Sunday studio shots - in the family room

I guess I should just rename this series Monday Meanderings or something, since I've rarely managed to post it on Sunday. But I think I'll just consider it things that happened on Sunday, and not worry about what day it gets posted.

My side of the love seat - books, afghan, art stuff, Ott light, mocha

DH has been feeling lousy the last few days and spent most of Sunday on the couch looking wan. At 5:30 an NBA playoff game started, so I rolled a cart full of stuff out to the family room and and watched it with him while messing around in a 6 page folio that will be bound in with a few others eventually. Right now I'm keeping them separate so that I can work on one while another's drying. This batch of pages will be a garden theme with birds and the occasional bug.

I started with a blank spread, about 5.5" x 9.5", a floral paper napkin, a TH grunge board flourish and a couple nature prints. After much muttered cursing and lots of picking and plucking, I got the 3 layers of the napkin apart and tore the top sheet into the flowers I wanted to use.

With gloss gel medium and a brush, I glued down two of the flowers.

Without waiting for it to dry, I watercolored the background with a wet mixture of yellow and green.

I also went around the edges of the page with the Antique Linen color of TH's Distress Stain that I just got from Collage Stuff. 

They had the best price I could find online - only $4 a bottle. (I think it retails for $6) I got 4 colors and it's very

cool. Kinda like an ink pad in a bottle.

Thanks to Lenna for using it in her journal recently and making me have to go buy some LOL. 

Then I went over the flowers and leaves with various watercolors until I liked how it looked.

A piece of the original napkin is shown so you can see how much I deepened the colors.

Then I dabbed the Peeled Paint Distress Stain thru the flourish here and there. This is where I left it on Sunday. 

Today I began journaling on the page with a Haiku I made up while waiting for the flooring guy to show. I'll post it once I'm done with the page. 

I did a couple other things too, but I'm out of steam for today. Have to go eat another brownie before I pack them up for work tomorrow. It's someone's birthday.