“Stop Telling Me…” Art Journal Process

Do you ever have “angry” creative time?  Like something has gotten under your skin and really irritated you, so when you sit down to create, that can’t help but come out in your art.  Maybe your art is a little more aggressive or bold than normal.  Maybe you opt for different colors or a different motif.  Or maybe you just feel like getting messy, splattering paint, and seeing what might come of it.  That’s where I found myself for my most recent art journal entry…

I watch the news and it tells me that I should be absolutely panicked about the current global pandemic.  I get on social media and I have friends laughing at the situation while others are fearful for their lives and the lives of loved ones.  Or, I see fellow Christians creating bold posts about “not living in fear” or having “faith over fear” without any acknowledgement that we are all human, and fear is a very real emotion.  It seems like in the midst of this global crisis many people are very eager to tell me how I should be feeling.  And, I am absolutely done with that.  And, I used this art page to come to that conclusion.

I am working in a new art journal created for me by one of my good friends.  She actually pieced it together from a thrift shop book and old scrapbook papers that she was planning on destashing.  It has the feel of a junk journal, and I am absolutely in love with it!  I am so excited to fill it up with all kinds of fun pieces.

The base of this journal page is layers and layers of yellow acrylic paint.  I actually utilized three different yellows to cover up the scrapbook paper that I was not fond of and to unite the two sides of the spread.  I then added a few turquoise art marks as well as hot pink dylusions shimmer spray all around the edge of the spread.  Despite each half of the spread being made of different materials, they actually took the paint quite similarly which was great.

I also used acrylic paint through a stencil to create a cohesive image on either side of the spread.  I used Dylusions purple acrylic paint and a paint brush to add the circle images on either side of the spread.  To add some detail, I came back with my micron pens and created stitch markers around all the circles and even added additional “ghosted” circles with just the stitch marks.

Once the background of the spread was complete, I chose a sheet of faux Washi strips from the Dina Wakley Collage Collective and trimmed them out.  They layered nicely on the spread creating four columns across the page.  I traced the columns in black sharpie to have them stand out even more from the colorful background.  On top of each column,  I stamped out the abstract figures of people dancing freely.  I ended up going back over those images with black sharpie and white paint pen to add a bit more detail.

To finish off the page, I stamped out the word “STOP” followed by some hand-lettering that reads “telling me how to feel..”  Perfect sentiment for my day!  Then a few white paint splatters and my first piece in the new art journal is done!  In a time when my creativity feels like it is running dry, it felt great to get messy and create this art journal page.  How is your creativity doing during this crazy season?!?  I really would love to hear from you in the comments below!

Keep it creative,

The Scrappy Wife

Supplies Used: (Some of these are affiliate links…thanks in advance for supporting my blog!)

• Jane Davenport Acrylic Paint
• Dylusions Shimmer Spray
• Dina Wakley People Stamps
• Versafine Onyx Black Ink
• Dina Wakley Collage Collective
• Dylusions Acrylic Paint
• Tim Holtz Alpha Stamps
• Micron Black Pens
• White Paint Pen