17 January 2012 Journal Page

I had fun with this two page spread in my Wanderlust Journal. I used micro glue dots to attach the pink skeleton leaf. Unfortunately the dots stayed tacky, so I went over it with a piece of script tape (made by o check). It's still fragile and sits above the page but it's okay. I'm often asked if I seal my pages. Nope. Nope and nope. For several reasons: -Living in Southern California, it gets very hot in my apartment. I have had pages with gel medium on the front stick so now I only put glue on the back (these days I've been using a glue stick which obviously only goes on the back.) I make sure that not only do I use enough glue but I also burnish it with a rag or paper towel. -I'm lazy. Covering the page means more glue and more work. -I like the texture of all of the different layers peeking through. I wouldn't get that if I encased the page with gel medium. -Spray fixatives are toxic. I like to read labels. I also would like to keep the brain cells I have left. If you're working in a closed book, it should be fine. I've made a plethora of books and have yet to have problems. If you're working on something that will be exposed (like the cover or a canvas), I recommended using gel medium (regular gel in gloss finish from Nova Color is my favorite.) Make sure that you let the glue underneath dry first. If it's still wet, it will feel cold to the touch. When it's dry, brush a really thin layer of gel medium keeping the brush strokes in one direction. If desired, you can apply more layers just make sure to let each one dry completely before adding the next one. If you have any questions, just let me know!