a work in progress....

Hello everyone!

This have been really wild around here and I haven't had any time to sit and create, so I haven't completed any of my ICAD's this week....I'm hoping to do another marathon creating session and get all caught up.  The rest of this month is going to be so insane and busy, so it's going to be a huge challenge for me to finish ICAD this year with a card for each day.  But, I am determined to do it! lol

I do have an art journal page that I am currently working on to share with you today.  I joined Effy Wild's Book of Day's workshop and I am really, really enjoying every minute of it.  The community is so wonderful and I am truly loving what I am learning about myself and this need to actually do real writing in an art journal.  I usually just add a word here, or a song lyric there, but I've been feeling the pull to document what's going on in my life, my feelings and working on how to deal with them, help me work out how to make positive changes in my life and celebrate the accomplishments that I make.

So here are some photos that I took as I've been working on this page throughout the week....this has also shown me something very important....I do not have to complete a page in one sitting.  Something that I haven't ever done before.  I always sit down with the frame of mind that I am going to do a page and finish it right then and there.  I know that I have this way of thinking because my art time is so limited due to my being a stay-at-home-mom with two little ones.  It's been very peaceful for me to work on this page knowing that I'm going to work on it when I can and enjoy that time as much as I can (even if it's just for a few minutes! lol).

The challenge for this spread was to use a stencil and then alter it in some way.... I did upload a YT video talking about this page and the journal that I created for this workshop......I also show you how I've been storing my ICAD's and one way I'm thinking of displaying them.  ;-)

Flower stencil with yellow and orange color sprays....

But then I decided to add some collage papers in, so added them, plus I brayered on some white paint.  It wasn't colorful enough for me then, so out came my Dr. Ph Martin's Hydrus liquid watercolors.  I painted color on and then added the darker, splotches of color with some color sprays.

Flower stencil with red, acrylic craft paint....

Top flowers have not been altered...bottom flowers are.  They were painted in with some Dr. Ph Martin's Hydrus liquid watercolors and then I used the end of my paint brush to pull some of the black paint to resemble the center of a flower.  I also used an Exacto knife and grated shavings from a charcoal pencil into the wet paint.  You can see the black flecks the best on the large flower at the bottom.

All of the flowers are painted in now....

Before and after :

And that's where it is now...I haven't been able to work on it for the past few days and am anxious to work on it some more.  Next I get to add my intention for this journal and I'm also adding the quote "Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn" - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Dianne