Dragonfly Garden with Serviettes

Collage with Paper Napkins for Colleen

For Colleen's art journal page, I've used the Jane Davenport Collage Papers, aka printed paper serviettes... a packet of pretties to use in art. Together with acrylic paint, matte medium, paint pens and glitter glue, I've created a garden with a girl, flowers and dragonflies!

To start with, I tore two of the same serviettes into pieces that fitted around the portrait of the girl (which is printed on the same serviettes).

Using a Matte Gel Medium, I glued all the pieces down around the face... the end result looks like I drew the face and simply added the collage around it :)

Once dry, I painted the shapes of the dragonflies and flowers in lightly using Dylusions acrylic paint (Calypso Blue). Then I filled in the rest of the background leaving the dragonflies, flowers and her hair free of colour (so it showed the serviettes).

Next was the greenery for the garden. I used Dylusions acrylic paint (Lemon Zest, a clean bright yellow) mixed into the remainder of the Calypso Blue I had on my plate. The variation of the green was created simply by adding more yellow to create a lighter green, with some areas using only yellow. Being a semi-translucent paint, it layers beautifully :) The blue flower is left free of green paint showing the layer underneath.

All the pretty white and green flowers were created using foam stamps with acrylic paint (white and yellow). The stamens and centres for the flowers were handpainted spots of black, white and yellow.

Each of the dragonflies had a whitewash over the tips of their wings to lift them off the page. Shadows were added around the hair, parts of the dragonflies and flowers using a wash of black paint. Once everything was completely dry, all the extra details were drawn in using white and black paint pens.

While wandering through my stash of Tim Holtz Stickers, I found some quotes that suited my page perfectly. The super tiny tattoo style stickers I've had for ages work well too... so cute! I haven't added anything else to the original print of the girl except for altering her eyes ever so slightly.

Can't really see, but there is glitter glue over the wings...

The finished page is full of beauty and wisdom. Thoughts added from Tim Holtz Stickers were 'Shine brightly, be fearless' and 'Do all things with great love.' and my current favourite...

Not only does my mind wander… sometimes it walks off completely.

Finally, I stuck down a quote sticker from Dyan Reaveley says “Never forget your sparkle” (with more glitter glue over the word sparkle, of course).

At the top right, I added some mini banners made from left overs and wrote the letters a r t in glitter glue. There's something magical about glitter :)

Thanks for reading and looking :) I hope it made you smile!

Have a wonderful arty day!
:)
Jenny