'Create' Art Journal Page by Elisa Ablett

Hi Soul Sisters,

Elisa here from the design team with my very first post representing Annette and Art and Soul Studio.

I am so looking forward to designing and hopefully inspiring you all with just what you can do with the amazing array of products from the shop.

Now onto my first project!

I wanted to create a colourful and vibrant Art Journal page using my fav colour combination of Aqua, blues, turquoise, silver and black and gorgeous Prima and Seth Apter stamps.

Scroll to the bottom for a full product list and links to the shop. 

Also I have included a step by step tutorial on the techniques used to create this art journal page.

Now onto the tutorial !

Firstly I gathered together a range of supplies including old music paper, metal embellishment, second hand lace, paper lace and of course stamps, inktense pencils and stencils.

Then using watercolour paper, the Balzar Celebration Stencil and a few colours of the Derwent Inktense Pencils (Lagoon Blue, Navy Blue, Sea Blue, Deep Indigo, Dark Aquamarine and Black) and a water spritzer. Spritz the stencil and then colour of the top with your colours, dab with a baby wipe. Set aside to dry.

Next step, colour directly onto the music paper and spritz with water letting the colours blend into a lovely sea blue. Put aside to dry for later.

One of my favourite techniques with the pencils is to use a craft mat, spritz your stamp with water then while wet scribble directly onto your stamp with colour, spritz with water again then stamp onto watercolour paper. A second way of  stamping with pencils is to scribble onto your craft mat then spritz the colour with water, put your stamp (which is on an acrylic block) into the colour wash and then stamp onto water colour paper. Wait til your stamped image drys then fussy cut out.

I hand dyed my lace and paper lace with the inktense pencils by spritzing the craft mat, then scribbling the colour pencils into the water creating a colour wash I then dipped my lace and paper lace into the colour wash. I then hand dried the lace. This is a fantastic technique to create your own embellishments to match your project.

I also wanted to add a few stamped poppies, I used a lovely Prima Bloom stamp with versafine black archival ink on watercolour paper. Once dry, spritz your stamped image with water and working from the inside of the flower to the outside with your pencil colours. Add extra water spritzes over the top if required to blend the colours. Even use your finger to smooth the colours together or a baby wipe. Then dry the image and then fussy cut your flowers out and put aside.

Now onto your Art Journal, the art journal that I am using at the moment is a Strathmore mixed media journal A4 in size with a high paper quality.

The first step I used to prepare my page is to add a coat of clear gesso, it has a fine grade texture to it and also allows for the blending of colours on your page without losing any colour vibrancy.

Next step, after drying the gesso, grab your fav colour Dylusions sprays or Colour Sprays, I used Lindy's Stamp Gang Moon Shadow mists in Bay blue and Tawny Turquoise and also Black Dylusions spray. To start your background I spritzed the page with water first then I added small spritzes of your colours into the water, this is called a wet on wet technique - great for blending watercolours. Tilt your page at an angle to achieve some drip lines. Keep spritzing til you achieve a lovely pattern that you are happy with! 

I then used my heat gun and dried my page then splattered lovely black splashes with Black Dylusions spray using the insert tube from inside the bottle. Dry again thoroughly.

Next step - Now it's time for texture and extra colour! Grab a palette knife and your Celebration Stencil and using a 'buttering my bread' motion add some black modelling paste over the top of your stencil with your palette knife. Peel off your stencil gently and dry your page with a heat gun or naturally.

Now to start adding some of your elements. I had a lovely metal embellishment, it looked like a mandala, I gessoed over the top of the metal embellishment (dried gently with a heat gun) then sprayed the embellishment with my Lindy's Stamp Gang Sprays. Then dried gently with my heat gun, you could also add embossing powder at this stage if you wanted. 

I also cut out all of my stamped and coloured images and layered them on the page like the photo below and glued every thing down.  Once it has been glued down, I splattered blue and black splashes of ink over the top.

Here are some close ups for the finer details !

That's it for today from me! 

On behalf of Annette and the team at Art and Soul Studio, thank you so much for your support!

We would love you to share our projects, the blog and links with your arty friends and to your pages so our lovely art community gets just that little bit bigger! 

We look forward to seeing your creations in the Soul Sister Facebook page as well.

If anyone is interested I would be happy to do a process video on how I created the coloured poppies or any other technique that I have used on this project. Just let me know.

Don't forget to leave me some love in the comments below :-)

Thank you

Elisa xx

Products and Links

Prima Bloom - Floral Stamp

available for preorder today - contact shop for further details.

 Seth Apter Paper Artsy Stamps

Derwent Inktense Pencils

Balzer's Celebration 6x6 Crafter's Workshop Stencil

Black Modelling Paste - TCW

Art Basics Clear Gesso

Lindy's Stamp Gang Moon Shadow

London Blue and Black Marble Dylusions Sprays

Colour Blast Australia