Dragonflies and Stars

This page is inspired by two things; firstly by some very magical water reflections under a bridge on a recent day out in Garstang and secondly by the most wonderful quote by an unknown author on one of my friend’s posts – so thank you Kristah.

“May you touch dragonflies and stars, dance with fairies and talk to the moon”

This page started with a background gone wrong, so I covered it in a thick layer of Pébéo white gesso and I rolled a clean brayer over the surface to create a textured effect. Once the gesso had dried, I scribbled Earl Grey and Caramel Faber-Castell gelatos over the top. Then I dipped my finger into some water and rubbed the gelato to smudge the colours. Next I dragged a Hickory Smoke Distress Ink pad over the page and also used a grey Faber-Castell Big Brush marker and blended them both onto the page with my finger. I like the way the gelatos and ink bought out the texture that I had created previously with the brayer on the gesso. Then I vertically stamped the rows of dots by Craft Sensations using black Archival Ink and I used the same ink to stamp a circle/heart design by Sugarloaf Inc. and also a small script texture stamp by The Works.  I used a circle stencil to add modelling paste to the edges of the page using a palette knife and when it had dried I painted it with white acrylic paint so it stood out from the background better. Then I used an acrylic block and a paintbrush to add splatters of white and black acrylic paint. I added the white circles by drawing round a tube of tape using a white Uni Posca paint pen. For the dragonfly circles, I used a circle cutter to cut three circles from some pre-stamped paper (this is the paper I create whilst completing other journal pages as I always test my stamps before using them on my pages). On each circle I stamped a dragonfly by Eco Green Crafts using black Versafine Ink and applied black Papermania embossing powder over the top. Then I shook the excess powder onto a piece of scrap paper and tapped the circles against the table to make sure I’ve removed any stray powder. Once the excess powder was safely returned to its container, I used a heat gun to melt the embossing powder. I swept the gun over the images, taking care not to direct the heat in one area for too long until the embossing powder changed to a glossy finish becoming smooth and dimensional. I used a black Faber-Castell big brush marker to draw black circle outlines and stuck the dragonfly circles over the top using a UHU Stic. Then I drew a dot border around the edges of these circles using the white Uni Posca paint pen again. I stamped the quote using black Archival Ink and I went over the wording with a black Uni Pin pen to make it stand out more. The stars are outline stickers which I coloured with a black Sharpie permanent marker. To finish, I coloured some paper flowers using a Red Violet Spectrum Aqua marker by liberally colouring the centre of the flower and then applying water with a paintbrush so the water spread the ink across the petals giving a shaded effect and once they had dried I stuck them to the page with Glossy Accents.

I’m pleased to be able to join Rosie who is hosting the “Circles” challenge over at Art Journal Journey.

Garstang is a lovely old market town in Lancashire, here you can see the view up the high street, and the gentleman in blue is sat under the Market Cross. The town is steeped in history and there has been a market here for over 200 years and we always enjoy looking around the weekly outdoor market stalls that wind their way up the high street.

We always go to The Royal Oak Hotel for lunch, which is a 17th century coaching inn situated opposite the Market Cross in the centre of the town. The pub is made up of several small rooms which are decorated in a traditional pub style with beamed ceilings, wood panelling and stained glass, along with china and brass adorning the walls. We sat in this little room off the bar which has a very cosy feel.

As T Stands for Tuesday, I’m sharing a beer called “Pint of Thrones” by Robinsons Brewery. It’s pictured with our usual choice of prawn sandwich with chips (shrimp sandwich with fries for my friends in the US) – so yummy!

After lunch we like to walk along the Lancaster Canal and also the River Wyre. We walked about 5 miles looking at the boats and scenery.  This white bridge is the Fylde Water Board Crossing and carries a water pipe across the canal which is so pretty and quite elaborate considering its rather mundane task (grin!).

There were quite a few boats along the canal as it was a hot sunny day. There were many narrow boats and we had just walked round a corner when we saw this one coming towards us – don’t worry though, it’s not going that fast, they are limited to 4 mph. I think my hubby secretly wants a narrow boat!

Then we made our way back along the canal approaching the Cathouse Bypass Bridge and I think dragonflies may well enjoy these reeds and iris.

We love the wonderful views and countryside in this area. At the Wrye Aqueduct, which is a bridge taking the canal over a river, we turned down some steps to continue our walk along the River Wrye. This aqueduct was first used in 1797 and is still going strong today!

As we passed under the aqueduct, we saw the most amazing circular reflections on the ceiling. These are caused by a few drops of water from the canal above dripping down into the river below.

The background of my page reminds me of these walls and the wonderful circle reflections that we saw. The circles were so magical, it’s as if fairies were dancing on the water – just like Kristah’s quote!

We then followed the path alongside the River Wyre through the trees and back into town. We always have such a lovely time in Garstang, it’s a beautiful place!

Thanks for joining me today! If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you.

Here is a list of all the materials used to create this art journal page:

• Pébéo White Gesso
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White, Black)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Hickory Smoke)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Tsukineko Versafine Ink (Onyx Black)
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Red Violet)
• Faber-Castell Gelatos (Earl Grey, Caramel)
• Faber-Castell Big Brush Pitt artist pen (Black 199, Cold Grey IV 233)
• Uni Posca Paint Pen (White)
• Sharpie Permanent Fine Point Marker (Black)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.5mm)
• Papermania Embossing Powder (Black)
• Pébéo Modeling Paste
• Craft Sensations (Clear Stamps CR0274/16R2)
• Sugarloaf Inc. Anita’s wood mounted rubber stamp (26645)
• The Works (Clear Stamps CR0274/TW3)
• Eco Green Crafts Recycled Rubber Stamps (Petal Party #04309)
• Dovecraft Essentials Alphabet Stamp Set (WDN ALPHA STMP DCVW0050)
• Creative Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Pre-stamped paper
• The Works M&C Boutique (Mini Paper Flower Embellishments)
• Outline Stickers (Gold Stars)
• UHU Stic