Rejoice! Happy New 2020 – Mixed Media Art Journal Page

Hi Crafty Friends!

Today I have another art journal page that I finally finished last night!  This page is for the More Than Words main challenge which is based on a word inspiration and a creative challenge and for this month it is:

So I was glad to see it was AG because December is so busy and my brain is fried.  I am still struggling with my back and the cold!!!  OMG the cold!!!  Oh yes, and the lack of daylight.  Getting dark around 3-4pm is miserable, I am so glad I don’t live in Scandinavia or further north as I don’t think I could cope with the winters (although midnight sun in the summer would be awesome!)  .

Anyway, enough about winter woes, and back to this challenge.  I was determined I was going to make something but what?  The word Rejoice makes me think of Christmas cards and Christmas carols and i didn’t want to go in that direction, so then I remembered I had this guy leftover from cardmaking.

I wanted to use him so how to fit him in with the theme? Rejoice – Santa is coming?  Rejoice – Santa is REAL!  Rejoice – this guy is bringing all the presents!  I don’t know.  I had to leave it and walk away, and then it was Christmas, and nothing happened till last night.

I started looking at all the leftover bits and pieces I had lying around in the craft room, including these negatives from the You are Great card.  So then I decided to attempt to make my page from leftovers and scraps!  Brilliant!  LOL It seems like a great idea in principle but in practice it was more difficult and a little frustrating!

i started by painting this watercolour paper using some Paper Artsy Infusions, the colour went funny so I had to redo it :/

I found all these other spare parts and started to wonder if I could make a New Year page instead of a Christmas page.  I also found these purple and gold wrappers that I have been saving up to see if I could use them for something, anything.  They are from Cadbury’s Chocolate Eclairs and my mother eats them like vitamins lol.  I love that Cadbury purple so I decided to save some of the wrappers from last time I visited (yes I did take them out of the bin!)  The masks were intended to be used on a forthcoming project that I haven’t shared yet but in the end I took them off, but I loved the colours and wanted to use them here.  Leftover silver holly, white frame, and more negative diecut letters and something was starting to form in my head – Santa left the building!

I made the background a bit more interesting using a Stamperia stencil and some paint splatters in gold and black.

I painted the frame and the other diecuts with gold paint, and cut out some 2020 numbers and painted them too and I made a wire HAPPY from some 1mm gold wire. Now what I did not realise was that glue does not stick to these chocolate wrappers!  So after several failed attempts I had to resort to double sided tape, which worked well but was a little fiddly.  I stuck the wrappers behind the GREAT diecut, and the gold frame, and the eyes in the masks.

I die cut the letters for REJOICE from one of my favourite alphabet dies that always makes me think of Harry Potter somehow, and painted that gold as well.  I also painted all the silver leaves and holly in the same gold.

And we were done!  I had to wait till this morning to take any photos as it was just too dark last night.  I kinda like it, I really like that I used all the leftovers bits and chocolate wrappers and I like how bright and colourful it is.  This is a page from my Dylusions 8 inch square journal, so I will paste that back in later.  I am planning to use this one for 2020 so having this Happy New 2020 page at the front is a perfect way to start it off.

Entered in the More Than Words December Main Challenge which this month is REJOICE.

PROJECT RECIPE:
Dylusions 8 inch journal
Watercolour paper
Finnabair – liquid acrylics black
DecoArt – Gold Metallic
Stamperia – stencil
Tim Holtz Sizziz – Handmade Bigz alphabet die, Distress Ink – Peacock Feathers
From stash: leftover diecuts and negative diecuts, gold wire, pliers, chocolate wrappers,