Paper Artsy Theme 11: Hidden Objects

This week's PaperArtsy challenge is about Hidden Objects. 

I had so many ideas about this theme but in the end, I went for a hidden message which I hid under a flap:

I don't particularly like how this page turned out. It was a series of hits and misses - well, mostly misses and my vain attempts to fix them. I fought with the material, with the inks, forgot to prime the page, forgot I'd been planning to do some stamping in the background. I spent so much time on this page just because I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing...


I first used four of my stencils and created some patterns on a sheet of canvas paper using modelling paste. I cut circles in various sizes out of the canvas paper. Then I sprayed the circles with inks. The bloody canvas paper curls when wet, so it was a bit challenging... Also, I don't know what I'm doing wrong but my Lindy's Stamp Gang two-toned sprays are just not working for me... All I get is this dull colour.. So I had to keep adding some other sprays to get at least some colour on...

I glued the circles on the journal page. Oh, challenge no. 2 - glue is wet, canvas paper curls when wet... I have only two hands to hold things down... the glue I chose took forever to dry... Glossy Accents to the rescue... glue everywhere... sticky fingers picking up ink from the circles...

Repeat with the inside of the flap... This time I was gluing down just blank circles to the back of the inky ones... It was equally challenging.

Next, I forgot one crucial step. I wanted to prime the page with clear gesso because I had some accidental glue smudges here and there... but I forgot... So, when I started to add more ink, there were some places that resisted it. Also, the canvas paper absorbs the inks differently, and I already mentioned my "issue" with the Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays...

I added more inks to the front flap, some metallic, some normal, some acrylic - also a bit of glaze... and some shading... and a lot of other things... the more, the better worse...

I wanted to do some stamping on the background on the inside, but again, I remembered only after I'd already finished the quote... whatever...

I didn't like the "empty" front page so I added some words...

It was a tough fight...