
Hi everyone, today I would like to show you guys an art journal page that I created using the Mixed Media Place “December 2017“ challenge mood board as my inspiration:
Today I’m working in my 13 x 21 cm Art Plus Moleskine Sketchbook (I keep an empty page between two used pages, when the project is finished I glue them together, this way anything bleeding through won’t damage a previous project and when you want to poke a hole in the page you can).
I was mainly inspired by the images in the mood board showing the painted lips and the woman with the white skin, strong lips and the headdress, as well as the colours chosen for this mood board. The painted lips, the white skin and the headdress made me think of geisha’s so that’s is why I choose the image of a geisha as my focal point.
I matted this image on some matching orange card stock that I distressed with a distressing tool. These combined mats I matted on a piece of paper torn from a dictionary which was torn in a shape that I liked. I adhered these mats together using liquid glue and I edged the dictionary paper using Versafine “Vintage Sepia“ ink.

Next I started working on my background: since I don’t have any of the fabulous Finnabair paints in colours that looked similar to the colours from this mood board I choose for Dylusions paints in the colours “Cherry Pie“ and “White Linen“ for my background. I applied these paints to the art journal page using a foam applicator tool. You only need a little bit of these paints to cover an entire page, I kept the left hand page a little lighter so that I could ad my quote there. If you haven’t worked with these paints before: don’t gesso your page before applying these paints, they are created to work wonderfully without gesso!
When the paint was dry I pencilled in the quote on the left hand page with a graphite pencil, using a calligraphy style that I tought myself as a child, and when I was happy with the lay out I went over the lines using a black Faber Castell “PITT Artist Pen“ (S).
After the ink was dry I stamped several times on both pages using the Finnabair by Prima Marketing “Read to Me“ stamp in combination with Archival Ink in the colour “Jet Black“.
I own several of these small Finnabair stamps and they work so well with many projects, if you don’t know these then go and check them out! And while you’re there also look at Finnabair’s gorgeous paints!

Next I drew in the star shapes using a graphite pencil and painted them in using DecoArt Americana acrylic paints in the colours “Moon Yellow“ and “Marigold“ using a small paint brush. I also drew a line around the star shapes with the PITT Artist Pen that I used before.
For my next step I was inspired by the snow and ice covered branches from the mood board. To ad these to my project I choose a The Crafter’s Workshop stencil called “Big Wreath“ (TCW721s). I applied some of the White Linen paint, that I used before, over the stencil using a foam applicator tool. This paint is very thin so you have to be careful: I put a little of the paint on my foam applicator tool, I worked it in the foam, I dabbed the applicator of on a paper towel and then applied the paint over the stencil. This way the paint won’t seep underneath the stencil and you create crisp stencilled lines.
After the paint dried I splattered some Coliro Pearl Colors by Finetec GmbH in the colour “Golden Orange“ on the page and set the project aside to dry.

To finish this page I adhered the geisha image on the right hand page using liquid glue and I edged the art journal page using first Versafine “Vintage Sepia“ ink and then Archival “Jet Black“ ink using a foam applicator tool.
And that finishes today’s fun project! I wish you’ll a creative day!
I would like to submit this project to the following challenges:
- Mixed Media Place: December Challenge:
http://mixedmediaplace.blogspot.nl/2017/12/december-challenge.html
- The Dylusions Facebook Challenge: Orange, Red and Squares:
#DylusionsPaints #FinnabairReadtoMe #FaberCastellPITTArtistPen #DecoArtAmericanapaints #TheCraftersWorkshopstencilBigWreath #ColiroPearlColorsGoldenOrange