Finger Pointing – May 18th

I sometimes find myself wondering what criteria I use to determine whether a page is a gallery standout.  Then I realized that it’s really not rocket science.  There are so many beautiful/creative pages out there but a special few just scream “Pick Me” when I see them in the gallery thumbnails.  When they do it’s sometimes because of the overall look and/or feel of the page but it can also be a photo, a color scheme, a composition, a message, or a technique.  All of those are represented in my picks today.

First off is Hunter by blackkathy.  When I opened the gallery page, the thumbnail for this captivated me.  When I opened it up to see the enlarged photo, it absolutely blew me away!  This one falls in the category of “overall look”.  I love the textures, the colors, and the white title on the white background.  Along with beautiful brush work this one is definitely a standout.

I really love hybrid projects and journals in particular.  This hybrid art journal by larkindesign is an absolute treasure.  I love that she used a digital kit to create her pages.  I’ve seen planners made with digital products but this is the first journal I’ve seen.  And it’s not the only pages she has in the gallery.  This one was also a contender for the blog today.  Love, love, love this and I’m definitely going to give the process a try.

I love finding pages using a new (at least to me) technique and those abounded in the gallery using a shadow technique.  Yes! by jlholden15 is just amazing.  Her extraction is perfection and I love how the shadow makes it pop off the page!  And those colors are exquisite!  She’s added just the right amount and style of brushes to accent the page!  Love this!

When I saw Game Set by margje which uses the same shadow technique I knew I couldn’t leave it out!  Love the sketch effect on that amazing extraction.  And that shadow really creates a sense of motion.  The use of the red/black/white color combination adds great visual impact.  The choices of splatters and brushes perfectly sets off the extraction!  Awesome piece of art!

Pet photos and pages are always winners and when they include great composition and great color choices they are standouts.  On Jenifer’s The Story of Bilbo, the blue and white color combination works beautifully with the black and white photo.  Love the “off the page” papers and the horizontal composition.  The matted piece with the photo looks like a professional announcement!  If you click on the image or title you will be taken to the gallery where Jenifer has a link to her process for the photo.  I am always impressed with artists who can pull off this formal look on a page!  I would love to see this framed and hanging on a wall!

My final page for you today is I Wish by flowersgal.  It is never easy to document the hard times but flowersgal does it with a beautiful page and heart-wrenching journaling.  Her words are words that I hope everyone hears and believes.  We lost a nephew to suicide at the age of 20 and I would have loved for him to hear and understand this message and maybe had the strength to go on.  I’m so sorry for your loss flowersgal and I thank you for sharing this page with us.

Those are my standouts for today.  I hope you’ve enjoyed and been inspired by them.  As always, the images and titles are linked to the gallery so please take a moment to get a closer look at these pages.  A comment by you for the artists is always appreciated.