We’re on to week 4 already and it seems as though the last few have slipped by incredibly quickly.  If you’re new to the AJA (Art Journal Adventure), welcome!  If you’ve been working along with me, welcome back!  If you haven’t begun but would like to… just do it!  Start whenever you can and don’t worry about the previous weeks.

This time I decided to get a head start on Valentine’s Day by incorporating hearts into the page spread, using what I thought would be just one of our Watercolor Hearts Collage Sheets.  Eventually I used all three, but I didn’t want to be all Valentine’s Day though so went with cool colors for the background.  Once again I’m working with Dylusions Paint and began this spread by applying a coat of White Linen to the entire background using a baby wipe.

I wanted the colors of the background to be soft and I knew the white would do that to the Cut Grass and Vibrant Turquoise.  The next three photos show the progression as I applied the colors…

A light, scribbly coat of Cut Grass, then…

Vibrant Turquoise on the left side of the spread.  See that tiny little puddle of color in the upper left corner of the photo?  It’s where I softened the Vibrant Turquoise before I even applied it to the spread.  I took some of the white on the baby wipe, then dipped it into a tiny bit of the Vibrant Turquoise and smooshed it around on my Nonstick Craft Sheet to blend the color before I applied it to the spread.

Better… both sides are done, but I felt like there wasn’t enough white space so I added some…

By spreading more of the White Linen on the pages using a Palette Knife to randomly smoosh the color around.

Ah, I like this better.

Time to add some spatters using Waterfall Green Daler-Rowney FW Pearlescent Ink and a Princeton Fan Brush.  Using the eyedropper that comes in the cap of the ink, squirt some of it on your surface (shake it well first to distribute all of the pigment!), then pick up some water in the fan brush and thin the ink a bit.  Load the brush by dipping the bristles in the puddle of color, then tap it against the finger on the hand you’re not holding it with to make spatters.

All splattered and waiting for them to dry, but I think the background needs a bit more movement and color, so…

Out comes our Punchinella Trio I Stencil and I used the hexagon section, applying Vibrant Turquoise Dylusions Paint with a Mini Ink Blending Tool.  See how much darker the color is right out of the jar?  That’s why I decided to soften it with white before applying the color over the background several steps ago.  Having done that gives me the freedom to use the color without altering it at all and the contrast is perfect.  Some black paint on the end of a paint brush makes the black dots and some black and white circles made with varying sizes of prescription bottles finishes things.  On to the hearts.

This one is Watercolor Hearts II Minis and was all I thought I as going to work with.  Eventually I brought in Watercolor Hearts I which features much larger sized hearts and the sheet named Watercolor Printed Hearts which have a different look and feel.  Once I was finished cutting them out and arranging them on the background the spread looked like this…

And it was time to glue the hearts in place.

I like Scotch Quick Dry Adhesive for applications like this since the glue is dry almost as soon as you put the piece in place.  You have maybe 10 seconds to make adjustments, then it’s in place and you can move on.  For a liquid glue of this viscosity, our 18 gauge Fineline Applicator is the best choice.  For this 2 ounce bottle of glue you need a 20/410 style.  If you want one of them to put on your bottle of glue, click here to go to the exact one you need.

The hearts looked like they were floating on the background, so I used a Charcoal Pencil to apply a dark line around each one – see the red/orange printed one in roughly the center, to the right of the charcoal pencil?  Once you draw around them, smudge the dark, black line with your finger to soften it.  The ones to the left have had that done.  See the difference?  That color around each grounds them, settling them on the surface rather than having them look like they’re floating in space.

I wanted the hearts to look like they’re dangling from the top of the page, so painted hangers to each.  I thought they looked too stark and boring, so added white dots with a Sharpie Paint Pen.  You can see just a hint of that on the ones all the way to the left.

Yup, that looks much better.  From there I used a PITT pen to create the border at the top of the page and to write the quote around the other three sides.

Finished!