Hi everyone. It’s Bonnie here today with the prompt for Week 28 of the 2017 Art Journal Adventure. The theme that I have chosen for this week is Wonder. You might think that I chose that word because of the feature image and word which I included on my page. Actually, it was the other way around…I chose the image and word based on the way I did the background. See I was wondering what would happen if I loaded string up with ink and then draped it over the page…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I began by smushing three colours of Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Inks (Broken China, Cracked Pistachio, and Wilted Violet) onto my nonstick craft sheet, spritzing with water and dipping my 6 x 8 inch mixed media page into the puddles. I dried between repetitions until I was satisfied with the coverage.

Next I cut three lengths of household string. Each of three colours of Lindy’s Stamp Gang Starburst Sprays (Sassy Sapphire, Witch’s Potion Purple, and Jack in the Pulpit Teal) were sprayed separately into plastic lids. Water was spritzed onto each colour and a length of string was dragged through the ink. I used my fingers to make sure that most of the string was covered and I still have the lovely nails to show for it 🙂 Then I laid the string onto the background, not being at all careful about placement or shape. A piece of white cardstock was placed over the string on the background each time and I used my fingers to press over the cardstock and string, transferring colour. I repeated with each colour, adding more spray or water as needed until I was satisfied. The results were subtle because of the Oxide Inks and the amount of water I used but was still very cool. I would do this again.

Since I started this page by wondering what if…I looked for an image where the person seemed to me to have an expression of wonder on her face and came up with this beautiful stamp by Carabelle Studio Art Stamps called La Femme Aux Ouiseaux. I wanted her face to be stamped on white cardstock so I could colour her with pencils but I wanted the fine lines of her hair, the birds, and the text to allow the background to show through. I stamped the image twice with Jet Black Archival Ink, once directly on the background and a second time on the white cardstock so I could layer it over top. To colour the wee birds, I used Zig Clean Color Brush Markers, blending with a waterbrush.

This is what she looks like coloured with a mix of coloured pencils, fussy cut around the solid lines of her hair, and adhered onto the background. Before she was adhered, I used a black Big Brush Pen to edge the outside edges so no white would show and spoil the illusion.

A few bits and pieces were collected to create a delicate collage to the right of her lovely face. A small doily was cut in half and inked with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Layered over that was a torn piece of vintage music paper and a small tag, both inked with Vintage Photo, and stitched onto the doily with my sewing machine. A scrap of lace was tucked between the tag and music paper, and a butterfly was punched from a mop up scrap. It was inked with Vintage Photo and given a silver brad body. Skinny washi tape was also included in the cluster.

To balance out the design and create flow through repetition, a smaller collage with similar elements was added to the lower left side of the image. Tiny black rhinestones were also added to the burst of lines to the left of her hair.

I still had that awesome string which was loaded with colour and now dry. A length of the Witch’s Potion Purple and another of the Sassy Sapphire were adhered across the top edge. Another purple length was added to the bottom of the page to tie top and bottom together. Three vintage buttons were placed between the top two strings on the left side of the page.

I like to have a word (or saying) on each of my pages so I added the word Wonder using letter beads.

And here is the page finished and mounted on the black cardstock which forms the base for all my pages. I’m happy with the outcome: I had my curiosity satisfied, learned a new technique to add texture/pattern which I would repeat, and was able to colour an image which I was itching to use. I will be very interested to see where this Wonder prompt takes all of you…whether you feature something that shows wonder like nature, an image where the person has a look of wonder (kids are great for that) or whether you experiment with a product or technique because you wonder what would happen if…

Have fun!