My First (Completed) Art Journal Page

Recently I left a job and company I loved in order to move over 2,000 miles to go back to school full-time and join my husband in the remote village where he works. Sad about leaving a place and people I loved, but happier to be joining my husband on his awesome adventure, my dear one and I sat down with a talented friend to make our first full art journal pages and play with new techniques. Of course, the theme of my page was the happy, hopeful anticipation of new adventures and challenges.

High Hopes

1) We started off with a thin layer of gesso to help the thick paper resist the moisture of the acrylic paint wash we applied next. The gesso dried quickly, and the transparency of the acrylic paint wash was determined by that amount of water mixed with the purple acrylic paint. If the layer isn't vibrant or thick enough, try a slightly thicker wash, or a wash using another shade or color of acrylic paint to vary the affect. 

2) Once dry, I used Hampton Art's hot air balloon stamp set and a lattice background stamp in grey, sepia, and black ink. I wasn't happy with how strong the balloon images turned out, so I applied another wash of acrylic paint to tone down the balloon images. I then smeared a thin layer of Faber Castell iced coffee gelato on the edges and rubbed it in until I had a nice border.

3) I sponged a darker purple acrylic paint (not diluted with water) through a stencil after the last acrylic wash dried.

tinted modeling paste letters

4) We mixed some high-quality pigments into modeling paste, though you can experiment with tinting small batches of modeling or texture paste with just about any ink, chalk, paint, etc. I chose a mellow grey so my words wouldn't POP off the page with contrast in addition to the natural height of the past. You can apply the paste through any stencil design you like, but be sure to rinse the extra paste from the stencil right after application. Once it dries, it is a bear to get off the stencils!

This was my first time playing with modeling paste with stencils, though surprisingly not my first time with tinting paste. I love the spongy affect of the paste once it gains height from the stencil application, and can't wait to play with it some more!

5) While my stenciled modeling paste dried, I assembled my embellishment layers from my friend's scrap pile. The propeller and vellum were probably the only new embellishment elements. I chose a patterned base paper, followed by black mesh, then postage and script scraps, then an inked tag. After gluing those layers to each other, I stamped the lady gear head from Hampton Art's Time Flies stamp set across all 3 paper scraps, attached a metal propeller and clock hand. I finished the embellishment patch by stapling the vellum poem over top and glued the entire patch to the page.

layered embellishments

6) As an afterthought, I decided that the page didn't look best with the resulting matte finish, so I applied a thin layer of glazing medium over the paper, working around the embellishment patch. Then I was perfectly happy with my "high hopes" page!

So to recap the basics of this project, which you can easily alter to suite your tastes or to take advantage of materials on hand:
Over a base of gessoed paper, we had
1 - a background layer of color,
2 - stamped elements to make a background,
3/4 - stenciled elements of paint and/or modeling or texture paste,
5 - multiple embellishments, and
6 - top layer of glazing medium.

Entered in: 
SimonSaysStamp.com Monday Challenge "H is for..."
Crafts Galore Encore Challenge for February, "Use a stamp or digi"
Altered Eclectics February "anything goes"
Inspiration Destination "anything goes" challenge #19
Clear It Out Challenge "anything goes/anything goes"
Your Scrapbook Place February challenge "anything goes"
Papertake February challenge "anything goes"
Loves Rubberstamps challenge #137 "anything goes"
Crafting By Designs February Anything Goes Challenge
Word Art Wednesdays Anything Goes Challenge #169
Crafting From The Heart Anything Goes Challenge #45
Brown Sugar Challenge Blog #132 "anything goes"
Creative Fingers Challenge #66 "anything goes"
Sisters of Craft February Anything Goes Challenge
Craft Your Passion Challenges #247 - February Anything Goes
Scrapper's Delights challenge #40 "Anything Goes"
Fan-Tastic Tuesday challenge #71 "Anything Goes... With Purple"