Snapdragons

Snapdragons (antirrhinums) are one of my all time favourite summer flowers and as they are in full bloom in my garden I thought I would create a page. With my love for this flower I’m pleased to be able to join in the fun with Bluebeard and Elizabeth from Altered Book Lover with her “Summertime Love” theme over at Art Journal Journey.

I started with Potter’s Clay and Rich Cocoa Memento Ink which I applied to an acrylic block, spritzed with water and painted onto the page using a paintbrush. Then I stippled the same inks through a brick design stencil and also a wood grain stencil; these designs remind me of the area in our garden where the snapdragons are flowering. Next I tore up a page, that contained information about plant biology, from a Pear’s Cyclopaedia and layered the paper pieces onto my page using a UHU Stic. Once the glue had dried, I applied Butter Cream, Watermelon and Earl Grey Faber-Castell Gelatos and edged the papers with a black Sharpie Marker, smudging all the colours with my finger. I splattered the background with black acrylic paint using a paint brush and once dry I covered the whole page with white gesso. While the gesso was drying, I used a baby wipe to remove it from the papers and some of the brick and wood grain designs allowing the writing and colours to show through. The snapdragons are from a wallpaper sample which I fussy cut and stuck to the page using Liquitex matte gel medium. Once the gel medium had dried I outlined them with a Derwent Graphik marker and added shadows using Desert and Slate Spectrum Aqua Markers. To show my love for these flowers, I used some pretty pink heart brads. I pushed them through the page and then covered the back of each brad with a piece of masking tape to prevent any damage to the next journal page. I drew a very faint green circle around each heart using a Moss Spectrum Aqua Marker and then I added splatters of the Moss and also a Chocolate Aqua marker using a paintbrush; I did this by scribbling the Aqua markers onto an acrylic block and spritzing the block with water to dilute the ink. The “snapdragon” wording is made up from some leftover Cardstock Stickers by Little Yellow Bicycle that I had in my craft stash, and as I didn’t have the full complement of letters to spell out the word, I also made some of the letters using card and Uni Posca paint pens. The antirrhinum definition is cut from my old school dictionary, it is stuck to the page using a UHU Stic and outlined with a Charcoal Grey Derwent Inktense pencil and a black Uni Posca paint pen. Next I edged a pink “Love this” sign by The Works using a black Sharpie marker and stuck it to the page using double-sided foam tape. To finish, I added some gold flower outline stickers, green pearls and green lace trim.

Here are the lovely snapdragons in our garden! These flowers are also known as “dragon flowers” and their Latin name antirrhinum means resembling an animal’s snout.

They bring back the most wonderful childhood memories of when I used to play with these flowers and make the dragon open and close its mouth by gently squeezing either side of the flower head– well in actual fact I still do this, it is such fun (grin!)

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 (Black)
• Memento Ink (Potter’s Clay, Rich Cocoa)
• Faber-Castell Gelatos (Butter Cream, Watermelon, Earl Grey)
• Spectrum Aqua Artist Marker (Desert, Slate, Chocolate, Moss)
• Uni Posca Paint Pens (White, Black, Brown, Pink)
• Derwent Inktense Pencils (Charcoal Grey 2100)
• Derwent Graphik Line Marker (Black 0.05mm)
• Sharpie Fine Point Permanent Marker (Black)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• The Pocket Oxford Dictionary
• Pear’s Cyclopaedia 2007-2008 Edition
• Wallpaper sample
• The Works M&C Boutique (Vintage Die Cut Shapes)
• Little Yellow Bicycle Cardstock Stickers (Fresh Verse PD-140)
• Docrafts Anita’s Outline Stickers (Flower Blossom – Gold ANT810143)
• Trimcraft Simply Creative (Adhesive Pearls SCDOT056)
• Docrafts Papermania Botanicals (Adhesive Lace Trim PMA358334)
• Brads (Hearts – Pink BRHEP1)
• Liquitex Matte Gel Medium
• UHU Stic
• The Range double-sided foam tape