The Chaos Within - Be Yourself for Annabelle

Version no.1 ... with a Dylusions portrait from the colouring sheets.

This was the hardest page I've done so far... mainly because it is mean to be about Me. I struggled with what to create, what to add, what not to include. How to fill the page with Me. A few scribbles later I decided to attempt to describe the inner workings of my mind! lol :) It was going to include a flipped side ... a face one side, the chaos within.

But it was soon finished! Thank goodness :) If Annabelle looks carefully on the back of my page (behind the coffee), she'll see a scruffy erased version of my face. By the time the chaos had been finished, I'd had enough of doing me and it didn't get painted. Sometimes enough is enough, especially when its about me! lol :)

And now, the process begins...

A big white page... overwhelming at first but then I had an idea. As it turned out, it was quite a good idea! lol :) Stamping along the whole of the bottom edge with one of the Darkroom Door Border Stamps, Art Studio, with Archival Ink in Potting Soil (icky brown but its going in the background so didn't matter).

Next was stamping a few of my favourite background stamps everywhere in Archival Ink (Potting Soil and Jet Black). The stamps used were Tim Holtz Halftones and Rings :)

Did you know you don't need to buy separate stamps to create smaller versions of itself? Here I've inked up a section of a Darkroom Door Background Stamp, Polka Dots, with Archival Ink (Black Marble by Dylusions... similar to AI Jet Black but in a mini sized inkpad).

It gives a great rugged look to the background imprint, rather than rectangles with straight edges. Background stamps are fantastic for adding a bit of blah blah blah onto a page... its amazing how that above image gave me direction on how to continue with the page!

fyi... all Background Stamps by Darkroom Door are also available in a smaller version called Texture Stamps. They're exactly the same size design but cut smaller with a rugged edge (instead of the rectangle).

Dylusions Ink Sprays... little bottles of gorgeous inky colours! Tim's Spray Stains are also gorgeous... they both are :) The main difference is that Tim's sets once dry and Dyan's is always able to be altered with water or other inks (for lifting colour, etc). For the background above I used Dylusions Lemon Zest, Pure Sunshine and Vibrant Turquoise, then left it to dry in the 40C summer sun... only took 5 minutes!

I don't use aprons but after spraying the card for the sign (maybe I'm an artist etc), I had kitchen paper in rainbows of colour. The top card is Lemon Zest and spritz of Postbox Red, the card underneath is Pomegranate and London Blue.

In the pic above, I've added the birds, cat, washi, flowers, leaves and Tim Holtz Alpha Tiles (they're white on clear plastic, I've glued brown packaging underneath). The page was starting to fill up at this point and I started to get stuck.

Of course I did a bit of colouring (yes, Mermaid Markers again! lol). I do love to colour in! I've left the birds and cat black and white... even after it was all finished I was thinking the birds might like little red boots, but I didn't :) I've always loved black and white with a splash of colour.

In case anyone is wondering what rubber stamps I used ... Tim Holtz's Haunted House set with Dyan Reaveley's Anatomy of a Page, Everything's Rosy and Flight of Fancy. Just a few of my favourite things! That washi tape is Dylusions too, and the cute little sausage dog is from a set of animal Dy-Cuts.

Above is the page so far... yes, its taking ages to write about it too! I spent a couple of weeks agonising over what to do, then 1 day with the inks and another up to this point. This is when I got stuck! lol

So I added my favourite frog - Tutu Toad from Stampendous... isn't she adorable? Just like me (totally, lol), a well balanced, coordinated prima ballerina! I love frogs, toads and tadpoles... they're beautiful creatures.

I've stamped her onto the inked page, and then using a brush, water and kitchen paper, gently dabbed off the ink. It didn't take all the colour away but enough that I could add blue (London Blue, direct from the bottle with a brush) and let it turn green on its own. The tutu is Funky Fuchsia and London Blue. After she dried, I added a smidge of glitter to her shoes and crown. And also her tutu, dotting it everywhere!

I attempted to do the coffee mug (Tim Holtz Brewed Blueprint) in the same way but the green was too dark and only lifted a little bit... made a great shadow for the blueprint bits and pieces though.

I'm pretty pleased with the coffee, mug and flowers :) All coloured with Dylusions Ink Sprays and Mermaid Markers. mmmmm... coffeee! I can smell it from here :)

Version no.2 ... with a VW Beetle stamp from Darkroom Door

And now it is finished. Finally! It seemed to take a long time but I think that was because it was supposed to be about me. The VW is more me than a pic of a Dylusions girl... even if the saying was perfectly me : My head has too many tabs open! I had an accident, one of many in the creation of this page. So the girl pic got peeled off and a groovy car put in its place. The marvellous thing about art is that there are no mistakes (even if I can see hundreds! lol)... anything blotchy or torn or crooked or smudged is meant to be just as it is.

Thank you so much Annabelle, for this insightful journey into my soul... an adventure that I'm glad is over.
I made Roz's ATCs shortly after finishing this... you can see why I was so limited in my colour choices for the beach scene. lol :)

There are a few parts of this page I'm really pleased with... the greeny yellow background, the frog and a few other bits - and the coffee mug is exactly the same as mine but different! lol :D

Thanks everyone for reading this far and checking out my artwork. I hope it makes you smile :)

Have a happy creative day!
xx
Jenny