Harvinaisen Kaunis Elämä: A Light to You - A Journal Page for Finnabair

Hello darlings,

I want to share with you a journal page I made for my Quiet Moments journal. It’s a journal for which I use inspiring elements and let my heart guide my creative process. I want to capture quiet little moments in life that makes it so precious, and I want every page to reflect that, using fragile dried flowers from our own garden, lace that I have botanically dyed, but I also want it to show how there is balance between everything; joy and sorrow, laughter and tears, hope and fear, light and darkness, all parts of life.

The journal is a Finnabair Art Daily Square Journal, 5.5 inches, 14cm in size, so it is rather small – which makes it perfect for a project like this.

I had no clear vision what I was going to do, I just collected some elements I found inspiring, and waited for my intuition to tell me what to do next.

I started with layering some vintage papers and used tea bags on the page, attaching them with Soft Matte Gel, then primed the page lightly with Heavy Gesso, wiping most off with a baby wipe so that gesso did not cover everything, just gave the page a blended look.

I wanted the first page to include common yarrow, my favourite nature flower along with lily of the valley. I love the delicately simple look that contains so much power; common yarrow is one of the oldest medicinal plants on Planet Earth. Every flower has kind of symbolism and as I love all things vintage, this thought made me check what was the symbolism of common yarrow. It is healing and protection, joy and light, so I picked a favourite quote of mine I thought rather fitting for this purpose, by J.R.R. Tolkien.

I attached both to the page using Soft Matte Gel, and after letting everything dry properly, I added some paint. I mixed a light paint mix using Impastos Snow White and Linen with a hint of Pitch Black and Dark Chocolate and added only a very light coat of paint onto the page, again blending and wiping most off with a baby wipe.

Next, I added some shadowing in form of Liquid Acrylics Burnt Sienna and Ink Black, adding some Umber and Ochre to make slightly deeper shadows at some parts of the page.

I wanted to test how the new Winter Release Gold Metallic Flakes fit into this kind of journaling page, so using Gilding Glue, I attached just a hint of gold flakes here and there. In such a soft, neutral coloured journal page the gold stood out a bit, so I gently added some new Sage Leaves Matte Wax on top of the gilding, to make it look more aged and worn.

I already had used dried flowers and a quote, so I wanted to add my third signature element that makes my journaling look like me: lace. I took some lace and silk ribbon I had dyed using the flowers from our own garden, just some leftover pieces perfect for this kind of projects, and sewed a vintage button to held them together, and glued them onto the page.

As a finishing touch, I sprinkled some white acrylic paint to the page, to give the composition some more softness to reflect the message of the quote.

Wishing you light and joy,

Emilia