Progression of a Journal Page

This was an art journal page I started way back in mid-January. I posted the first few steps then but never got back to finishing the page.  Actually, to be truthful, I didn't know where to go next so I just left it!  Now that I've finally finished it, I thought it would be fun to show the progress of the page from start to finish. 

This photo shows the beginnings - I used a large mask and two Glimmer Mist sprays over it.  Loved this.

Next I added a torn heart from a dictionary page for a focal point.

Here I've painted over the heart and added circles stamped with different sized bottle caps and pink and white paints.  Still liking this. And maybe I should have stopped here, just adding a bit of writing or a quote.

Next I stamped a line background stamp in black randomly over the page and decided to outline the heart with a charcoal pencil (not shown as I forgot to photograph this step).  I didn't like that - too dark -so gessoed over the charcoal.

Better, but wished I'd stopped before all the black!  So then I gessoed over everything to tone it down.

Then I added watercolor crayons in oranges and pinks to try to get the original coloring back. (Forgot to photograph this step too!)  Liked it better but it still needed more, so I printed out this great quote, cut it up and adhered it to the page.  I wanted to try an image transfer so I used glossy gel medium directly on the page, laid the image face down and burnished carefully.  Before the medium dried, I lifted the image off and voila - a not-so-perfect transfer but good enough.  So there you have the finished page - I didn't dare do more to it!