Flying Friends in a Sea of Pink

This has to be the pinkest artwork I've created for many years! Usually I opt for greens but I guess sometimes we need a change. I made it for an art journal swap with the theme "Stuff and Nonsense".

Here's a quick rundown on what products I used. These arty treasures used are all available at www.shop.artbyjenny.com.au ...
- Dylusions Ink Sprays
- Dylusions Paint
- Dylusions Dy Cuts
- Dylusions Stamps (Flight of Fancy, Everything's Rosy, Anatomy of a Page)
- Dylusions Journaling Block
- Archival Ink Pads (Jet Black)
- Ranger Craft Mat
- Jane Davenport Inkredible Pen (for the sketch in the background)
- Jane Davenport Mermaid Markers
- Jane Davenport Glitz-sea Markers
- Tim Holtz Crazy Dog Stamps
- Tim Holtz Layering Stencils
- Tim Holtz Ink Blending Foam Tools
- Sharp scissors
- Strathmore Mixed Media Paper

How I made this artwork...

The first thing I did when planning this artwork was draw out a few ideas with the stamp sets next to me. In the sketch at the back of this photo, you can see I was thinking about the adorable Dyan Reaveley birds with long flamingo legs, Ruby Rainbow with her groovy brolly and the beautiful roses from Everything's Rosy.
With art, you've got to go with the flow as sometimes things just don't go according to plan, especially when you have so many ideas racing around your mind!

To create the hills, I used the scallop border stamp and placed it in a wavy line on the acrylic block. Rubber is flexible so with the thinner stamps like this one, they'll hold still (most of the time) until you've finished. Then it flings back into its straight shape.

Once I finished stamping out the octopus tenticles, flower heads and scallop hills, I got inky with the Dylusions Ink Sprays. I used Calypso Teal, London Blue, Lemon Zest and Dirty Martini.

Remember what I said about art not behaving? Well, I should have used watercolour paper, mixed media paper or applied gesso first because the inks didn't blend, they just soaked into the one spot. Ah well, a few more sprays of London Blue on the hills and base of the page sort of helped. And I wanted a cloudy day anyway! lol :)

After it dried (thank goodness for hot summery days), it didn't improve. I'd made such a mess of it, so I added some Dylusions Paint in White Linen through a few stencils in an attempt to calm it down. Didn't work. To me, this page ended up being a total disaster so I left it, uncovered at first but had to hide it because it was messing with my mojo!

I left the background to dry and got busy stamping and cutting out characters and flowers for the garden. I coloured them with Jane Davenport's Mermaid Markers and Dylusions Ink Sprays (just take off the lid and dip in a brush).

Have you used Dylusions inks with a brush yet? Or tried the Mermaid Markers? The colours are gorgeous... so vibrant and clean - when you mix the colours, they stay vibrant :) Always a great thing. Both make beautiful pastel shades when mixed with white and wonderful dusky darks when a dash of grey, black or brown is added.

While colouring I had a brainwave (it happens sometimes)... and stamped out some tentacles, feathers and flowers, and drew some wings for the dog. These were all fussy cut with scissors before using the Mermaid Markers to ink around the edges to hide the white paper.

The time cutting out the critters refreshed my mind and I took out the Dylusions Ink Sprays again... this time in Bubblegum Pink, Postbox Red, Pure Sunshine (golden yellow) and Pomegranate Seed (which is a beautiful dark red).

Basically, I sprayed the Bubblegum Pink across the top, Postbox Red at the base and where the two met, I sprayed roughly with the yellow. Then a drop more pink and some Pomegranate was added before sending it outside into the summer sun to dry. The paper itself was upright during the spraying process (I turned it around a few times) rather than left flat on the table. This enabled the ink to run down the page, creating the drips and shadows.

While outside, I splashed White Linen Ink Spray about. To do this yourself, take off the lid and either splash about like a vinegar bottle (using your finger as a stopper) or use the straw of the lid to dip and shake off the ink. I did both :)

After this dried I sprayed the whole page with an aerosol fixative (should be available at your local newsagent, contact me if you can't find it).
Dylusions inks remain reactive with water even after they've dried in 40+C sunshine, a splash of water in the wrong spot could mess up my new creation. Being reactive enables the ink to be lifted off to create faux bleach effects or to change sections to other colours (wet with water and blot with dry kitchen or blotting paper to lift off the ink).

The different textures in the background were added using Dylusions Paint (White Linen), Distress Oxide Ink Pads (Fossilized Amber and Tattered Rose) and a foam blending tool with a variety of my stencils by Tim Holtz : Ornate, Flames, Mosaic, Bubbles, Dot Fade, Splatters and Zig Zag.

I drew the snail with a spiral staircase on his shell so he could easily reach his fab row of houses. They were made from the hair or hat of one of Dyan's Dylusions Dy-Cuts (All The Gals).

I gave the fairy dog a glittery collar and sparkly nose using Jane Davenport's Glitz-Sea Pens (they are so pretty!).
The little dragonfly (on the toadstool) was added afterwards along with a few scribbly flowers along the base of the page. The octopus flowers turned out pretty cool with their feather leaves.

The other fairy is from a pack of Dylusions Dy-Cut... she's on a mission flying through the air with her toothbrush and butterfly wings (stamps). She's made up of a couple of paper dolls with a few changes including scallop skirt hem, different legs and some glittery ink added to her sunglasses. I love her curly hair and spotty stockings :)

Thanks for reading my blog post. I hope it makes you smile and inspires you to get messy with paints, inks and other arty treasures!

Have a happy creative week!
:)
Jenny