Sunday, August 26, 2012

envelopes ... envelopes!

Hi,
Two days ago I did another mini clean up in my craft room. It was all about envelopes and up-cycling. I kept a big box full of old envelopes (pretty ones AND the ugly ones too). I just don't have the heart to discard them, you see. Until two days ago, I threw a few that had 'no artsy potential' and used some on my new project. How about art journal pages with lots of old envelopes on them??. F.U.N.

See if you could spot those envelopes here;

Love the peek-a-boo pocket from one of them. I wrote 'POSTAGE' on a piece of paper, inserted in before adhering the envelope to the page. I squeezed 7 old envelopes in there!. Simply glued them to the page with gel medium and covered generously with gesso. While the gesso was drying, I freely imprinted the pages with a stamp (with no ink). This would give beautiful texture on the pages when smudged with thin aqua paint later :).


I finger-painted over the envelopes some aqua acrylic, applied thicker paint around the envelopes. Spritzed on the wet aqua paint with water at random so I could clearly stamp some flowers with leftover aqua paint. When dried, inked the edges with brown Stazon. That fern-like design is actually stamped imprint, washed with acrylic paint. I doodled and collaged on the envelopes as I would to my else, flat journal pages. Wrote quotes from Jane Austen's  book, Pride and Prejudice with a black pigment pen. I am such a fan!.


More envelopes. And postage stamps too, of course!. I chose stamps depicted a lady (Juliette), a man (but he's too old to be Romeo), an owl (the messenger) and some green landscape. I cheekily named my pages today "Letter for Juliette, just for fun.
See, you could up-cycle envelopes even on journal pages :).

Here's a chance for you to play along with LESSology Challenge #17:Fun With Envelope. Come join in the fun and you may be a winner of a $25 gift certificate to Gauche Alchemy!. 

And, I'm linking my pages to Art Journal Everyday this week :).

Have a good week end.
Hugs.

16 comments:

  1. Wow this is beautiful work. Who would have thought y.ou could do so much with these envelopes. Thanks for reminding me about stamping into damp gesso. I love how that looks and had forgotten about that technique. Xo

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  2. Stamping into Gesso and inking later...that's a super tip! I think of all the time I've wasted just watching it slowly dry and the whole time I could have been stamping into it! Thank you for sharing that on your exquisite recycled envelopes journal page. Looks fantastic :)

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    1. or just finger smudge over it with watered-down paint. LOL, good that NOW you can stamp away :).

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  3. WOW ...WOW! What an incredibly GOOD IDEA! LOVE THIS! Yay! A great way to clean out the envie drawer :)

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    1. thanks, Jane!. indeed. every artist deserves a little 'reward' after some cleaning :).

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  4. Stunning! Those envelopes are fantastic as the base layer! Such great texture and the postage tie ins are wonderful!!

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    1. thanks, Carolyn!. I was lucky to find these postage stamps in my stash! :)

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  5. This is such a sweet and creative page!! I love the idea of envelopes and I did count 7 before reading what you said. This whole theme is wonderful, really like it!! Great job tying it all together witht he stamps, quotes, book pages!!

    I will give this a go one day also!

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    1. Thanks, Dawn!. I think, envelopes and postage stamps are good for any historical romantic love story themes :).

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  6. what a wonderfully creative spread-love how you recycled the envelopes and your what I like to call "lollipops" are saweet!

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    1. LOL ... just can't help myself with the lollipops!. Thanks so much, Linda.

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  7. Shahrul, I am loving this spread... the colors, circles, texture... envelopes! It's a total beauty.

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  8. Beautifully done journal page! I love your use of the envelope and the texture here. Very nice!!

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  9. Love the color! And those postage stamps to go with tha envelopes! Clever!

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  10. The postage stamp go so much with the Gift Card envelopes...thanks for sharing.

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