Art Journaling With Ephemera

After working out the kinks on Upward Tick, I worked on my weekly Positively Creative Art Journaling. This week's exercise is sort of a check-in on where we are on this particular day - both mentally and physically. I haven't done my journaling on that yet as I I've been waiting for the spread to dry, and since it won't be done in a clever way worth sharing, I'm just going to share the process of preparing the spread. It was reminiscent of a previous exercise which I had liked - gluing down torn strips of paper and then painting over them. In this case, we were encouraged to collect ephemera from the previous week. I added trimmings from Upward Tic (including a couple of those rings and a piece of tulle). While ironing some of the fabric from my friend's stash, I picked up some fusible on my iron (had thought I'd cut it all away - oops). I'd cleaned it off with a specially treated sheet that is a little like a dryer sheet only stiffer. I pulled it out of the trash and cut a piece from it that had wrinkled up and creased. I've also been sorting through old tax files, shredding and tossing what no longer needs keeping. There was a receipt from a fabric store purchase, the register printout which I put on the left under the tulle, and one of those yellow receipts forms for hand-writing the particulars - I tore a portion off the bottom to place on the right. All pieces were adhered to the page with matte medium.

Painting over these things is hard for me. I find I don't want to obliterate them, but that is the point, for them to become just part of the background, only parts of them visible and recognizable. I started with a light coat of slightly diluted white paint and could see that was not going to be enough. So I mixed some violet paint with the white for more coverage, but as you can see, I still went for a light touch, especially over the fabric (which is knocked back more than this picture would indicate - the overall effect is prettier, trust me). I'm tempted to go over it again lightly with a third color to even things out, but I think I will just get to the writing instead. Yes, I know I've created places that will be difficult if not impossible to write over - the tulle and that cleaning sheet, but I was seduced by the real texture they would add. I'll either be writing very small or writing very little about where I am at today!

Update: To my surprise and great pleasure, that tulle took lettering just fine. Both gel pen and sharpie worked, ink bleeding through the holes to the matte medium-covered paper beneath. And the paint as is looks just fine now that writing has been added over it. I'm pleased.