Such an oddball

I have been having a hard time dealing with Mother's Day this year.

I find myself crying at anything that has to do with mothers. Good or bad.

My Dad suggested I write my Mother a letter to tell her all of the things

that I wish I had, before she died. Looks like I'm going to be writing a letter

this Sunday....

To keep myself busy, and to keep my mind off of painful things,

I have been playing around with my new small format Dyan Reaveley  

art journal. I have the larger one, but find myself intimidated to work

in it as of yet. Maybe once I master some cool techniques I'll have the

courage to work bigger. 

I started off by coloring this adorable image from Oddball Art Stamps.

Her name is Sally Sadness. She reminds me of a character from The Oblongs. 

Man, I love that cartoon.

I colored her up with Copics, and did a bit of customizing on her appendages 

to go along with my sentiment. 

   

I used some swirly die cuts to give the appearance of tentacle-type arms.

Some may consider that a flaw, others may think it's pure awesomeness.

I fall into the category of the latter.   

The background was created with Dylusion spray inks, a hexagram stencil

with some crackle paste (which I sanded down afterwards to make it less

chunky and obvious), and a new TH crackle stencil with black soot distress ink.

I also worked in some skull and barbed wire die cuts, along with some

Firefly Stickles for that bling factor.

I added the other swirls in to make it cohesive with the other

page and Sally's tentacles.

And there it is. The first completed page in my new art journal.

I still have a ways to go before I feel really adept at this art journal thing,

but it's so fun to just play around and make fun art just for me.

I would like to enter this creation in the following challenges:

Oddball Art Art Stamps fb page - Anything Goes

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday - Let's Get Sentimental