Alpha Challenge - Now it's O!

Over at the Craft Barn it's Alpha/Dictionary Challenge and  the letter is 'O'. If you would like to find out more, please click HERE! I really did not think there would be time to play with this one, but I seized my journal and made a start and then it was impossible to stop. For my word I chose 'Orison', which is an archaic word for a prayer. In keeping with a word that came from Old French, I wanted to create pages that looked as if they are from a palimpsest, an old document that has been written over many times.

I started by painting my pages with Snowflake Fresco paint from Paper Artsy. I had some beautiful tissue decorated with musical notes from my dear friend Kezzy, which I tore and stuck on with Matte Medium by Claudine Hellmuth. The stamp you can see is just resting on the page - later I placed it somewhere quite different: behind the little door on the right hand page under the butterfly! I stamped it onto some Paper Artsy tissue paper that I still have, squirreled away! The stamp is one of the few wood block stamps I own. My son bought it for me as a Christmas present and the main image is of Saint Matilde! This is my daughter's name - not Saint - just Matilda!

I became so carried away, adding my layers of paint, stenciling Grunge Paste, stamping and adding tissue stamped with images that I then coloured and sketched over, that I forgot to take step by step photos! Some blog friends have suggested I make a video of my journaling. I should really try because I get so involved I forget everything! Please just click on the images if you would like to see in more detail.

I applied layers of Paper Artsy Frescos in Pumpkin Soup, Smoked Paprika, a touch of London Bus, Chocolate Pudding, Tinned Peas and Baltic Blue with Snowflake to 'knock back' colours and mute them a little, using a sanding block to scrape off layers in places! I also used for stamping, Black Archival and Coffee Archival. Here you can see how I mixed some Paper Artsy stamps - Hot Picks and Ink and the Dog (Petals) as well as one of  the latest PA minis with a Non Sequiteur image. I bought this set in a clearance sale: I don't think the brand exists any more, or if it does it has been taken over by another company. I do love finding unusual stamps in these sales as well as collecting stamps by my favourite designers.

I also applied Grunge Paste through a Crafters' Workshop harlequin stencil and picked it out in Treasure Gold White Fire. In this detail there is also a butterfly from some gorgeous tissue sent me by my dear crafting friend, Kezzy. The script is from the Non Sequiteur collection and is stamped in red Versafine.

I edged the doors in Green Amber Treasure Gold and used tiny green pearls for the door handles.

I used a white Posca pen to highlight the butterfly and to write the word 'Orisons' on my journal pages. Here is another of the Non Sequiteur images. I loved them and used them on Christmas cards last year, but I've never been able to incorporate them in anything since I became more 'into' craft - not until this journal page!

This close-up gives some idea of the colours and layers I built up.

Here is my dictionary definition made into a little scroll to go with my palimpsest page!I stuck on an actual dictionary page from my tatty old dictionary and then sketched around it with Posca and Sharpie pens.

You can just see a little bit of the music tissue here and my Saint Matilda stamp behind her door along with another of those Non Sequiteur images; a Paper Artsy mini of bricks and lots of script. I was quite pleased with how the whole thing blended and it did seem like a palimpsest to me. I am off now to look at some other contributions to the Alpha/Dictionary Challenge! Thank you for stopping by and taking a look.