Birthdays Are Like Butterflies – AJ Page

TGI Friday!  I’m so relieved that it is finally Friday, it’s been a long, hard, cold week made worse by the fact that the heating isn’t working again/still, and apart from anything else, it does make it hard to make anything when your fingers aren’t functioning due to being frozen lol.  But anyway, now it is working again and I can type (another thing that is difficult with frozen fingers!)  This time I have another art journal page to share.  I started it last week and then left it alone for a week because I didn’t know what to do with it after I did the first stage. I get a little anxious when that happens but I find that leaving it alone and working on something else usually does the trick!

This page is inspired by a couple of different challenges that I decided to combine into one challenge for me, just to make it extra difficult lol.  This is not always a good idea and for a while there I was regretting my decision as I got a bit stuck, but then yesterday I had a breakthrough and was able to continue, and then finish it off today.

So the first challenge I wanted to enter was the Kraft+ challenge which for November was A Bug’s Life.  BTW as I mention these challenges they are in no particular order except for when it was necessary as part of the project, and it was necessary to tackle this kraft step first.  Here is my large Dylusions journal with manilla pages, but IMO not really krafty enough, manilla is not kraft, right.

So I painted the pages with kraft coloured paint to make it more krafty!  Not the first time I have done this BTW lol.

The next challenge on my list was the WOW challenge which was birthday themed.  So taking the Kraft+ “bug” theme I decided to add butterflies to my page and I was pretty sure there must be a quote about butterflies and birthdays (FYI there’s isn’t!)  I used the new Tim Holtz giant butterfly stamp on my pages and heat embossed them!  Sadly I didn’t take any photos of this step as it was already really dark and so the light quality was very poor.  I stamped three big butterflies across the spread and then used different WOW embossing powders on each one. The top left butterfly – Primary Ebony, Metalline Violet, Sweet Cheeks, Primary Luscious Lime.  The bottom left butterfly – Primary Ebony, Sparkling Snow, Sparkling Sand.  The butterfly on the right – Primary Ebony, Tanzenite, Peridot, Aquamarine (these three are all glitter powders!)  At this stage it was only the three heat embossed butterflies on the kraft background and that was where it stayed until yesterday as I couldn’t think where to go with it.  I also couldn’t find a quote about butterflies and birthdays!!!

Then yesterday I thought I would do some stencilling and would keep it all white so it would stand out nice and bright against the kraft which was looking a bit dark.  I used two stencils which I think are both from TCW and they worked really well to give me what I wanted.  I used texture paste with both stencils and then added some paint splatters to the background and left it to dry overnight.  So I was fulfilling the Kraft+ challenge criteria at this stage but nothing else!  I also liked the Art Journal Journey November theme of “Birds” and really wanted to join in, but all I had was butterflies!

So today, I decided to add some more stamping in the form of birds! and little beetles.  I really miss having process photos, but here are some of the birds and some of the beetles and another little birdie.  I stamped all in black archival.

Here’s what happens when you stamp in your art journal without making sure that it’s on a flat surface…  oops!

There you go – a masterpiece!  LOL

Here’s a closer look at some of the heat embossed butterflies…

The light is playing havoc with the background colour, sorry about that, but this glittery embossed butterfly looked really pretty in the light.

I added some gold to my little birds and beetles.

And a closer look at my wonderful quote 😛

And finally the finished page!

Just for fun, I thought I would show you my little buddy I rescued.  I know he’s not a bug technically, he’s a mollusk but still a little critter.  I found him on the kitchen floor about to be squished so I saved him and put him somewhere safe.  How strange it is that I find this little guy cute but his larger relatives a lot less cute lol.

Thanks for reading all the way to the end, hope you liked the page.  Let me know what you think of my page in the comments below.

Challenges entered . . .

I’m entering my AJ page in the following challenges
Art Journal Journey – Put a Bird on it Challenge – I managed to fit three little birdies in along with the other beasties
Countryview Challenges – Anything But a Card – November challenge:  I made an art journal page!
Creative Artiste Mixed Media Challenge – #66 – November challenge: embossing powder, texture paste, acrylic ink, stamping
Mix It Up Challenge – #43 AG with option to make your own background – November challenge: I made my own kraft background
More Mixed Media Challenge – AG with optional black – November challenge: my optional black is the handwritten quote in black ink and the black stamping and heat embossing
The Artistic Stamper – Time – November Challenge: time is represented in my quote about birthdays and butterflies fly by so fast
Wow EP Fans (FB group) November Challenge – Birthdays:  birthday quote and heat embossed butterflies
Kraft+ November Challenge – A Bug’s Life:  butterflies and beetles

Late to the party, but I am also joining in Art Every Day Month (late) which I found via AJJ – Day 20

Ingredients:

Dylusions journal, kraft coloured acrylic, Tim Holtz giant butterfly stamp, TWC stencils, texture paste, white and gold acrylic inks, Prima bird, insect and text stamps, black pen, handwritten quote in black ink on watercolour paper, WOW embossing ink and EP (Primary Ebony, Metalline Violet, Sweet Cheeks, Primary Luscious Lime, Sparkling Snow, Sparkling Sand, Tanzenite, Peridot, Aquamarine)

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