A Page of Happiness for Wendy

I choose happiness... for this book and for always. With so many to choose from for Wendy's awesome theme, I ended up using one that inspired me the most. Once I got the word, the rest seemed to fall into place :)

I started the page with those little banners in the pic above. Each one is handcut and painted using (omg, time to get something different out I think, I'm a bit obsessed) ... ta da - Jane's Mermaid Markers. Its the colours that draw me in every time. They're so vibrant and gorgeous! I mean, its not like I don't have any other watercolour markers or paints :D lol I guess we all go through these fazes!

Anyway, the tags are watercolour card and coloured in my fave colours then left to dry for a couple of days while I decided how to start.

The lettering is from a sticker alphabet that used to be silver (white paint). The stitching is instead of adding pegs (testing out Jane's "Inkredible" fountain pen)... couldn't quite decide if I should call it bunting or an old fashioned clothesline. The poles are border stickers from the Dylusions Sticker Book. The heart is a paper clip from a pack of Dylusions Dyary Clips.

Above : Tim Holtz's "Paper Cut Bird"

While still on the pic above, the ladybugs are clear stickers found in our local cheap shop, added last of all - I needed something else on the page. When I found them years ago, I bought a pack, then another 3 - just in case they stopped selling them! But guess what? 10 years on and they still sell them :) Awesome!

The bird is beautiful creation of Tim Holtz and Sizzix called Paper Cut Bird. Its a Thinlits Die for cutting and embossing. Its just so pretty!

I cut the whole design out of 2 different sheets of Tim's Christmas paper from his latest collection. I then cut it all apart to get the bird. The background of the bird is leftover watercolour paper from cutting up the banners.

The flowers were trimmed, flipped, turned, flipped again as they moved all over the page many times, then eventually I added a bit of extra colour with Mermaid inks and stuck them down :)

In the photo above you can see the many layers of ink and paint in the background. I started with a sheet of scrapbook paper (Tim's Wallflower 12x12), cut it apart and glued back together to fit the page. Then I painted it all with an ink blending tool using Dylusions Lemon Zest and Mushy Peas... lovely semi translucent paint that allows fab layering.

I used a bunch of stencils (using White Linen, Mushy Peas and Lemon Zest with the blending tool again)... all Tim's! Surprise! lol :) They were Wildflowers, Zigzag, Floral, Rays, Speckles and Plaid. I remember using Tinsel too but its not listed so must have been for something else... I write down what I'm doing as I create the page. The memory isn't as reliable as it used to be.

The last thing I did to the background before adding all the elements was splatter white paint everywhere using my splatter brush. I used to use an old toothbrush for doing this but this fab brush gives me bigger splats :)

So that's it... a happy positive page full of bright colours and lots of energy! Hope you like it Wendy :D

Thanks so much for your time, reading this blog post. I hope it makes you smile!