicholas Design Team....

I haven't done a Journal page in a while, so after spending what seemed like ages trying to choose which journal to use, I finally opted for my pocket Moleskin. I enjoy working in smaller Journals, you get totally different results from working on larger projects... They're great fun and can be as detailed as you want them to be (or not)!!

I began by selecting a few co-ordinating colours of Amsterdam acrylic paint, in this case I chose shades of Turquoise, Lime Green, Yellows and a contrasting Pink, which really helps the other colours to 'pop'...

I started the page by layering the colours upon each other, beginning with the lightest colours first. In order to achieve a good blend of the colours, I always apply white paint with 

a dry brush over areas of the colour to soften the edges or joins. You can then reapply more colour to increase the depth or more white to soften the colour depending on the style you're looking for. Although I do have to mention that I always use a dry brush for this technique.

When I was happy with the border, I used white Gesso to block out a rectangular panel in the centre (it needed a couple of coats), this is where I wanted my main images to be...!

I made sure it was completely dry before drawing a border around the central panel with a black fine liner pen.

I chose some of my favourite background stamps and stencils for the next step as I wanted 

to use the same colour paints (or ink pads) to highlight areas of colour around the painted border. 

To make sure that I didn't stamp on to my clean gesso'd panel, I used a piece of paper as a mask, so any over-lapping would end up on the paper and not the Gesso. I was really pleased how the stamping and stencilling turned out!

Whilst everything was drying, I coloured in Roc's images which I'd stamped using Archival ink, as it's permanent...

I coloured the images using my favourite colouring pencils, which are a mix between Fabre Castell Polychromos and Caran d'Ache Pablo pencils. The colour ranges are beautiful and are so lovely to use and blend colours together.

Once I cut out my images, I positioned them on my page where I wanted them, then glued them into place.

All was left to do was some shading with a grey pencil around the base of the letters and under the 'Bird Lady's' shoes. This just gives the image some depth and grounds' it.

I hope you like my journal page? I love using Roc's stamps as they are so versatile and great fun...

Stamps I used were:-

- Bird Lady, Roc Nicholas

- Be Grateful, Roc Nicholas

- XXXX Border, Roc Nicholas

- Hearts Cubed, Jo Capper-Sandon 

I'd love to hear what you think, so please feel free to leave me a message. 

Thanks for looking, Happy Crafting Everyone xoxo