Something to remember ! :)
Painted the background with white and gold gesso and stenciled on top
in red using my Park Blvd Stencil. In order to make the design pop more I layered the stencil back on top after the paint dried and traced the pattern inside the openings.
Love the red and gold although I am not really big fan of gold – like say with jewelry etc.
Here are some of the supplies I used for this spread:
My friend Rae Missigman sent me her new book Paint, Play, Explore – Expressive Mark-Making Techniques in Mixed Media and I couldn’t wait to dig into it.
I wasn’t disappointed – Rae’s love for mark making and finding all kinds of tools and ways to inspire you to make your own mark in your artwork is contagious.
I was inspired by her idea of creating marks on fabric and I couldn’t wait to get into my studio to do this myself.
I cute a piece of this beautiful fabric which I had hoarded for ever and used a brayer to add some color on top of it to reveal the pattern and texture of the fabric even more
Using a rigger brush I added some marks as lines playing
I used the same colors to paint a grungy background into my art journal.
Then I grabbed my Embroidery Stamp Set as well as a purple ink pad
and added some stamped marks to the art journal but also on top of the fabric
Then I grabbed some embroidery thread and a needle
and added some cross stitches and french knots as marks to the fabric
I cut out circles out of the fabric and added a blanket stitch around the big one and then glued them down onto the art journal
I love how they tie in with the design of the background but still create their own little focal point
I added journaling and some hand drawn marks with a pencil and white woody
And there it is the finished Art Journal page inspired by Rae’s book – full of marks
Paint, Play, Explore oozes of gorgeous colorful and energizing photos and Rae shows in four chapters her favorite mark making tools, what kind of marks, artwork and projects.It is a wonderful inspiring book – Rae definitely left a mark with her wonderful book – Paint, Play, Explore.
Go and get it to leave your mark in your artwork as well!
Awe- thank you so much Gill – I love the Star Fish stamp too and it makes me happy that others love it too :)
Oh Nat I’m so thrilled that you enjoyed the book. Thank you so much for the kind words. It makes my heart happy. Your work is always so inspiring and your spin on this technique is awesome. Thank you so much for sharing with all of us! Can’t wait to see what you create next. Xx Rae
Thank you so much Rae- your book is so awesome!!! you are amazing- Loves!!!
Just another day floating around, felling ungrounded ….
Using my new Grove Street Stencil and a RubberMoon Inkpad – sometimes just using the middle of the circle to create the background.
I think playing on this spread grounded me a bit that day ;)
Here are some of the supplies I used:
I loved playing with my new and secretly new favorite Hamilton Stencil and tons of spray paints.
I pasted a piece of deli paper on top on which I had drawn.
I love how reapplying the stencil and spray partly with different colors and then repeating the process a couple times makes the pattern look so dimensional. It is my favorite thing about using spray paint.
Here are some of the supplies that I used:
Love how this one turned out- see it all works out ;)
I used my new Broadway Stencil and with a Distress applicator I added some Distress Oxide ink through the stencil. I used different colors.
For the right page of the spread I applied some Distress Oxide ink with the applicator, then washed the applicator out and while the foam was still wet, rubbed lightly over the stencil
which resulted in a nice subtle pattern – love this!
I painted with some artgraf charcoals on top and added some gouache here and there.
I added some journaling with the artgrafs into the openings on the left and used a thin wet brush to go over to desolve it a bit.
I love how this turned out. Fun to play with those Distress Oxides.
Here are some of the supplies I used:
“What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven’t happened yet.”
I painted the background with some copper, magenta and white paint
and stamped some marks using some stamps from my Embroidery Stamp Set.
I transferred a photo to the background and painted with inks and gouache over it.
Here are some of the supplies I used besides Acrylic paints:
Love the words! The colors are great together as well Nat.
It strikes me that there are no longer colors that I think of as “your colors” anymore…you use them all!
wohooo Mission accomplished – I am using aaaaaallll the rainbow :)
Today my newest Online Workshop goes on sale: BYO Art Journal! That stands for Build Your Own Art Journal just in case you were wondering :)
I will show you step by step how to build your very own art journal. I actually make a lot of my own art journals using this method! What will you get? You will learn how to make some patterned background pages for within and one-of-a-kind covers for the outside. Then you’ll learn a versatile book binding technique to pull everything together. Finally we’ll discuss various creative methods for finishing up your pages. If you have always wanted to create a custom art journal instead of buying the same off-the-shelf one that everybody else has, this is the workshop for you!
You will get 6 downloadable video lessons – approximately 1.5hours of content!!! You can find all the details for BYO Art Journal HERE.
Watch the promo video to learn more:
Early Bird Offer: Sign up NOW through Monday, October 1st at 11:59pm EST and save $10. That means BYO Art Journal can be yours for $49USD! On 10/2/2018 the workshop will return to it’s regular price of $59USD.
The workshop begins Monday, October 1st with the first lesson and additional lessons will be uploaded every Monday and Thursday. You can follow along with us or work at your own pace as lessons are up. I will pop into the classroom comments section daily while the lessons are going up to answer your questions. And at the end we will have an online gallery where you can share YOUR new art journals :) Throughout we’ll be sharing stuff online using #byoaj
Join us and create an art journal that is just as unique as the artwork within.
Lately I wonder why I have wasted so much time in my live worrying about what other people think. I am glad I am at a stage where I move on :)
I used my new Van Vorst Stencil with green and teal Spray paint on a copper and gold painted background. I painted the lady with acrylic paint and gouache.
I love my new Van Vorst Stencil …the floral design makes me happy and green and blue on copper and gold always reminds me of old buildings ..hey you think I am weird? Well …LOL
Here are some of the supplies I used for this spread:
Interesting thought Nat. When I hit 40 I found I can’t much less about what others thought.
Once I hit 50 I must say that I pretty much don’t care at all what people think.
As long as I’m kind and not hurting anyone, I do what my spirit moves me to do.
Which includes singing in public and saying hi to all dogs that I meet on the street (much to the embarrassment of my teenage son).
A bit simpler art journal spread using my new Flower Maze Stencil with spray paint.
Ink sketch on deli paper and some writing.
It was a fast art journal spread to get some thoughts down. Not a bad thing when you are in a time crunch :)
Here are the supplies I used
I love the dotty, spotty, spritzy effect you got with the spray paint. And of course you used my FAVORITE hex shape! Does the paint clean up easily?
Hi Nat,
I just wanted to tell you how much I love your Star Fish stamp. It is my favourite background detail stamp.
Thank you. Gill
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