Let Your Dreams Take fligh

This is another page in my Things That Fly book.  I seem to be on a dream kick.  I realized today that several of my pieces mention dreams.  I think there is something about flying that makes me think of dreaming and being free.  

Someone asked me how I did this page today.  I started out with two pieces of sticky back paper that Joyce & I rescued from a trash bin.  It was a great find until I realized I couldn't get any ink to stick to it.  Even Stazon didn't want to stay on it.  I thought maybe gesso would help so I gessoed several pages and this is one of my test project.  

I have so many kinds of ink on these pages.  I haven't worked a lot with distressed inks in my books because they are not water proof.  Neither are Adirondack inks...  At one point I had words stenciled all over the background of this.  I forgot I used distressed ink and now most of the words are gone.  The color was much darker but when I used gel medium to glue the butterflies the ink all move around again.  Note to self... use paint next time.  I just don't have all the yummy colors in paint that I do in ink.  I know there is something I can to to fix the ink... I'll ask the M3 girls.... they will know what I need to buy.

The Show Off Butterfly and Branches stencil is done with green stazon refill ink that I stippled on with a brush.  The gesso had enough tooth to hold the stazon.  The oranges are Adirondack and Distressed inks.  The yellows are Stampin Up and Distressed inks.  The bird came from Vintage Printable.  The two butterflies are Stampin Up punches and the sticky back paper. 

I started by stenciling the green flower branches.  Then I stippled the oranges and yellows on the pages.  Next I used the Crafter's Workshop Art stencil for the words.  I also used a couple of homemade stencils to add texture to the background.  I lost a lot of that to the moving colors during the gluing process.

When it was all dry, I outlined the butterflies with a brown Stabilo All Pencil and the bird with the black Stabilo All Pencil.  The words are done with a chisel tip Sharpie. The most interesting thing is how the white outline came about.  The gesso is not very thick on the slick paper and all I did was scratch away all the paint colored gesso around the letters with a wooden tool the I assume is for blending.  I've had it forever and never knew what to do with it.  I'm learning to use all kinds of things I bought in the past and never learned to use.  

This page was a learning experience and at times frustrating.  The next thing I purchase is some kind of workable fixative for my water color inks!

Linked to: Artist Play Room ,  The Sketchbook Challenge  , Mail Artists Corner Challenge