Mostly Green Gelatos, A Challenge

I just finished my second 2 boards for my Gelatos Art Journal. I was inspired by Mou Saha's July "Take the Challenge With Mou". Her challenge for July was to use mainly Green. I decided to create a page centered around leaves. I love the beauty of nature. There is something peaceful for me to just sit in a shady spot, watch the wind blow through the leaves and hear the birds sing. I wanted to capture a little of that peace in my journal.

 

To prepare my boards, I applied gesso through a 101 Stencil with a palette knife on the left page, applying the gesso heaviest on the left side of the page. Then I flipped the stencil over  and pressed it onto the board on the right to transfer the excess gesso. I wanted to play with the gelatos and see how they worked with the resist of the gesso compared to the surface of the plain board.

After allowing the gesso to dry I scribbled on my boards with my gelatos, using mainly green with a little yellow. I wanted the color to run diagonally across the boards. Using my finger to blend I only had to lightly mist with a little water to get the look I wanted. I worked on both boards at the same time, treating them as one page. I was able to wipe more color off the gesso areas using a baby wipe,  making sure I kept switching to a clean area of the wipe as I worked.  I could also let the color build up on the baby wipe and and use it blend the color in the areas not covered with gesso by using a lighter touch. I was careful not to over-work the board while it was wet to keep from damaging the surface. You can also use a heat tool to dry your board or set it aside and let it air dry.

I used a Sizzix Originals die that had 3 leaves on a branch to cut out a bunch of leaves from some patterned paper from my stash.
Since I used a heavy weight paper (probably Basic Grey) I was also able to use it as a guide to draw with my Silver Paper Crafter's Crayon, adding silvery leaves onto my background. I buffed the silver leaves with a dry paper towel to get a soft shine.

I scribbled with a Chocolate gelato on the branches. I lightly misting them with water and blended the color a little with my fingers, letting some of the texture of the pattern show through. I then sketched in the lines on my leaves with a Light Green Big Brush Pen.

Once I glued the leaves to the board I used  the May Green and Green Olive Big Brush Pens to add more detail to the leaves.

I found a quote by Albert Schweitzer I thought would be perfect for my art journal. "Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf." I printed it onto white cardstock, cut it into strips, glued it down and sealed it with gel medium.

I scribbled some gelatoes into the wells of a palette, sprayed them with a little mist of water and mixed them up to make some water colors. I used a water brush to add more of the colors to the leaves, branches and edges of the word strips.

Shine on the green leaves is glaze, The silver leaves are buffed silver crayon.

Once everything was dry I used a small flat (dry) paintbrush to add glaze medium to the leaves. I love the shimmer of the glaze on the leaves. Just enough shine to highlight and enhance the color but not as glossy or dimensional as glossy accents would be. The added shimmer of the silver crayon is subtle and looks like shadowy background leaves, adding another layer of depth.

Every month Mou Saha has a challenge on the Faber Castell Design Memory Craft Blog. I hope you hop over to  Take the Challenge with Mou and see her beautiful page. You still have time to enter. Usually the challenge runs for 2 weeks but this months challenge is running a little longer so you have until Sunday, July 26 to enter.

If you want to see Mou's other works her blog is http://collagecollagecollage.blogspot.com/