ABELA ARTISTRY: How Fragile We Are

This one is quite personal to me.. We all have so many happy stories we post about but this one is about a difficult time. Recently my back pain was diagnosed as a more serious matter than the arthritis I had been learning to live with. I had been feeling low after so many nights of waking up in pain it was taking a toll on our relationship. So for those of us that live with pain - I know you get it..

This piece is a reflection on our relationship and has some personal totems in it that relate to just us... It also looks pretty!

Today I am showing you a bit of my heart and soul today.

Hope you enjoy! xx Kristy

In this project I pulled out a journal page from my book and stamped with my Visible image stamps - How Fragile. I then sprayed my two favourite Lindy's sprays on the page Moon Shadow Mist Malachite and Starburst Shabby Turbine Teal. I grabbed my TCW Stencil Mini Geometric and used some of the shapes on there to create some texture with Modelling paste.

I applied some Tissue wrap and washi tape from Tim Holtz to create a base for my focal point.. I included my totems here.. The music, #27 and a reminder that our goal is to me happy together.. I grabbed my Distress crayon in Black soot and rubbed it onto my finger and highlighted the texture on the page. also adding to the vintage look.

Once I was happy with my highlighting I used my TCW Stencil in Chicken Wire to do what I call the caging effect...

Once I was happy with that I let it dry and added some highlights. I used my Barn Door Distress spray to add some highlights to the shattered glass.. Symbolism for the pain that we had gone through recently and the fragility of a relationship represented by the glass. I also used a stamp that was a cobbled wall to accent the layout to also represent that the strength of a wall is not always represented by the shape of the stones that build it...

Here are my dragonflies.. another totem, like butterflies but strong! I stamped them with another Visible Image stamp - Dragonflies with my Tim Holtz stamp press in Staz on - Brown. I used my water brush to wet down the wings and sprinkled onto it some mica powder in an emerald green colour. I love the way you never quite know what you are going to get with them and used minimal blending to take advantage of the effect. I used my Colour Blast Shimmer pen to add some sparkle to the wings. I used some nylon thread to tangle the Dragonflies in as that's how I feel about my husband, we are intertwined.

Now it was time to create the title. I kept it simple and the quote was enough. I stamped the quote from the How Fragile stamp and puddled a good squirt of Moon Shadow Malachite onto my craft mat and dipped the card into it and dried it. It was too light so I kept reapplying and drying in between to get that amazing puddle effect. With my water brush I applied a watered down coat of Barn Door and then a smudge of Shabby turbine Teal. I didn't want the red to overshadow the How Fragile accent.