Beautiful Butterflies – Art Journal Page

G’day TCW creatives!

Tam here with my next project, which is another play in my Art Journal. This one is lots of fun, lots of scribbles and splats pull this one together and make it a fun way to spend a couple of hours.

TCW provided me with some awesome goodies to play with, but the art and the opinions are solely my own.

Art journal page with white background and yellow, pink and aqua with black butterflies
#tcwstencillove
Tammy Klingner
Art journal page with flowers and butterflies and cells or hexagons. Bright colours with splats of black
#tcwstencillove
Tammy Klingner

I began by adding a layer of TCW9001 White Gesso to my page using a large brush. This acts as a barrier and allows all I add to sit ‘on top’ of the page, but it also adds that gorgeous whiteness to the background, which allows the colors to sing.

Once dry, I placed TCW905 Leaf Emblem in the 12 x 12 size onto the left hand side of my page. I added some washi tape to hold it into place to prevent movement for the next few steps.

Using a sponge, I worked from the centre outwards, adding paint. I began with yellow and then moved into an aqua colour.

The Crafter's Workshop stencil Leaf Emblem with yellow and aqua paint added to centre with a sponge

I then continued with teal, pink and purple. When doing this step, I just kept working whilst the paint was still wet, as this helps the colors to blend. NOTE – be careful when choosing your colors that you don’t select any contrast colours that will create ‘mud’ or ‘brown’ when mixed.

The Crafter's Workshop stencil called Leaf embem laid onto page. paint sponged through the stencil in yellow, aqua,pink and purple

At this stage, it looks messy, but once the stencil is lifted, the colours are blended beautifully …..notice where the yellow and aqua became lime and the teal and pink became purple….

Stencil has been removed leaving behind the paint pattern.

I then repeated this on the right hand side using TCW905 Leaf Emblem using the 6×6 stencil, ensuring the stencil was hanging off the page. This will help create movement across your page once complete.

small leaf emblem stencil with paint sponged over the top to create a rainbow mandala effect

Now I want to join the two images together, so I used TCW886 Shape Landscape and the same paint colours, sponging every now and then across the page.

background for art journal page created with TCW stencils featuring flowers and leaves and spots and stripes and bright colors

Time to begin to add some depth. Using the TCW925 Nature’s Circuitry in 12×12 size, lay it over the centre of the large mandala/flower shape, ensuring the larger butterfly lines up with the image.

stencil over painted background in art journal page

Now swipe TCW9047 Black Modeling Paste over the top of the butterfly using a spatula. I like to use large strokes with quite thick paste as this helps it get into all the details.

black modeling paste over stencil

Yes it looks like a hot mess, but when you lift the stencil up (I lift from one side and pull up) this is what you get…… Magic!

close up image of black  butterfly over art journal page

Love how it goes only where you want it! Absolutely no bleeding underneath. Amazing.

I repeat this process for the right hand side, using the same stencil, but in the smaller 6×6 size. Using the two different sizes causes the larger butterfly and mandala shape to become the focal point.

I then used the same stencil TCW925 Nature’s Circuitry, again in both sizes and TCW9047 Black Modeling Paste to add some of that gorgeous cell/honeycomb images in between the two butterflies. This ties the two butterflies together and helps create movement and flow across the page.

The Crafter's Workshop stencil Nature's Circuitry
Art Journal background with pink, yellow, aqua black and white

Now it’s time to add in some pen work. I used TCW219 Punchinella and a black fine paint pen marker and traced the little hexagon shapes onto the background, adding scribbles and lines here and there.

The Crafter's Workshop stencil called Punchinella and black paint pen

I also drew around the circular shapes surrounding the butterflies.

close up of hexagon and cell like structures around butterflies

I added a scribbly border and a few tiny dot stamps.

art journal page bright colors butterflies hexagons

Finally a few flicks of paint and a favorite quote to suit the theme and that’s it!

Art journal page with white background and bright colors and black butterflies
#tcwstencillove
Tammy Klingner
art journal page with butterflies and cells and hexagons and bright colors #tcwstencillove 
Tammy Klingner

I absolutely loved creating this page with these goodies….

art journal page surrounded by stencils and mediums by The Crafter's Workshop
Tammy Klingner

I hope I’ve inspired you to do some creating today.

Don’t forget when sharing your creations use #tcwstencillove so we can see them!

I’ll be back to inspire again soon

Tammy Klingner aka Tambarambaa

TCW Design Team Member

2 thoughts on “Beautiful Butterflies – Art Journal Page

  1. Beautiful. I also love how you explained your step by step process. Very informative and easy to follow. Thanks for sharing,

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