Darcy Journalling: Month 6 {with Eclectica³ Lin Brown Stamps and Stencils by Darcy Wilkinson}

Hi everyone, Darcy here. Thanks to everyone who joined in last month, as always I really enjoyed seeing your pages, reading your blogs posts and finding out which bits you enjoyed. 

The winner from May's page is Janet.

Please get in touch with me, darcydotneedles@hotmail.com with your choice of JoFY stamp. 

So onto June's page. We are experiencing some weird phenomenon, the days are longer and 'warm'. I think it's called summer, though in the UK we never see it often so it is hard to tell. With long,summery days in mind I created this page. It is much simpler than previous pages, light and airy, with pops of colour that somehow made me want to buy frozen ice lollies. 

Don't be deceived though, even simple pages require work. To begin with I made a sheet of patterned paper. I took a sheet of regular weight smoothy card and covered it with Chartreuse paint.  Next I took all the text stamps from ELB05 and ELB06 and arranged them onto a large flexi block. Next i mixed some Chartreuse with some Seaweed, and applied the mix to the text stamps using cut and dry foam. I stamped all over my sheet of painted paper. The mix of paint is just darker than the first layer and is a subtle constrast. 

ELB05

ELB06

I then stamped the flower heads and leaves from ELB01 onto scrap paper, these will become masks. 

Using the same stamps, and utilizing the masks, I covered the card with bright flowers. 

ELB01

These first flowers are done with Bora Bora and Spanish Mulberry, to cover the base layer properly we will need to use opaque paints. 

Of course not all the colours that we might want to use are opaque. if we want to use a translucent paint, then we need to mix it with a neutral opaque paint. That will give us the coverage that we need. For example, for some of the leaves i used Tinned Peas and Holly, they are both semi-opaque, so I added  a little Vanilla. I dabbed the colours with my finger so that they only mixed a little, giving more interest to the stamped image. 

The orange flowers were made using Tango, Blood Orange (both translucent) mixed with Vanilla.
A darker blue flower is Bora Bora, Eggplant and Inky Pool.
The pink flowers are Candy Floss, though I used the same sponge from the orange flowers so some colour was transferred and gave some varied flowers, which was good.
Finally the red flowers are London Bus, Claret and Haystack. Cover the whole page, using the scrap flowers to mask off areas so you ca overlap flowers and leaves.

I then used a regular black bic ballpoint pen to doodle around the leaves and on the flowers.  It looks so pretty and happy, don't get too attached though, we are going to use it. but for now put it to one side. 

On your journal page scrap some grunge paste in random areas. I am sure you have all pushed grunge paste through a stencil before, but this time we are laying the stencil on top of the paste. For this to work you need a very open/mesh type stencil. This chicken wire one works really well. Gently press it down on different areas, leave some areas of paste free. 

Then take a smaller mesh, such as sequin waste and press that into the paste too. Finally take a pokey tool or a cocktail stick and scratch some lines into the paste. 

You can see here the 3 different textures that were achieved. 

If you are following my colour scheme then you will need some pinks and purples. of course you can use any colour scheme, but this base needs to complement the colours that you used on the patterned paper. I felt these pinks/purples would look good against the original chartreuse. I kept all my layers watery and thin, building up the layers so each colour shows through and isn't obliterated by the next one. 

I used Spanish Mulberry,Eggplant,Orchid,Pansy,Candy floss. Don't go to pale at this point, as lots of white will be added, so we need a strong colour to peep through. Apologies for this photo, it looks very bluey/purple, but in real life it was vivid pink. 

Now we add the Snowflake, there is a lot, but don't be tempted to add it all thickly in one go. Put some onto your craft mat and pick it up with a brayer and add thin layers, allowing it to build up. It looks drastic, but I can assure you that all the varied pinks and purples do peep through nicely. 

Let's go back to your patterned paper. RIP IT UP..... *watches as you all faint* yes really, rip it up.  Tear it into strips and glue them in place around the page.  You see now why we needed all the white, there has to be a neutral colour between the pink background and the patterned paper. But there is still enough pink showing to work with the greens and blues of the flowers. 

With a finger add just a hint of white paint around the edges of your torn paper, just to help it blend a little into the background. 

With your left over patterned paper punch out some small circles and tags, and also cut the middle section of the tulip flower die.  Try to get multiple colours on each circle. 

Decide on your flower placement, glue down a circle and then using Lin's flower stencils and a strong black pen, doodle the outlines. I used PS004 and PS005. Doodle several lines around each petal, making some of them really dark. 

once you have your flower heads in place, add some stems, just long lines of black pen, scribble close but do leave some gaps. You don't want solid stems. 

Paint a piece of smoothy card with Pea Coat, this is fast becoming a favourite colour.  From that, die cut the back and front parts of the tulip. Layer them up and glue into place. Fold over the front part and glue it down, add a little paint to the part now on show. 

Add some stamping from the text stamps to your tags, and glue those in place like leaves. Then glue all the left over circles around the page. 

This is how the spread looks now. I like it, it is soft and summery. 

To create an edge, so our flowers don't fall off the page. .. I dipped my ruler into Pea Coat and added lines of various lengths. The reason i use a ruler and not a credit card is that the ruler is ever so slightly thicker, and holding it as in the photo i can control it better. I have my first finger on the top, which gives me good pressure. 

This is the TOP edge, see the lines are much shorter, more like a fringe. Don't overdo it on the top, keep them short, but still all different lengths. 

At this point, although my original idea was to only use the patterned paper for colour and leave the doodled/stencilled flowers empty..i decided to add a little chartreuse to SOME of the petals, not all, just here and there.

This is the BOTTOM edge, see the ruler lines are much longer. I finished them, and the random circles by adding dots with a white posca pen. I did not add them to every line. 

I also added them to the blue parts of the tulip. 

There we have it all done, simple and summery. Mediterranean flowers growing up the side of a white-washed wall perhaps?

I do like this page, it is a departure for me, as usually I get so engrossed in layers that before i know it I am an inch deep in paint. I also tend to do busy pages, so this minimal approach is out of my comfort zone. I am very tempted to add a title, however as yet I cannot decide if it needs it... what do you think? I will be watching now to see which of you add titles to your pages. 

Ideas for you to explore this month:

• Pressing stencils into grunge paste
• Scratching lines in grunge paste
• Creating patterned paper
• Using stamped images as masks
• Adding punch outs
• Doodling outlines
• Using a ruler edge to create a border
• Using die cuts
• Using white pen for highlights
• Mixing translucent paints with opaques

See you next month, Darcy x

P.S next month I will be using Sara Naumann and Hot Picks stamps if you would like to play along. 

If you would like to join in then please link up and explain how you were inspired by the techniques presented above.  Use the linky below (this is a separate link to the weekly PA challenges). This journal challenge will remain open for a month, and will end the day before my next journal page. 

An InLinkz Link-up

Please read and follow the guidelines below, and enter your journal page to be in with a chance of winning one of Lin Brown's stamp plates. 

• This challenge is to show how you have been inspired to action by this month's example make sure in your blog post you explain what part or technique prompted you to create a page of your own. 
• Make sure you have your journal page entry linked up by 5pm (London time) July 25th 2014. 
• Winner will be announced the following day.
• There will only be ONE draw, ONE winner. You may link up as many times as you like but each name will only go into the draw once.
• Please don't feel you need to copy the example exactly but you must be inspired by at least part of it. 
• You are also welcome to use any stamps/ products / substrates you have to hand, we do not expect you to exclusively use PA products - but of course it is lovely when you do!