Hello Everyone! I am so excited to be guest designing for Mixed Media Monthly Challenge. If you are making your way to my blog from their site- then welcome! I hope I inspire you and you visit me again 🙂
If you are one of my faithful readers then –Mixed Media Monthly Challenge is a new blog, and you should definitely check it out for some artsy fartsy, mixed media inspiration! Each month they will have a new challenge, and you will have a chance to win a bunch of art goodies!
This month’s theme is “household items”. I am always using different household items when I art journal. Paper towels, baby wipes, old gift cards, bubble wrap, cardboard, sponges etc. The possibilities are really endless when you are coming up with things to use in your journal. Remember- there is no right or wrong way- it is your journal and the perfect place for playing, experimenting and practicing.
Click above image to see a larger more detailed version
For this art journal spread I wanted to play with a technique I learned from Dina Wakley back in May. To build the base of this page Dina describes it as creating “puke on the page” you aren’t supposed to put much thought into the layers, how you are laying things out and how it looks in general. In this case, I put quite a bit of thought into it- maybe because I wanted it to have this underwater feel, or maybe because I knew I was creating it for a guest designer spot and wanted it to be my best. Either way, I’m pretty happy with how it came out.
I started with some re enforcement stickers, I put this on the page all over, and gessoed over them to make sure they would stay. Then I used an old gift card to spread Dina Wakley’s paints in sky, lemon and lime. Then I spread some of the dark blue, lapis color- while it was still wet I covered it with a stencil and rubbed with a damp baby wipe. This reveals the underlying colors again- so cool! I then used some shimmer mist and sprayed through a stencil- blotting it with paper towels.
Next I used blackberry and stenciled some of the swirls from Dina’s stencil, I felt these had a wave like texture. I then used her mod mask and painted over it with moss green silks– the shimmer in these are beautiful! I wish the pictures did it justice.
I used a fine line applicator tool to journal some thoughts I have about the sea, and being by the water. I just wrote whatever came to mind first. Then I stamped and painted with Dina’s tangerine paint the seahorses from Tim Holtz’s new nautical blueprints cling stamp set. I roughly cut these out and attached them with Ranger’s collage gluestick (have you used it yet? it’s fabulous!) Then i admired the page. No seriously, I did. Because I knew the next step was going to change it drastically 😉
Next I took my Stabilo pencil and marked out some circles. Then I took a mix of lapis and night paints and painted in everywhere but the circles. I wanted to give a peek of what was behind the paint a bit more so I did the baby wipe technique I explained above again.
I really wanted some pops of white, and some sort of text on my page. I used the Tim Holtz mini cirque alphabet set and painted white paint right on the stamp and stamped it directly in my journal. It didn’t stamp perfectly, and didn’t come out exactly how I envisioned, but once it dried some of the other paint colors seeped through and I just love how this ended up looking. (see the pinkish color seeping through? love it!)
I then traced the circles with my white fine line applicator tool. I am really pleased with how this layout turned out. I hope I have given you some inspiration and ideas for your art journal and mixed media projects. Be sure to submit a project over on the Mixed Media Monthly site – the only rule is to use house hold items. Maybe you will win some goodies!
Be sure to visit later this week as I have another art journal page I created after this one, totally different colors, theme and techniques! As always you can follow my blog on bloglovin, or put your email in over in the right column to get an email reminder when I post new things on here.
Have a creative day!
Below are links to some of the products I used. These are affiliate links and if you make a purchase from these links I will receive a small commission.
Jenn, your journal page is so so beautiful! I hope I find the courage soon to try the technique with the circles, it really looks great with your under water seahorsies. Thank you so much for joining the MMMC this month! It’s great to have you with us!
DO IT! create more puke on a page and you wont mind painting over it- or if a page isn’t turning out the way you envisioned it- do this technique over it 🙂 and then share it with me!!
Love it, Jen! So Cape Cod, so summer, so cool! Thanks for showing us your process. Yu are a fine artist.
Such a fun art journal page! Loved that I was able to see it come to life step by step! Thanks for sharing all your techniques and a special thanks for Guest Designing for us at the Mixed Media Monthly Challenge this month!
Wooooow! Stunning art journal page!!
Saw some sneak peeks on Facebook/Instragram!!
Love the design and the fab color combo!!! Terrific job!!
Absolutely awesome!!! Looks like it was a fun process too!
This is a gorgeous journal spread Jenn!! I love the techniques you used, especially using the stickers and using the stencil with the baby wipes. Thanks so much for being our Guest Designer at The Mixed Media Monthly Challenge.