Hi everyone. It’s Bonnie here today with the Art Journal Adventure prompt for Week 22. The theme that I chose for this week was Lift. There are many ways to interpret the word lift and even more ways to respond to it. It might be something that gifts your spirit a lift or ways that you like to give others a lift. It might be things that lift up like balloons, butterflies, and fairies. It might be that you choose to lift something off of your art journal page to add dimension and shadow. Or maybe it’s something completely different or a combination of all of these things. It doesn’t matter how you choose to respond…it’s only important that you make time to play and enjoy the process 🙂

I started with a 7 x 10 inch rectangle of mixed media paper over which I placed Joggles Twaddle Stencil. I spritzed Lindy’s Stamp Gang Sweet Violet Purple Teal and Delphinium Turquoise Starburst Sprays through the stencil, although the Turquoise let me know fairly quickly that I need to clean out the spritzer pump…LOL. Splat! I lifted the inky stencil off the background and immediately flipped it onto another paper for use some other time.

I knew that I wanted to feature a female image holding a huge cluster of balloons so I dug out a bunch of my mop-up ATC backgrounds, cut a balloon shape out of card stock, and used it to cut balloons from my sprayed and painty scraps. Each one was shaded on the left side with a Faber Castell Gelato in a colour slightly darker than the main shade of each balloon. Black Big Brush Pen was used to outline each balloon. The  balloons were then stacked in a cluster and tacked with glue where they overlapped. The entire group of balloons were then adhered to black card stock and fussy cut around the cluster.

I had an idea for the saying in mind but tweaked it to suit what I had in mind. That meant that I wanted a fussy cut image as well as an image of the world for her standing platform. The girl’s feet were adhered to the world and then the whole thing was matted with black to give it visual weight. Foam tape was added to the back of the image as well as the balloon cluster to pop them up.

Before adhering both to the background, I added Carabelle Studio Quadrillages Art Texture Plate using Forget-Me-Not Archival Ink. Jet Black Archival Ink was used to stamp Joggles Nonsense Latin Cling Rubber Stamp as well as Stampotique Originals Hooks and Eyes border. The bottom of the earth was cut even with the bottom of the background but the balloons were allowed to hang over the edges. Purple twine was used to make the balloon strings.

At this point, I wasn’t thrilled with this page. It was OK but wasn’t quite doing it for me. Usually when that is the case, I know that I need to play a little more and add more little details because those are the ones that make me smile. I added the wording which had been printed on white card stock, cut into individual words matted with black. A double line border was doodled with black pen and then a pattern was doodled between the lines. Liking it more…

I added some punched black butterflies (love my pops of black), gluing only the bodies so I could “lift” the wings up. Then I decided I wanted to add some Idea-ology ChitChat Stickers with words that reminded me of some of the things which lift my spirit. These were edged with black and then outlined once adhered. I also added little white comma highlights on each balloon and outlined each with black to add to the cute factor. Definitely liking the whimsy and playfulness. The inside balloons were also outlined next to them to make them stand out. Contrast…love it!

The final touches were to edge the background with black Big Brush Pen before adhering the page to the black background which frames it. And I must say, I really like it now. Phew! The longer I art journal and play with mixed media, the more I learn about what I need to do to take a page from just OK to something I am satisfied with. It’s different for everyone but it’s a great idea to file those rescue tips away. If you’re like me, you need them often 🙂

Now it’s your turn to play with the Lift prompt. I’m excited to see where you go with it and look forward to seeing your pages posted in the Joggles Art Journal Adventure Facebook group. I just know you will surprise and delight me…you always do!