July/ August Challenge end and how to journal out your feelings.

Well hello there, it's Cedric here, finally I get a turn at the desk, just in time to create our July/ August challenge piece, for which we asked for quotes from Jane Austen to be used.
Before showing you my make, I would like to thank
Ike
Chrissie
Gill
Lauren
And
Morning AJ
For joining in with us and producing wonderful makes, do take a moment to look at their interpretations of the challenge, they all created such great artwork.
Onto my make, but first a little diversion, although it does fit in with my page. If ever you have things on your mind which you just need to get out, scribble them all down, as scruffy or as neat as you like, as honest as you feel, whatever you need to say, directly into your journal. ' But people look at my journal, I don't want them reading my private thoughts'. I hear you say. No problem - once you've journalled it all out of your furry head, cover it up with some Gesso. It's truly cathartic to spill your soul but have your thoughts remain private at the same time.

That forms the base of my page, my furry thoughts, that actually fit in with the journal page in this case, although they don't have to. Obviously, in keeping with the above advice I won't tell you what I wrote, after all, the other bears may be reading this, and my furry thoughts could possibly be about them...
After Gessoing my journalling, I added some Golden Glass Beads gel for added texture, and over the top of that I added Golden burnt sienna paint. I decided it was far too brown and dreary, but I did like the texture, so I added some white acrylic over the top. I still wasn't sure, so left the pages to dry over night, and in the morning added some torn book pages, which I adhered with gel medium.

I then added yet another colour wash over the top with more burnt sienna paint, this time mixed with white acrylic. I dabbed off some of the paint with kitchen roll, to allow all the layers to show through.

By this time the page was seriously buckling under all the painty layers, so I left it to dry out completely overnight. I then glued two pages back to back, to add a little strength to the project.
My page looked a little lacking in something, despite all those layers. So I added some texture paste, coloured with black paint and scraped through a Dylusions mask to the edges of the pages, and a Kaisercraft background stamp to the whole page, in the bears' own inimitable style.

That's better.

Goodness, what a lot of texture.

You can still see all the layers though. It's very touchy feely, what a shame you can't experience that.

Because I seemed to be throwing everything at the page (well I don't get to the craft desk often, so need to make the most of it when the opportunity arrises) I added some india ink to my pages.

For a lovely drippy effect. I darkened my die cut images for a more moody feel to the page, and here it is, all done.



With love from the bears