I love Butterflies...

I wanted to show you parts of some pages that I did for a swap that I have signed up for. Soon I will show the whole pages but here they are for now.

Each of the participants has set a theme for their pages and then we do a round robin so that we do a page for each participant in their chosen theme. I really liked the way that we are doing this one as we are not posting the whole journal all around the world (which can be very cost prohibitive) but we have taken our journals apart and are just sending a page at a time. Over the year each recipient will receive 16 journal pages which we will then re-bind (that is the beauty of spiral bound journals) and have a finished journal. We are using a Strathmore visual art journal 300gsm.

I then found a post about a page that I did late last year that I thought I had posted but was sitting there as a draft. So here it is..

I was inspired by Paula over at Journal Artista when she showed a ghosting technique on her you tube channel. Paula used Alcohol inks under the white but since I didn't have any I tried with ordinary paints mixed with Atelier Liquifying Medium so the paint would thin in consistency but not in strength of colour.

I started with Jo Sonja Carbon Black

 .. then used a butterfly and flower stencil with Jo Sonja Napthol Crimson and Pthalo Green to pattern the background. I had quite a bit of water in the sponge so there would be the bubbled pattern as below.

 ... here it is dry

 .. with a stencil I sponged on shapes with Titanium White

 ... then misted with water

 ... and wiped away excess with a baby wipe. I like the ghostly moon-like appearance I ended up with. Until this stage I didn't know where the page was headed but the moon gave me some direction

 I found some ribbon and butterflies I had die cut out of red cardstock

 ... stuck them down with Mod Podge

 ... and floated Napthol Crimson around the outside edges of the flower shapes with an angle shader brush

 Next I chose a stamp and the Cloud White Vera Magic stamp pad and stamped over the top of the ribbon and in some other places

... I then found some other butterflies I had die cut and embossed with the Spellbinders range, rubbed black paint over them to distress them, and doodled on them with a silver gel pen. I stuck them down only by the body part so they would be 3D.

I then stamped the word butterfly on the right hand page..

 and journalled around the page about transformation, freedom, change and the colour red. I also rubbed silver paint around the outside edges of the pages to frame them.

A butterfly is the symbol of transformation, change, soul and transition. You can go here to read  a bit more about butterfly symbolism.

My quote today

"Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. 

But if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder"

- Thoreau

Have a lovely day everyone, tomorrow is the Melbourne Cup which means a nice day relaxing at home with friends and family watching the race that stops the nation,  so pretend we are all together and have a glass of bubbly with me.

Namaste

Lee