Art Journal Calendar: May

Oh my, the month of May has been a lot of a whirlwind for me. I'm finally getting around to sharing my May art journal calendar page.

I wanted to try something new with my Dylusions ink sprays so I sprayed the ink directly on my craft mat and picked up the color with a wet brush - sort of like a hydrus watercolor. Or at least, how I imagine a hydrus watercolor would act.

I started with a pink background with a little tone on tone spray through Dina Wakley's Eye Chart stencil.



 But, of course, I had to have some blue. I doodled a flower using a Sharpie and colored it blue with the new Dylusions Calypso Teal ink spray.



Then I colored the leaf using the new Dylusions Dirty Martini.



And here's the final page...



I've had a bit of everything going on this month. We've had birthday parties, family visiting, doctor's appointments and of course, all the regular school and life stuff. May has just flown by and June is just right around the corner. Again I say, oh my! 

Hope you're making room for some creative time in your busy schedule.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cathie

Art Journal Calendar: April

The one where I fell in love with Distress Paints.

When Tim Holtz debuted his new line of Distress Paints at the Crafts and Hobby Association tradeshow in January, I knew that I had to have them. 

Here's what happened the first time I tried them in my art journal...



It's an alright background but not my favorite. So, clearly more playing and experimenting was required. I decided to use them for my calendar page for April.

I started with a piece of watercolor paper that I covered in gesso. I stamped all over the background just because I'm trying to use my stamps more often.  Then I added some different colors of blue Distress Paint (Broken China, Chipped Sapphire and Salty Ocean) because if I'm playing I'm going to choose blue...every time! Then I sprayed with water to create some blue drips.



My inspiration was April showers from the old adage "April showers bring May flowers" but after a few layers I felt it was too dreary so I decided to add the May flowers. Why wait til May when I can have color now? I used green paints (Bundled Sage and Mowed Lawn) and dripped the paint in the opposite direction until the blue and green overlapped.



Then I added lots and lots of flowers.



And I ended up with this...



This page makes me so incredibly happy and making it was so much fun that I can honestly say I give Distress Paints 2 very painty thumbs up. I loved how they blend. It totally won me over. It's beautiful and fun all at the same time.  They also dry super flat and matte. They're not all plastic and shiny like other acrylic paints. Love that!

One word of caution though, Distress Paints are runny like a fluid acrylic so be careful if you unscrew the top of a bottle or you will have paint everywhere. Don't ask for details just trust me on this one.

Hope the sun is shining where you are and you get some creative time this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cathie

Art Journal Calendar: March

Well, thank goodness February is over. I don't how the shortest month of the year always feels like the longest but it does. Every year.

And as I do the first Friday of each month, I'm sharing the next page of my art journal calendar.
(Here are the pages for January and February.)



This page is a sample I made when taking Alisa Burke's online watercolor class, Watercolor Bliss. It's a really great class and Alisa encourages experimenting with your supplies and tools to find out how they work and how to make them work for your style. This page was just me playing around with tubes of watercolors. I found it this week and decided to add a few details and use it for my March page.




Like the stickers for the word "March" - I use these each month. They are by Making Memories and they're old.  I also added some white dots with the help of the Dylusions Dotted Flower stencil. It's silly how much I love that stencil.




Then I stamped with some paint. The arrows are from a Studio Calico kit with Jenni Bowlin for Ranger Paint Dabber in Seed Packet.  The little heart is from the Amy Tangerine set from the Ready Set Go collection, Hey There. There used to be 2 but I lost 1...sadness. The red paint is also Jenni Bowlin. I don't think Ranger makes it any more which is too bad because I really liked the color palette of this line.

This month is an easy page but it's perfect for March.  All that blue and green is because I'm ready for some blue skies and green grass...soon! 

How about you? Ready for spring yet?
 
Cathie