Art Journaling on Canvas, My Word of the Year

Hello there =)

Art journaling has become very popular recently.  Now, I don’t know if it’s been popular for a bit or is Pinterest just decided I’d like it so they’ve been feeding me gorgeous pins related to the topic.  Regardless, I love it.

I started an adventure in art journaling one Saturday afternoon.  I think I worked on the piece below for at least 5 days before I felt like it was done.  I just kept walking past it and adding things.

It took some time, but I think I’m happy with it.  The process was fun too!  Acrylic paints, texturing paste, gel medium, glitter glue and pigment ink; this canvas has the works!

While most art journaling mediums that I have seen are in book/journal form, I wanted this to be on canvas.  Something I could display.

What better way to craft than with your blogs colors and your word of the year?  Am I right?

Using a dry, rough bristle brush I started with the grey paint on the edges and dragged the paint in.  As that dried, I mixed a touch of the aqua with the grey and painted the same way but started an inch or so in from the edge.

I followed with solid aqua, aqua mixed with yellow then solid yellow allowing each color before to set but not dry completely.

I found the chalkboard letter pieces (sets of 3) for fifty cents in discount bins at Michael’s.  The sets had one upper case letter, one lower case letter and a special character (punctuation, hearts, etc).  I picked up enough to spell SIMPLIFY and then a few more for fun =)

I used gel medium to adhere the letter tokens to the canvas.  I decided to call them tokens.

Just a little close up of the circles… I took round chipboard pieces, I think they had letters on them, and covered them with texturing paste.  Used my finger, smeared it on.  Once the texturing paste dried, I used the acrylic paints from the canvas to paint the circles.

I dragged and lightly dabbed a white pigment ink pad over the tops of the circles to “frost” the paste tips.  Edged with glitter glue, the circles sparkle and pop when the light hits it just right.

It’s not as elaborate or intricate as some of the art journaling inspiration I’ve saved on Pinterest, but it makes me smile.  That’s all that matters =)

Have you done any art journaling?  I’d love to see your work!  Post a link to it in the comments.

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What I used for my canvas =)

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Woo hoo!  This post was featured at Robin’s Happily Homemade and Handcrafted link up party.  Stop by Wednesdays to share your creations =)