Are you a glass half full or half empty type of person? I’d like to think that I usually see them as half full – full of possibilities and endless opportunities. I’d like to share a new art journal page with you – this time it has been created in my mini Art by Marlene journal. I’ve also used Art by Marlene stamps and one of Marlene’s stencils from The Crafters Workshop. I love how all of Marlene’s products play so nicely together.
The format of this journal makes so many techniques possible – such as the one I’ve used for this page! The pages are easily removable and are made from a wonderful watercolour paper.
Follow along as I share how my page was created… the background technique gives a wonderful, subtle effect.
After choosing a stencil for the background pattern, I gave the page a layer of colour using watercolours. Keep the page quite wet with colour and quickly layer the totally clean stencil over before it dries. Allow the stencil and page to sit flat until fully dry.
Once removed, the stencil leaves a lovely, subtle pattern on the background.
You can get different effects by overlaying with plastic wrap or bubble wrap and changing up the colour palette to a darker, more saturated colour looks amazing.
I needed a little something to cover the areas at the top & bottom of the page where the stencil pattern didn’t quite reach – spotty circles fixed it nicely!
Marlene’s stamps often feature swirly patterns and doodles, they are so cute and I love using this bird stamp. Perfect for watercoloring so that is what I did;) Stamping the image onto watercolour yardstick with permanent black ink means the image was easily coloured without smudging.
In keeping with the colours on my page, I inked the edges a little with some permanent ink. Of course, a birdie needs a wire to sit on so a swish of black paint gave her somewhere to perch.
I felt the birdie needed a bit of sparkle – glitter gel pens to the rescue! What did we do before this glittery product?
I also added a bit of white detailing using a fine Posca pen to parts of the bird, including the whites of her eyes.
I love using quotes on my pages so selected one from Marlene’s sticker books and matted each of the words with a bit of cardstock I’d coloured with watercolour. Once trimmed, each word was also inked around the edges. Some foam squares gave them a little dimension and the page was done.
Supplies:
- Art by Marlene A5 journal
- Art by Marlene bird stamp
- Art by Marlene sticker book
- The Crafters Workshop Botanical Dream stencil
- Black paint, watercolours, glitter gel pens, white Posca pen, permanent black ink
Thanks for visiting! I hope you have enjoyed learning how my page came together.
I thought it about time I made some more videos for YouTube. You will find one for this project on my channel shortly.
Purple Salt #2 