As a welcome distraction from the Valentine’s madness of hearts and candies, Jennifer from the Art Elements team came up with the theme of Letters – which can be interpreted in many different ways, romantic or otherwise. It’s inspiring how a tiny letter is the building block for a word, a paragraph, an epic. How that initial letter leads to a chain of correspondence, a flood of emotions, a lifelong friendship. When one takes that first small step, great things begin.
A while later, I came across this beautiful and inspiring mood board on Mixed Media Place.
I tried to visualize my thoughts in the colors that inspired me from this mood board, and ended up with something that I’m satisfied with.
I started out the page with some gel prints, and brushed on acrylics over it. I then moved to applying acrylics on stencils with a sponge. I really need to work on this technique – the white acrylics spread out a lot under the stencil. (Did I get somewhat better when I tried with black? Hmm…) In any case, I completed the background by stamping some circles on it.
On a different piece of paper, I stamped an abstract human figure and applied some watercolors on it. I fussy cut the figure and pasted it as the focal image, and added heavy outlining with watercolor pencils and some water. I also added some highlights with a gel pen, and finished with a few splatters.
I handwrote the sentiments on the page itself at first, but couldn’t get them to be very visible, so I overwrote those with rectangles containing the same sentiments. I outlined the rectangles with watercolor pencils as well. I’d initially thought of practicing hand lettering for this page – since ‘letters’ is, after all, the theme that got me going, but I forgot all about that while I tried to get the background and composition to my liking. I guess I’ll do that another time! 😉
So that concludes my art journal page.
Check out the theme reveal on Art Elements, and go blog-hopping to feast your eyes on various letters-themed arty projects!
Guests: Tammy • Karin • Kathy • Evie and Beth • Divya • Hope • Anita (you’re here)
Art Elements Team: Claire • Lesley • Jenny • Cathy • Niky • Jen
With this project, I’m also joining these challenges –






Lovely work. I first saw it on Crafty Catz challenge. Thank you for joining the challenges at A Bit More Time to Craft and More Mixed Media
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Thank you for these ever-creative challenges, Margaret! 🙂
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Brilliant card Thank you for joining us at Crafty Catz Challenge Blog good luck
Ginny DT for Crafty Catz Challenge Blog
My Blog As I do Rodos
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Thank you, Ginny! 🙂
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Love the mix of colors and elements in your art journal page. It all came together nicely.
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Thanks, Tammy! 🙂
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I’m so glad you did an art journal page too. It seems we had a few ideas in common but ended up with vastly different results! I love the yummy blending of the colors in your page, and the focal stands out beautifully!!
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Thank you very much, Hope! I’m still slowly making my way through the blog hop, but I’m looking forward to seeing yours.
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It’s been a while since you participated in one of out themes. So glad you decided to join this month. I absolutely love your journal page. The layers and colors really make it pop!
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It’s definitely been a while, Cathy! (I was practicing art journaling all these months. 😉 ) Thank you for the fab comment!
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I am amazed at the number of different techniques you incorporated. Well done!
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Thank you, Kathy! I guess not all of the techniques worked, but as long as I’m happy with the result… 🙂
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Oh this color palette is delicious. The texture on the figure almost looks like it was painted on a page of text. I especially like the sentiment of the quote as well. Lovely! Thanks for sharing!
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Thank you, Jenny! The texture on the focal figure was a pleasant surprise for me as well. I guess that goes to show how unexpected is sometimes good. 🙂
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Your art journal page is a wonderful tribute to ‘letter’. You did a great job with the styles and colors. 🙂
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Thank you so much, E.C. – I’m glad I was inspired enough! 🙂
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The colors for your inspiration mood board are wonderful. I love those blues you incorporated into your journal page. I really like the focal of the human shape. The saying on your page is very inspirational – this whole piece is outstanding!
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Thank you very much, Evie, Beth! I love the blue as well – it’s such a gorgeous color.
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Oh gosh! That turned out great! I personally love how the white letters look from the stencil. It gives it more character, which is sometimes difficult to see when you have a different expectation. The entire page is great! Thank you for participating this month. We always enjoy having you.
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Thanks a lot, Jen! I guess the white just had to grow on me – I like it now too. 🙂 And thank you so much for the theme – I loved working on this page.
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What a beautiful art journal page, I love the colours you have chosen and what a wonderfully true sentiment!
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Thanks, Niky! I hope I follow at least my own wisdom, lol…
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The purple “Oscar” man looks like he is glowing. Overall, there is a trippy vibe to the page.
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Thanks, Divya! I can see the trippiness too – it must mainly be because the letters in the background seem to spiral out? Interesting, though unintended, effect. 🙂
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I love Art Journals, they seem to be a great way to grow your creativity but I haven’t managed to start one. Your page and words are very inspiring.
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Thanks, Karin! I got into art journals recently too, and it’s great fun even when things don’t go as you intended – probably more so when things don’t go as intended. 🙂
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Hi Anita! Love the depth of your page, cool letters and your own hand writing (mine is awful :)), and yes… I just love the slightly smeared white image, but if you don’t like it, you can use an almost dry sponge and build a few layers of ink. I’ve done that with fabric with good results, it’s just a matter of patience. If you don’t have patience, use a temporary spray adhesive to the back of your stencil… it usually works well. Hope this helps 🙂
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Thanks, Cris, and thanks for the tips – I’ll have to try them out.
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Beautiful and very creative! Thank you so much for sharing with us at Mixed Media Place!
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Thank you for the awesome MMP moodboard, Maria!
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