Jami here with today’s Design Team feature! I’ve been kind of in a rut lately. I’ve been wanting to create but just haven’t had IT. Do you know what I mean? It’s frustrating when I get in this spot. Sometimes I can jump right back in, but this has been a long dry spell. I haven’t been able to figure out what my problem is. I’ve been buying new things to try out thinking that might help. I recently bought a few bottles of Golden’s High Flow Acrylics.
I LOVE the fluorescent pink mixed with the transparent yellow oxide. What I’m liking about these paints is that you don’t need much. The consistency is kind of like ink and the effect is almost like watercolor but more vibrant and not quite as sheer. These paints can be used in an airbrush, dip pen and even in a refillable marker! Anyway, I love this beginning.
I wanted some contrast and went to one of my all time favorite colors (Sea Breeze by Americana) and decided to use the Mini Tile Texture stencil by The Crafter’s Workshop.
This stencil is fabulous in that it looks like mini tiles, but I also thought it looks like burlap. I used a cosmetic sponge to stencil in the paint and was really happy with the results!
I used the stencil horizontally and vertically. I tried to make the cosmetic sponge have as little paint as possible to avoid seepage under the stencil. I know there are some blobby areas and I actually like them!
Somewhere in my searches for inspiration I came across someone who made an art journal page just of plaint splatters. I didn’t bookmark the blog and am sorry I can’t remember who it was, but I loved the idea. I cut my own splatter paint stencil and decided to spray some Dylusions ink through my stencils. I love Dylusions!! The colors are amazing, they are reactive with water and they mix with each other. I used teal, white, lemon zest, grape and bubblegum.
I used scratch paper to keep the Dylusion spray contained to this stencil cutting.
I kept moving the stencil around the page and spraying different colors of Dylusions. I like how the Mini Tiles Stencil pattern can be seen through the Dylusions! It adds lots of texture to the page.
I decided to spray white Dylusions under and over some turquoise Dylusions and I got a somewhat marbled effect.
This is what my homemade stencil looks like. It’s tinted from the sprays. I still have to clean it off with some water or baby wipe.
Here is my page, splatters and everything! But I know I’m not done. Still more playtime to be had. I’m in the groove again and feeling a flow. This makes me happy!
I felt the need to collage so I grabbed a bunch of copies I’ve made from older journals, magazine images and also some sheets I have from a workshop I took with Teesha Moore many years ago.
So I played around with lots of different images and this is what I came up with.
Funky and weird which I like a lot. I know I’m going to write something and doodle more. Let’s see where I go!
As you can see on the left side, the white Sharpie picked up the teal Dylusions. I’m ok with that. It ties into the blue head dress. This will happen with Dylusions since it is water based. The Sharpie Poster Paint pen is also water based, so they will mix together when layered. If this happens to you, just clean off the marker tip so the next time you use it, the tip will be white again.
Here are some of my favorite markers I consistently use in my mixed media work. I ALWAYS have a superfine Sharpie poster paint pen in white and black. Gelly Rolls are great for detail and I am also into the Montana paint pens. I have even mixed up some of my own colors and filled the empty Montana pens. This is what was used on this page, just in lots of colors.
I was pretty satisfied with my page, but felt it still needed more. I added a quote I have seen many times and hits me each time I read it. I also doodled more and more. Sometimes I have a hard time stopping. At the last minute, I decided to add some black dots with the Pearl Pen by Viva Decor. I had never used one of these as typically I use a black Sharpie for my dots. I like the raised texture and the dots varied in size. If I had really spent time, I could have made every dot the exact same size.
Here’s my finished page! Some things I love, some not so much. It doesn’t matter to me because I really liked the process and realized how much I’ve missed doing this. I think I found my groove again. Yay me!!
