"Learn to be silent" - Art journal with Alison.

After few days of hard work in the shop (we are very happy you liked our free shipping weekend and new Paper Artsy releases ) I'm very happy to get back to the blog to share some more inspirations from Alison Bomber with you. Alison is our July Guest Designer who knows very well how to amaze us with her stunning creations. This time she prepared something that I love the most - an art journal spread. Are you ready to dive into the mixed-media world of texture and colour with Alison?

Hello all, Alison here from Words and Pictures, and delighted to be here at Artist Trading Post for one final time this month.  I'm a stencil fiend, so I was really happy to play along with the Crafter's Workshop Stencil theme this month... so far I've shared an altered 3D project, a card, and today I've got some art journalling pages for you.

To create these pages I played with the beautiful Cathedral of Love stencil designed by Rebekah Meier.

I started by gessoing some book pages and then applying texture paste through the fabulous Gothic window arch on both sides of the page - one high and one low.

I heated the paste with my heat gun until it was bubbling... love the extra texture this gives it.

And then I got busy with some spritzing as my first application of colour.  I used Distress Sprays, but any favourite spray will do.  Because we're over gesso, the colours soften as they dry.

Serendipity took a part in the next stage.  I had a large arch sitting around from a whole other project, and noticed that it looked rather good on the page, echoing the textured stencilling.  So I die-cut some more arches out of grey cardboard and gave them the same coat of Quinacridone Gold paint that the large arch had had.

Next, it was back to the Cathedral of Love stencil.  I sponged Distress Embossing Ink through the  stencil onto the arches and then clear embossed it.  I'm a huge fan of clear embossing for the dimension and light-reflectivity it adds to a project.

You can get a similar effect by using a gloss gel medium of course... so I did!  I used the same lovely stained glass bit of the stencil on various places on the blue-spritzed page.  As soon as I'd applied it, I patted it with the palette knife to get some extra texture, and I softened the edges to get  a messier look.

I even applied some gel freehand with the palette knife so that you get a rough randomness to the glimmer it gives.

The stamps are mainly from the PaperArtsy Hot Picks line - the tall stems...

... and the birds among the grasses...

... but the flying birds have migrated from The Artistic Stamper.  They're all stamped in either Archival or Distress inks in various shades of blues and browns.

The words come from Pythagoras (yes, the triangle man - the square on the hypotenuse and all that), and they have been part of my life for as long as I can remember.

In an increasingly frenetic world, I think they are ever more important.  Certainly I am aware of the need to find time and space in each day for silence.

And I know both my work and my crafting time benefit from allowing my mind time to wander and settle.

I wanted to intensify the shading around my textured stencilling as well as around the die-cut arches and the words, so I used chalk pastels, Ecoline inks and the Prima Watercolour Pencils to create  depth and detailing

By creating shadows around the stencilled texture, you can really give it extra depth.

I love the control you get in applying the colour with the pencils, and then you can soften it with a water brush until you get just the effect you want.

These pages really give me a lot of quiet satisfaction - they do the same thing to my heart and mind as the words do - allowing the mind to soften, and creating a moment of space and calm in the noise of the everyday world. I'm so grateful to Kasia for inviting me along to play at Artist Trading Post this month... I have had  a great time and I hope you've enjoyed the projects I've shared with you.  Thanks so much for  having me!

Products Alison used for her project:

TCW532s - Rebekah Meier- Cathedral of love Template - 6"x 6"	Golden - Gesso 237ml	Golden Molding Paste - 8oz / 236ml	Ranger Heat It Tool	Sized Arches Movers & Shapers Magnetic Die Set 3PK
Golden Fluid Acrylics 30ml - Quinacridone / Nickel Azo Gold	Tim Holtz Distress Mini Embossing Ink	Ranger Embossing Powder - Clear	Golden - Soft Gel (Gloss) - 8oz / 236ml	Designer Archival Ink - Wendy Vecchi - Potting Soil
Archival Ink - Sepia	Toison D′Or Chalk Pastels - Pack of 12 mixed colours	Prima Watercolor Pencils - Earth Tones	Ecoline Watercolour Ink 30ml - 416 - Sepia	Tim Holtz Water Brush - Broad Nib

Thank you so much Alison for being such an inspiration for all of us and sharing your unique talent on the ATP blog. It was a pleasure to work with you and I hope we can do this again soon.

Here you can find previous Alison's blog posts for ATP.

Have a lovely day
Kasia