Don't Stop Playing

I've been art journaling with the kids at work. Today I'm showing them how to add layers to our prepped pages. The best part of teaching them to art journal is rummaging around in storage for supplies. We used foam sheets to cut shapes and tissues paper to add texture. This "junk" as my coworker called it, has been lying around for years. It came in handy. In addition to the foam shapes and tissue paper I used a couple stencils, acrylic paint, stamp, archival ink and colored bakers twine to complete my example page.

Another Lets Play inspired page

I just kept digging through my old scrapbooking supplies because I was so inspired by A Colorful Journey. I don't generally do "pink" or "hearts" but it all seemed right.

Materials Used:
Red Smooch spray
Faber-Castell gelatos
Mister
Heart Stencil
Baby wipe
Dylusions number stencil
Liquetex glass beads medium
Iridescent glitter

The bottle of smooch I bought years ago and couldn't get it to spray right. So I tossed it in a drawer and forgot about it. We'll I got it working and spritzed the page. Then scribbled some bright pink gelatos at the top of the page. Spritzed a little water and used my fingers to activate the gelatos into a wash. I tipped the page up to let the color run. Once it was dry I used a slightly damp baby wipe and a heart stencil to rub away some of the color. I used the number stencil with the glass bead medium. I used a long forgotten container of loose glitter to sprinkle of the glass bead medium.

Let's Play February Challenge

I've really gotten into Carolyn Dude's Let's Play. This week's challenge was "show some neglected art supplies some love". So I dug deep. I found some old gel pens that still work, a single strip of scrapbooking border, and a very dusty paper crimper. This is how my "play" turned out.

January's Art Journal Pages

I got so involved in creating and working in my art journals that I forgot to write about them. At least I remembered to take pictures of the finished pages, even if I didn't take pictures of the process.

Tissue paper, grunge board cut-outs, gelatos, black sharpie,
distress ink, and clear stamp 

Textured paper, acrylic paint, foam stamp, rubber stamp, archival ink, tag, spray inks and yarn

Embossed grunge board, Ranger texture paste, die cut,
spray inks, black distress ink, geel gloss medium, and sticky backed jewel

Photo collage, Ranger texture paste, sheet rock joint tape
distress ink and blue sharpie

Extreme glitter acrylic paint, watercolors, rubbing alcohol
and movie quote

Scrapbook paper, gel medium, wood chips,
acrylic wash, Ranger texture paste, stencils
and black sharpie

This page sucked to make. It was the bane of my existance for a
long time. I don't know how many layers are even on it anymore or
even what I used aside from the obvious paper flowers, butterfly buttons
and "happy" chipboard with puff embossing powder.

Handmade marbled paper, hand cut stencil,
acrylic paint, paint markers, stickles

Sharpie, watercolor pencils, stamps, distress inks

Patterned scrapook paper, gessp, sharpie, gelatos

Scraps of handmade marbled paper, flower punches, gel gloss
medium and sharpie

Spray inks, glass bead medium, Ranger texture paste,
bubble wrap, toilet paper roll, acrylic paint, stencil,
and paint marker.

Spray ink, large doily, distress inks, sharpie, stencils, stickles

Acrylic paint, book text, gesso, gel medium, metalic lace, glitter paint, metalic gold ink, stamp and TONS of mod podge.

Art Journal: Day 19 & 20 +1- different mediums

This weekend I tried out a couple of different mediums that I had found at Hobby Lobby. I found an iridescent gel medium and a course texture medium. I'm going to have to do a lot more playing around with the iridescent medium as it did not turn out the way I had hoped. However the course texture medium was a lot of fun to work with.

Materials used: Day 19
Apple Barrel Acrylic paint in country tan
Artists Loft Iridescent medium
Black fine tip sharpie
Black perfect pearls marker
Recollections detail embossing powdered in charcoal

 
 The paint before adding the medium

Just a dab

 Not happy. They look the same. The one on top is without the iridescent medium.

I ended up painting the medium over the brown paint. I traced my hand with black sharpie and journaled around the outside of the hand.

I found this at Michael's. I used it to write the sentiment I wanted to really remember from what I journaled.

My 5 year old niece taught how important it is to think of others. She is an amazing little girl. I took her to buy a new birthday outfit and all she wanted to do was buy toys to donate to toys for tots.

Materials used: Day 20

Liquitex Basics course texture gel

Acrylic paint in yellow, red, blue, and green

Gesso

Paint brush

Stencils

Sponge

Black marker

Distress Ink in Black Soot and crushed olive

Fodder

Mod Podge

 I squirted a few drops of gel onto the page and used my finger to spread it around. Then waited for it to dry.

 I watered down the acrylic paint to get better flow.

 I love that the gel took on a dark color than the page itself.

I muddied up the colors and let them run down the page.

 I used Tim Holtz tattered florals die cut to make this stencil.

 I decided the colors were too loud for what I wanted. I sponges Gesso lightly over the top of the page. Then used the stencil and sponges heavier with the Gesso to make the flowers.

 once the Gesso was dry I placed the masks of the tattered florals over the top of the Gesso. I purposely did not line them up.

 I sprayed homemade purple alcohol ink ove the masks.

I used the black marker to give definition to the pedals. I then sponged black ink over the top of the page to darken it a bit. I came across and I had drawn and decided to use it on the page. I lightly sponged distress ink in crushed olive around the eye. I went over the I with mod podge to keep it from smearing.

Bonus Page
Materials used:
Red acrylic paint
Packing tape image
Gear stencil
Distress Ink in Black Soot
Spray bottle
Mod Podge
Fodder
Baby wipes

 Packing tape image transfer

 Leftover paint from previous page. I didn't want to waste the paint so I just painted the whole page then glued down my image.

 I created this stencil using Tim Holtz steampunk die cut.

 I sponges black ink around the stencil. I used a baby wipe to clean the ink off the tape and to distress the edges of the page.

 I didn't want the ink to be so perfect so I spriztes water on the page a couple of times.

Last but not leant I added a quote to the page.

Art Journal: Day 17 & 18 oil padtel resist & paint scraping

I'm still trying out some background techniques, but it seems I'm ready to move on to other things in my art journaling. Specifically sketching. It's gonna take a whole lot of work, because honestly I draw stick figures badly. However the last two days I've done a couple of sketches I'm pretty proud of.

Materials used:
White oil pastel
Homemade spray ink
Pencil

So this was pretty straight forward. I drew my design and words in the white oil pastel. Then sprayed teal ink over it. When it was dry I practiced sketching eyes.

Materials used:
Acrylic paint in maroon, sky blue and metallic gold
Old gift card
Sketch of a rose on watercolor paper
Glue stick
White paint marker

 I dropped paint on the page and used the old gift card to scrape the paint across the page.

 I'm really proud of this rose. I sketched this while waiting at the dentist office.

I glued the rose in place and used a paint marker to write a little reminder for myself.

Art Journal: Day 16 oil pastels and hot glue stencils

I spent most of my night playing with some new oil pastels. I worked on some blending techniques. I just purchased a cheap set of Crayola oil pastels. So nothing fancy going on here. But the set had lots of pretty colors.

Materials used:
Crayola oil pastels
Paper doily
Glue stick
Quote
Black sharpie

Started out by scribbling some primary colors across the page. Then I just used my fingers to blend them together and smooth them out.

There was a paper doily laying on the desk. Seeing as I really didn't have a plan for the page and nothing was springing to mind, I glued it down. Found a quote I thought would go well and glued that down too. I attempted to doodle a little on the sides but oil pastels and sharpies do not go together. Pretty sure I'll have to do something more to this page.

Hot Glue Stencils

I saw a tutorial somewhere, I wish I could remember where so I could give credit, a lady made stecils with her hot glue gun. I think she traced printed out patterns as well as doing some free hand stecils. I am not good enough to think that I could trace a pattern. But I thought I could pull off some free hand stuff. I just drew them out on my craft mat and once cool they popped right off. This is what I came up with.