Black and white ....

.... Good afternoon!  The Dylusions Facebook Challenge this month is to use only BLACK AND WHITE (if you have a person you can use flesh tones).  The perfect challenge to start off my new square black art journal.  Here's the spread:

Stamps: Dylusions - Two Heads are Better than One, Word Love
Inks: Archival - Jet Black; Dylusions Paint/Ink - White Linen
Accessories: Dylusions Sq Black Journal; Dylusions 8" × 5" Stencils - Flower Medley, Arrow Borders, Stars (not sure of the name); Signo White Pen; Wink of Stella - Black, Clear; Sakura Glaze Pen - Black; Sharpie Fine Liner - Black

I wasn't at all sure where I was going with this spread.  I started on the right side and sprayed White Linen ink through stencils.  I added white lines around the borders of some images and filled in most of the petals on the flowers at the top of the page.  I added a border of arrows down the side - some I coloured white, some were painted with black or clear Wink of Stella - they shimmer so much in real-life!  On the left page I decided to keep the background simpler, but echoed the patterns on the right.  I painted a couple white patches on which I stamped two words "Love Life" - seems a good motto to live by.  I lightly sprayed with the white ink and added arrows across the bottom.  I finished the spread with this fabulous image.  I stamped her on white paper and to add definition to the image went over portions with a black glaze pen, black Wink of Stella and a white Signo.  I ran her through my Xyron and adhered her flat to the page.  I had lots of fun with this.  Here are a couple of close up photos of each page:

I finished the spread just in time to play along this month.  That's all for now!  Bye!

Diamonds are a girl's best friend ....

....sang Marilyn Monroe in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" and that song is the inspiration for my art journal double page spread.  I joined the  Facebook Dylusions Challenge (a closed group, but you can ask to join) back in June, but haven't been able to play along with any of the challenges until this month.  The challenge prompt for August is to use YELLOW, PURPLE AND DIAMONDS.  I thought of several quotes, but settled on Marilyn's quote after watching a clip from the film.  Here's my finished double page spread:

Stamps: Dylusions - Pin Up Queen, Clearly Alpha; Cas-ual Friday Stamps - My Precious
Inks: Dylusion Sprays - Lemon Zest, Pure Sunshine, Black Marble, Crushed Grape, White Linen; Dylusions Paints - Crushed Grape, Lemon Zest; Archival - Jet Black, Violet; Stampin' Up! - Craft Whisper White
Accessories: Dylusions - Large Art Journal; Stencils - Dylusions - Shattered, Flower Medley, Suits (Diamond); Kite - Hishi; MFT - Graduated Diamonds; Tim Holtz Deco Sheets - Silver; Signo - White Pen; Sharpie - Black Pen; Glossy Accents; Copic Markers

A quick step by step guide to how this spread was created:

1. Spritz the right hand page with water and liberally spray on both Lemon Zest and Pure Sunshine inks.
2. Close other page over and press together, open up and dry off any excess with kitchen roll.
3. Create some ghost images using stencils and water.  Leave water to stand for about 30 seconds and dry with kitchen roll - see ghosted images.
4. Add more background pattern by spraying through more stencils using Lemon Zest and Pure Sunshine.  Allow to dry.
5. Using my diamond mask as base, I created four more masks 1" and ½" bigger and the same smaller.  I lay these over the yellow background and sponged on Crushed Purple paint.  The paint is reasonably translucent, so I added a second layer of paint.
6. While the paint dried I stamped the Pin Up Queen images on white paper and coloured with Copic Markers and then cut them out.  I added Glossy Accents to the skulls eyes and nose - they are, after all, diamond cabochons!
7. I stamped a variety of gem images onto silver Deco Paper, allowed them to dry and cut them out.  Love the sparkle on the gems.
8. Once the purple paint was dry (very important as writing on paint that's not dry will kill your white pen) I drew some white lines around the diamonds and added Marilyn's quote around the largest diamond.
9. I added more pattern to the spread by adding some yellow paint through diamond and flower stencils, and then spritzing white and black inks through stencils too.
10. I stamped the quote "Diamonds are a girl's best friend" in archival ink and added definition by drawing around the letters in black.
11. I ran the Pin Up Queen through my Xyron and adhered her to the spread and added a large diamond in her hand.
12. I finished the spread by adding more sparkling gems, gems stamped in white directly on the pages and some words.

Here are a few photos showing how the spread progressed.

Only one layer of Crushed Grape here - you can clearly see the patterns underneath.

 Colouring the images with Copic markers - I usually go outside the lines if I'm cutting them out.

 Checking layout!

After the second layer of Crushed Grape - you can still see the patterns underneath which is fine, 

but the depth of colour is much better here.

Beautiful sparkly gems!

 Almost finished here - quote stamped, more background patterns added.

You can see the glossy accents on the eyes and nose here,

they are diamond cabochons!

Close up of the finished left-hand page.

Close up of the finished right-hand page.

I had lots of fun creating this page and found the challenge prompt a great help.  And today I'm off to our regular monthly meeting of the Scrappy Chic Kitchen Roll Stampers where we'll be revisiting some of the techniques that Dyan demonstrated in March.  And I get to see what else everyone has created since our last meeting.  And some news too - Dyan is coming back to see us all in October - my classes are already booked and I can't wait!!  That's all for now - have a good weekend.