Circle Journal #2 /Pages

Hi all! Hope you are all enjoying a relaxing, stress-free Sunday! Just sharing a few photos today of the techniques I used to create two pages in a friend's Circle Journal. The second round is now almost complete and my Circle friends are receiving their own, art-filled journals back as I write! Exciting.

All of the Circle Journals vary in size and shape. I loved this mini size ring book, with lovely, thick grey board substrate to work on. Fabulous. One of our group rules is to use at least one PaperArtsy product on every page we complete. I always use their Fresco chalk paints because they are just so gorgeous to use. They have a huge range of opaque, semi-transparent and transparent (my favourite, some are virtually glazes) paints. I love their brighter colours and there are plenty of them! So, how did I begin?

As I always do, of course: white gesso, paint layers, then stencils. Here I've been trying out some of That's Crafty's mini stencils. Yum. I'm falling in love with mini stencils, including those by Tim Holtz. Such a great idea to reduce their larger ones to a mini size! Hint, hint  Leandra! You might be surprised to see how many colours I used for just these basic layers!

I then chose a new PaperArtsy stencil - PS056, a new favourite - and yet another paint colour to add a further layer which, once dry, I then doodled over.

I do think that a bit of doodling puts life into a background like this. Before I added further layers, I turned over to create a similar background but in completely contrasting colours. I love art journaling like this. I was definitely in my happy place!

Amazing how a few paints can create so many layers. 

I think I'm among many PaperArtsy fans who all love this relatively new Seth Apter colour, Midnight. Now some added doodling before stamping.

Now I wanted a fairly busy background with various stamps, including many PaperArtsy Minis, which I use all the time in my art journal backgrounds. 

And a little more doodling on the flowers. Then the same again on the other side. Now for the main focus. 

I recently bought this gorgeous stamp, designed by Birgit Koopsen ( I think everyone knows how much I admire her art work) for Carabelle Studios. I stamped different parts of this on both sides of the substrate, and then painted around the images with a contrasting colour,  thus painting out a lot of the background I had created earlier. A brave step for some, but a favourite technique that I originally learned from Dina Wakley but has been used many times since by many artists. 

I have to admit that I can't remember what colours I used to paint around the image on the blue background but it was obviously from the pink family of colours! I also dry brushed some Yellow Submarine over the pink in places. But, a little more doodling with a white sharpie/ gel pen and some 

added text completed the two sides. 

It was hard to let these pages go! I need to duplicate them in my own mini journal now. If you haven't tried this technique, I really encourage you to do so. It's great fun, but scary the first time. Thankyou for stopping by, I would love to know what you think. All advice welcome or pics of your own makes would be even better. Until next time! I have a PaperArtsy project coming up soon which I'm very excited about! Happy crafting!