It is GOOD!

For a discussion of the meaning behind this artwork - check here.  As for how I created it:

• Page Prep: Knowing that I wanted to use the border stamp, I started with white gesso (Art Basics) to cover extraneous print on the page that would be in the way.  I then covered the whole page with clear gesso (Art Basics).  Both took 2-3 coats.
• Border Stamp: Stamped with Celebrations black ink (HOTP Matching Borders and Focals)
• Background: I knew I wanted a colorful page and started to look for my acrylic paints thinking they might work well.  As I was looking through my paints, I came across this "Transparent Wash" (DecoArt "Ocean Teal"), and decided to try it.  It worked great!  It's probably important to prep the page first, as I did, but this wash gives a deep color that is really transparent!  Great for adding color without covering up the words!
• Text Boxes: However, with such a deep all-over color, it was a bit challenging to know how to proceed.  Perhaps next time I would mask off the verses on which I was focusing, but I hadn't thought to do so and I knew most ways of highlighting them wouldn't look good over this wash.  Sooo - I decided to create boxes for the verses using thin gold border stickers (HOTP Thin Line Dazzles). As you can see, that worked well.
• Border Embellishments: I love the little flower stickers in my stash (HOTP Jewel Flowers), and knew they would really help dress up the borders.
• "Thanks": Now it was time to add the illustration in the margin.  Going through my stamps, I found this decorative "Thanks" stamp (K & Company) and knew I wanted to use it.
• "Good" & "Give": I had some larger sized plain alphabet stamps that I wanted to use for the word "GOOD" - except that they wouldn't fit!  Sooo - I stamped the "G" and the "D" and then hand drew some narrower "O"s to fit!  I also used these stamps for the word "GIVE" (thankfully these ones fit!).
• Other words: The other words were hand drawn with a Zig Archival Ball pen, but before I wrote the word "to", I decided to add the "present" since there was plenty of room and the word "GIVE" suggested the idea of a gift.  I liked the way the Archival pen worked for the lettering.  I had stamped everything using my Celebrations hybrid ink, and I just didn't think it was showing up as well as I liked - partly because it wasn't stamping as clearly on the background wash as I would have liked.  So I ended up going over all the lettering with the archival pen.
• Present: I wanted the present to stand out a bit from the background, so used a pink Smooch ink to color it.  It worked well because the Celebrations ink allowed me to paint over it with the Smooch ink & have the lines still show through - not something that works with most mediums.
• THANKS: I wanted the word "THANKS" to stand out a bit better, so surrounded it with decorative lines of Smooch ink as well.  I liked what I had on the sides, but didn't like the way the Smooch ink looked on the top and bottom - so I took a gold jewel border sticker (HOTP) and covered most of it up top and bottom.  I liked that much better.
• Finishing Touches: I finished off this page with musical notes from a set of "Music" stickers (also HOTP Dazzles).