Donna Salazar Designs: Donna's Art Journal ~ "Butterfly"

Hello my peeps! I'm on a bloggin' roll! It has been hard for me to consistently blog since we moved because I take care of my grand son to some degree on a daily basis. Some days I get him up, feed him, bathe him, and dress him. Then we have a very tight schedule of fort building, walking and leaf gathering, wonderful music time using pots and wooden spoons, playing with cars and singing and dancing... It is very important stuff, this!
A couple days a week I may just help get him ready in the morning so he can go to his other grandma's house. But then, on his mommy or daddy's days off (because I have this uber-soft-mushy-center-filling for this little guy), I end up watching him for their "quick" 2 hour visits to the store or I keep him at home when they are in a hurry to take or pick up someone from work, or if they just need to do another of those "quick" errands... and I always have said "Yes, of course I'll watch him." I mean... who could resist a face like his?

However, lately I'm doing a little better about "trying" to say "No" more often, thus, more regular blog posts and tutorials for you! And yet there has still been plenty of time for fort building, leaf gathering and singing & dancing. It's all about balance I guess.

Anywho... I've got a stepped out tutorial of an art journal page for you that I made when I had a couple hours to myself. The quote is from a Dave Matthew's Band song.

Here are some step outs:
The background was painted with some white gesso and dried then I added some of my original Mix'd Media Inx.

I began with the lightest color (Jasmine) and covered random areas of the background by bending the edges of the squishy pad back and using the rounded center to pat the Inx on, then I blended it in with my fingers.

I used a stylus blender with Honey MMI around the edges.

I sprayed a light mist of water and the Inx became almost "watercolor-like" so I could blend it with my fingers (you can use an ink blender but I like to get my hands dirty).

I added some Patina in random areas around the edges.

I misted with water and blended the Patina in as well. I LOVE the way that these Inx react when you are using them on a gessoed surface!

I sprayed some Green Olive Smooch Spritz into a bowl and used a watercolor brush to add some vines and leaves.

I added a bit more green on the bottom and added a tiny bit of water splatters to give the leaves water spots and make some of the Spritz run.

I flicked some Ice Rink, Sea Breeze, Evergreen & River Mossy Spritz on the background, added a bit more water and let some of it drip.

I added some MMI in Truffle along the bottom and sides.

I then blended again with a bit of water.

I misted water in a couple spots to get extra drips.

I added a bit more water to the background then added more Honey MMI to the background above the vines using a stylus blender loaded up with Inx.

I blended with my finders and misted with a tiny bit more water to get the Inx to drip into the vines.

I used some Gloss Heavy Gel to decoupage the butterflies onto the background. I had printed the butterflies onto Crafty Chronicle pages a long time ago and finally had a use for them. I "think" I got the images as a free download on Pinterest.

I used a small paintbrush to apply some Truffly MMI around the edges of the butterflies to make them stand out from the background.

I blended the Inx into the background using water on the same brush.

I used my Sparrow CHOX to stamp the quote because I needed the ink to dry faster. I would have used the original Inx if I was going to emboss the quote.