Play time!

Every now and then I get trapped in my house because one of my kids needs my car...today was one of those days. The good news is that I had a chance to play with my inks and stains and mists. For the record, I love watercolor paper. Ever since Dave Brethauer was here and showed us how to use watercolors and twinkling H2O's I have been experimenting with the paper and different mediums. I have also fallen madly in love with the Unibind for making books. So last night I decided to create an Art Journal with the Unibind and watercolor paper. I decided to title it "My Mind's Playground" since it will become the place for me to "play" with my favorite stuff.
On the title page, I printed some of my favorite fun "pins" from Pinterest. Then I layered Distress Ink, Radiant Rain, and white acrylic paint. Love the way it looks like a graffiti covered wall.


When I created the journal I had a bunch of half inch strips of watercolor paper left over because the cover is 8.5" x 11" and watercolor paper is 9x12. One of the things that I learned while playing is that watercolor paper takes the Distress Stains beautifully. The colors are bright and vibrant and well, gorgeous. I colored each half inch strip with a different color (Barn Door, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint, Broken China and Dusty Concord). Once they dried I used a 4.5" piece of Sookwang tape (Score Tape) to piece them all together into a rainbow stripe. I used to do quilting and the first real quilt I made was a pattern called "Trip around the world" using a strip piecing method. So I did the same thing with the paper.


Once the paper quilt was complete I covered the entire piece with Versamark Ink and embossed it with two layers of UTEE. I cannot even tell you how beautiful this is in real life. The photos do not do it justice. I put in it a cute white frame I picked up at Ikea and it will eventually hang in my craft room. That is IF our house ever gets built...