Foiled…

It’s almost 4 A.M. I’m still awake. This is bad.

I tried to use the laser printer/laminator foiling technique, and I just can’t seem to get it to work. I can’t tell if it’s my printer or my laminator. 😦

The printing doesn’t ever get fully covered. It’s always a bit streaky. 😦

So I tried using a Sakura glue pen to write faux calligraphy (copied a script I found online). It kind of worked, but it’s not very clean and there are a few places where you can see the pen marks (from the ballpoint end of the glue pen).

Sigh. I love the foil look, but I can’t seem to get the technique down. 😦

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Layers to the rescue

I sort of love how this background turned out. Before this, it was pretty bad.. I started off with lots of washi tape and just randomly taped it everywhere. I then gesso’ed it. I was trying to use a different color combo than I usually do, so I added orange, yellow, and red distress paints. It was pretty.. orange. So I tried to tone it down with some orange, red, and yellow stickles. Still not so good. According to my hubby, it looked like orange vomit with glitter. I tried to tone it down it by adding gesso, some gold texture paste (thru a stencil), and spray ink, but it looked worse. So I just went to bed. This morning, I went back with different shades of blue distress paint and added layers (and layers, and layers, and layers), and this was the result. I love it. You can actually still see the bits of stickles glitter behind all of the blue paint. The texture and the layers… I felt really artsy when it started coming together!

I have a song in mind, but I’m afraid to put anything on it. I really like it. 🙂

I added glitter to the corners. 🙂 Because, per my hubby, [glitter] is a must. I love him. He gets it.

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Another attempt at an art journaling page. I decided a long time ago that this journal would be dedicated to lyrics from praise songs. Hopefully they can serve as reminders when things get tough.

I gessoed the page and then added some texture with a Tim Holtz stencil, some embossing paste, texture paste, light modeling paste, and molding paste. I then added watercolor (the Artist Loft one from Michael’s). I used a Teresa Collins stencil with some ferro. Finally, I wrote in the lyrics using a Copic Spica pen (black) and a black Wink of Stella glitter brush pen. I added some detail with my white pen.

Honestly, not thrilled with the page, but I guess that’s what this whole process is about. Just experimenting with my stash and learning. 🙂

I wanted this to be my first page because I spend too much time complaining and/or comparing my life with other people, and I need to just stop. Things in my life are currently very up in the air – I’m thinking about starting my own business, which is crazy and scary and a lot of other adjectives. If you knew me, you’d know why this is such a big deal to me. I know starting a business is usually a scary thing, but for me, I never ever thought I would even want to pursue something like this. I know it’s not going to be easy, and I know that there are probably a lot of dark days ahead. So, I just wanted to remind myself of the things that really matter.

No matter what happens, I want to remind myself to choose to say: blessed be His name!