Hello from our Creative Squad! Today we are kicking a new monthly theme off with a project from Maura Hibbitts. Maura is creating an uplifting celestial inspired art journal page using my Valley Road foam stamps and my Art Deco Wallpaper and Art Deco Empire stencils. And bonus: you get a little science lesson too :) Our theme is: A New Day – Let’s try something new today :) Although these are tumultuous times and we never know what each new day will bring, it also seems like the perfect time to throw caution to the wind and just jump into something new with both feet. Try a new material or technique or approach. Why not? Today is a new day… and tomorrow is too!

I find myself rather fascinated with the cycles of the sun and moon…must be my Earth Science background. So, when I thought about a new day, the setting of the sun and rising of the moon came to mind. We’ve had some glorious sunsets over the summer, so I wanted to pull in that gorgeous orange with my sun, and carry a bit of it into the moon.  Since the moon rises 50 minutes later every day, sometimes the moon is rising as the sun is setting, and other days the moon is visible during the day. Just like the sun and moon, we each have the opportunity to make changes with each new day.

I decided to use my large art journal for more impact. I mixed orange, yellow and red on the gel plate and stamped out the Valley Road Positive ArtFoamie on watercolor paper. I stamped several, and also pressed the paper onto the gel plate for a different image. Sometimes when I work, I have an idea of where I am headed, but it’s fluid.

I repeated the first step with a mix of blues and purple with the Valley Road Negative Art Foamie. I stamped several images onto the watercolor paper, and also over the image on the orange print.

I wanted to create sky and earth with the stencils. I began with the sky and the Art Deco Empire stencil. I sponged in a mix of the blues, purple and a touch of white, with fluid acrylics and a cosmetic sponge.

To create the earth, I used a mix of greens and a touch of brown in fluid acrylics. I used the Art Deco Wallpaper stencil to represent the earth portion. I curved the sky and earth because after all the Earth is round, no matter what those “flat earthers” want to tell you, lol.

Next, I cut out some of the images and free cut some sun rays to assemble the sun and moon. I started out with the moon as just a crescent, but once I tried it on top of the full image, I liked that better.

Final step is to do some pen work. I hand lettered “Rising and Setting” in black, then outlined the words with Posca paint pens. I also added some silver to the moon, and gold to the sun with pens.

To illustrate the idea of the sun setting below the horizon, I had the sun’s rays extending up into the “sky”, and added a half circle of the blue and orange image for the portion below the surface to show the sun sinking below the horizon.

My moon shows a waxing crescent, meaning it is on the path towards the full moon. The moon is always there, even though we only see a portion of it illuminated by the sun. I wanted to show that by placing the crescent over the circle.

Hmm, I guess you just got a bit of a science lesson today with the art. That is the way I often taught my classes, mixing in art and science, as well as a few other subjects. When you stop and think about it, you can see all the connections, like the sun and moon being connected to a new day. My wish for you is that each new day is a better one, filled with love, hope, health and joy. – Maura

Thank you Maura! Love this colorful page but also getting the science lesson too – we forget some of that stuff as time goes on!

Give it a try: you can find all my Foam Stamps and Stencils in my Online Shop and here are some of the other supplies Maura used:

Feel inspired? Working on something yourself that you’d like to share?  I love to see how you interpret our monthly themes. Email me how you used my stencils and stamps with the theme and email me an image – I would love to share your projects in my next  “n*Spiration From Around the Globe“.

Nat