I finished this spread in my journal yesterday after Joy left, but it was too late and I was too tired to post it. After a good night sleep, a scan and some resizing of photos, here's how I finished my watercolor crayon background spread. I started out by choosing photos from Sunday. That's when Steven took Joy and I out sailing in Starfish. This is a boat that was destined to be trashed, but my dad and Steven saved it from certain boat death.

In the first couple of photos you can see how the bottom of the boat was completely non-existent at one point last year!! Anyway, I printed out 9 photos wallet size, as that would fit on one sheet of brochure/ presentation paper. I like this paper for printing photos on. You can get it at Staples, or any office supply store. It's heavier than regular paper and has a coated matte finish for brighter colors and crisper text.

I chose 6 photos and played with the placement by trying different photos in various positions on the page. I decided to rip all the edges to make them fit better and blend in more. I used Yes glue with an old plastic card (to spread it) on the back of the photos, then burnished with a bone folder on the front of the photo to attach it to the page.

The heart in the middle of the page was a heart-shaped leaf Joy found on the beach as we were waiting for Steven to rig up the sails. I had never seen one like that before! And, if you click on the photo below, you may be able to see a small gold star (the kind you might find in stardust glitter) in the middle of the line of crushed shells. It is tilted a bit with one point touching the page.     

Joy and I went to the beach one day, picked up shells and saved them in a small plastic bag. I was talking with Joy while looking for shells, when all of a sudden I saw this tiny gold star in the sand! I could not believe it. In all of the whole beach, here was a tiny star and I had spied it.

The story gets better . . . I picked the tiny star up with the tip of my finger and put it in the bag of sand and shells, well- just because. Yesterday when I was finishing my spread, I reached my hand into the bag of sand, shells and crushed shells, pulled out a handful and started sprinkling it on the wet glue. I did not look at what I was pulling out of the bag when I went to do this . . . and when I stopped sprinkling the crushed shells, you guessed it -the star was laying right there on my page. Moon & stars were the theme of Steven & my wedding 6 years ago, so I am a little amazed . . .  but not too flabbergasted!

A close up of the left side -click on it for even more detail.

After I added the photos, I used my watercolor crayons over the ripped edges to blend them into the rest of the spread. I like how the background stamping I did in a mesh pattern seems to pull all the photos together. Below, you'll see a photo Joy took of me sitting in the middle of Starfish while Steven is sailing it . . he has saved this as his desktop background now because he loves it so much! Thanks, Joy!

Steven made the sails for this boat out of Tyvek!

Fun stuff. Thanks for looking!! xo lenna   

Art Journal Every Day!