Go Make Some Art! | Mixed Media Art Journal Cover

This is the back cover of my first art journal I ever started. 

The page cover was already covered with black gesso and the outside had some left over paint from other projects I had done. I decided to make the inside similar to the front cover, which is ust the three colors of paint, red, yellow and blue. I didn't need to add texture like I did with the front cover because the back cover was cardboard. 

I couldn't see any forms popping up from the left over paint splashes that were already there, so I opted for spreading some heavy layer of yellow paint. Still not seeing anything, I then decided to recycle some tissue I had used to mop up printer ink while I was refilling ink cartridges (yes, I'm frugal :)).

It was amazing that after I stuck that tissue on I immediately saw that strange being there, looking straight at me :) Didn't need to do much work to outline the form and make him/her visible to all :) This page was pretty easy and quick to do, even though I started without knowing what was going to happen :)

I loved the final result, because this is exactly what you want to do after flipping through an art journal, just go and make some art :)

I hope you like it! 

To watch the creative process as it happens click the video below:

Supplies used: (in order of appearance)

• Black gesso (homemade from black acrylic and white gesso)
• Acrylic paint
• Wood glue 
• Recycled tissue
• Permanent marker
• Acrylic varnish (to seal and protect)

The End | Mixed Media Art Journal Page

This is the last page in the first art journal I had ever started. 

This page was started earlier using leftover paint and stencil from another page, I believe from the "H" page in my "ABC Motivation Art Journal." So, since the background was already there, I just went on with  it. I used left over trips from another project (crepe paper) as the framing for the page. 

Since this was the last page, it felt like a celebration, since I started that journal in May 2013. That is why I decided to do something that I had wanted to try for a long time, adding beads to one of my pages to give the BLING effect. The only thing that has always stopped me was the apprehension of thinking that I first had to thread the beads and then add them to the page, or stitch them on somehow. This time I just went for the glue. Since wood glue is nice and strong, I went ahead and tested it for how much it would hold. I have to admit that it held up nicely. All the beads stayed on, the ones that were stuck, and the final effect was amazing. 

I noticed, after adding the beads, that the words "THE END" were not popping or noticeable, they seemed to blend in somehow. I used the fluid golden marker to outline the letters and see how that would work, but the line was not enough to make them visible. Marking a bigger area around the letters made them more distinguishable and separate from the background a bit. The page was all done :) Just add a layer of acrylic varnish and finito :) The last page in my first art journal, all that is left is the back cover and binding and finished :) YUPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :) The back cover is coming up next :) 

This is the whole page: 

If you would like to see how it was all done, check the video below: 

Supplies: (in order of appearance)

• black gesso (was under the acrylic paint)
• Acrylic paint
• Stencils (homemmade)
• Wood glue
• Crepe paper (from another finished project)
• Glass beads
• Fluid permanent marker (gold)
• Acrylic varnish

Let Us Play | Mixed Media Art Journal Page

Another page, another chance to be a kid again and play with "artistic" supplies. 

These two pages were indeed different colors of gesso to start with, they reminded me of a naughty rhyme that goes: one black one one white one and one with a bit of ... on :) (note to Mum: if you are reading this, I dare you not to finish the rhyme in your head :D) I still get to paint one of them over again :) 

I am starting to understand abstract and intuition artists. They seem to be the ones that start with the intention of having fun over all else! I believe I am becoming one of them, haven't decided which type yet. Then again, who wants to label who here?!

After enjoying the previous page so much, with the spray pens and the fact that the white acrylic paint I use lets the color bleed threw, I decided to continue the fun and use them again. You'll see me getting out my first ever homemade stencils and going a bit crazy :) 

I tried to use acrylic paint on the stencils to get a nice effect, but it wasn't working out, so I opted to using the transfer paper prints I had made with the same stencils I'm using here. This was when I was testing how acrylic paint will react on transfer paper, glad I kept those!

Once those pieces of transfer paper were glued down, it was time to decide what was going to happen from here! I had no idea. Since I was working with the intention of playing, I decided to just play with writing text right in the middle of the page, boy did that feel good!!!!! Like breaking some unmentioned rules... talking about unmentionables.... let's leave it there for now :) 

Since I wanted to use that diamond shape stencil I had made, I thought why not go back to really being a child and using the coloring pens that our art teachers at school made us believe that we could make a Picasso with! Lier lier pants on fire !!! None of them ever told us the tricks to use those color pens, but now I know they work very well with zentangles and if you want to color crazy mixed media pieces with the intention of discovering how they'll react with the rest :) Knowing that there is always a risk that they will just smudge all over the place and leave you stairing at a new challenge (lol).

Anyway, I still got to use my white acrylic paint to doodle over the stenciled area and let the color bleed threw the doodles :) I liked that effect. 

On hindsight, I believe that the page could have still looked good, if not better, if I had stenciled around the words and the edges instead of over the whole page... Ah well, lessons learned! I wonder when I'll ever finally get the lesson of "less is more" !!!!

Here is the full spread: 

Here is the actual creative process: 

Supplies: (in order of appearance)

• recycled transfer paper (to hold the spread)
• wood glue
• Gesso
• Acrylic paint
• Stencils (homemade)
• Spray pens
• Permanent marker (for the text)
• Acrylic varnish to protect the page (matt/gel medium)

Affirmations Are The Key | Mixed Media Art Journal Page

The title of the page came after the figure was discovered in the page :) It has to do with me re-discovering the power of "Affirmations" :) 

I have recently discovered wood glue (from Mireille's videos) :) In the past I had run out of acrylic varnish (matt/gel medium) while doing my collage pages and this ended up stopping me almost completely from collage anything properly! Until I saw one of Mireille's videos where she mentioned that she was using wood glue for decoupage work. So, with thanks to Mereille, I managed to find a small container of that glue and got one to use instead of the acrylic varnish (matt/gel medium) :) 

This is why, this page started purely with collage, oh how I missed that! As I had no idea what I was going to make for this page, all I knew at the tart was hat I wanted to decoupage, and I wasn't doing it with selecting any papers in particular, just grabbed the closest ones, the actual image of the man's face emerged from the corner of the page :)

I also got a set of coloring pens and decided to grab those coloring pens that you can blow threw to use as spray, since I didn't have access to distress spray bottles yet. You'll see my head as I'm blowing the paint onto the page threw the stencils (more home made stencils and the butterflies that came with the spray pens). 

Here is the whole picture: 

Check out the creative process as it happens here: 

Supplies used: (in order of appearance)

• Recycled transfer paper to hold the double spread
• Matt acrylic varnish (gel medium to glue the strips and seal the page at the end)
• Gesso
• Wood glue (white and dries transparent)
• Recycled paper used to mop up paint (as collage)
• Permanent marker to outline the face that popped as well as the butterflies
• Acrylic paint
• Homemade stencils
• Spray pens (and the stencils that came with it)
• Coloring pens
• Hairspray to fix the coloring ink
• Glitter for some accents on the butterflies and the key

Hvala (Thank You in HR) |Mixed Media Art Journal Page

I remember seeing different art journal techniques to get the mountain-like effect, but most of them had to do with crumbling the actual page. Since I couldn't do that, because of the other side of one of them being the previous page, I decided to try that with napkins. 

Since I have an overflowing abundance of those euro bill note napkins, I decided to use up some of them :) Looks strange when you see it being applied, but I'm satisfied with how effective they were. I used layers and layers of the napkins as well as the paint. 

Once the mountains of liquid gold were created, I was stuck :) That is when you see me rummaging threw my storage of "stuff that can be used" :) tried a few things but decided on some thread that was left over from recycling some bag handles. 

Since there was a lot of shine on the page already, I went for the contrast of the thread and stuck with it. A few tidbits of red napkin and i was falling in love with the page. 

I also used a piece of furniture role, the stuff you use on the bottom of chairs and couches on the frame :) It was not wide enough, nor big enough for the word I wanted to use...... What to do? Go back to the stash :) And I found a perfect piece of cardboard that would fit :) 

I finished off the page using matt varnish (gel/matt medium) to protect the page. I also used a lot of that varnish to stick everything down... from now on I'm switching to wood glue :) 

This is the final result of the whole spread:

You can watch the actual creative process on video here: 

Supplies used: 

• Tissue/pattern paper to join the page spread
• Matt varnish (matt/gel medium) to stick it
• Gesso to prime
• Tissue paper (to create my mountains)
• Water based glue to stick the tissue
• Acrylic paint
• Paint roller (to spread the paint on the mountains)
• Fabric paint (the gold)
• Recycled thread (brown)
• Recycled furniture roles
• Cardboard
• Matt Varnish (matt/gel medium) to seal the spread

My Happy Feelings Page | Mixed Media Art Journal Page

It started out with using thin tissue paper to join the double spread that I was making. I then decided to reinforce the edges. For this I recycled the edges of business card sheets that I use to write my affirmations on. I thought it best to keep those pieces to use in journaling :) 

I wanted to use glue sticks but they don't work very well with the heavy slippery paper so I decided to use acrylic varnish (gel medium) instead. I know I should use wood glue as it is cheaper than the varnish (gel medium). 

I then decided to work on the background, even though I wasn't sure what the final result would be, I just let it all flow again with thoughts of thanksgiving and gratitude :) 
Here I'm using my new homemade stencil for the first time. I used the left over role from a duct-tape role that I had finished to do the design and then cut it out using a sharp craft knife/blade. The actual material of the stencil is what I recycled from an old kitchen plastic blind. 

I tried to use the technique I had seen with mixing dark/light colors on stencils, but I see I will need more practice :)

By then I had, sort of, an idea about where I wanted to go with this page spread, so I used the stamps that I had (floral) and some golden fabric paint with them to create some shiny floral accents. As you can see I didn't bother taking the stamps off the plastic and mounting them on the block :) since they were for accents I decided to use whatever touched the paint :)

Because I knew what I wanted to create, I decided to use the left over parts of a stencil I had created (you'll see it in another video some day) and use them as masks to create the figures I wanted with the background. The idea by this time was decorative balls, mostly known as Xmas balls :) You have to admit that even the music makes it feel like Xmas again :)

Once the balls were created from the background, I wanted to add some shading to make them look a bit more like balls! Not sure it worked, but I used water color pens for this and I think they did create some shadow, maybe in the wrong area :)

As I have a steadier hand with a pen, I used the paint in a tube (also recycled from other paint) to create the threads/strings for the balls (that were hanging from the ceiling for me.) I also added some definition to them balls with the same paint. 

Using lots of (acetone based) glue I put a lot of glitter that I had left over from another project I was testing. This glue, because of the acetone, seemed to react with the red acrylic paint that was used to mix my own purple! I liked the effect because it showed the forms of the stencil in the end. Once I noticed the effect I added more and more glue to show up the red stain :)

I then started writing words that describe feelings that make us happy :) until I rant out of space :)

Trying to add more definition for the balls I used a glitter glue that I had. The white glue goes transparent when it dries. Made them look very nice, if you see the spread in real life. 

I decided to frame the page with green acrylic, since there was already plenty of red and it still felt like Xmas :) 

I finished off the page using glossy varnish. I did that because the glue made it so shiny and i didn't want to lose all the glitter effect. 

Here is the final result, I used the camera flash for this photo because the light I was using was a bit too yellow :)

Check out the creative process on video here: 

Supplies used: 

• Tissue/pattern paper to join the double spread
• recycled heavy paper to reinforce the edges
• Gel Medium (acrylic varnish) to glue it all down
• Gesso to prime the spread
• Acrylic paint
• Homemade stencil
• Stamps
• Golden fabric paint to give some accents with the stamps
• masking circles that were left over from another homemade stencil
• acetone based glue (made the red paint from the purple come threw the white)
• Glitter, left over from anther project. (yes, even the flower and the words Love where in it)
• Glossy varnish to seal the spread (trying to maintain the shine of all the glitter)

Flowers Everywhere! | Art Journal Page

This page is inspired by other journal creators: 
- Book paper background: http://youtu.be/RmosZHY0w30
- Transfer paper: http://youtu.be/_YdibCKZDKk
- Paper flowers: http://jolainefrias.blogspot.nl/2010/11/vintage-print-flowers-tutorial.html
- Positive/gratitude journaling: http://youtu.be/xQicQahVH-A




The text on the page reads: 
There are flowers everywhere, 
even in the wild. 
Open up your mind and see, 
what, only you, can find!



There was a lot of happy journaling going on, covering the edges of the petals of the flowers as well as the leaves, Happy Happy, Joy Joy! :) 

The whole final results: 

Supplies used: 
- Old book pages
- gesso
- water colors
- gel pens (for journaling on the petals and leaves)
- Permanent markers (for the boarder)
- Hairspray (to seal the water colors)
- Acrylic paint
- Acrylic varnish (matt medium)
- Glue to stick the flowers
- stapler (to secure the flowers)
- Glitter 

Words | Art Journal Page

This creation was inspired by all the art journal pages that have been coming my way recently, reminding me that a word can encourage and a word can destroy. Choose your words wisely!

Supplies used: 
- Matt medium
- recycled strips of journaling paper
- glue stick
- cardboard
- gesso
- acrylic paint
- gel pens
- permanent markers

This is the final result!

Here is the creative process video: 

Thank You! | Art Journal Page

Another day, Another page!

This time I didn't have anything in mind, since I had actually forgotten to make a page for the day. I only remembered when my friend asked me what the next page is like!

With a completely empty brain, I grabbed the pages I was going to work on and looked for something to stick them together for the duration of the creative process. I look and I see the folder sticking out with the strips of paper that I had journaled on a long time ago and decided to save for art journaling. 

Earlier that day I was working with a wood burning tool, turning a place mat, with a lace design, into a stencil. I didn't believe (at the time) that I had cleared enough of the design to actually use it on the page I was creating, so I thought nothing of it. 

Having had an earlier conversation with my friend about the art supplies I use. I realized that I had always found it challenging to use water colors! But! when I was finished with sticking the strips of journaling paper I saw a nice background that wanted to be created. So, I grabbed my water color pallet (I got my from a local store called Action, from the kids' craft corner.) And started coloring. 

It's interesting how a page can decide where it wants to go. I really had no idea what I was going to make and had decided to be open for everything that day. 

Seeing those beautiful blues on the page I felt I could use part of the place mat that I had cleared enough just for that little corner. So, I did that... then playing around with placing the place mat made me see that I can also use another part of it that was clear enough for just one side of the page! I just did it. Because i was using wall filler, it turns out to be very hard when it dries with sharp edges, I just used sand paper to smooth those enough that they wouldn't be scratchy to the touch.

Since I was still busy with water colors and didn't really feel like bringing out my acrylic paint, pure lazy and not inspired to use them here. I was pulled towards my water color pencils. I used that to add more depth to the raised stencil print. 

Even though the pencil was working OK, I was not sure I would be able to get the tip into all the grooves of the other piece I wanted to do. I then grabbed my water colors again and chose a brush, you'll see me use 3 different brushes, the third was the best to get into the nooks and crannies :) 

At this point I felt that the page itself was nearing completion, for the background and the details. Just adding a border was enough, then the words "Thank You."

I don't usually add journaling text to my pages, but this time I felt a flood of words that wanted to be on that page. Since this page was created out of thoughts of gratitude, I let them flow. I used a silver color gel pen to do that. It surprised me that there was so much to say and so much to write. Writing all those things put me in such a good, happy and grateful stance that I even started crying from pure happiness! 

Now I know how Monique used to feel when she was working on her BOPA. I thought that maybe I will start my own "Gratitude Series," but I feel that I would rather just create the pages with the "intention" and without limits! When you start a series it is supposed to have an end, and I don't want to put an end to this. 

Even watching the video after I had uploaded it onto YouTube, I still went back to that moment, remembering everything I was grateful for and going into a meditative trance. Interesting experience that I would like to repeat!

When was the last time you wrote down what you are thankful for? It is quite therapeutic, I would recommend it for anyone, at any time! Just give it a try and you'll understand what I mean :)



Supplies used: 
- Recycled journaling paper
- Water based glue & glue stick
- Matt medium 
- Gesso 
- Water color paint
- Water color pens
- Wall filler
- Permanent marker 
- Gel pens