Key to Your Soul Art Journal Page by Barbara Rankin

Hi everyone!  Today I'll be working in my art journal, and using Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts chipboard to add dimension without lots of bulk.  If you've ever wondered how to get some added dimension in your art journal, consider chipboard.  It is perfect for items like art journals and greeting cards, mini albums with thin spines, and of course, your mixed media canvas pieces.

I want to warn you that this post has lots of photos, but I believe a picture is worth a thousand words, so I hope it will be more helpful than a hinderance.

I started out with my 6"x9" Dylusions art journal and gave the pages a coat of Old Paper Distress Crackle Paint I had in my stash.  You can, of course, use regular crackle paste and color it with paint or just leave it natural.

Spread Modeling Paste through Pixels stencil with a spatula.  Let dry or use heat tool to speed drying time.

While the paste is drying, use gesso to prime chipboard pieces chosen from the Mixed Media Fragments 2 chipboard collection.  I cut some  pieces apart to piece together in the background.

Use small stamps or portions of larger stamps to make some texture on the Fragments with black archival ink.  This will not only add interest but also a bit of texture to the pieces.

Spray background with Color Bloom Glistening Waves, leaving some areas white.

Spray background with Color Bloom Lime Wedge.  Let dry.

Spray background with Color Bloom Tea Stain.  Let dry.

Spray background with Tattered Angels Frosty Nights.  Let dry.

Spray background with Color Bloom Iris.  Let dry.

Stamp damask background stamp with black archival ink.  Stamp off once before stamping onto page for a lighter image.

Prime two keys and two plates with black gesso and let dry.

Computer generate your phrase onto inexpensive printer paper and and spray it with a fixative to keep the inkjet ink from bleeding when we add more color.

Cut the phrase apart, then glue them to a piece of chipboard.  You can use cereal box chipboard from your kitchen, or you could glue several layers of cardstock together to get the added height.

Glue Fragments, Keys & Plates, and phrase pieces to journal pages, as shown.  I weighted them down while they dried.

Use a spatula or brush to spread some regular gel matte medium randomly over the background, concentrating around the fragments pieces, and then sprinkle on texture pebbles, filling in any open areas with the smaller texture sand.  Let dry,

Spray both pages the same as before.  It is really neat to see how the different pieces will take on the colors differently.  I started with the TA Frosty Nights, then CB Glistening Waves, CB Iris, CB Lime Wedge, and finally CB Tea Stain.  I dried each color layer before spraying the next color.

Next, I dry brushed Vintage Gold Metallique wax over some of the high spots on the page.

Then I added a small amount of Brushed Iron Metallique wax over the black gessoed chipboard pieces.  Next, I added the Bronze Age over them, and applied  it to the edge of the pages with my finger.

One last blast randomly with the CB Glistening Waves, and let dry.

The addition of all the sprays lightened the printed words, so I used a black Sharpie pen to go over the letters in the phrase.  It was easy and best of all, it made it look like it was hand-written rather than computer-generated.

I used a Pitt Black big brush pen to add some shading beneath some of the pieces to add dimension.

Next, I made splatters over the background by making a wash of white gesso + water and a fan brush.

I made dots with a bronze pearl paint pen to resemble brads or nail heads in the key plate holes.

Next, I added more Vintage Gold wax over the high spots.  They had gotten covered up some by the sprays, but that is why mixed media is so fun.  You can just keep adding layers and layers of the same stuff until you like the end result.  I also edged the pages with Black Soot distress ink and a blending tool.

And now, I have some close-ups of portions of the pages for you. 

Supplies Used:

GSL Mixed Media Fragments 2
GSL Keys & Plates Shape Set
White Gesso (Liquitex)
Black Gesso (Liquitex)
DecoArt Media Modeling Paste
Stencil Girl S509 Pixels Stencil (6x6)
Distress Crackle Paint (Old Paper) (or substitute any crackle paint)
Black Soot Distress Ink
Blending Tool
Dylusion 6"x9" art journal
Prima Color Bloom Spray Mists
  Glistening Waves
  Lime Wedge
  Tea Stain
  Iris
Prima Metallique Wax
  Vintage Gold
  Brushed Iron
  Bronze Age
  Mystic Turqouise
Tattered Angels Mists
  Frosty Nights
Viva Decor Bronze Pearl Paint Pen
Art-C 26885 San Serif Alphabets stamps & stencil set
Archival Black ink pad
Fast Grab Tacky Glue (Aleene's)
Golden Regular Gel (Matte)
Krylon Workable Fixatif
Black Sharpie pen
Pitt Black Big Brush Pen (Faber-Castell)

I hope you enjoyed today's project tutorial and maybe I've inspired you to get working on your art journal or other projects.  Art journaling is fun!  

Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a fun and crafty day!

Hugs,
Barbara

Messing around at being creative!

Hi folks, its Angela with you today.

Sometimes I just feel like I want to mess around and experiment with different ideas and not create anything specific. This is why I have an art journal, I can play for the sake of playing and then stick the resulting artwork in there.

Today I took various bits of Mixed Media Fragments from the store (I just LOVE these bits, they are so versatile) and made two art journal pages. I wanted them to go together so I used the same colours on both pages.

For the first page I wanted to stamp the design of the media fragments over the page, but I need to make a stamp to do this. I separated the off-cut pieces from the design (hold on to these until you finish as you may decide you want to use them) then I took out some Cut and Dry foam and I heated the back with my heat gun and pressed the media fragment into it to make my own stamp. Once made I inked it up with Spiced Marmalade distress ink and stamped it on the page. As you can see from the picture I did the same with the diamond mixed Media fragment, you can use the same bit of foam because as you heat it up the previous indent disappears.

Once I had the background stamped I just added ink and distress stains randomly so it wasn't so white.

For the second page I wanted some texture on it so I turned to the texture paste. 

I used a palette knife to spread the paste through the square Mixed Media Fragment then lifted and repeated the process to give me 2 textured areas. As you can see by the third small picture, a little paste gets left behind on the piece but it is still perfectly usable for another project.

I used some gesso and then paint and distress stain on this once it had dried overnight.

Once I had the background done it was time to work on the decorative pieces. I took the diamond Mixed Media Fragment and applied gesso which I then dried with my heat gun. I squiged (very technical term I know) my distress ink - Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade and Picked Raspberry - onto my craft mat and sprayed with water. I then dragged my gessoed piece through the ink. Once dry I applied a random layer of Rock Candy Distress Crackle and left to one side to dry overnight.

I gessoed all the other pieces I wanted to use and applied paint, stain and ink to them to get the look I wanted.

Finally I stuck the pieces where I wanted them on my pages and added some White Enamel Accents (by Ranger) to various pieces to help them stand out.

And there we have it - getting messy just because you can, no other reason than that.

Ingredients:

Mixed Media Fragments 2
Retro Frame Set
Butterfly Corner Bottom

Hypericum Berries

Words & Phrases 1

Just be yourself

Hi Guys,

Jess here today with a simple and fun technique. 

 These guys started off as an experiment.  I wasn't quite sure what I was thinking would work, but after playing for a bit I love how they turned out.

Use the smallest crown from the Steampunk Shape Set.  I embossed this using a couple colors from Emerald Creek.  

Put on his fancy pants.  

Paint your fragment.  I used Dina Wakley's Magenta here.  This one is from the Mixed Media Fragments 2 set.  In the final product you can see I also used pieces from the Mixed Media Fragments 1 set.  I used the same technique on all three tags.  I used a foam brush and dabbed on the color to get some texture in the paint. 

Use Distress Ink to create your tag.  I used the same four colors on all three tags.  

Flick on paint in black, silver, and copper.  Add Black Soot Distress Ink and Crayon on the edges.  

Flick your fragment with paint at the same time.  I also just tapped the brush in various spots. 

Glue your Fragment to your tag.  Use foam tape to adhere your paperdoll.  Add your sentiment and any other final touches.  

Super fun and really easy project.  

Jess

Tablet, Phone or Ipad stand

Hi folks, Angela here with a fairly simple project for you. I decided that it was about time I made the tablet stand up, after all it is only 3 pieces of chipboard! It is however an incredibly useful 3 pieces of chipboard when assembled.

I took a white painter pen and gave the whole thing a basecoat of white.

Then I took the symbols fragment from the Mixed Media Fragments 2 and used it as a stencil, I used a fairly stiff paintbrush (I don't have a specific stencil brush) with some distress paint to pounce through the fragment.

I then took another fragment, this time the hexagon one, from the same set and repeated the process with some color art silk paints:

I decided, once I had done the above step that I would use the fragment to decorate the stand so I cut it into pieces that fit and used an alphabet die set to cut out my name. Here you have the finished piece with an added elephant that I got on my recent trip to the USA.

I hope this will help to inspire some of you to have a go with some of the dimensional things in the store.