You Are Stronger Than Your Excuses (mixed media)

 Hi everyone! I do hope that you are all having a gorgeous Easter weekend. It's really pretty here today in the foothills of Appalachia. I'm hoping that dogwood winter is past us now and we can get on with spring! I've had enough of the cold to last me for a while. I'm just hoping that we don't have an overly hot and humid summer here even though I can take the heat better than the cold. Anyway, on to what I wanted to show you. I made an art journal and from time to time I will share with you what all a page or two.

 I titled it "You are Stronger than Your Excuses" and have used several different things to create it. I had started out with cutting rectangles using scrap pieces of card stock to build my walls. I also grabbed some sheet rock tape and applied that then topped it with texture medium. You will see a close up of that in a minute.

 I also used sandpaper once my background was dry to give it a more worn look and hand cut each of the leaves out.

 I also used some mulberry flowers to add to my vines with some flat back pearls for centers. I wanted a pop of color so these two pages didn't look so dark.

 I used a Tim Holtz mask on top of the texture paste and used walnut stain ink to achieve a worn look.

 Here is a little better angle of how I used the sheet rock tape and texture paste.

Of course I used my Faber Castell markers to do all of my shading and accent areas. I am so in love with those markers and believe they were money well spent.
I hope that you enjoyed seeing one of the newer hobbies that I've fallen in love with creating. There is just something about getting the mixed media that is extremely relaxing to me and I find that using my fingers as a tool to assist me to create these is awesome. I'm not one of those people who if they get a little paint on their hands freak out. I welcome the paint and markers, matter of fact I'm not sure that I could create these without getting it all over me. (and that's a good thing!)
I just wanted to wish everyone a wonderful weekend and hope that it's as gorgeous in your part of the world as it is mine. Happy Easter everyone!