journal background bonanza

Last Saturday, I took my journals and supplies off to Frenzy Stamper in Scottsdale (my favorite store!), to take advantage of Debbie's work area. She has open lab time whenever there's not a class or event scheduled. (here are pics of the store's work area taken during a class... I wish I could spread out like this at home!) Of course, I schlepped totally too much stuff with me- two tote bags full of paper and markers, and my pink Artbin case (it's so cute- check it out here- and useful- it holds quite a bit of stuff!) full of paint, stamps, gel medium, etc. I say too much paper because I didn't even LOOK at most of the paper I took, but if I hadn't had it available, I am sure I would have needed it!

It was really nice to spread out (I took up about three entire tables- LOL!) and work without fear of cats or dogs getting into my stuff... I worked for a few hours, and completed about 8 backgrounds in two different journals. Of course, I had to buy a couple small things while I was there, but I controlled myself; I did NOT buy any of the new Tim Holtz stamps (yet) but there's always next time! (He just introduced 12 new stamp sets... check them out on his blog. I really like at least 4 of them, but I think I've narrowed it down to just the one or two that I like best, and will get them eventually.)

What do you do if you don't like a background you've painted?? why, you paint over it again, of course!! these pages were originally done a few weeks ago, and were a strange brownish-pink color, with some light blue stenciled and masked designs... I liked the designs, but hated the color, so I painted over them, leaving enough of the original design peeking thru so you can still see it. The underlying design on the lefthand page was made using snowflake-shaped paper doilies from the dollar store (you can sort of see them in the middle and towards the bottom of the page), and the righthand page was made using letter stencils (upper right corner, underneath the exclamation point) and a dot stencil (lower right corner). Now I love the colors, and the pages look way better with more layers of paint. for me, the moral of the story is: when in doubt, keep adding layers! These two pages are from my composition book journal (one of those black and white notebooks you can pick up for 99 cents at back-to-school time). The lefthand page is covered with various papers in one of my favorite color combinations, with a couple black acrylic paint stamped accents. The origami paper is from the Kelly Kilmer stash I bought a few months ago- would you believe I hadn't actually used any of it till I used these small pieces?? (Wow, I hadn't realized I bought that paper way back in October!!) I was "saving it" for something special (as so many of us artistic types do- I collect lots more things than I will ever be able to use) but finally decided it was time to start using it! (my pages are special, right?? LOL! that's a bit of a joke, but it is true- why NOT use the good materials for my own projects?!?) The right-hand page has a gray painted background, stamping, and a bit of scrapbook paper on... These two pages don't "go together" at all, but I kind of like that, actually- they don't need to match; those colors and papers were what I felt like using at the time.

This page is also covered with paper, along with a bit of paint and black acrylic stamping. The mulberry and lime green color combo is NOT something I would have thought worked at all, but with the gray and black added, I like it a lot! And, I've already finished up two of these pages since then, too! Since I usually work on backgrounds and the actual "journaling" separately, it's especially nice to have backgrounds ready to use when I feel like writing... I will definitely have to have another "background bonanaza" soon! (edit: I just realized that 4 photos don't exactly make a "bonanza" but I didn't want to make this post any longer... for more pics, check out my Flickr page.)