Always bring your own sunshine

Seeing sunflowers in people’s gardens reminded me of a lovely surprise we saw whilst walking along our local beach last October. A single sunflower was actually growing and flowering right on the beach front. To capture this happy memory I created “Always bring your own sunshine”.

As I included one of my favourite quotes I’m pleased to join the “Poetry in Motion” challenge over at Art Journal Journey too.

To start I used a small brayer to layer yellow, blue, parchment and white acrylic paint onto the page; I didn’t let each colour dry completely before applying the next so that the colours would blend a little. I stamped a diamond design by Art Impressions and also a heart/circle design by Sugarloaf Inc. using black Archival Ink. Then I used the brayer again to add white gesso over the top to tone them down and produce a layered effect. Next I added fine splatters of the black acrylic paint using a paintbrush. I stencilled a clock face by Craft Sensations using Black Soot Distress Ink with a blending tool, this depicts turning back the time, as I am remembering seeing the sunflower in October last year. I also stencilled some cogs by Viva Décor using the same Black Soot ink in the right-hand corner around the clock face and on the top left of the page. The sunflowers are rub-on transfers by Royal & Langnickel, and I used a black Uni Pin marker and a white Uniball gel pen to add extra detail. I then added white acrylic paint splatters over the sunflowers and the rest of the page. I had some dried gesso that had formed on the top of the paint tube so I stuck these on with a UHU Stic to continue the grunge feel. I added a pretty fabric tag and then I stamped the wording around the edge of the clock using black Archival Ink. To finish, I went over the wording with a black Uni Pin pen to make it stand out more. I really like the beach colours and urban street art feel of this piece.

I thought you might like to see the solitary sunflower on our beach, here it is – we couldn’t believe our eyes when we saw it shining at the edge of the sand dunes, I’m not sure how it got there, birds maybe (grin!).

We first discovered this little sunflower when we were volunteering at Beach Care for Love My Beach, you can see my hubby to the left of the picture. We join this group every week to keep our local beach and bathing waters clean. It’s a great way to actively help the environment, care for sea life, meet people and just give something back to the community; we always have so much fun too!

The next day we were walking with one of our friends and went back for another look, she kindly took this picture of us. It reminds me of summer days and you never know maybe we will see another sunflower on our beach and if not, as the saying goes you can “Always bring your own sunshine!”

“Poetry in Motion”

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
• Liquitex Artist Color Acrylic (Swedish Blue, Parchment, Cadmium yellow Medium)
• DecoArt Crafter’s Acrylic (White)
• Tim Holtz Distress Ink (Black Soot)
• Ranger Archival Ink (Jet Black)
• Uni Pin Fine Line marker (Black 0.1mm & 0.5mm)
• Uniball Signo gel pen (White)
• Art Impressions wood mounted rubber stamp (Diamond Background T-3335)
• Sugarloaf Inc. Anita’s wood mounted rubber stamp (26645)
• Dovecraft Essentials Alphabet Stamp Set (WDN ALPHA STMP DCV0050)
• Craft Sensations (Deco Stencil Set 154892)
• Viva Décor Universal Stencil (Past Times 900270300)
• Ranger Brayer (Small 2 ¼ inch)
• Royal & Langnickel Rub-on Transfers (REC1683)
• The Works (Canvas Floral Tags)
• UHU Stic