Art Journal Page: Love Always Wins by Priss

Hello Crafty friends!!!

I’m Priss BlaFu (@artful.layers), and I’m happy to welcome you to this special tutorial. While we are still savoring the sweetness of Valentine’s Day, I’m excited to share my little art journal page inspired by the spirit of love and friendship. Join me as we dive into the creative process, exploring how to survive failure and overcome what is unexpected. Jump in with me and let’s spread some love through art!

The first thing I did was design this large heart and cut it out using my Cricut machine to fit perfectly in my mini Art Journal. I cut it in half to make it easier to close the journal, then adhered it to both sides of the page.

Next, I carefully selected a variety of love-themed stamps, each with its own unique charm, and proceeded to stamp them onto the delicate tissue paper using permanent black ink. Once the images were transferred to the tissue paper, I purposely tore them into uneven fragments, adding an element of freedom to the composition. These pieces of paper were then carefully placed in different areas of the pages, creating a visually interesting collage that plays with texture and depth.

Before moving on to the next steps, it’s important to protect the collage papers. We can do this with clear Gesso if we want to preserve the entire design. However, in my case, I wanted to soften the initial composition slightly, so I applied a very light layer of white Gesso over everything and then I removed the excess in some areas with a damp cloth.

Over a piece of watercolor paper, I stamped my romantic and cute stamps to paint them with my favorite Lindy’s Magicals as watercolors. I recommend that you emboss all stamps with Embossing Powders, to make your life easier while painting. This will prevent colors from mixing when you don’t want this to happen. You have several options, you can stamp with our Boogie Down Black EP directly or my favorite, which is to stamp with black permanent ink and then emboss with Clearly Clear EP. The black permanent ink allows you to see and properly adjust the stamps.

Finally, if you don’t have one of the magnificent Lindy’s embossing powders or a heat gun, I recommend always stamping with quick-drying permanent inks and making sure it is completely dry before starting to paint with watercolors.

To bring my little friends to life I used Flat Magicals selected from different sets. I used the pigments diluted with enough water to obtain soft and delicate colors, except for the hearts where I was clear that I wanted them to be very intense.

I have chosen the delicate Kissin’ Kenicle Coral from Beauty School Dropout set for kids’ skin. For my intense hearts, I have used Raspberry Lemonade from Under the Boardwalk set. For the clothes and hair, I chose Evergreen Emerald and Stormy Sky from Mountain Meadows, Pink Ladies Pink from Beauty School Dropout, and Bonjour Butter from Tres Chic set.

I had a great time painting my little friends using these gorgeous colors. To add depth, I used colored pencils to create lights and shadows in certain areas. It was easy to create volume and details on these lovely kids with colored pencils, and the result was fantastic.

Once I have ready and perfectly colored my stamps, I use my precise scissors to fussy cut each stamp. This detailed, manual work is definitely not my favorite part, but it gives the project a personal touch.

Now I have the colors of my elements is time to go back to the background. So I added paper texture paste with a brick stencil and cracks in both lower corners of my page because I wanted to position my boys and girls as if they were in front of a brick wall.

Since the colors I painted my stamps are vibrant and bold, I decided to color my background with dark, muted tones. So I started by sprinkling a little Alive & Kissing Cobalt that comes in the Kissing Klimt set because originally I wanted the entire background to be intense and dark.

My intention was to give a touch of shine to my big heart with colorless wax with silver mica from the Glitzy Shimmer only Magicals set, but my wax was too soft to give the touch I wanted, so I took a wet wipe and removed a lot of paint from all areas of the page. What a mess!!

I took a moment to calm down before getting frustrated about something not turning out as I expected. Instead, I tried a different approach. I added Dunka Biscuit Blue Green from the Tea & Crumpets set to the upper area and let it drip down. I liked the effect and decided to intensify the dark color in the lower area and make the light color in the upper area more luminous. The drips add a grungy touch to the entire background.

Luckily I had cut out two copies of my big heart, but unfortunately one of them broke slightly (I’m ok with that). So I embossed my die cut with Chalk It Up Chunky Embossing Powder which, along with white splatters and black shadows, brings brightness and elegance to my grungy background.

To bring your project to life, it’s important to focus on creating a composition that is not only visually attractive but also effectively communicates the message you want to transmit. Once you have achieved this, selecting a fitting sentiment will help to add depth and meaning to your page. Remember it’s an art journal so you probably have some messages for yourself.

I have some great photos of the project that I think you’ll love. Want to take a closer look?.

I hope you enjoyed my project and feel encouraged to explore mixed media art yourself. It is a simple and enjoyable way to express your creativity and produce stunning artwork. You can use any materials and colors you like, and experiment with various techniques and styles. The possibilities are endless!