From Thoughts and Words to a Journal Page (and a beautiful pantry!)

Here are some of the journal pages I've been playing around with as practise for the Letter Love 101 class.  It's great to get out all the markers and pens and just play.  In this first one I used copic markers for the colour in the flowers and stems and then I used pan pastels for the overall background colouring.  It's the first time I've used them, and I must say they are a lot of fun to work with.

After doing that page, I decided to try using the same techniques to make an ATC.  I found this much more challenging and realize that to be happier with the results, I'll have to start with a much finer marker when working on such a small scale piece.

The rest of the pictures show the transformation from black and white lettering to the colourful finished page. I used Pitt pens and Microns to do my lettering.

 Then I used my Copic markers to colour in the flowers...

...and some of the features in the grid lines.

 Still using the Copics, I coloured in some of the shapes created by the letters.  Here's what the page looks like with all of the marker work done.  Now, on to the background.

I used my Inktense watercolour pencils.  I love these pencils!  You use them just like a pencil crayon, pressing as hard or as soft as you like and blending and shading as you do with regular pencil crayons.  I wanted a soft background to contrast the bright pop of colour that the Copic markers provide, so I was shading lightly with the pencils.

Here's where the magic comes in.  Using one of these wonderful watercolour brushes, you just paint over the areas you coloured in with the Intense pencils to release the watercolour pigment!  I just keep a paper towel beside me as I work so I can switch from one colour to the next without muddying up my paint.  It really only takes a little dab on the paper towel and you're ready to go. This makes the Inktense pencils perfect for travelling since you don't need a water jar for cleaning your brush!

I just love how the colour pops as you brush over it with the aqua brush!  By the way, Inktense comes in various sets (in wonderful tins) but they also sell individually.  That means that when you eventually use up a favourite colour pencil (they last a long time) you can replace just that one colour that you need. 

Okay, so here's the crazy thing...the other day we went to the Bulk Barn and stocked up on all the various flours and other 'stuff' required for gluten free bread baking (that's a whole other story which I won't get in to here).  Gone are the days when I could just have a bag of "all purpose" flour in the pantry.  Well, as you can see from the photos below, everything kind of looks alike so I organized them into mason jars and labelled them.  Well, thanks to Joanne's influence I couldn't just write plain boring labels could I???  LOL  Thanks Joanne, my pantry looks "Letter Love"ly!