Monday 22 July 2013

Art journal page - tutorial

Hi everyone :)

As promised, here is the tutorial I put together for the art journal page I did yesterday.  Each step has been photographed and if you decide to use the tutorial I’d love to see what you come up with!

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I started with my plain cardstock that I’d already covered with gesso and left to dry.  The next step was to apply some colour and for this I used three paint colours and cut’n’dry foam to apply the colour… it made it super easy to blend the colours the way I wanted them!

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I’d already ‘sectioned’ my page so I knew I didn’t need any colour in the two white areas because that was for the textural part of the page.  I used some OLD chipboard letters (from a class I did at SENZ in Wellington back in 2007), some pearl beads and a small resin heart.  All items were adhered with the glue gun.

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The next step was to get a bit more texture on the page so I applied a generous layer of Dimensional Magic around the beads and resin heart (because it flowed faster than I was expecting LOL).  Then I added some seed beads and little watch pieces that I had left over from other projects.

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While the Dimensional Magic was drying, I got out my Ferro paste and dabbed it around the ART letters with a stiff paint brush… love the texture of this stuff!

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Next I drew in some flowers and painted them with white paint.  I did a couple of coats of paint to get some lighter and thicker areas because I really wanted the ‘brush strokes’ to be in the paint.

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When everything was dry I went over my two textural blocks with gesso and a small brush so that I could get into all the nooks and crannies!  It also makes it possible for the paint in the next step to actually stick to the beads, resin and watch pieces.

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When the gesso was completely dry (aided by the heat gun) I painted over it with black paint.  The paint really sticks to the gesso and it’s super easy to see if you’ve missed any bits.

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I wanted to add some colour to the textured pieces so I mixed together some Perfect Pearls (Antique Bronze) with a little water and sprayed over both areas.  I used a bit of junk copy paper to mask off the rest of the page when I spritzed too!  After I spritzed I wiped the spray off the heart and the letters to help them stand out.

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Next up was some charcoal pencil around parts of the flower to give it a bit of depth.  The charcoal blends beautifully… especially with a slightly damp paint brush!

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Next I stamped in my flax image.  I did a couple of ‘practice’ stamps with different inks on some scrap paper… the Brilliance Black was the one that made such a mess of my new stamp!  I used Archival Black Ink for my actual page and I’m happy to say that the stamp is perfectly clean again now!  Makuini would be very proud of me LOL

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The next thing was to put my original lines back on my page using Indian Ink.  For someone who really likes straight lines it was really hard to do the bendy, curvy thing but I’m pleased with the finished result.

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Then it was back to the Dimensional Magic which I brushed over the resin heart and the ART letters.  I love the way they stand out on the finished page.

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I added my date tag when everything was dry.  This is an OLD stamp (had it for ages and never actually used it).  By the time I got around to using it the ‘years’ were all out of date so I just cut that section off my stamp and it works perfectly.

And here’s my finished page… and stuck into my art journal:

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Please let me know if these tutorials are helpful or inspire you.

Happy crafting xx

4 comments:

  1. Love your page. Where do you get your Gesso from? Love how you have used your green ferro and changed the colour. What do you use to attached your finished page your album? Look seeing your tutorials I am starting to get a little inspired to try these techniques.
    Janeen

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    1. I've got several different types of Gesso and I get most of them from art supply or stationery stores. To attach my pages I just use double sided tape. Glad you're enjoying the tutorials :)

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  2. Love, love, love it!!! I can't decide whether the background is reminiscent of aged terracotta or of tapa cloth. So glad you have found yet another outlet for your creativity. xoxo

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    1. Thank you Esther xx It was definitely a cool page to work on!

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