This journal page is part of the Documented Life Project.  The challenge for Week 6 is here if you are new to this process or want to play along.

February 1 Challenge (Week Six) – Pinspiration.

This week's challenge was to open up Pinterest and be inspired.

I went on a random hunt for all things hearts (being February, gah!) and came up with this inspiration piece by Ellen Etzler:

It speaks to me first, because there is ledger paper in the background. Second, there is texture. Third, I love complementary color schemes; and red and green don't have to mean Christmas.

Here is the page I created in my art journal based on the 'Pinspiration'. 

To start, I took a ledger paper and applied heavy gel medium over the top with a foam brush.  I went pretty liberal with this because I was adhering a white mulberry paper over the entire substrate.  I went over the surface with a plastic card to make sure it was adhered as flatly as possible to the surface, because I wanted the ledger paper to show through the background.  The mulberry tore in a few places. That turned out to be delightful!  I love happy accidents.

I sketched hearts on the background with graphite.  I used Pan Pastels in Yellow Green, Turquoise and Permanent Red to color the elements.  The hearts used the entire spectrum of Permanent Red, including light to add the highlights in.

I used a QuickQuotes chalk inkpad to add brown to the edges of my page to frame it.  I wrote 'XXXO' with a Neutral Gray Copic.  I stamped 'love' using Momento's London Fog inkpad and a Heidi Swapp stamp.  If only I wrote like that – alas I do not. Thank goodness for stamps.

I put a quote at the bottom, edged in the same brown ink: "Thou art to me a delicious torment." from Emerson.

To make the large heart stand out even more as the focal point, I drizzled a bit of Beacon's 3-in-1 adhesive along the edge, and dripped some seed and bugle beads over it, pressing to adhere whichever fell in place.

Here is a closeup so you can see the yummy texture.  Yes, this is yummy to me.

And because I wanted the hearts to stand out a bit more, I went over the graphite again with a 6B and a blending stump.

I don't look at Pinterest too often for art inspiration – mostly recipes.  But that was a fun starting point.  Kudos to the inspiring artist and thanks to The Documented Life Project for the challenge.