Pause the Progression

So. You’re not an artist. You have two left hands. You can’t draw, paint, or even take good photos. Also, you have no materials! And you don’t know how anything “should” look. But guess what. YOU CAN STILL MAKE A BEAUTIFUL COLLAGE. Collage is an easy, fast, and very satisfying and there are no rules. The supplies are one out of two images, paint and/or paper and the willingness to play.

Finished art journal page.

This is a photo of a DIY craft foam stamp. Making your own unique foam stamps from craft foam is easier than you might think! All that is required is to transfer a design to the craft foam and cut this out before applying it to a stamping block. Any bold design will work well. Use your own designs or, if you are seeking inspiration, take a look at some clip art as many of these designs will also work well. Use quick drying glue to mount the foam to a piece of cardboard. 

Art Journal Page Tutorial:

1. This background started with left over paint from previous projects (pink and purple spots). Layer two different stencils on your journal page and sprayed with yellow ink. The diamond pattern in the background was created with this technique. 

2. Apply teal acrylic paint with a sponge through a hexagon stencil concentrating the color more in the right lower corner. Let dry.

3. Apply pink acrylic paint with a dabber to the triangle craft foam stamp and stamp on the journal page. Refer to the reference photo for placement. Let dry.

4. Mount the collage pieces: hummingbird, orchids, and text. Each of these images came from different magazines. When gluing the collage pieces down, it is best to use a glue stick and then smooth out the images with an old gift card. This will help to decrease bubbles or an ripple effect on your paper. 

5. Shade around the collage pieces with a fine tip Sharpie. Shading creates depth to the photos. 

6. Draw around the triangles with a black fine tip Sharpie and create cross patterns and add white dots  with a white Sharpie as indicated in the reference photo. 

7. Mix molding paste with a small amount of green acrylic paint on the craft mat.  Apply this molding paste through a mini textile stencil avoiding the collage pieces. Let dry.

8. Shade the edges of the journal page with black permanent ink.

Creative Fingers - Anything goes #103 (2 wks)

Joe's Scrap Shack - Recycle Scraps #127 (March 4th)

PDE Linky Party - Anything Goes #112 (F)

Love is in the Details

This journal page came together nicely.  The inspiration was to create something with glitter for the Mixed Media Monthly challenge.  I wish you could feel this piece. The texture from the paint, tissue paper and stickles gives it some added interest.

Do you see the glimmer/glitter on the page?

I started out by drawing three circles on my journal page. Then with acrylic paint in Tucson Teal, White and Red Apple I created the background.

Added some splatters with Tucson Teal and Red Apple diluted acrylic paints.  Then I stamped the background with a homemade craft foam swirl stamp with white acrylic paint. 

Here's how to make your own stamps. Draw a simple shape on craft foam. Note: Remember the image will print in reversed, so if you are making a letter you will need to flip it. Cut out your shape and adhere it to a cardboard with quick glue. Allow it to dry completely. Now you have a brand new stamp! You can use this with ink or paint. Be sure to clean it after each use.  

Next I stamped the butterfly, word script and numbers stamps onto tissue paper with Memento Black ink. The number and script was used in two of the center circles. Place the butterfly as reference in the photo. I colored the butterfly with Copic markers: R29, B24 and B39.

Created the glitter effect with heart stickers and silver stickles.  The sentiment came from a magazine.   Created cross marks with a black Sharpie.

Challenge I participated in: Craft Stamper - Text Challenge (Monthly) - added text on the circles.

Yay, was noticed over at Mixed Media Monthly Challenge.