Tuesday's {Tip} Making Painted Circles

I think most of you know how I love to use circles and hearts on my work. Circles are the easiest and most fun for me to use. I think I put them on just about everything. If you remember my BSF journal that I posted the other day, I painted some circles on it. To see that entire post, click here. See the three orange, teal, and pink circles? Today, I want to show you how I made them. They are fun and easy to do. 

Supplies

Paper of any sort (ledger paper, book paper, deli paper, printer paper, etc.)

Circle Stencil

Acrylic paints in various colors (choose 3)

1" flat wash paintbrush

Thin round paintbrush

Water

Stabilo All pencil

Scissors

Glue stick or other glue

Black waterproof pen

White gesso

White correction pen

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Take any piece of paper—book paper, vintage paper, printer paper, deli paper—whatever you have on hand. I have an old ledger from the late 1800's/early 1900's that I love to use. That is the paper I used here.

2. Grab your favorite circle stencil and place on top of the paper you chose from above.

3. Place 3 colors of paint onto your palette.

4. Get a paintbrush and a jar of water. I use the Simply Simmons 1" Flat Wash brush . It's one of my favorites.

5. Dip your paintbrush into the jar of water and get it really wet. I like to water down the paint for this. Then dip the wet paintbrush into the first color of paint.

6. Paint a half circle over the stencil you placed on top of your paper in Step #2. Move the stencil and do this several times all over your paper with that paint color making several sizes of circles.

7. Clean stencil and paintbrush, and repeat Step #6 with your second paint color.

8. The third paint color I actually paint on with my finger. In the above photo, you can see the teal is the last color I used and painted with my finger.

9. After the circles are dry, use a Stabilo All pencil to draw circles around each painted circle. I use my stencil for this also. Then go over those pencil lines with a thin round paintbrush dipped in water. It turns the pencil into a bit of watercolor as you can see below.

10. Cut the circles out. Yes, some of the Stabilo pencil lines will be lost but not all. You will draw around these circles again in another step.

11. Glue the circles to your piece (art journaling page, scrapbook layout, Journaling Bible, altered art, etc.) using a glue stick or other glue. Gel medium works great too.

12. Next use a waterproof pen (Copic Multiliner, Sakura Pigma Mircon pen, etc.) to doodle around the circles. I scribble circles around and then scribble lines through the sides a couple of times.

13. To finish, enchance with white gesso and a white pen (I use the Sailor Mini Correction Pen). The white gesso I also paint on with my finger.

I hope this tutorial has been helpful. Have fun making those circles! Blessings,