This month's Color Challenge over at Lindy's Stamp Gang is full of vibrant exciting colours and I couldn't wait to play!  The first thing I did was grab the colours that I had that were closest to the challenge colours and spray a journal page just to see how they looked together - the answer - super yummy!

Lindy's Stamp Gang Products

• Flat Fabio Sprays: Hibiscus Rose, Caribbean Blue and Kissin' Kenickie Coral
• Starburst Sprays: Tea Pot Purple and Sea Mint Green

I just sprayed patches of colour one at a time until my background was coloured - I'm working in my Stillman and Birn Zeta series journal.  This is how it looked once dry - I've used all the challenge colours though some have come through more strongly than others.  

I'm having a lot of  fun lately playing with drama in my journal pages and this one is no different!  I saw a really neat page using birds (black on top and coloured underneath) you can find it on my Pinterest board and wanted to try something like it for myself, but I just couldn't replicate someone else's idea, so I created my background (using my Lindy's Stamp Gang sprays of course) and then just let it sit for a while until something struck me. 

Next choose a few favourite areas - make sure these remain visible on your finished piece.

I love the subtle ribbons of colour in this bit.

I love the vibrancy of the colours here.

This is the same section when tilted towards the light - super sparkly!

After thinking about this for a few days I started flipping through my stencil folder, the tail stencil caught my eye and the idea for this page was born - I decided to go with a mermaid theme.

SUPPLIES

• Stencils
• Deep Blue Sea - Mermaids Singing from Red Lead
• 02-00007 from iStencils
• Leaf Flourish 5x8 from Ranger's Dylusions line
• Golden's Black Gesso (or any matte black paint)
• Molotow EF Signal Black Paint Marker
• Copic Multi Liners in 0.5 & 0.3
• Lead pencil

 I sketched the outline of the body (thankfully you can rub out pencil on these gorgeous backgrounds without ruining them!) and then used my stencils to add the tail (which I flipped and played with to get the shape I wanted) and all the undersea plants.  I traced the stencil images onto the page and then painted around them with the black gesso.  I used my paint marker and pens to add the detail and go over the edges to smooth them off.  I had to take a little artistic license where the tail met the body as the shape wasn't quite right - but I think I did ok.

To keep the face dramatic I have coloured both the face and hair black but left a small sliver of colour to hint at the light on the face.

I can't wait to see what YOU come up with for the Lindy's Stamp Gang June Color Challenge!