Acrylic and Watercolor Bird Journal Pages

This morning I watched part of a Bush concert on television.  I really enjoy some of Bush's songs, like Glycerine and Come Down.  Given that Gavin Rossdale is their lead singer, I listened to some songs I don't really care for.  During this time, I reflected back to the 90's and when I was in love with Nirvana.  The song plateau entered my mind and I haven't been able to shake the only few lines of the song I know.  So I figured why not and decided to let Nirvana be my muse for the day.  

I had been wanting to try scraping acrylic paints with an old credit card after getting the idea off of a YouTube video.  This is how I created the background of my page. To begin I sprayed my pages with a little water and a small misting bottle (the kind you find in the travel section at Wal-Mart) and applied black paint straight from the tube to both pages.  I then took my card and pushed the paint around. Once I got the black the way I wanted it, I applied Calypso Blue directly to the page and scraped it around.  I set my pages to the side to dry.  

While my pages were drying, I cut the little birds using my Cricut Expression machine, which I should add, is an excellent tool to have on hand.  I had the birds cut in less than 3 minutes!  Then I hand cut the leaves and flowers from scrap paper left from cutting the birds.  Then I hit my journal pages with an old hairdryer because I don't have a heat gun.  

After my pages were dry I gesso'd the tree onto my pages.  I added a little water to my gesso to make sure that it would be pretty translucent.  That dried fairly quickly because I used such a thin coat.  I then used a watercolor pencil to color over the gesso.  I was not neat in my application.  Using my water brush from my Koi set, I applied water over the coloring.  I was really impressed with the texture that the gesso gave my tree.  I am not sure if you can see the texture in my photos, but it is there.  Then I glued my leaves, birds, and flowers down using my Xyron 1.5 inch sticker machine.  The lyrics to the song are written in yellow, orange,  and purple Sakura Souffle pens (because I like the raised ink) and  a white Gelly Roll pen.  

To top this page off, I decided to create a mandala.  I used tanglepatterns.com to find tangles to use in my mandala.  I attached this to my journal using a paperclip.  There you have it... easy as pie!

If you have any question regarding techniques, products used, or opinions please comment below.  My blog is extremely new and so far I have had no feedback... so please let me know what you think! Thanks a bunch.

Watercolor Resist with Crayons

After watching a YouTube video about watercolor resist techniques, I was inspired to use some of what I learned in my journal today.   I was also inspired by a great lettering video by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. I began this page by writing my name in mixed letters (found in the middle photo).  I then used a variety of Sakura pens (Moonlights, stardust, souffle, micron) to trace and color each letter.  If you watch the lettering video, you will notice that you can take a water brush to your Stardust pens to blend them.  This needs to be done quickly before the ink dries. I completed my name, drew the bird, stamped the cat,  and found my trusty white crayon... I have always wondered why they even make a white crayon, but now I know :)... I used the crayon to draw designs on the edges of my pages.  I tilted my paper in the light so I could see what I was drawing.  I then grabbed my Koi watercolor set and mixed up blue and green on my palette.  I painted over the crayon in a sloppy manner with blue, then filled in the rest with green.  After my paint dried, I hand wrote my favorite quote and  browsed some magazines for clippings of things I like.  I then decided to cut out each letter of my name and write an adjective for each letter.  The words I chose are words that I feel describe me.  There you have it.... my journal pages for the day!  I hope you enjoy them... maybe you are inspired to do some resist techniques yourself!

Matchbox 20 Inspired Journal Pages

Yesterday morning I decided to watch a Matchbox 20 concert that I had previously recorded on my DVR.  What would we do without DVR?!?  In fact, I can’t imagine my life without this luxury... I definitely watch entirely too much tv :).  None the less, I have been a Matchbox fan since the late 90’s, and I was truly inspired by the band.  I can honestly say that I enjoy the lyrics to every song they have released and after listening to their unique arrangement of 3 AM, I decided to use the band as a muse for my daily journal pages.  

Another passion of mine is Zentangle, although I am NOT a CZT (certified zentangle teacher).  However, I do plan to be within the next few years.  A Master’s Degree, that I am forced to start for my job, stands in my way.  When browsing Yellow Daisy’s blog I noticed a beautiful Compass Mandala ( a circular zentangle), which was my other inspiration for this page.  So I walked into my newly created craft room and cut a circle of bristol paper, my favorite for zentangle, and began working. 

The truly beautiful thing about Zentangle is there are NO mistakes.  Pencil is only used for the “string”, which is drawn to split your paper into smaller sections for patterning.  In Zentangle, every pattern is created one stroke at a time, and in the process of creation can be extraordinarily relaxing.  When I am tangling, I enter sort of a trance, where the only things on my mind are the strokes of my favorite Sakura Micron on my fresh, white paper.  About 4 years ago I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia and was instructed by my doc that I needed to slow down- take a little time to myself each day.  I am an extremely high strung Virgo, who battles with stress (mostly self- induced) on a daily basis.  I have tried several types of things to help me relax: manicures, pedicures, massage, etc.  However, they are all very expensive and I cannot afford to do them on a daily basis, or even a monthly basis.  A few months ago, I stumbled upon Zentangle while reading Joann Fink’s book Zenspirations, which I recommend that you read if you enjoy lettering in anyway.  I decided to do a little Internet research and thought it looked fun.  Ever since creating my first Zentangle I have been addicted.  I spend at least 45 minutes a day creating Zentangles, and it has provided me a way to escape my racing mind for at least a while anyway.  

Back to these pages.... After creating my Mandala, I decided to stick it in my journal using a foam adhesive strip (the kind that raises stuff off the page).  Upon deciding the perfect placement for my mandala, it dawned on me that it would be cool to extend the mandala on to the pages of my journal.  So that is what I did.  I then saw my Sakura Koi Watercolor kit setting on my desk and decided to go for it.  I painted each section created by the extensions of my mandala.  I immediately went to purple, one of my favorite colors in the kit, and asked the hubby to choose the second color.  Hence, the yellow.  I laid my pages to the side and let them dry.  

With the songs from the concert watched still in my head, I thought it would be a good idea to fill in each section on my pages with Matchbox lyrics.  So I “googled” Matchbox 20 song lyrics and found a site that had lyrics to every song!  I went through my favorites by selecting the parts of each song that are my favorite and hand wrote them on my pages using a Sakura Micron pen.  And there you have it... these pages were done.  The color on my Mandala was created using Sakura Stardust Pens and Sakura Moonlight Gelly Rolls. If you don’t have a set of these pens, I strongly suggest you save up to purchase them!  They are amazing!

Watercolor Fascination

Among many other things, watercolor has become one of my recent fascinations. I was inspired by my Sakura Koi watercolor set.  This set is truly exquisite in that it is very portable, contains a water brush, a nice palette, sponges, and beautiful, deeply pigmented colors.  I was so moved by wanting to use this kit that I began researching watercolor techniques on the Internet.  I stumbled upon a nice site with plenty of tutorials and tips.  I found the info on this site to be really helpful and decided to jump in.  So I grabbed an apple out of my fridge and set it on a table by the window.  The picture on the to is the result.  Later I decided to tackle more.... resulting in the picture on the bottom.

I have always struggled with watercolor.  After reading tips on this site I found my problem..... I didn’t know that you could watercolor in layers.  The texture found in my fruit was captured through layering paint.  Starting with the lightest colors and letting each layer dry before beginning the next.    I was pretty impressed with my first watercolors...  you see everything I do with art has been self-taught through research on the Internet.  Unfortunately, I have never had the opportunity of having a great art teacher.  Hopefully seeing that I can teach myself, will inspire you to bring out your inner artist!