I love watching youtube videos of people creating in their art journals. I do not have a video camera so instead of a video I thought I would just do a short pictoral of the technique I shared in the current issue of Somerset Art Journaling.
Here are the basic steps to get you started. As you are working on yours go ahead and tweak it to put your own twist on it.
1. The idea behind this is to use up all those scraps that are too good to toss in the trash but not good enough for a large project. Glue assorted scraps onto your page covering it completely.
2. Drop a few blobs of gesso on the page and use a brayer (or a brush, or your fingers) to spread the gesso around.
3. Using spray color and a stencil (I used Adirondack color wash spray and large-holed punchinella) place the stencil on the bottom half of the page and spritz with color. Immediately invert the wet stencil onto the top half of the page and press gently.
As you can see some of the background will show through and if you use a water based spray you can blot areas with a damp cloth if you want more background areas exposed. At this point you can finish your page in any way you choose.
If you used a water based color I would suggest that once you are happy with the background spray it with a fixative or sealer so the color doesn't smudge as you add more things to the page.
I finished the rest of my page like this:
1. Take a large tag and crumble into a small ball. Unfold it and rub distress ink across all the creases and ink the edges. You can spritz with water too so the ink bleeds a bit.
2. Using distress inks and spray wash color a piece of cheesecloth and a strip of torn muslin.
3. When the tag is dry attach a charm or embellishment of your choice and with a strip of muslin or a ribbon attach a twig through the hole.
4. Glue the cheesecloth onto the bottom half of the page (I used tacky glue but gel medium or other glues would work too).
5. Glue the tag on top of the cheesecloth. You could glue the whole tag down or just the hole end or you could attach with a brad.
6. Print the word "simplify" (or a word of your choosing) and use the same inks to color the paper and glue it to the top of the page.
I hope you will try this and if you do I would love to see it - leave a link in the comments.
Thanks for your time.
Renee