Do More of What Makes You Happy Art Journal Page

Hello everyone!

Robyn here, sharing a technique for stenciling in your art journal.

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The Crafter’s Workshop provided me with some product to create this project. The opinions I share are solely my own.

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The Crafter's Workshop blog post - Do More of What Makes You Happy - a stencilled journal page by Robyn Wood

What do you do that makes you happy? Is there one little thing in your week that brings a smile to your face, regardless of how you are feeling? For me, it is spending time behind my camera or with my art journal. I know when I haven’t done either for a few days, I get that scratchy ‘things are not right’ feeling. I think it is good to work out what simple things make us happy and plan to do more of them in our week.

Today I’d like to share a simple painting technique that is nice and quick but brings wonderful results.

Cover page with TCW Heavy Body Acrylic Paint in Orange Slice & Raspberry Sorbet

Start by painting your journal page with a variety of colours in the same colour family. For mine, I’ve used warm colours – there is something about the mix of orange and pink that always brings a smile to my face. You could also use a cool colour scheme in shades of blue and green, a neutral one or something like a mix of pinks and purples – whatever makes you happy! Don’t spend too much time getting the strokes right, this is a time to get playful. Blend the colours with a touch of white gesso to get a few different shades happening across the page. 

Paint top & bottom of page with TCW Black Gesso

Grab your Black Gesso and start painting the top and bottom of the page using a wide dry brush. Try to keep the strokes vertical as you cover all but a swathe of colour across the centre. You are aiming for the coverage to be quite scrappy looking and spreading paint using a spatula may also help with application. Allow the page to dry thoroughly.

Stencil through middle of page with TCW886 Shape Landscape by Julie Feinsteins-Fan Balzer.

The 2020 Winter release of The Crafter’s Workshop stencils included a good number of patterns that are perfect for this type of page. I chose Julie Fei-Fan Balzer’s TCW886 Shape Landscape as I loved the mix of different patterns within the one stencil. 

Stencil through middle of page with TCW886 Shape Landscape by Julie Feinsteins-Fan Balzer.

Use a blending tool and permanent ink to stencil pattern across the open areas of the page. The ink will blend with the black areas so it is ok to go over them a touch. I chose a dark orange that worked well with the background but you could change it up by picking a totally different colour.

To finish the page, I stamped a Darkroom Door quote onto smooth cardstock using black ink. Then I cut apart the words so I could adhere them separately to run across my page.

Supplies:

  • TCW886 Shape Landscape
  • TCW Heavy Body Acrylic paint in TCW9020 Raspberry Sorbet & TCW9018 Orange Slice
  • TCW9002 Black Gesso
  • TCW9001 White Gesso
  • Darkroom Door Happy Quote stamp
  • Archival Ink in Monarch Orange & Jet Black

Thanks so much for joining me, I hope this page gives you some inspiration! 

We would love to see what you create with The Crafters Workshop Stencils and Mediums. You can share it with us on our Facebook Page, Instagram and Pinterest using hashtag #stencillove

Robyn Wood

The Crafter’s Workshop Design Team Member

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