Hi everyone. It’s Bonnie here this week with Week 38’s prompt for the 2017 Art Journal Adventure. The prompt which I have chosen this week is Abundance so I’m hoping you will focus on the little things in life which bring you joy. It’s important in our busy lives to take time to appreciate those small  moments which bring a smile or a sense of peace to our lives. I find that I often appreciate the big things like family, good health, and comfort but I need a reminder every once in a while to notice, appreciate, and not take for granted the many small pleasures each day holds. This week I wanted to make a start in documenting these things for the next time I need a reminder. The spin-off from this exercise was that once I started noticing things that made me happy, I started seeing more things everywhere. Bonus!

I started out with a 9 x 7 inch rectangle of watercolour paper. I knew that I wanted to place a heart in the center and had a corrugated coffee sleeve one already die cut so I traced around it with pencil and then started adding a wonky spiral heart shape until the page was full. I traced over the lines (more or less) with a medium black Pitt Pen. The bumpy paper made the lines uneven but I knew that I would be thickening them in places so I wasn’t worried. Besides, perfection didn’t make the list 🙂

I used the shapes of the spaces between the wonky lines to guide the shapes of the letters for the words. Each idea was separated from the next by a star (because stars make me happy) and I just kept filling in as I thought of things. I purposely left space empty toward the outside because I wanted to make this a work in progress so I could add to it. I might just have to start a second one soon 🙂

Using both fine and medium black Pitt Pens (permanent), all of the wording was inked over, fattening up the letters and adding serifs to make them a little more stylized. This took a little while and I had to give my hand a rest several times but I enjoyed the process and, again, wasn’t aiming for perfection. I took a heat tool to the ink once finished to make sure it was dry before I erased the pencil and went on to the next step.

One of the items I listed on the page was bright colours so that’s where I went next. Using a water brush to lay down water first and also to help spread and even out colour, I started with yellow Zig Clean Color and continued around the loops, adding new colours and blending where the colours joined. The order of the colours was based on what colours would be meeting each other, either between loops or within the same loop. My goal was to not make mud or yukky colours so I kept complementary colours from touching.

Once everything was dry (again), I thickened the black loop lines in places as well as any letters that needed a boost. White paint dots were added below each star to help them pop a little more. The corrugated heart was inked around the edges with Coffee Archival and white gesso was brushed on with a finger to emphasize the texture. The Idea-ology Big Chat sticker, appreciate, was added to the center of the heart before I adhered it.

Once the watercolor sheet was adhered to the black matting which backs each of my AJA pages, I added the second part of my sentiment which is the word abundance. Letter stickers were used to create this.

And here is the finished page with room to grow 🙂

Thanks for stopping by today. I am excited to see what you do in response to the prompt of Abundance. Please don’t feel restricted to following my example which is very text based. You might choose to focus on only one thing that brings you a simple pleasure, might use a photo, include no text at all, or might go in a totally different direction. If it makes you happy, makes you smile, and feel inspired…go with it!