Art journal cover - Soul of a mermaid

 Hi everyone,

Recently, I was invited to a letter journal round robin - actually the first time I'm participating in something like that. Today I'm sharing my cover for this letter journal. 

If you're not familiar with this form of art journal swaps, I'll give you a short explanation: Everyone who participates creates a journal that fits into a standard envelope. The journals are sent around in a circle, the recipient creates a spread in it and sends it to the next person and so on. Once the journal returns to the owner, it is filled with lots of pretty pages by the other artists.

I created a quick blue background base with acrylic paints applied with a baby wipe. On top, I added some stenciling with the same colors, just introducing a light grey shade as a new one. I dried the paints very well and then doodled around one of the stencil patterns with a fine black pen to accent the design. Also, I added some spatters with watered down acrylic paint.

Next I added some background stamping with the dictionary page as well as the invoice/waybill stamp, both stamped with teal and only partly to create just a subtle background element.

Because of the aqua tone of the cover I thought of the mermaid stamp and chose it as a focal image for the front. I stamped the mermaids onto watercolor paper, colored them with ZIG markers, cut them out and inked the edges with a black marker. As they screamed for something to be placed onto, I combined that with the title. I die cut the words into some black cardstock, tore the edges with the help of a ruler and placed a nice shimmery paper from my scrap collection under it.

I glued the elements down and stamped the mermaid and sailor quote on the back. After making the the fold, I inked the edges (as well as the fold) with a blending tool.

 

Stamps used:
Dictionary Page (19015) 
Waybill/Invoice Background (19416)
Mermaid Trio (18187)
Soul Of A Mermaid Mouth Of A Sailor (20639)

Other material:
- Canson watercolor paper
- black cardstock
- shimmer or glitter paper
- acrylic paints (Lukas: arctic, turquoise, prussian blue, light grey || Liquidex: bright aqua green)
- Archival Ink (paradise teal, seafarer)
- Versafine Claire Ink (nocturne)
- ZIG real brush markers
- stencils (Lemon Creation: broken circle || A.B. studio: arches || Dina Wakley: fractured circles)
- alphabet dies (Tim Holtz: gift card bag with alpha)
- black fineliner


See you soon!