A lesson in patience

I don't know how long most people spend on a single journal layout but this one was about a month in the making.  Simply put, I got stuck.  I created an extremely textured background using various handmade papers.  The scraps were different in size, texture & thickness.

Sorry, such a bad photo.  My camera takes horrible pictures.

The large tan pieces have smooth pieces of mica embedded in them.  The black and white pieces have actual threads.  There are a couple of pieces of burlap paper with wonderfully long strings and even some paper made with coffee grounds so it has a pebbly texture.

Once everything was secured and sealed with gel medium and thoroughly dried, I decided to paint it blue.  True blue.  Truthfully, TOO MUCH blue!  I worked on the background off and on for several weeks and it just wasn't speaking to me!  I added some lighter blue paints and some blue Gelatos and I still didn't like it.  I looked at the page over and over every time I walked through the room.  I finally decided it needed some tans and browns and that's when I got re-inspired.  And once I threw in some metallic bronze paint things started coming together.

I used several stamps and stencils to give the background some texture and even a pencil eraser and paper towel tube.  The diamond grid looks bright in the photo but it's Brilliance ink and is more subtle to the eye than to the camera.

I like chipboard shapes but some of them can be pretty thick and cause issues in a journal, especially if you will be stamping on subsequent pages.  So I very carefully tore this one in half so I had two identical butterflies.  I used a die set of a lock and key and cut shapes out of the butterflies.  After the holes were cut the butterflies were coated with paint, metallic blue Gelato and bronze embossing powder.

Then I used the same dies on card stock and once they were inked up, I placed them in the butterflies.  Tan paper was attached to the back of each so that the painted background wouldn't show through.  I cut out another key to go near the saying at the bottom.  A dollar store doily and one of Tim Holtz's journal tickets were inked up and added as well as a few die cut butterflies.

It took a lot of steps and a lot of time, but I like the end result and I hope you do, too!