Blog Hop: Fashion doll art-journaling

Hi there.

Welcome to the last Banana Frog Design Team blog hop of 2010. And, in a manner befitting such an occasion, believe it or not, I have actually managed to stick to the assigned theme!

I know! It's practically a first for me!

This month's brief was to showcase a project using our favourite colours or set of colour combinations, and here's how I rose to that challenge: It's a double spread in my home-made art-journal featuring a favourite colour combo of mine: turquoise and yellow. If you want proof that it's a favourite of mine, you need look no further than the rug/ cushions/ ornaments in my living room!I made this page earlier this month right after I'd been creating the 'Crazy Bird Lady' art doll tutorial [which you can read all about here]. Here I've used the same technique of dressing my model in the height of Banana Frog couture stamps ... but rather than make her into a 3-dimensional, moveavble doll - I've simply pasted her into my journal.

Here's a few photos of the process ....

Once I'd decided on which image to go with, I used the clear sheets with the printed designs which come with the stamps, to check which stamps would make suitable clothing!In doing this I realised that one of the rockets from the 'Retro Space' set would fit her perfectly as a fabulous dress ...
So I stamped it onto a scrap of patterned paper. When it came to cutting it out I trimmed off some of the uneccesary stamped lines:
My art-journal pages are made from brown packing-paper so I gave them a rough basecoat of gesso follwed by some strips of turquoise paper and pearlised white acrylic: Next I glued my model directly to the page, softening the edges with a little more paint and a spritz of a yellow spray-ink ['Vanilla Custard' from Dylusions] which I then smeared across the paper using a wet wipe:
Then I began adding layers of interest several of the wording stamps from the same set and also a series of stars around the model and the page.[The stamped sea-glass in the photo was something I made for a Banana Frog tutorial back in Sept 2009. It was all about craeting keepsakes by stamping on pebbles etc and it's here, if you'd like to know more.]

I also added detail using black + white pens, including giving my model wavy hair and outlining that fabulous space-rocket dress: All of the other items were ones either laying around my desk or were what was inside a stash-swap parcel from a friend, proving art-journaling is really more about hainving an idea / colour / theme in mind .. rather than having just the right item in your supplies.

Here's the finished page again: That journal is becoming more and more tactile and generally 'squishy' with each page I complete ... which is a perfect excuse for me to start another page ...

While I do that, don't forget to leave a comment below if you want to be in with a chance of winning a set of Banana Frog stamps.

[Winners are drawn at random and are announced on the BF blog usually within the week. To see which other DT members are taking part in the blog hop - visit here.]

Thanks for dropping by today, see you soon.

Julie :-)