Journal 52 - Weeks 5 and 6

I'm really enjoying my return to art journaling, and it's all thanks to Journal 52.  I can't wait for each new prompt so that I can start to think about my next page.
Week 5 was all about being abstract. It is harder than you think and is something I've struggled with on my City and Guilds course. I want to represent everything just as utter looks in the picture and to turn it into an abstract representation is extremley challenging. For thus prompt I chose to make a Zentangle using colours instead of black and white (a first for me). I kept it simple and enjoyed the process, completing a section each day of the week.
Week 6 was titled 'The Lost Art of Love Letters' - very appropriate as it is Valentines day this week. I chose to make a very similar page to the one on the blog as it used a few techniques I've been dying to try out but never have. I made my heart first, using some wallpaper samples, and then hand stitched over the joins and blanket stitched round the edge. I stamped my quote, found on Pinterest, in black ink onto card and cut each word out individually. The background was created using gesso applied thickly and then stamping over it with a wavy stamp to create texture. I then applied pink acrylic paint with a credit card and sprayed the page with ink spray. I used some old bottle tops dipped in black and white paint to make the circles. Finally, once everything was glued in place, I used oil pastels to highlight areas and to outline the words. This is my most ambitious page so far!