Quirky Dutch Summer challenge #1

The lovely Marit Barentsen is holding art challenges on her blog every Tuesday for the next 10 weeks.
It's called the quirky dutch summer..........love it! You can find it here:
http://www.maritspaperworld.com/blog/

I discovered this wonderful artist when I found Featuring magazine. She is the founder and chief editor.
It's a fantastic magazine! It has wonderful articles and great mixed media artwork.
You can find it @ http://featuringmagazine.com/

So, the first challenge on Marit's blog is, "fear of the blank page", and what we can do about it. Out of the choices she offered, I chose the paper scrap route. I basically followed her tutorial with a few additions. 

First, she suggest to take paper scraps and glue them together like a puzzle piece:

Next, cover them with white gesso. I did that, and also added some washi tape.

The next step is to add some color with either ink or water color crayons. I used a green spray ink, but ended up not liking it, so I wiped some of it off. I still wasn't satisfied, so I peeled a lot of the washi tape off and it gave the page a nice distressed look.

I stenciled the word, "silence" and stamped the words, "is beauty". I added a flower image from an antique book and some blue polka dot washi tape.

The reason I say, "silence is beauty" is because I feel like I can enjoy nature more when I'm quiet. Two instances come to mind...relaxing in front of an open window while a soft, cool breeze rustles the curtains and sitting on a beach at dusk, mesmerized by the motion of the waves.

The last thing I did was dip my paintbrush into some dark brown watered down paint and create paint splatters by just flicking the brush onto the page. It was so much fun, I decided to do some on the opposite page. Now, I can use that as a jump off point for my next journal page. I'll post that when it's completed.

Hope you enjoyed the process. Thank you Marit for this fun challenge!