Yeah, yeah… I’m still here! But no matter how often I think ‘I should write a new blog’, usually I just can’t get myself to actually do it. But hey, I’m writing now! That counts for something, doesn’t it? Haha… (Below I’ll tell you all about this new art journal page I made.)

Time flies, and before I knew it we’ve jumped into 2019! Can you believe it? It’s been three years now since I took my first steps on this creative road. Starting out with just one coloring book and a set of 8 gel pens. That was it. Now look what has happened in just three years!

Expansion

I’ve got a studio full of coloring materials, pencils, pens, paints, embellishments, brushes, inks, loads of books, stencils, stamps, die cuts… and there just seems to be no end to it. Glad I didn’t know that in advance, it would have been way too overwhelming.

Well, anyway, I grew into it and I’m enjoying it immensely to be creative. The only thing I find hard every now and then, is to keep my website up to date. It costs so much time and I’m kind of a *cough cough* perfectionist, so that doesn’t make it easier.

But to be able to show you some things in a bit more detail, I need to use my website. So here I am again! 😀

Art journal page

Today I’ve finished an art journal page in the small Art by Marlene journal. And it was one of those projects that I’ve really, REALLY enjoyed. I’ve used a lot of materials, many of which for the first time. So this was a ‘get to know my materials’ kind of party.

This blog would become very boring if I’d wrote all details of what I’ve done, but at least I’ll tell you the most important things. (I’m not yet very self assured when it comes to art journaling, so I’m quite hesitant about filming what I’m doing and showing it to the world. So there’s no video of the making of this page, sorry).

I started with an idea, which was to use some Pronty Crafts by Julia Woning foam stamp. Julia is a Dutch artist and very well known in the Dutch coloring and crafting community. Last year she has designed several stamps and stencils and I just love them, but had not yet used any of it.

Classy love

The stamp ‘Classy love’ would be the centerpiece of my art journal page, so I stamped the image with black Archival ink on a piece of very thin tissue paper. Then I took my, also never used before, Art by Marlene watercolors and a paintbrush and gave it some nice and bright colors. After it had dried I cut it out and stamped a twig and flowers, both by Julia Woning. For that I used WaterArt paper and Versafine Clair Nocturne ink.

With this I started to get an idea of where I wanted to go with this journal page. I wanted the Classy love-lady in the center, with leaves and flowers around her and an inspiring text on the top. I then began to fill the blank paper with white gesso at first, and on top of that I added Dylusions paint in pink, purple, blue and white.

Bloody mess, or…?

On top of that I sprayed a bit of Marabu red spray paint. Which didn’t go quite the way I wanted it to. On the bottle it says to shake it before applying. So I did… shake. Hard. And ended up with red splatters everywhere. On my desk, on my hands, my face, my shirt… I could have been an extra in a horror movie hahaha 😛

Well, I wiped it off with a baby wipe and dried the page with the heat tool. Then I took the Sizzix Big Shot and out of a piece of Water Art paper I cut a nice mandala shape. I made it silver by rubbing it with a bit of silver gilding wax (I know it’s not very healthy to inhale, but I do love the smell of it! Smells like shoe polish… Love it!). Then I cut it in three pieces and glued them on the page.

Be aware to not fall asleep

I was in for some experimenting. So I cut a piece of some purple burlap-like ribbon I bought at Aldi’s and frayed it a bit. Then I glued it to the page with some matte gel medium. With a black Stabilo All pencil and a water brush I gave it a more distressed look.

Now it was time to add some stamps. In the list below I’ll share everything I’ve used, including the stamps. This article will be extremely boring if I mention every single detail. In fact I think it’s already being very boring… LOL 😛

After that I added some white Sharpie accents and then it was time to glue the Classy love image to the page. Here I used the matte gel medium again, but I forgot that I had used water color, so the yellow of her hair started to dissolve in the medium when I applied it on top of the image. It became quite messy (in my perfectionistic opinion that is. Someone else will probably totally miss that something went wrong).

Perfect distraction and finishing the project

But I thought of a solution in a split second! A perfect way to draw the attention away from what felt  like a disaster to me. I glued some flowers on top, and then I outlined the lady with Glossy Accents and sprinkled Nuvo glitter on top of it. Pink glitter. Hot pink glitter! (That’s the name, really). Wow, I love the effect of that!

Then it was time to add the rest of the leaves and flowers. And I took the white Sharpie again to add some more highlights and accents. To draw the veins of the leaves I used a green Faber Castell Pitt Pastel pencil.

I then stamped a nice text, from a stamp by Studio Light’s Art by Marlene, and for that I used another Versafine Clair ink: Charming Pink. Great color! With a blue Uni-Ball Eye UB-157 pen I added some shadow to the letters and then I cut the text out. I outlined it with a dauber and Distress Oxide Wilted Violet.

Then I also outlined the glued leaves and flowers with a black Stabilo All pencil and a water brush, and did the same to the piece of paper that contained the text.

Now the only thing left to do, was outlining the whole art journal page with black Distress Oxide. After that I called it ‘finished’!

Onto the next project…

Hopefully the inspiration to write a next blog, and actually share it online on my website, will not take too long. I really do have a LOT to share, but I’m already spending a lot of time at the computer, and I’d rather be in my studio doing creative things. Or just watch and enjoy all the materials that I’ve collected up until now 😀

See you next time, okay? Thanks a lot for visiting my website and reading all of this!

If you liked what you’ve just seen and read, please use the share buttons below the blog!
Thanks for being awesome! 😉

Below my complete list of used materials:

• Studio Light Art by Marlene small journal
• Water Art paper by KippersHobby, 185 grams
• White gesso
• Dylusions paint:
  • After midnight
  • White linen
  • Crushed grape
  • Peony blush
• Marabu Spray Paint, red
• Studio Light Memories of Summer die cut stencil (MS84)
• Pronty Crafts by Julia Woning:
  • Foam stamp Classy love (494.904.004)
  • Foam stamp Flower & Twig (494.904.001)
• Archival ink, black
• Tissue paper, 20 grams
• Liquitex Matte gel medium
• Marvy fineliner 0.8
• Gilding wax silver
• Stabilo All pencil, black
• Distress Oxide:
  • Wilted violet
  • Black soot
• White water-based Sharpie
• Craft Emotions Clear stamp Water drops (130501/1257)
• Studio Light Text stamp (StampBM28)
• Studio Light Cling stamp background (StampBM11)
• Studio Light Clear stamp zigzag (StampMS290)
• Versafine Clair ink:
  • Paradise
  • Nocturne
  • Medieval blue
  • Charming pink
• Distress Ink Picket Fence
• Dutch Doobadoo glue pen
• Studio Light Art by Marlene watercolor Bold & Bright (WCBM01)
• Burlap-like purple ribbon from Aldi
• Uni-Ball Eye UB-157 pen
• Ranger Glossy Accents
• Nuvo Pure Sheen glitter Hot pink
• Faber Castell Pitt Pastel pencil (1121-267)