GD: Ellen Vargo #2 Art Journal Cover

"Hello again Ellen here. Thank you SO much for all the incredible comments on my new stamps and yesterday's post! I'm having a blast"!  

Today we'll be creating a cover for a new art journal.  I created this blank journal using a big sheet of hot press water color paper - the pages are 8" x 10" and the journal has 12 pages.  Here's the cover we'll be working on today.

I know this will come as a shock to you... but we'll be using our brayers again today! (Hey, it's my thing... )  So we'll start out with some Mermaid blue paint...

Then Bora Bora...

Followed by Beach Hut...

And Then Inky Pool...

Now we'll add some stamping to the background using the bold swirly circle (swircle? hmmm. I like it!) from EEV01 and South Pacific paint.

EEV01

Now we're going to create the lotus flower as the focal image for our journal cover.  We're going to use these three stamps to create the flower.  The pod (petals for our flower) is from EEV04, the bold shield (base of our flower) is from EEV01, and the diagonal stripe stamp is from EEV03.

EEV03

EEV04

Here's how we'll use them.

I stamped the pod shape five times onto some painted papers (more brayer clean-ups! save those papers!), cut each pod out, assembled into a flower shape, and then added some sketchy highlights with a white paint pen.

You'll see the bold shield shape at the base of the flower - I just turned it upside down and used only the portion I needed to create the top of the stem/ base of the flower.

The stem is pretty straight-forward ... Stamped the diagonal stripe with Black Archival Ink onto the same green paper I used for the flower base. Cut it out, and then cut it in half length wise so the flower stem was proportional to the flower.  And of *course* our flower stem needed some leaves! This leaf is from EEV04.

I always like to give a frame to my art, so I stamped the criss-cross basketweave border from EEV03 onto white card and then cut it down to 1/2" wide. This stamp also lines up very easily so you can repeat it as many times as you like to make a LONG skinny strip of pattern!  Here's our border and finished journal cover.

I hand-lettered "Art Journal" at the top with a black paint pen and added dots and outlines with a white paint pen. This style of lettering is SUPER easy - I'll show you how in a future post, but basically you print out your word just as you would normally print, and then add a triangle to all the tips of each letter, and fill in the triangle.  Easy!  

I used a Stabilo-ALL pencil to outline all the elements of the flower as well as around the inside of the border and went over it with a water brush to give it some shadows.

Hope you enjoyed my project today - I'll be back tomorrow with my last post for February - we'll be making a batch of ATC's from a master board and adding lots of stamped collage, paint marks, and pen work.  See you tomorrow!

Ellen.

Leandra Says: I'm already loving the endless possibilities using your designs Ellen. The sketchy white highlights are the perfect finishing touch. Bravo.

Gillian Says: I love the texture effect from the brayered background and the addition of the criss cross border really frames the whole piece.

If you would like to join in this week's challenge and play along with Ellen's techniques, then do link up your creativity here, and go in the draw to win some PA stamps of your choice! You need to link your entry by 17:00, Sunday February 23rd 2014.