Abstract art journal page with stamp collaging

Hi everyone,

today I want to share this mostly abstract art journal page with you that I created with a whole bunch of stamps and a few sprays.

My surface is a 9 x 9 inch watercolor paper that I glued to my album after it was finished. I started by grabbing a few stamps with patterns, marks and typo and just stamped them on the page. I concentrated the stamping to the upper right and top left corner to keep some white space. This helps to not overload the whole page.
I also did some kind of masking for the tag image by just putting a sheet of paper over it while adding some stamps (not all, some are still overlapping it).

After the stamping was done, I started by adding some Lindy's Gang sprays. I started with blue, then the reddish brown and at least the golden color. I dried the page between each color and also added a little water every now and then.
Regarding my tag, I was careful not to add any of the dark colors to it to keep it kind of standing out visually. This kind of stamp collage doesn't necessarily need a focal point or focal image, it was just something that I found nice while I was in the process.

For finishing the page, I stamped the quote onto some paper I used to clean up my desk during the previous process. It had some nice and not too bright stains on it. I ct it to strips and glued it into the top left corner.

Stamp collaging is a simple technique to create a page that I have always liked. You can play with different stamps, colors and layouts, add a focal image or not and get totally unique results every time you do it.

 

 

Stamps used:
Army Baggage Tag (20690)
Pensylvania Railroad Baggage Tag (20694)
Thick Lines Row (20696)
Writing and Scribbles Collage (20695)
Writing Chevron (19824)
Row of Chevrons (19829)
Doodle Triangles (20572)
Plus Sign Background (20571)
Rows of Numbers (20170)
Row of Scribble Squares (20164)
Row of Scribble Circles/Eyes (20172)
Punchinella/Sequin Waste Border (20161)
Art is Anything - Andy Warhol (20169)

Other material:
- Canson watercolor paper
- Versafine Claire Ink (nocturne)
- Lindy's Gang Starburst sprays (dragonfly denim, gnome berry bordeaux, sparkling sunset)

See you soon!

Art journal page - Perspective

Hello everyone,

In this little tutorial I'm going to show you how I created this art journal page which is all about perspective. And I think this business man is one of the best stamps for this topic, don't you agree?

I started with layering some chalk paint to the background. Therefore I used both a babywipe and a brayer. Also, I added a stencilled layer to have some visual texture. At this stage the background was very light, but I was happy with it and moved on to my focal points.

I stamped the business man onto some cardstock, cut him out and inked the esged with a black marker. Doesn't the stamped image look dynamic with the imperfections on the left side of the man? It was a happy little accident. Then I stamped the window on some tissue so it blends easily to the background. I just didn't want to risk messing up the stamping because I'm working in a book with some textured pages behind. With a wet brush I "cut" the image on the napkin.

Next, I glued the napkin to the page. The background looked a little to light for me now and I wanted to add a little more depth. So I darkened up the edges with a brayer and some black chalk paint. I also added a few splatters, not only in black but also in the blue and rose tone I had already used in the background before.

Then I glued down the man except from his upper body which is a little raised from the page and enhances the play with perspective. I also found the word "perspective" in my stamp collection and thought it would make a perfect caption. I heatembossed it on black cardstock, tore the edges and glued it to the page backed with a little thread behind it.

 

Stamps used:
Triple Window (20563)
Banksy Businessman Falling (20398)
Perspective by Cat Kerr (20136)


Other material:
- Dylusions art journal
- black and white cardstock
- chalk paint (Chalky Finish: blue grey, rose, white, ebony)
- Versafine Claire Ink (nocturne)
- stencil (Finnabair - victorian tiles)
- tissue
- thread


See you soon!

Art journal page - Jump at your own risk

 Hi everyone,

I'm back on the blog with a new art journal page. It's a quick one that I created in my lunch break as I'm still mainly working from home.

I started by stamping the newsprint in several spots and did not care much for a perfect impression. On top I used some Lindy's sprays and water and dried the page with my heat tool.
I added some more stamping with the writings and scribbles collage and some splatters of watered down gesso and dried it again.
Here you can see the two stages of my background, the first steps on the right and with the added finishing touches on the left:

I used a cut out photo of the jumping Grace Kelly as my focal point and paired that with a text stamp from the latest release: Jump at your own risk.

That's it - a quick but fun project. Here are a few more photos of the finished page:

 

Stamps used:
Sheet Of Newsprint (20676)
Writings and Scribbles Collage 20695)
Jump At Your Own Risk (20668)
 

Other material:
- Art Journal, 5.5 x 5.5 inch
- scrap paper
- Versafine Claire Ink (nocturne)
- Lindy's Gang Sprays (flat fabio: blazing black; starburst: time travel teal)
- Gesso
- copied image


See you soon!

Art journal page - Look mum, I am a street artist

Hello everyone,

you won't find a fancy stamping technique in this post. Today I'm taking you on a little excursion about composition. With this art journal page I want to show you that you can stage your small stamps on larger projects. I didn't initially plan to showcase this page here on the blog, but I'm sure there are a lot of stampers that are struggeling with composition and are afraid that their images might get lost if they're too small compared to the whole project's size.
 

The background was an intuitive play with asemic writing, some acrylic paints and sprays as well as some stencils. The Buddha statue is a printed out image blended into the page with some more acrylic spray. If you print out things for using in your journals make sure its royality-free.

The page didn't look like street art to me at first sight, but a part of me wanted to add a Banksy stamp to it by all means. And while browsing through my stamps I came across the spraypainter and thought it would look great there, even if it is so small compared to the rest of the page. The quote that I stamped on my clean-up paper from the previous process was a perfect match.

Remember, there is no right or wrong in art. I'm just sharing a few tips that helped me making this page work:
- Play with contrasts. Not only regarding colors, but also with light and dark or contrasting shapes. This does not only refer to focal images, but also to the background itself. Here I used a black and white image (an uncolored stamp) against a colorful background.
- Decide where your focal point should be. I find it easier to place main elements near the edges of the page. Connecting them with the egdes helps them not to get lost, especially when you use smaller images on a larger page. I'm rarely creating a project that is completely focused to the center just because it is more difficult for me. Did you notice that on my page even the stenciled areas are touching the edges?
- Create a visual path. I'd bet the first thing that came to your eyes was the Buddha statue, just because it's heavily dominating the page. Then you recognize the spraypainter in the corner and move over to the quote and the rest of the page. The order in which you discover elements on this page is essential for my storytelling. You can influence this with contrast, size and placement of the elements you use.

Composition is not always easy and needs a little practice. You want to get a feel for that? Look at your older projects and focus on contrasts, where you placed elements and follow the visual path. Find out what you like and what makes you happy and remember those elements when you're creating something new.

Stamps used:
Banksy Spraypainter Boy (20452)
Banksy Look Mum I Am (19946)

Other material:
- Art Journal (Dina Wakley vlue edition)
- Acrylic paint Lukas (naples yellow, raw sienna, Indian yellow, titanium white, iron oxide black)
- Dina Wakley Gloss sprays (eggplant, night)
- Stencils (Finnabair - iris tapestry; TCW - woven)
- Printed image
- Versafine ink (nocturne)
- Posca paint pen (gold)

See you soon!

 

Art journal page - #whatever

Hi everyone,

Hope you're ready for a little weird journal page? It's one of the more simple projects, but also one of my favorites.

I've been doing a lot of gelli printing in the last weeks and want to share a journal page made with one of my prints. Well, it was actually just the remaining color of a previous print that I pulled of my plate. It has a size of 5.5 x 5.5 inch. I just added a few splatters with a spray from Lindy's Gang. It has a lot of white space and the colors mostly concentrate around the edges. Of course you could recreate a background like this with other techniques than gelli printing or by adding white paint to one of your prints.

I chose the 'nice gentleman' from the creanciers stamp as my focal image and stamped him onto a piece of plain tissue. This way it was easy to remove the areas around his head with just a wet brush. I was a little rough while gluing him to my page and ripped a hole to the napkin in the area of the man's shoulder. To fix this, I added a little black acrylic paint and even a little more to make him fade a bit into the background. I also added some black splatters to the whole page but more concentrated around his shoulders. Doesn't it look like he is starting to dissolve?

It took me a while to figure out where this page was going. I thought about adding another element to the forground, but wasn't happy with it and discarded the idea. Instead I added a little stamping to the background. For that, I chose the error stamp as well as the word weirdo from a quote stamp saying "we are the weirdos, mister". I stamped both multiple times in different directions and used two different colors. I also added a little more of the aqua tone from the Lindy's spray to the background. I tried to highlight the reinforcement washers on his eyes and mouth a little with a white marker, but to be honest it didn't make a huge different as the background was already very light. After inking the edges with black, the page looked almost finished.

All that was left to do was stamping the "#whatever" to the upper left corner and gluing the page to a piece of black cardstock to go into my disc bound journal.

Stamps used:
Creanciers (3613)
Error (20558)
We Are The Weirdos (20275)
#whatver (20328)

Other material:
- gelli printed paper
- Versafine ink (nocturne)
- Archival ink (watering can, paradise teal)
- acrylic paint (Liquidex - mars black)
- Lindy's Gang starburst spray (outer space aqua)
- napkin/tissue
- matte medium

See you soon!

Which keeper are you? - Arwen

 Hi Lovelies

It's again my turn to share my project.

I created a new page for my tiny Art Journal and I hope, you'll like it.

Here are some close-ups:

I used the following stamps:

Saving the Galaxy with Otto

Whimsical Spiky Design

Crypt Keeper

Which witch are you?

other materials:

- Distress Reinker

- Distress Oxide

- Canson Mix Media Imagine paper

- Staz on

Have a nice time and see ya soon!

 

Art journal page - Believe in yourself

Hi everyone,

I'm in love with the latest release and want to share a project that features some of the new stamps. So here's a new art journal page for you.

 

As a base layer I applied some chalk paints with a brayer. I mixed some blue and yellow tones and really liked how the colors work together. The paints dry very fast, especially when you apply them in a thin layer with the brayer. This helps to avoid getting muddy colors. I added some script stamping in ochre to create just a little more visual texture (not yet in the picture below).

Next, I started to build a cluster that will be my focal point and therefore used scraps and stamps. I stamped the zodiac wheel in brown onto a die cut circle with a notebook edge that I had laying on my desk. It was already colored with an ink spray, but I cannot remember which one. I also found another scrap that I wanted to use. It had a beautiful stain of some oxide ink and a torn edge on one side. I simply stamped the eclipse chart on top and inked the straight edges.

The cluster needed something more and I added some torn book pages with inked edges to it as well as a piece of lace. This is hardly visible, both in the picture and in reality, but it adds some nice texture to the project. I glued the cluster down and added some splatters with acrylic ink.

 

At this point I liked my cluster, but also felt that there was something missing regarding my whole composition. I thought it would be nice if I had added the fortune teller stamp before I glued down my cluster. So I cheated a little and used my favorite fixing trick. I stamped her onto a piece of white napkin (make sure to use just one layer) and glued that down with matte medium, slightly under the circle so that it looks as if she is behind that. Luckily, I had a background that was not reacting with wet medium. The edges of the napkin turned almost invisible.

To finish the page, I stamped the quote "believe in yourself" and called this page done.

 

Here are a few more photos of the finished page:

 

Stamps used:
French Writing Background (20646)
Eclipse Chart (20614)
Zodiac Wheel (20619)
Gypsy Fortune Teller (20616)
Believe In Yourself (20643)


Other material:
- Marabu chalk paint (lagoon, light-blue, pastel yellow, ginger)
- brayer
- Versafine Clair ink (nocturne)
- Archival ink (pale ochre, potting soil)
- Acrylic ink (sepia)
- Joy! crafts - "notebook circles" die
- scraps, old book paper and lace

See you soon!

Art journal page - All the answers

Hey everyone,

Today I'm sharing a fun and snarky page from my art journal. We all could need something to make us smile in moody January, right?

 

My background is a simple one. I started with two pieces of gelli printed tissue that I had on my desk from a previous project. For a little more detail I stamped and heat embossed some doodle dots and also added some contrasting pink splatters of acrylic spray paint.

The girl sitting in a suitcase seemed to be the perfect focal point. I stamped her, did some quick coloring with ZIG brush pens and cut her out. Also, I inked up the cutting edges to make her blend better into the page.

I don't like my focal points to just float around on my page. So I stamped the scallop onto another gelli print and cut that out, too. To avoid the details of the stamp to get lost, I stamped it directly on the page before I glued the girl and the scallop I cut out on top.

The last thing I added was a quote. I stamped it onto some white cardstock, cut it into pieces and inked the edges a little to help it standing out from the page.


Stamps used:
Doodle Dots (19827)
Typeset Scallop (20163)
Lady Drinking Tea In Box (20080)
I Used To Have All The Answers (3124)

Other material:
- art journal (mine is from Dylusions)
- Versafine ink (nocturne)
- Versamark ink
- gelli printed tissue and paper (or any other printed paper)
- embossing powder (floral blue medium by Stampendous!)
- acrylic spray (or paint mixed with a little water)
- ZIG real brush markers

Hope you enjoyed my inspiration. See you soon!