*High Fives* all around! Some amazing pages were shared last month - love all that texture and color. Astounding visuals, simply made with scraping. I hope you played long enough to learn the value in laying down paint this way. Thick or thin - it is a fast and easy way to build an interesting surface. As I indicated earlier, you were encouraged to leave your page incomplete. This month I would love for you to take a few color copies of a painted background and try finishing it several ways. You may also take a page that has some kind of foundation on it already - like your text messaging, or torn scraps, then see what emerges if you have more than one chance to apply your finishing touches.
REQUIREMENT: make color copies of an existing prepared background. Finish two or three ways. Show us your original, and the completed variations. Tell us what you learned in the process. Working on a copy is not the same as working on an original surface, but I hope this exercise will be an interesting experiment for you to explore new paths for adding content and playing with composition.
In my Roll With It class we spend an entire day painting paper using many different techniques. Then, to prove that any background can be transformed from so-so to spectacular, I have prepared transparencies that I hold over the surfaces, illustrating how a page may look when completed. There is no right or wrong way to determine the content you add to a page. Often we have a default or go-to method in which we work. Don't you think it will be fun to try other options? Finish one page with what you are comfortable doing, then step it up and try something else on another page! Maybe even leave a copy untouched to save as collage material for another project.
What to add to a page? Sometimes the answers are right on your work surface. I encourage you to look around to see the potential in all the evidence.
At a loss for what to add to a page? I love to encourage you to make your own tools. This mask/stencil set is not only personal, it could be a means for making a commitment on a page, which can inform how to move forward - like being a stage for adding journaling within, or taking the opportunity to attach an item.
Sound like fun? Join in and see what you come up with - there is so much to learn as we plug in and do the work, share it, and see what others do as they interpret the challenge.
