How to relieve stress

Larger art journal

Yeah, these quotes are meaningful right now

details of the molding paste

I have been a frustrated art journaler for years. One of those that follows a bunch of women on the internet, watches videos on YouTube, and tries. A lot of my efforts will never see the light of day, but this one turned out to my liking. And that counts.

Donna Downey has demonstrated several times on transferring an image using Golden Gel Medium. This is my second attempt, and it ain't working yet. I think my printer is not of the same quality as Ms. Downey's. Or, and this is a distinct possibility, I just freaking can't do this technique. Should you want to try this at home, you do the following:

1. Select an image to transfer off the net, and print it. Either black and white or color, doesn't matter.
2. Gesso your art journal page and let that dry completely, like overnight.
3. Apply a medium layer of Golden Regular Gel Medium to the page where you want the transfer. Do not hesitate or wait, immediately lay your print down with the ink side on the gel, and start to press with your hands. You may use a bone folder on it's edge to go back and forth. Do this for about 30 seconds. Lift one corner to check.
4. If image is starting to transfer, try rubbing a bit more, but if you wait too long, the print will glue to the page. This happened the first time I tried it.
5. In the above spread, I realized the best I was going to get was a ghost of the moth, on the right hand page, so I went with it. Peeled the print off, cut up the moth and the caterpillar, and then applied them directly to the page with the same gel medium.

I let all of that dry, then went over with a wash of gesso and beige paint to try and blend in the edges. Didn't get what I wanted, so took out some stencils and, using Golden's light molding paste, applied it through the stencils to the edges. I used leaves (Dyan Reavley), and some little squares (Rae Missigman).

Let that dry completely, then applied a glaze of Golden Raw Umber, waited a minute, and wiped it off with baby wipes.

I have not given up. Of course not, it's me. Stubborn south side of Chicago me. Next time going to try something from a magazine. Just because I can. Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by.
Linda