Behind the Art with Jen

Hi there art friends!  I'm going to share my final page this month!  I love my boys and this photo of them together as young brothers, is my favorite!  They are the best thing that has happened to me! 

 When I saw this word bubble that says "TWO is always better than ONE", I knew I wanted it to go with a photo of my two boys. I wasn't sure how I would use the tag but I knew it would be used for journaling.

 The kit had these numbers and plus sign in it.  I love how that works with this page!  I cut the triangles out from the patterned paper.

 The journaling on this page is about how the kids can make me feel soft (my love for them and their sweet hugs and kisses)  but also strong in how fiercely protective I am for them.  I have to be strong when it's hard to be a mom. Having two boys is a lot more challenging that when I had just one.  It's double the frustration and time.  BUT I would never trade it for anything!  They keep me on my toes and challenge me to be soft and strong at the same time.

 Who, in your life, makes you soft and strong? 

Behind the Art with Jen

As much as I love dressing up for Halloween, I love dressing up to educate my students in my art classes!  I went as a Day of the Dead Mexican Sugar Skull last Halloween.  I painted my face and created a headband of blossoms to celebrate not only our Halloween holiday but also the Mexican holiday, Dia de los Muertos.  I love the meaning behind their celebration... to honor those that have passed before us.  To remember and celebrate our loved one's lives.  A couple days of dancing, eating, singing, parades, and family sounds like a great way to remember our heritage.  While I am not Mexican, I can appreciate a holiday that celebrates the life of others even while they have died.  Keeping their memory and accomplishments alive is part of the remembering! I'm so lucky that I get to dress up at work to teach kids cultural art!!
To make this page, I started by adding some Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Gesso to this Fancy Pants patterned paper. I love the energy of the triangles but it's a bit busy.  The Gesso toned down some of the optical energy.  I used the back of a paintbrush to scribble in the Gesso too.  It just gave some fun lines and texture to the area.
Then I used Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Whipped Spackle through a Crafter's Workshop skull stencil.  When dry, I used Gelatos® colors in Banana (from the 50's Diner set), Watermelon, Margarita Mix (from the Tropical Set), and Red Cherry to create dripping color over the Whipped Spackle.  I created some puddles of each color on my craft mat and used lots of water and a brush to create drips.
The Gelatos® colors Metallic Melon and Raspberry were added by making puddles of color and water on the craft mat and putting the paper face down in the puddles.  I let some of it drip by holding the paper at an angle.
Once all of the color dried, I put the stencil back over top of the skull and used a Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Essential PITT Artist pen to outline some of the shapes.  This gave it a big more definition.
The sequins were applied with some Gel Medium added in some areas to "glue" them down.

I love the colors and symbolism of the Dia de los Muertos holiday and had a blast recreating some of the energy and fun here!  I'm so lucky to be an art teacher and have the opportunity to dress up like this at work!  It's educational and just darn fun!
Materials:
Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Whipped Spackle
Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Gesso
Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Gel Medium
Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Essential PITT Artist Pen
Faber-Castell Design Memory Craft Gelatos® colors Metallic Melon, Raspberry, Red Cherry, Banana, Watermelon, Margarita Mix
All papers and embellishments are from Scrapbooking From the Inside Out  "Lucky" kit for November 2014.
Stencil: The Crafter's Workshop

Behind the Art with Felecia

I could not have done the Liberation theme without telling the story of how I first met Jesus. I was surprised to find that such a momentous story of my life has NEVER found its way to a page.

This is a story I must have told a hundred times, reviewing in my own mind the details, but I've never documented it on a page or in a journal.

How is it that sometimes our most important stories remain untold? How is it that the turning points on our journey so often remain undocumented? And how is it that our spiritual stories so often take a back seat to our other stories in our journals and pages?

Its somewhat surprising to me that I can remember the weather, what I was wearing, the Bible verses, all the details of this story. 

Somehow the butterflies seem appropriate to tell the story of this kind of transformative experience. Because I really WAS set free from the things that slowed me down, made me feel like I had to crawl. 

Sequins are not something I've used before in my layouts. I experimented a bit with just tossing them onto the page to see where they would land...I did it  few times and then sort of glued them where they landed, moving them a bit here or there.

They feel bubbly to me, effervescent, like they are rising to the top. Is this not the way a spiritual experience makes us feel? Effervescent? Like we are rising?

In the end, this is what Liberation really means to me - to be set free from bondage, from chains and beliefs that hold me down, keep me restrained.