Wednesday 28 September 2011

Circle Journal

So at the beginning of the month Tracey's journal arrived at my house. (click on her name to go have a nosey at her lovely blog and learn all about her wonderful shop)

I made a list of things that I had worked out about Tracey, from her stuff on F/B and on her blog. Things like pink,blue,hearts,flowers,butterflies and zentangles...her only dislikes as far as I could see are yellow and orange.

So I started thinking pinks,blues and butterflies....and this is what I came up with.

I sprayed the page with Dylusions inks and added some Brilliance ink pads.













I lightly stamped some large foam flowers into the background,added a text stamp,next I pushed some gesso through a flower stencil.













I sprayed over the flowers with more ink, and finally sprayed some Shimmerz spray over the page.













Next I found a butterfly poem and tried it out for size on scrap paper.













It just fit, so I copied it out onto the pages.













next I drew a large butterfly and once I was happy with the shape I copied it onto watercolour paper.













I folded the paper again and cut out some sections.













I coloured the front with water colour pencils and added definition with a black pen and white gelly pen.













I coloured the back just using ink pads blended together.













The whole thing was quite flimsy, and my idea was to paint on 3-4 coats of matte medium on each side to strengthen it. however i knew brushing on the glue would smear the watercolour pencils, so first I gave it a light coat of spray varnish to seal it. Then I added 4 coats of clear drying matte medium to each side.

Finally I glued the body part of the butterfly into the book, leaving the wings loose so they can be lifted to read the poem.













side view..

















The wings do lie completely flat so that the book will shut, but their weight makes them bend slightly when the book is stood up which makes them seem more 3D.













This is the tag I made to go in the pocket.

















the book has now been sent onto the next member of the group and I await another journal to work in...

26 comments:

  1. WOW that is amazing - I bet that Tracey will be thrilled to bits.

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  2. This is amazing Darcy. Your explanation of how it was done is so detailed but very clear. I love the finished item. Well done!

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  3. It looks beautiful here, but believe me it is even more stunning in real life!!! Thank you for the detailed instruction...however I have nowhere near enough patience to tackle something like this!! LOL!!
    Love from 'the next member of the group' who now has this wonderful work in her safe keeping!! xx

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  4. O...M...G ...that is stunning ...love reading how you created it ... not sure how you parted with it.xx

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  5. Oh honey I love this so much I cant believe my journal is going to come back with this amazing piece of art in it, all those thoughtful details, I neeeeeeeeed to stroke it right now lol, thankyou so much for creating such a fabulous page, thankyou thankyou thankyou xxx

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  6. How amazing that you created this beautiful work of art but even better, that it's for someone else. Most of the pleasure is in the giving... The step by step was interesting for a non cardmaker/scrapper like me - it amazes me how many stages there are - but the overall effect is glorious. Actually, I could live with the tag on my wall, I think it's fab :D
    Thanks for the lovely comment on my blog btw!! xx

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  7. Wow Darcy this is incredible!!! I'm in awe of your totally fabdabular talent!!! Live this page!! You rock my world Lil lady!! Thanks for sharing your passion and joy!!

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  8. Oh Darcy!!! This is so beautiful!! I'm sure it is going to be her favourite page in the whole book :D XXX

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  9. Holy Cow! That is absolutely stunning and so original. I love how the butterfly covers up the text but you can still access it.

    Gorgeous, inspiring page. Love it.

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  10. It's so pretty! Can't wait to see it in the flesh. x

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  11. oh oh oh!!!! This is just stunning! I am drooling at the super delisciousness of it!! Thanks for sharing your process with us - awesome pages!!

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  12. gorgeousness divine beautifullity and I never ever would have thought to use varnish spray to set watercolours before matte mediuming - genious genie ous?

    brilliant

    Dx

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  13. Wow!What a stunning piece of work.Absolutely love this!

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  14. It's just stunning and amazing. Simply gorgeous!!

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  15. I love the book with the butterfly. Very unusual; I love the idea of lifting the wing to read the poem.

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  16. Holy heck, this butterfly page is amazing! I was following along with your step by step and thinking the background was beautiful and then it just kept getting better and better!!
    Thanks for entering my giveaway! Good luck!
    xoxo Karen

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  17. Absolutely gorgeous hun - love it!

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  18. seriously stunning. Can't believe you could let it go!

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  19. Oooh Darcy, this is just soooo beautiful... Fabulous colours, just gorgeous! Happy belated WOYWW.

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  20. you've excelled yourself here darcy...just stunning!

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  21. This is absolutely stunning Darcy!

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  22. Gorgeous butterfly, the page looks beautiful :) lovely tag too :)

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  23. Absolutely gorgeous Darcy. So glad I will be able to see this in the flesh in a few months time.
    x

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  24. What an absolutely stunning spread, Darcy! xx

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