“Release” Art Journal Process
Art journaling is the best! No rules, no constraints. Just creating, playing, experimenting, and combining. Sometimes it can be intimidating to start a new page, because you think you need to have some sort of concept of how the page will turn out. But, you don’t! All you have to do is just start! The creativity will take over. Some pages end up beautifully, while others are just full of lessons with the end product being much less important. It is a freeing process, and I could not recommend it more to those that are feeling the urge to use a bit of their creativity. Check out my process video for this week’s art journal entry…
“Release” started with one plan….I wanted to play with paper. I had left over Amy Tangerine paper from a project last fall. The mixture of black and white with pops of color intrigued me. I decided to create a series of butterflies, but instead of having them be bright and colorful, they would have a dark edge to them. Black and white butterflies are not quite as common, and I like the edgy feeling they have.
I used my Jane Davenport Deep Sea Cutter (manual die-cutting machine) and a set of Sizzix butterfly dies to create a huge number of butterflies. Here’s a few tips I was reminded of as I began the process of cutting out all these butterflies:
- Make sure your die-cutting “sandwich” is assembled properly. My first cut was rushed and a bit of the butterfly’s wing was not properly supported underneath. This kept the cut from going all the way through the paper.
- When place metal dies on the paper, make sure the cutting side is down! Otherwise, you will be left with an embossed image, but not a properly cut piece of paper.
- Washi tape can be used to hold your thin metal dies in place as you are working.
The process of cutting out the butterflies took a while, and I certainly created more than I would need for this project. I’ll save the rest for planner and Bible journaling embellishments! I adhered the detailed outlines of the butterflies to the patterned bases with a thin bead of Tombow liquid adhesive. This allowed the wings to still pop up as if in motion, creating dimension on the page.
During the cutting process, a happy accident inspired another element on my page. After getting as many butterflies as I could out of one particular scrap, I tossed it to the side and it landed on top of another piece of patterned scrap paper. The effect was super cool! So, to create another anchor element for my page, I used two of the butterfly scraps combined with patterned paper. After placing these together, I traced a circle on top, cut it out, and used it as the base of my page.
To begin assembling the art journal page, I adhered the circle, added a scribbled border around the entire layout, and then adhered the butterflies onto the page. I chose to group the black butterflies together on one side and the white butterflies together on the other side. That stark contrast really popped off the page.
After adding the hand-lettered title of “Release”, the page was calling for a bit more color (old habits die hard!). I grabbed my Tim Holtz Air Brush tool and a few coordinating Spectrum Noir markers to add hints of color behind the butterflies. This brought the page together a bit more and helped the butterflies stand out even more. After adding a few Tim Holtz word phrase stickers, the page was done!
Keep it creative,
-The Scrappy Wife
Supplies Used:
