Art Journal Process – Be Your Own Beautiful
We are way too wrapped up in what looks beautiful. And by “we”, I mean “me”. I recently had a birthday, and I am not going to lie, I am not sure that I am handling the aging process well. I tend to be really critical of my outward appearance, and this birthday started out with me taking stock of how my body had changed and how much older I was looking this year. But, then I stopped. Yes, I am older, and I definitely look it, but I am so much more!
I am wiser and more courageous. This past year, I put myself out there by starting a blog and a YouTube channel. I became a certified winter guard judge, something I had to work really hard toward. My husband and I are raising three pretty amazing kids, and I want to show them that beauty is so much more than what you look like on the outside. Beauty is everything that makes you unique, and there are more ways to be beautiful than there are stars in the sky. You have to pave your own path and be your own kind of beautiful instead of beating yourself up for not taking the main road.
All these thoughts were spinning in my head as I created my art journal page this past week (on my birthday!). You can check out the process below, and keep reading for some more detail:
I started this page with my very favorite technique to use as a jumping off point…the napkin technique! It is simple enough. Find a beautiful or inspiring napkin, and using matte gel medium (or clear gesso), adhere it to the page of your art journal. One tip is to make sure you have peeled the napkin down to the very thinnest layer possible. The napkin I used for this project was a vintage napkin that happen to only have one ply.
Once the napkin was adhered down, and the matte gel medium was dry, I went full on metallic-mode and added hints of “Rose Gold” and “Gold bar” paint through a honey comb stencil to fill in some white space. Okay, it was more than just hints of these colors, but I don’t regret these metallic additions one bit. I focused on bringing the stenciling around the circular pattern in the napkin to direct the eye there a bit more. The paint I used from the Handmade Modern collection at Target is a bit thicker, so it added a nice touch of dimension to the page.
I used Jane Davenport journal tattoos to add 5 outlines of women on the page. I always work in odd numbers, and decided to throw caution to the wind and use 5 of these journal tattoos all on one page. It’s my birthday, and I’ll use all the supplies I want! Journal tattoos (or rub-ons) are so fun because they adhere over the top of all kinds of materials. These worked great over the combination of acrylic paint and matte gel medium. Using more of the metallic paint and a glitter marker from Jane Davenport, I added make-up highlights to each of the faces to bring them to life. I also added copper highlights to their hair, bringing in even more sparkle.
At this point, I decided to go ahead and add the title “Be Your Own Beautiful”. I struggled with whether to make the title large and overflowing from the circle on the left side of the page, but opted to use a small alpha stamp set to add it. I believe the white space around the title makes it stand out more so than if the alpha letters had been larger.
The last few touches for this layout included a few black acrylic paint splatters along the border of the page, and adhesive gemstones around the title, drawing your eye to it. The pinks and metallic tones in this layout are just lovely in person. It was definitely hard to capture on camera! I love how art journaling is teaching me to embrace my own style without judgement. If you have not given art journaling a try, I highly recommend it. It has been so great for my creativity!
Keep it creative,
-The Scrappy Wife
Supplies Used:
