Sometimes I Need to be Reminded

The other day a friend and I were talking about how different siblings can be. She, apparently, is quite a bit different that her sister. In an effort to explain this to her daughter, my friends mother said, "Lauren, not everyone wants to see the world."

Now Lauren and I can't imagine a life like that, but that phrase has been resonating in my mind all week. We have the grown (well mostly) kid at home, and yep, you guessed it, they don't all want to see the world. And it's okay. So I took some time today to make a journal page to remind me....

The entire time I was making this spread I kept thinking of Alison Bomber's work, of which I am a big fan. She works a lot in browns and blues, which is not my usual color scheme but I thought I would give it a try. She is also a QUEEN of layers. I managed to get 10 on my background. 

I started by putting a lot of water down in my Dylusions Journal, followed by Distress Paints in Weathered Wood, Iced Spruce, and Stormy Sky. After that dried I went in with a bit of Wild Honey mixed with Picket Fences and Antique Linen. The Antique Linen is the first color I've had to replace in that palette...it goes with everything!!

Next up was some soft gel through a stencil...I had the soft gel for a while, but haven't used it...perfect for translucent stencils. I applied some Distress Ink on top of the stencils to make the shapes pop a bit, and put on some Washi tape for color and texture.  I used the world stamp from a Tim Holtz collection for some added interest in the background as well.

My eye kept catching a container of white reinforcers on the floor (goodness knows where they came from?!) so I popped them onto the background and applied some more paint over top them in the same background colors. They looked a little plain tho, so out came the embossing powders which worked pretty darn well...I rather like the mixture of them on the spread now. The final background layer was some text stamped in white ink. 

I started with a size 12 tag - might as well have started with a 10 since I had to cut it down, but ah, the things we learn along the way. I'm not very good yet with the individual Hero Arts stamps, so the stamping took me a bit. I auditioned several backgrounds and finally just went back to a manilla tag, coffee archival ink, and some Antique Linen Distress Stain. 

I covered the tag with some scrap paper which I quieted down with some watery Antique Linen Distress Paint to bring them all together. Next I added some Tattered Angels mists and a mixture of Dirty Martini and Black Dylusions spray splattered about. Washi tape helped join the tag to the background. 

Final embellishments included my favorite film strip 2 ways, some Chinese tokens, and a faux rusted compass. Looking back I see it really isn't blue and brown, more blue and yellow-ish orange...but hey, at least I gave it a go.