Friday 3 October 2014

A Few of My Favorite Art Journal Things...

A few months ago, Julie challenged art journalers to suggest 5 must-have products for beginner art journalers and to create pages with limited supplies. You can read her fab posts here and here.

While I haven't tried to limit my supplies when creating, I have often thought about the supplies that I use again and again like...


1. Gesso and book paper.

Oct 3_12

Dina Wakley convinced of the magic of gesso in an online class I took from her long ago. I always have a jar with me and a palette knife for application.  I have used many brands over the years (Liquitex, Golden, Claudine Hellmuth, Dina Wakley, Faber Castell) and love them all. Lately, I've been using and loving the Finnabair Basics Heavy Gesso by Prima.

I love to stamp in and doodle on gesso and embedding book paper (another favorite supply) in gesso is one of my favorite foundations techniques.


2. Found objects like chopsticks, bubble wrap, paper towel tubes and Starbucks cup sleeves.

Oct 3_2

I usually use found objects for stamping in wet paint and gesso. I love the marks they make. Chopsticks are great for making making marks and doodling and when you sharpen them in a pencil sharpener you can use them like a fountain pen.

3. Acrylic Paint.


Oct 3_4

I don't use acrylic paint on every page but I use it a lot. Lately, I've been loving Dina Wakley's new line of paints with Ranger, Dina Wakley Media. I love the colors. Love them. They look great with the Dylusions line of spray inks which makes me love them even more.

4. Blue.

Oct 13_3

My love of blue is well documented and a running joke with scrappy and art journaling friends. Two of my personal color rules are: "there is no such thing as too much blue" and "you can never go wrong with blue". My favorite color (right now) is the Calypso Teal Dylusions spray ink.

5. Tags

Oct 3_3

It is only recently that I have started to realize for myself the joy of tags. I know I'm late the party but better late than never, right? If you love tags then I don't need to say anything but if you don't then let me assure that there is something wonderful in working with a totally disposable piece of manila. That something is freedom. No worries about ruining it or keeping it. It's all about play.

I use tags to mop up excess paint and ink. If they're totally ruined I embed them in page and paint over them - like I did last week - to create awesome texture.

I also use tags to test new products and try new techniques. That's how these tags started. They were experiments and I liked how they looked so I punched a hole through my pages and used twine to tie them in place.

And here's the final page...

Oct 3_1


So, that's it for me for another week. I hope you have some time for creative play this weekend. If you're looking for inspiration, may I suggest grabbing some of your favorite supplies or at least a tag?

Also, the pages and projects I made using The Paperie's October kit are up on their blog today. So head on over and check it out.

Have a great weekend!

Cathie

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