This week’s Documented Life Project challenge was layering and “Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough!” (free earworm) so clearly the idea was to layer a page to the maximum. Layering is something I have struggled with. Finding that balance between creating interest and it tipping over into visually chaotic mess, between colours that chime and sing together and making mud, has been a steep learning curve for me and one where I have yet to reach the summit. Regardless, I decided to amp up the level of difficulty even more by deciding to work with a colour palette I would find difficult to keep from turning into grungy sludge: flamingo pink, bright yellow, turquoise and lime. Alas, my lime acrylic is not quite limey enough so it did get a bit muddy.
I couldn’t embark on a page without having an end goal in mind. I know a lot of art journallers and mixed media artists can just playfully develop a page or piece without having any level of intention in mind but I need to have something I am working towards from the get-go otherwise I stall. Since this week is Valentine’s Day, I thought it would be appropriate to make that the focus. My favourite love song – and one of my very favourite songs generally – is ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out’ by The Smiths so that was my inspiration.
Not that I imagine anyone can learn anything from my process but here are the layers involved in creating my page:
- Turquoise and lime acrylic scraped on the page with a gift card
- Scraps of yellow and pink tissue paper glued onto the page
- Strips of washi tape stuck in rows to the page
- Yellow paint through a dot / small circle stencil
- Large yellow circles stamped on the page with a cork
- Turquoise circles stamped onto the page using the end of a wooden utensil
- Pink paint through a love heart stencil
- Stamped pink circles using the end of a pencil top eraser
- Spatter of pink, yellow and turquoise paint
- Small dots of lime paint
- Dots of white acrylic paint around the edges of the pink love hearts to emphasise the hearts on the page
- Stamped the chorus of the song lyrics onto deli paper and adhered that deli paper to the page using gel matte medium
Twelve layers! That’s an all-time record for me.
A Pict in PA 
Good for you! I love it!
Thank you. The green annoys me because I wanted it to be more citrus than it is and it, therefore, looks dull against the other colours but I am quite impressed with just how many layers I managed to create on the page given that layering is not particularly my thing.
Good job on the layering! I learned I could use a wooden utensil for mark making! I never splatter – it goes everywhere but the paper. I am just not a splatterer I guess. I admire those who can make it work. While I can see what you mean about the hue of green, none the less the page is vibrant and colourful and eye catching – most definitely a GOOD one!
Thank you very much for your lovely comment. I put my paper inside a cardboard box before splattering so that it catches all the mess. I learned the hard way having taken hours to scrub gold ink from just about every surface of my kitchen.
Oh, splendid idea! I have a box I spray in and never thought to use it [duh!] I just learned something else from you 🙂
Yay for 12 layers! Love all your colors, so bright and cheerful 🙂
Thanks. I’m not sure it is 12 layers precisely as some marks are on the same layer. Maybe 12 steps is more appropriate and accurate a description but it’s still a lot more than I usually do.
Irregardless of how many layers or steps there is, the beauty of it shines and the colors all go together. I love every color in your page!
Thank you so much. Given how adept you are at combining colours, I am very chuffed with your compliment. 🙂
You are most welcome Laura 🙂 I really love your page 🙂
Great page! This one’s been hard for me.
Thank you. I found the lack of focus hard. I think I need something to work towards rather than just doodling about, if that makes sense, and I don’t usually work with many layers so it’s too easy for me to make mud.
It makes perfect sense. I make mud a lot, but I’m getting better.
I moved from Minnesota to Cornwall, and that’s what I blog about, so when I saw “layering” in your title my immediate assumption was that you were learning to cope with cold weather. Layering is what Minnesotans do in the winter. In fact, kids wear so many layers that their arms don’t rest next to their rib cages until April. But of course: You’re in Pennsylvania, and from Scotland, so whatever culture shock you’re undergoing it’s probably not thermal.
And now that I’ve adjusted to your actual topic, nice post.
Thank you for your lovely comment. I will need to visit your blog and read about US-UK immigration in the other direction.
We are indeed pretty expert about wearing layers. We lived in Argyll which really can experience all seasons in one day so layering was an absolute must. We get colder, snowier winters here in PA than we did in Argyll (thanks to the Gulf Stream and salt from the sea lochs) but I can cope happily with just about any standard weather other than heavy rain. Deluges of rain are just depressing and were sadly rather common in Argyll but less frequent here.
Thanks for visiting my blog and for commenting. 🙂
It seems to be the rain that gets to people in Cornwall as well–and the dark. But after living in Minnesota, my partner and I think we’ve moved to the tropics.
Your blog’s a pleasure.
Thank you. That’s very kind of you to say so. I’ve yet to visit Minnesota (I’ve been to 25 states so my ambition is to visit the other 25) but I can imagine that you’ve undergone a climate change transition.
The light was something that struck me in my first months living in America. We emigrated in mid-October so it was already dark in late afternoon in Scotland whereas we had bright sunlight until quite a way into the evening in Pennsylvania. The time for dusk just doesn’t vary much at all across the year here actually which is a big contrast to how it was in Scotland.
Thanks again for visiting and commenting.