Art Journal: Christmas Butterflies with ColourArte

Hi all!  Barbara here with another project for the ColourArte design team.  I thought I would work in my art journal today.  I love quotes, and sometimes, well, most of the time, that is my inspiration for a project.  Today's inspiration is...

"Snowflakes are Winter's butterflies!"

Spread white crackle paste through holly stencil on lower right and lower left of each art journal page.   Let dry.

Spread light molding paste through festive stencil at top right of page.  

Reverse stencil and do the same at top left.  Use post-it notes (or tape) to cover areas of the stencil you do not want to use.  Let dry.

Your pages should look something like this.  I later added another holly berry stem at the lower center of the page for balance.

Spread light molding paste through flurries stencil randomly in the open areas of the pages.  Let dry.

Randomly paint splotches of white gesso over background, let dry.

Dab Radiant Rains Daubers in Mediterranean Blue and Nutmeg over journal pages.  

Spritz with water and move colors around with a paint brush, adding and blending colors until you like the background.  I used a heat tool to dry the colors as I worked.

Paint stenciled fir branches, holly, and berries with Silks Moss Green, Emerald, and Coral Berry, respectively.  Paint pinecones, branches and stems with Silks Chestnut Brown, let dry.  I realigned the stencil over the paste to help keep the paint where I wanted it.

I painted the holly, berries and stems with the same colors as used above.  

These pages look lighter than the photos of the finished project because I continued to dab the Radiant Rains Daubers in Mediterranean Blue and Nutmeg with lots of water over the background as I worked in the book. The Radiant Rains daubers are waterbased, highly pigmented colors and make beautiful watercolor washes.   The Silks Acrylic Glazes dry permanent, so I can continue to add water based washes over my background without disturbing the botanicals that I painstakingly (not really) colored. 

Stamp script stamp around page with black archival ink so it would dry permanently and allow be to continue adding washes of color.

I added white gesso over the stenciled snowflakes to bring them out more and give a bit of a shabby chic look.

I also wanted to bring more of the coral color used on the berries into the background, so I simply used my finger to dab the Silks Coral Berry onto a clear stamp and randomly stamped around the background.  

In the photo below, you can see the snowflakes coming to life, and the bits of coral color showing up.

Die cut three butterflies from grunge paper, emboss each with matching embossing folder.  

Paint both sides of each butterfly with white gesso, let dry.  Paint both sides of each butterfly with Silks Oyster, let dry.

Add Silks Coral Berry to a makeup sponge and color each butterfly.  Do not blend the color.  Add Radiant Rains Egyptian Gold dabber to makeup sponge and blend over the butterflies, let dry.  

Use Tree Branch archival ink to highlight the embossing on each butterfly, then use a makeup sponge to pick up black archival ink and add shading around the edges.  You can see how this effect turned out in the close up photos below.

Use fingertip to dab Silks Coral Berry over Prima clear stamp and stamp image randomly over background.  This will help solidify the colors on the butterflies.

Glue centers of butterflies to the pages, with a pop dot beneath each wing to give them a proper lift.

Glue a plastic snowflake button to the center of each butterfly and add a bit of the Radiant Rains Dauber color in Mediterranean Blue and Nutmeg, just enough to knock down the bright white.

Print sentiment onto parchment paper.  Cut words apart, distress edges, and adhere to journal pages.

And here are a few closeups of the finished pages.

ColourArte Supplies used:  

Radiant Rains Daubers:  Mediterranean Blue, Nutmeg, Egyptian Gold

Silks Acrylic Glaze:  Moss Green, Emerald, Coral Berry, Chestnut Brown

Other Supplies used:

The Crafter's Workshop TCW164s mini Flurries

Tim Holtz THS029 Festive Layering Stencil

Tim Holtz THS015 Holly Bough Layering Stencil

Tim Holtz grunge paper

Cuttlebug Cut & Emboss die:  Butterfly 

Paper Artsy (Ink the Dog) Clocks 1 Rubber Stamp set (script)

Prima 960902 clear stamp

Golden Light Molding Paste

DecoArt White Crackle Paste

Liquitex white gesso

Ranger Archival black ink 

Thanks so much for hanging in there with me.  I do hope you enjoyed the project, and that you are inspired by how easy the ColourArte paints are to use.  They blend beautifully, and rather than making "mud", they simply make another color.  How cool is that?

One more thing before I sign off, and that is to let you know that today is SCAVENGER HUNT DAY!  Be sure to check the ColourArte Facebook page for more information and your chance to win some fabulous ColourArte products!

Have a wonderful  and creative week!

Barbara