{Art Journaling} Color Makes Me Happy

On one of the message boards I belong to, a board member posted a photo of a very colorful art journal page. Well, most of you know that color makes me happy, and I LOVE color. So, I decided to recreate this page as well as share my step-by-step instructions. First, click here to see the original page.

Now for my recreation of the page. It's not near as beautiful as the original but I love that I still have "happy color" in my art journal. And I chose to put Romans 1:20 on the page which says "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse." I love this scripture because it makes me think of how God can be seen everywhere by everyone. Just looking at all of His gorgeous creation and the beautiful colors that surround us in His creation shows He is God and Lord over all. His colors make me happy!

Papers: 7Gypsies key collage tissue paper 
Stamps: SU Stampin' Around Nursery Letters, Unity Lovely Lilacs, Tim Holtz Ultimate Grunge, Li'l Davis Designs time capsule foam stamps, Making Memories floral foam stamp, Becky Higgins PL date stamp 
Stamp Ink: Archival jet black 
Paints: Golden black gesso; Liquitex white gesso; Adirondack raspberry and purple twilight, Making Memories apricot, Jenni Bowlin speckled egg, lemon drops, and seed packet

And now let's look at the step-by-step instructions:

1. Apply a layer of matte medium to your art journal page and cover with tissue paper. Allow to wrinkle for texture and dry.

2. Using a pencil, lightly mark off equal sections where acrylic paint will be applied then paint with your chosen colors. See supply list above for the colors I used. Let dry then see Step 6. You may want to do that before going to Step 3.

3. Dip your paint brush into white gesso then into some water. Apply a "gesso wash" to your entire page. See how it tones down the colors just a bit?

4. Next put modeling paste on a piece of bubble wrap and begin stamping the paste into the center and into a rough diamond shape. Let dry.

5. Repeat Step 4 but this time use white gesso and bubble wrap to cover the same area. Also stamp some what gesso with the bubble wrap randomly around the entire page.

6. Next add some gelatos to each section creating a bit of depth to the colors. I should have done this after Step 2 but decided on it at this point. Ooops but that's what experimenting does. LOL!

7. Use stamps and lids to stamp various designs around the page. Also use stencils with gesso to add more designs and add more layers of gesso using bubble wrap.

8. Print part of your title and add to page using gel medium. The parts I printed were "Color makes me" and "Romans 1:20."

9. Stamp or write bold title. I stamped mine with foam stamps and black gesso. Do you see the "oops" in the title? Look above. But hey, that's what art journaling is about—embrace the imperfections!

I hope you have enjoyed this little tutorial. And thanks to Tracie Stroud for her gorgeous inspiration! Blessings,