SIMON SAYS CREATE A HANDMADE BACKGROUND

It's another Monday and Simon Says "Show Us A Handmade Background".  Once again, I am way out of my comfort zone...COLOR and (for the first time) attempting pages for an ART JOURNAL.  I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing on this but I'm having fun doing it! (smile) 

 

I am still waiting on my new Color Sprays by the lovely and multi talented Dyan Reaveley.  Those little suckers must really be popular! (smile).  I LOVE Dyan Reaveley's techniques and her products!  I wanted to try them for this background challenge, so I improvised on the color sprays with my own concoctions using Distress Reinkers and water in a Mini Mister.  I used Canson's 9x12 Mixed Media paper and folded it in half; creating two pages, 9x6 each.   After I have made several of these, I will create my own Art Journal by binding them together.

Here are my first ever Art Journal Pages ~ Three Finished and one that isn't so you can see the transformation Dyan's stamps add!

 

This is my first attempt at creating Art Journal Pages.  These are the pages "BEFORE" I added any of Dyan's cute little critters or ladies to them

This is the "AFTER".

As I said, I used a variety of my own concocted color sprays to create the background.  Those colors included:  Spiced Marmalade, Broken China, Worn Lipstick and Mustard Seed Reinkers.  I also used some various stencils I had (because I am waiting on Dyan's stencils) to provide some subtle patterns with the sprays.  I used Sunflower Sparkle Perfect Pearls Mist with stencils to achieve a ghost effect with that subtle iridescence. Then I added different texture with Blank Canvas and Classic Teal Studio Paints. I painted Blank Canvas right onto the harlequin stamp from Dyan's Basic Backgrounds stamp set and randomly stamped it onto the background.  I did the same thing using the polka dot stamp and Classic Teal. 

You can see the random stencil patterns achieved from using the sprays and 

paint stamped patterns more closely in this picture.

I next used the letters from Dyan's Basic Backgrounds and randomly stamped them onto the background using Jet Black Archival Ink.  Next I added more random stamps from Dyan's Around The Edge and Inbetweenies stamp sets.  The doodling was done with a Sakura Souffle White Pen.  I really like the pen but I wish the tip was finer.

Here are more of the random images I used from Dyan's wonderful Word Love, Bordering On The Edge and Bits and Bats stamp sets.

Then I finished these two pages by adding some really cool houses from Right Up Your Street stamp set and...

colorful toad stools from Doolally Dorris.  All images were stamped using Jet Black Archival Ink onto Ranger's FABULOUS NEW STAMPING PAPER.  They were colored with Tim Holtz' New Distress Marker colors:  Mustard Seed, Barn Door, Tumbled Glass, Peeled Paint and Shabby Shutters and Wild Honey.

The sentiments were also stamped on the Specialty Stamping Paper, cut out and then matted on black cardstock.  They are from Quintessential Quotes.  I then used a Posca White Opaque Pen that was give to me, to doodle around the edges.  LOVE this pen!  It has a nice, fine tip and works beautifully!

Here is my next attempt at Art Journal pages:

I used the same basic colors on the background and the images.  These pages are in various stages of completion.

The left side is complete.  Dependable Dotty is the character.  However, because Dyan's stamps are so interchangeable, I had fun creating a whole new character!  I completely changed Dotty's look by replacing the abstract "Always" bird on her head with strands of hair created from a border trim stamp from the Inbetweenies stamp set.  I gave her a different set of legs from the Pondering Petunia stamp set.  I also gave her wings courtesy of the Doolally Dorris stamp set. 

The pendants are from Dyan's Bags of Bunting stamp set and I popped them using Pop Dots.  Instead of using Dyan's sentiments on this page, I journaled my own thoughts in a couple of spots.

From the time I created the first background to creating the second background, I received a partial order of Dyan's stencils.  I used the 9x12 sized Dotted Flower and Letter Jumble stencils in this background.  I added some more Blank Canvas harlequin stamping and some Modern Red Studio Paint polka dots.  This page is still a work in progress...but I think this Art Journaling is going to prove to be very addicting!

So...those are my handmade backgrounds.  Pull out your paints, your sprays, your inks...whatever you feel like using and create a background for a tag, a journal page, a canvas...whatever your heart desires.  Then post it to our challenge at SIMON SAYS STAMP AND SHOW!  You could be our lucky random winner and win a ... 

If you are chosen as one of the TOP THREE creations, you will be recognized for your prestigious achievement!  Please take a minute to stop by the challenge at SIMON SAYS STAMP AND SHOW.  The Design Team has really worked hard to create some unique and inspiring backgrounds for you.  Really beautiful stuff!!!

Good luck and HAVE FUN with this challenge!!