Now is the time

My first art journal page. I’ve always avoided art journalling, much the same way I tend to avoid written journalling, but if I view it as a space for play and not for “baring your soul” then it could be an interesting experiment.

This was inspired by a YouTube video that, of course, I cannot find again, I’m sure I liked it, but…

Anyway, the technique that prompted me to grab my unloved mixed media pad was to get a pile of magazine scraps, glue them to the page and then tear them off again before they had completely dried. Repeat until you’re happy with the result. Lots of interesting texture and half-seen words and images.

The next layer was white acrylic and the Liquitex muted inks which went on more opaque than I was expecting, but, hey, that’s why this is called experimenting.

Then, thinking I was going to add drips down the page, I sealed it with Mod Podge. Then promptly forgot about adding drips and grabbed my stencils instead.

I love the dark velvet paint that I used with the clock stencil. Violet and “proper” purple (not aubergine or mauve) have always been my favourite colours.

Next, I added white acrylic through the words stencil, followed by green through the ivy stencil.

I painted sparkly blue down the centre lines of the ivy leaves and on the clock numbers.

Then I outlined the ivy in white and added white splatters across the background.

Finally, I added the sticker and outlined it with black marker.

And I’m pretty happy with the result. I’d like it if the base layer was a little more visible in places, but it still contributes a lot of texture to the finished piece. There’s still part of me that feels like anything I create should be done in a format that means it could be hung on the wall or given away easily and, to that end, I don’t think I’ll be working on both sides of the art journal pages but we’ll see…

Supplies:

• Prep & Stick:
  Modge Podge matte
  Ranger multi-medium matte
• Colour:
  Liquitex ink – muted violet, muted turquoise
  Dylusions acrylic – white linen
  Finnabair metallique dark velvet
  Finnabair metallique – golden moss
  Finnabair sparks – magical pond
  Sakura pen-touch 0.7mm – white
  Tombow marker – black
• Stencils:
  Dali Art – clock
  The Crafter’s Workshop – art is
  Craft Box – ivy
• Paper & Fabric:
  Strathmore mixed media pad
• Embellishments:
  Tim Holtz idea-ology clippings stickers